SSTI Digest

Andre Pettigrew was named the new head of economic development for the City of Denver. Pettigrew replaces John Huggins, who left earlier this year.

Seth Porter was selected as deputy director for Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter's Energy Office.

William Stephan has been appointed vice president of engagement for Indiana University, a new position aimed at furthing economic development and related outcomes.

Dr. J. Timothy Stout has been named to the newly created position of vice president for commercialization strategies at Oregon Heath and Science University.

The Tech Council of Maryland/MdBio has appointed Dr. Richard Zakour to lead MdBio and the MdBio Foundation as executive director.

After months of negotiations, the House and Senate have approved the most significant bill in years to bolster U.S. research. The America Creating Opportunities to Meaningfully Promote Excellence in Technology, Education and Science (COMPETES) Act authorizes over $43 billion in new federal spending over the next three years, which will support U.S. math and science education and federal research agencies. In fact, the legislation would double the budget authorizations of the National Science Foundation (NSF), the Department of Energy's (DOE) Office of Science, and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) laboratory activities.  

While many parts of the country are looking for innovative means to increase the number of citizens and businesses connected to high-speed Internet in both urban and rural areas, two governors recently announced initiatives targeting the further extension of broadband services throughout their states.

Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick declared the commonwealth would invest $25 million into a new “broadband incentive fund” to be managed by a division of the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative (MTC), named the Broadband Institute. Under the plan, private companies will compete for funds to install equipment such as network fiber and wireless towers in rural areas that currently do not have broadband. According to the MTC, 32 towns in Massachusetts lack broadband access and 63 municipalities only have broadband in a limited area. The program’s goal is to make broadband available to all communities by 2010.

The India Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises announced last week a plan to provide funding to 50 universities and training institutions for the creation of up to 100 enterprise incubators within innovative fields.   While the details have yet to be released, the Ministry plans to provide funding to 50 universities to create up to 100 incubators that will host approximately 1,000 micro and small enterprises over five years. The government will provide grants of Rs. 5 lakh per incubator - about $62,000 USD - to help support and promote emerging industries, including biotechnology and pharmaceuticals.   Last year, the Parliament enacted The Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Development Act of 2006, calling for the “promotion and development and enhancing the competitiveness of micro, small and medium enterprises.”   More information about the Act is available at: http://ssi.nic.in/MSME%20Development%20Gazette.htm

Policymakers and researchers in the U.S. continue to debate the effectiveness and value of providing R&D subsidies to firms in the hope of spurring technological developments and wealth generation. At the national level, several organizations have called to make the federal R&D tax credit, also known as the Research and Experimentation Tax Credit (RETC), a permanent incentive program. Researchers centered in countries outside of the U.S. are looking at the effectiveness of R&D subsidies in their nations, as well.   Three recent papers, which separately review Canadian, Catalonian (a region of Spain), and Norwegian efforts to support industrial R&D, find subsidies do influence company performance, mostly positively. In the Norwegian paper, however, not all impacts at the firm level are the desired ones. All three papers are highlighted below.  

An expected explosion of health-related expenditures combined with no new policy changes will likely result in fiscal challenges for state and local governments within the next decade, says a new report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO). The result could put downward pressure on public funding available to support TBED initiatives.   The expected continued rise in health care costs poses a fiscal challenge not just to government budgets, but to American business and society as a whole, according to the report. Using data from the National Income and Product Accounts, GAO ran long-term simulations extending until 2050 that indicate the combined effects of demographic changes and growing health care costs drive increasing federal deficits and debt levels. GAO’s fiscal model of the state and local sector projects the level of recipients and expenditures in future years based on historical spending and revenue patterns.  

In today’s world, a trip to the doctor may entail your test results to be analyzed in India, your specialist to be called in Canada, and your billing information to be processed in South Africa. Given the prevalence and speed of modern forms of communication, information can be sent around the globe at a moment’s notice, hastening the speed of business.   With this in mind, from an economic development standpoint, is it still important to organize ourselves, our businesses and our economic development strategies within the confines of cities?   The answer is a resounding “yes”, according to a recent working paper by Glenn Athey, Max Nathan, and Chris Webber titled What Role Do Cities Play in Innovation, and to What Extent Do We Need City-Based Innovation Policies and Approaches? The authors make the compelling case that cities are extremely important in the context of innovation production and economic development. They contend attraction to cities is dependent on three basic advantages: proximity, density and variety.  

Every year, the National Science Foundation releases its Academic R&D Expenditures report, filled with statistics related to the characteristics of R&D at U.S. colleges and universities. Using these reports, SSTI has prepared two tables detailing the funds provided by industry in fiscal year 2005 for the 100 institutions with the highest amount of industry-financed R&D. The first table displays FY 2005 data by the amount of R&D funding from industry and by total R&D expenditures for the institutions, with rankings for each measure. Topping the list for the amount of its industry-financed R&D was Duke University with $135 million. This was followed by all campuses of Pennsylvania State University and Ohio State University at $88 million and $81 million, respectively. MIT and the University of Maryland Baltimore rounded out the top five.