SSTI Digest

As a group, the country’s metropolitan areas face substantial long-term challenges as large gaps in issues such as productivity growth, environmental sustainability, and social inclusion separate the leaders from the laggards. Earlier this month, the Brookings Institution’s Metropolitan Policy Program released the second of its “core” reports from its Blueprint for American Prosperity initiative to lay out an economic agenda for U.S. metro areas.   In MetroPolicy: Shaping a New Federal Partnership for a Metropolitan Nation, Brookings outlines how leaders are driving gains in prosperity in their regions and how other countries are nurturing metro areas. Brookings kicked off its Blueprint initiative last November (see the Nov. 7, 2007 issue of the Digest), exactly one year before the date of the upcoming presidential election.  

SBIR Phase II awards with additional personal and/or internal business funding are more significant predictors of a technology reaching commercialization than SBIR awards with venture capital, external private equity or foreign investment, and funding from state and local governments or universities, new research shows.   In Bringing Science to Market: Commercializing from NIH SBIR Awards, Albert Link and Christopher Ruhm of the University of North Carolina at Greensboro present the results of their analysis, considering the long-term results of 405 National institutes of Health (NIH) SBIR Phase II awards over the 10-year period 1992-2001.   Of the 405 projects, which were taken from nearly 2,500 SBIR Phase II awards NIH funded during the period, 59 percent received some additional form of funding. Upon further examination, 74 percent of commercialized projects received some type of additional development funding at some point, whereas only 42 percent of the non-commercialized projects received funding.  

NorTech is inviting all SSTI conference attendees to an opening reception at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Tuesday, Oct. 14, from 7 p.m. to 11 p.m. Just like the music it pays homage to, inside and out, the Rock Hall exudes coolness. From the adventurously wide-open architecture and eye-popping displays to the sing-along soundtrack of continuously streaming rock and roll hits, this is one museum experience that really gets your heart pumping.

Adding to the excitement, Lt. Gov. Lee Fisher, director of the Ohio Department of Development, will provide brief remarks on the importance of state government investments in technology-based economic development (TBED) and Ohio’s model for investing in TBED, including the $1.6 billion Ohio Third Frontier project. Lt. Gov. Fisher also will highlight Ohio’s Thomas Edison Program, which is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year, and address how the Ohio Third Frontier and Edison programs have helped the state evolve a broader set of TBED strategies and programs to move Ohio’s economy forward.

Complete descriptions of these opportunities and others are available at http://www.ssti.org/posting.htm.

The University of Kentucky is seeking an executive director for its new Office of Technology Transfer (OTT). This position is responsible for the oversight of the university’s growing intellectual property and data base system. The executive director provides the overall leadership, management and administration of OTT, executing its assessment, negotiating and licensing functions. The position requires an M.B.A. (preferred), J.D. (desirable) or other advanced degree, with at least 10 years of experience in industry and in a university setting dealing with patent protection, licensing and compliance.

President Bush announced he will nominate Assistant Secretary of Commerce Sandy Baruah to serve as the administrator of the Small Business Administration.

The Rensselaer County Regional Chamber of Commerce has created the Economic Development Partnership to help businesses relocate to or expand in the county.

Barbara Fleisner has been hired as executive director of Centergy, the Central Wisconsin Alliance for Economic Development.

Dr. Lee Herron has joined the Georgia Research Alliance (GRA) as vice president of commercialization. Herron previously was general manager, Biosciences, for the Advanced Technology Development Center.

Linden Rhoads was named vice provost of the University of Washington's TechTransfer department. Rhoads replace Jim Severson, who left to join a start-up company.

A little more than a year after unveiling a comprehensive proposal to provide crucial funding for R&D, commercialization and infrastructure to position Massachusetts as a global leader in life sciences, Gov. Deval Patrick signed an historic 10-year, $1 billion life sciences investment package, transforming the ambitious idea into reality.   The signing of the bill coincides with BIO’s annual meeting, currently underway in San Diego – the same event during which the governor unveiled the proposal last year. With a typical draw of more than 20,000, the event provides an opportune backdrop for the governor, legislative and industry leaders to promote the state to biotech companies and investors.

