SSTI Digest

Cliff Long is the first full-time economic development director for Nampa, Idaho. Long had worked for the Idaho Department of Commerce for the past 14 years.

Christopher Price is the executive director for the Piedmont Triad Research Park and senior vice president, Wake Forest University Health Sciences.

Michael Tentnowski is the new director of the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Incubator.

Anne Wein is the new executive director of Southeast BIO, a nonprofit organization concentrating on the growth of the life sciences industry.

Senate Version Adds $40M for University R&D, Scholarships

With the threat of a presidential veto looming, the U.S. Senate unanimously passed its version of the 2006 Department of Defense (DoD) Appropriations Bill on Oct. 7 at a total level $7 billion below the Administration's request. Of particular note for the tech-based economic development community was the Senate's floor passage of an amendment to provide an additional $40 million for research and scholarships.

Overall, House Resolution 2863 provides $390 billion for DoD programs and includes $7 billion less than the president's FY 2006 budget request, the Association of American Universities reports.

Gov. Ted Kulongoski last month signed Senate Bill 838, creating the Oregon Innovation Council to provide him and the legislature with advice regarding business innovation in order to strengthen competitiveness in global markets. The council will include representatives from industry, education and government.

In addition, the bill recognizes the Oregon Nanoscience and Microtechnologies Institute (ONAMI) as the state's first Signature Research Center and appropriates $7 million for operations and leveraging of private and federal funds. According to the governor's office, every state dollar invested into ONAMI delivers a $30 return through private investment.

Gov. Ruth Minner launched over the summer the final component of her New Economy Initiative to provide a network of support and services to technology-based start-up companies.

The Emerging Technology Center will partner with private firms, regional organizations and universities to identify gaps in available services and provide access to technology development resources and laboratory facilities for product development, according to the governor's press office. The mission of the center is to seek individuals who have the capacity and desire to become tech-based entrepreneurs. Primarily, the state is interested in identifying those who have recently retired from technology-based corporations, individuals separated from their jobs due to business changes, new residents, professors, and graduate students.

A concentrated effort to support the Sacramento region's many green tech entrepreneurs could lead to Silicon Valley-style success in clean energy technology (CET), says a new report from the McClellan Technology Incubator and the Sacramento Area Regional Technology Alliance (SARTA).

California is already a leader in clean energy, according to the report. For example, a study conducted for the California Air Resources Board revealed that the state supports 180,000 jobs in environmental businesses -- 22,000 of which are in clean and renewable energy. Clean energy also is a growing sector with total worldwide market sales projected to grow by $85 billion over 10 years, and investment in global clean energy has doubled in the past four years, the report indicates.

Conference Only seven days remain until the opening of SSTI's 9th Annual Conference in Atlanta. More than 330 of the nation's top thinkers and practitioners for the TBED community will convene at the InterContinental Hotel seeking guidance from their peers.

On Monday, Oct. 31, the Southern Growth Policies Board, the Southern Technology Council, Georgia Institute of Technology, the Council on Competitiveness and the Georgia Research Alliance will host a one-day Southern Technology Innovation Summit at the Georgia Tech Hotel and Conference Center in Atlanta. The meeting will review the findings from the Council on Competitiveness’ recently released National Innovation Initiative report and launch a new Southern Innovation Initiative.

RTI International, an independent, nonprofit research organization based in Research Triangle Park, N.C., is seeking someone for the position of economic development analyst. Activities include designing, managing and supporting technology-based economic development research and implementation projects; preparing strategic, economic, evaluation and policy analyses; collecting data and information from secondary sources; preparing literature reviews; and constructing protocols, complete interviews, site visits and case studies. Candidates should have a master’s degree in planning, public administration, policy or business administration, or related field, with 3-5 years of experience in technology-based economic development. For more information on this position, visit SSTI's online Job Corner at http://www.ssti.org/posting.htm.

Due to SSTI's annual conference being held in Atlanta next week, the next issues of the Digest and Funding Supplement are slated for Nov. 7, 2005.