SSTI Digest

Republican members of the House Committee on Science introduced last week three bills designed to strengthen U.S. economic competitiveness by improving math and science education and research.



According to the Association of American Universities, the bills respond to several recent competitiveness reports, including the National Academies' Rising Above the Gathering Storm. The bills are: H.R. 5358, the Science and Mathematics Education for Competitiveness Act; H.R. 5356, the Early Career Research Act, and; H.R. 5357, the Research for Competitiveness Act.

High speed Internet access, global positioning systems and other information and communication technologies have revolutionized urban and regional economic development, both planning and practice. Communities willing and able to make the appropriate investment decisions regarding information improve their abilities to compete. Certain communities and sections of cities, or even smaller neighborhoods, however, miss the first cut for economic development leading to higher wage jobs for area residents because of a lack of easy, regular and current access to basic information.

Perhaps in no field more than biotechnology are the roles of alliances, mergers and acquisitions, and licensing so influential in determining the future success of a start-up firm. Pharmaceuticals are perhaps the best example of this. There aren't hundreds of big pharma companies around the world; there are perhaps a dozen, and, thanks to television advertising for meds, most are practically household names. To make it as a young biopharma business, most plan to be licensed up or bought out.

[Publisher's note: In last week's Digest, we prepared a table showing what I thought was per capita federal R&D spending by state for 2003. Some readers who are more astute than I questioned the data, and in reviewing how I used the NSF data, I discovered that I had done so incorrectly. My apologies to all for this error. We have removed the incorrect table from our website. The below article uses correct data to look at per capita federal R&D for the last five years and replaces the information from last week's Digest.]



Using statistics from the National Science Foundation’s Survey of Federal Funds for Research and Development, SSTI has prepared a table ranking all 50 states and the District of Columbia in per capita federal R&D obligations from 1999-2003.

 

John Cronin was named state director of the new Rhode Island Small Business Development Center at Johnson and Wales University in Providence. Cronin is CEO of the Rhode Island Manufacturing Extension Partnership.



The Semiconductor Research Corporation (SRC) named Dr. Steven Hillenius to replace Dr. Ralph Cavin as vice president. Cavin is retiring from the SRC leadership team at the end of the year.



Yolanda Hunter is the new manager of the New River Valley Competitiveness Center in Radford, Va. Wayne Carpenter, former manager of the incubator, left to pursue private consulting work.

John Cronin was named state director of the new Rhode Island Small Business Development Center at Johnson and Wales University in Providence. Cronin is CEO of the Rhode Island Manufacturing Extension Partnership.