Gov. Martin O’Malley announced this week a proposal to build Maryland's reputation as a global leader in biosciences with a $1.1 billion investment.   Similar to the recently enacted Massachusetts Life Sciences bill (see this week’s issue of the Digest), the Bio 2020 Initiative is a long-term strategy requiring legislative approval that invests in start-up companies and increases funding for R&D. Gov. O’Malley hopes to leverage $6.3 billion in private and federal investments and create thousands of new jobs, according to a press release.   Speaking to a group of higher education leaders and investors at the Johns Hopkins University of Medicine, Gov. O’Malley outlined the nine major components of the Bio 2020 Initiative: Creating the Maryland Biotechnology Center to serve as a “one stop shop” to promote and support biotechnology innovation and entrepreneurship;

In its latest bio-industry analyses, Ernst & Young reported that the global bioscience industry has yet to become profitable, but that doesn’t mean the field isn’t growing by many measures, particularly the number of jobs created. Technology, Talent and Capital: State Bioscience Initiatives 2008, prepared by Battelle for BIO, puts total U.S. employment in the biosciences at 1.3 million in 2006, up from 1.2 million in 2004.   Bioscience employment in the U.S. is led by strong growth in the research, testing and medical lab subsector, which experienced a 17.8 percent increase in employment and a 32.7 percent increase in establishments between 2001 and 2006, according to the report. And most states are working hard to ensure some of that economic development impact happens within their borders.

Gov. Charlie Crist signed the fiscal year 2008-09 budget into law last week, allocating nearly $79 million for energy-related projects to increase research and stimulate development and commercialization of alternative and renewable energy sources throughout Florida.   The Energy Diversity Package approved by lawmakers is significantly different from the $200 million proposal outlined by Gov. Crist earlier this year, with only a few of the original proposals left intact (see the Feb. 6, 2008 issue of the Digest). However, the appropriation is welcome news for the state’s technology-based economic development strategy, as Florida is one of many states facing a decline in revenue. Last week, Gov. Crist ordered all state agencies to reduce spending by 4 percent in the coming fiscal year.   Lawmakers appropriated funding for the following projects under the Energy Diversity Package:

Last week, Premier Ed Stelmach of Alberta introduced a $170 million suite of initiatives to support high-tech economic development in the province. The government hopes that by providing support for commercialization from research to market it can attract high-tech entrepreneurs from other areas. Most of the province's investment will support the creation of the $100 million Alberta Enterprise Corporation to encourage venture capital investment. A press release accompanying the announcement states that the investment will improve access to both seed-stage and venture capital. The corporation is expected to begin activities this winter.   Though venture capital investment in Canada increased by 21 percent in 2007 over 2006, investment in Alberta grew by only 3 percent. As in the U.S., the Canadian venture capital activity is largely centered in a few provinces, namely Ontario, Quebec, and to a lesser extent British Columbia. Private capital resources are harder to find in the more rural provinces like Alberta.  

An initiative in Iowa to disperse tax credits worth 20 percent of equity investments into pre-qualified businesses or seed capital funds has reached its $10 million cap and will not be continued in the next fiscal year. The Iowa Venture Capital Credit – Qualified Business or Seed Capital Fund was started in 2002 with a cap of $10 million, and as monitored by the Iowa Department of Revenue, all credits have been issued.   Efforts in the most recent Iowa legislative session to increase the monetary cap of the program under House Bill 2484 by an additional $3 million did not succeed. The discontinuance of the initiative comes as the practice of utilizing tax credits in Iowa for various activities has grown dramatically over the last several years. However, the scrutiny of the tax credit programs has grown, as well.  

As annual appropriations for the National Institutes of Health (NIH) flattened – at the same time more and more states and universities are increasing their investments in academic bioscience research capacity – competition for NIH grants has heightened. Reports indicate investigators in the early stages of their careers and transformative research have been the victims of the squeeze.   The peer review process employed by NIH to select winners in competitive solicitation cycles, lauded for its impartiality for years, has been indicted by many recently as adding to the problem. During the first weeks of June, NIH announced plans to address some of the criticism, including a commitment of  $1 billion over the next five years for investigator-initiated, high-risk/high-impact transformative research.