SSTI Digest

While legislators did not agree to all of Gov. Linda Lingle’s Innovation Initiative – including a $100 million innovation fund - some of the governor’s original concepts emerged from several other bills at the close of the 2007 legislative session last week.   The legislature passed a number of measures to promote science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education, a major priority in the governor’s innovation package. SB 885 establishes the Career and Technical Education program within the state Department of Education and provides $5 million over the biennium for several technical education initiatives. Among those are Gov. Lingle’s proposals for the Hawaii Excellence through Science and Technology (HiEST) Academy Pilot Program and a Fostering Inspiration and Relevance through Science and Technology (FIRST) Pre-Academy Program.  

In an era in which many companies maintain a web presence before their first technology hits the market, broadband access has become an essential ingredient for high-tech business and growth. In many states, however, the need for broadband access has widened the high-tech achievement gap between urban and rural areas. Without high-speed connections, many students in rural areas are unable to gain the skills needed by technology-based companies, and many rural businesses find it difficult to compete without access to advanced web-based resources.   Universal access to high-speed broadband access has become something of a holy grail, not yet attained by any state. In order to spread the benefits of high-speed connections, several states have recently launched initiatives to ensure that even businesses in the most remote regions have access to online resources.   Vermont

Region Looks to Broadband Access and IT Usage The Delta Regional Authority (DRA) lacks the access, awareness and affordability of broadband Internet service – a direct bearing on the region’s ability to participate successfully in the national and global economies, a new report from DRA and the Southern Growth Policies Board finds.   DRA and Southern Growth partnered to develop an information technology plan to improve education, enhance entrepreneurship, and improve health care through the use of information technology. The plan was presented to the president and Congress last week.    iDelta: Information Technology in the Delta consists of two volumes. The first provides data for measuring information technology usage and examines the economic factors that lead to technology barriers in the region. For example, more than 15 percent of DRA zip codes do not have a high speed Internet service provider and per capita income for the region is about 20 percent below the U.S. average.  

A continuing concern of many TBED organizations is the departure of university graduates from their communities, leaving at various stages of their lives and taking their talent and education with them. The resulting "brain drain" from this exodus leaves many states with the frustration of paying the costs to educate its citizens, but not reaping the benefits of an educated workforce. For example, a survey completed two weeks ago by the Detroit Free Press reported 53 percent of students at Michigan's three largest universities (University of Michigan, Michigan State University, and Wayne State University) were definitely planning to leave the state after graduation. The main reason for leaving, cited by 47 percent of respondents, was to go where good jobs are located. A secondary reason, named by 24 percent of departing graduates, was the desire to see what it is like somewhere else outside of Michigan. Questions facing policymakers addressing brain drain include: What are the various measurable components of the brain drain problem in my locality, and what can be done to fix it?

Manufacturing firms come in all shapes and sizes. Little ones. Big ones. Ones that need more labor from their employees to assemble components. Ones that need more R&D from their employees to design products.   And, for a variety of reasons, many manufacturing firms decide to collaborate with other entities in order to develop new and improved products. A recent discussion paper from the Center for European Economic Research sheds new light on the motives of these collaborative firms. In Motives for Co-operation: Evidence from the Canadian Survey of Innovation, Tobias Schmidt develops a typology of these firms, differentiated by their reasons to engage in collaboration.  

Last week’s release by the National Science Foundation (NSF) of the results of the 2005 survey of academic R&D expenditures reveals the nation’s investment in research through its universities and colleges rose 5.8 percent in fiscal year 2005. Academic research expenditures for FY 2005 totaled $45.75 billion.   The results permit SSTI to prepare an updated version of its statistical glance at the five-year trends by state. As in past tables, the new rankings for the percent change in a state’s share of the total over the period 2001-2005 confirms it is extremely difficult for states to change their overall ranking on a year-by-year basis.   In fact, during the past five years, only a handful of states have shifted rankings by more than one position either up or down over the five years.   The only three states to show “dramatic” improvements of more than two spots are:

Are you thinking about making a career change? If so, visit the SSTI Job Corner at http://www.ssti.org/posting.htm. In addition to the new opportunities described below, the SSTI Job Corner has openings for these positions:

Against the backdrop of BIO’s annual meeting, held this week in Boston, Gov. Deval Patrick unveiled a comprehensive, collaborative Massachusetts Life Science Strategy. The plan includes a 10-year, $1 billion investment package to support biomedical and stem cell research. Key to the governor’s Life Science Initiative is passage of legislation yet to be introduced that will strengthen the Massachusetts Life Science Center and, according to the governor’s press release, “charge it with the execution of a life science mission focused on science and economic development, strategic investments at critical stages of the development cycle, and collaboration with the private sector to create innovation infrastructure critical to both researchers and companies.” The governor also announced his commitment to making targeted investments in companies that encourage life science economic development in the Commonwealth. Highlights of the proposal include a $1 billion investment package to provide funds to:

This year, the Florida Legislature focused a great deal of attention on TBED issues, approving and continuing its support for several tech-related programs. Though Gov. Charlie Crist's proposed $20 million investment in stem cell research did not survive the legislative session, initiatives designed to encourage other cutting-edge research, improve access to capital and attract promising companies garnered more than $400 million in the state budget.   Enterprise Florida will manage the state's new Opportunity Fund, which will provide seed and early-stage venture capital to high-tech companies through investments in private venture capital firms. The fund will launch with an initial, one-time appropriation of $29.5 million and will specifically target its investments toward companies in the advanced manufacturing, IT, life sciences, aviation and aerospace, and defense industries. Recipients must be Florida-based companies and have received twice as much as the state investment from other sources.

Indiana's General Assembly adjourned for the year last week, after passing a $29 billion budget that included more than $100 million for TBED-related programs.  

The 2007 Iowa state legislative session has looked very favorably on TBED. One of the centerpieces of Iowa Gov. Chet Culver’s campaign last year was his pledge to "develop the next-generation energy ecomony in Iowa" through a $100 million state fund (see the Feb. 19, 2007 issue of the SSTI Weekly Digest). The Iowa Power Fund was approved by the state’s General Assembly late last month and closely resembles Gov. Culver’s original plan. For the first year, the fund will be capitalized with an initial $25 million from the state and an additional $25 million annually over the next three years.  

A number of crucial TBED initiatives introduced earlier this year by North Dakota Gov. John Hoeven were recently enacted by the state legislature, including a $42 million renewable energy plan, $20 million in new funding for university-based Centers of Excellence, a 25 percent R&D tax credit, and additional investments in research and workforce development.   A comprehensive renewable energy plan aimed at supporting both state and national energy goals was created to help maximize use of the state’s renewable energy resources. The package also includes funding for programs that support the 25 x 25 Initiative, a nationwide goal that calls for 25 percent of the nation’s energy to come from renewable resources by the year 2025.