SSTI Digest

Rallying the myriad local organizations, chambers of commerce and political jurisdictions of any large metropolitan area toward a shared economic development agenda is challenging. To twist a phrase from supply-side economics, the “trickle around” theory of benefits – when any major economic development project occurs in one community will have spillover benefits for the entire region – is a tough sell to communities and school systems trying to keep their budgets in the black.   True success most likely requires radical transformation of several institutions, consolidated tax and revenue sharing systems, and fundamental shifts in one's sense of belonging to a particular place.   That last element, shifting the sense of belonging to a larger region, is a regular challenge for watershed management systems, which, among their other responsibilities, try to get the residents of a particular area to realize the watershed ignores the arbitrarily drawn political jurisdictions we create. We all live upstream and/or downstream from somewhere else and are affected by the activities occurring in those other places.

Last week, the Federal Laboratory Consortium for Technology Transfer (FLC) held its annual national meeting in Portland, Ore. The gathering brought together laboratory technology transfer specialists, industry representatives and state and regional TBED organizations, among others, to discuss pertinent issues such as changes in federal legislation affecting intellectual property and SBIR reauthorization, STEM education initiatives, funding opportunities, and best practices for encouraging the successful commercialization of research. The conference also served as an entry point for those new to collaborating with the nation’s system of federal laboratories, presenting their tools and programs that can be used to enhance commercialization partnerships.   

In its first state R&D survey since 1998, the National Science Foundation (NSF) finds 252 different state agencies across the country directly supported R&D and R&D facilities totaling $1.1 billion in fiscal year 2006. The survey, released this morning, was conducted for NSF by the U.S. Census Bureau.

Last week, the U.S. House of Representatives passed Senate Bill 2739, a component of which directs the Department of Energy (DOE) to provide grants and seek partnerships for the creation of a nationwide network of advanced energy technology transfer centers. These partnerships can include entities such as state agencies and local governments, utilities, colleges and universities, national laboratories, and other nonprofits providing energy technology expertise. The bill is now awaiting the president's signature.

Beginning in 2003 with its $510 million investment to lure the Scripps Research Institute (see the Oct. 31, 2003, issue of the Digest), the state of Florida has drawn national attention over the past few years for its aggressive pursuit of major life science research institutions. This year, however, it looks like that strategy will have to be put on a temporary hiatus.   After extended debate about broadening the sectors that benefit from the Innovation Incentive Fund (IIF) – the source of money used to bankroll the post-Scripps package of incentives available to these institutions – the Florida legislature has decided not to replenish the fund altogether. Though funding may resume in future years, the fund is currently depleted and state leaders are considering reprioritizing their economic development initiatives in light of changing economic conditions.  

A recent study prepared for the Maine Technology Institute and the Office of Innovation within Maine’s Department of Economic and Community Development examines and ranks 16 identified technology clusters in Maine - defining eight as sustainable clusters, five as potential clusters, and three as emerging clusters. These labels are based upon an extended view of clusters, namely that successful clusters depend on knowledge generation and knowledge spillovers and not just specification within certain industries. Along with measures of entrepreneurship and product production and distribution, Maine’s Technology Sectors and Clusters: Status and Strategy examines 7,300 records of patents, grants and publications in the state to determine potential research strengths and opportunities within the state’s clusters.

The Conference Board of Canada earlier this week named David Wolfe, professor of political science and co-director of the Program on Globalization and Regional Innovation Systems (PROGRIS) at the University of Toronto Mississauga's Centre for International Studies, as its fifth Scholar in Residence. Begun in 2005, the board’s prestigious scholar-in-residence program so far has focused on broader national issues such as regulatory reform and an emerging new federalism. Dr. Wolfe’s appointment recognizes the national importance of TBED-related research and policies for Canada’s continued growth and competitiveness.

The under-30 crowd may be the early adopters of many of the new gadgets in our lives - and the young techies who quickly became billionaires producing those toys may grab all the headlines - but a new study reveals most U.S.-born technology and engineering company founders are actually middle-aged, well educated and hold degrees from a wide assortment of universities.   In fact, the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation and researchers at Duke and Harvard universities discovered twice as many U.S.-born tech entrepreneurs start ventures in their 50s as do those in their early 20s. Further, while highly ranked schools are overrepresented among start-ups in the survey, 92 percent of U.S.-born founders graduate from non-Ivy League universities, according to the study, Education and Tech Entrepreneurship. The study analyzed U.S. engineering and tech companies founded from 1995-2005, representing the most current decade of data.   How does this affect state and local policies to encourage tech entrepreneurship?  

More information on these opportunities and others is available at http://www.ssti.org/posting.htm.

Lori Broyles was appointed coordinator of the Women's Business Center in Oklahoma City.

Legislators in Alaska, Iowa and Oklahoma recently approved funding for several TBED-related initiatives within state operating and capital budgets for the upcoming fiscal year.

SSTI’s VC Dashboard Value Enlarged with Addition of Per Capita Data The runaway success of California and a few other major venture capital centers in the U.S. has made it difficult to get a firm grasp on the venture capital scene in the rest of the country. In the April 16, 2008 issue of the SSTI Weekly Digest, SSTI looked at the impact of removing California from the data to get a clearer picture of how venture capital investment is distributed throughout the other 49 states. This approach, however, does not make it any easier to evaluate a state's venture activity relative to its actual capacity for investment. Such a study would require reliable metrics on the demand for investment, which we have yet to uncover.