SSTI Digest

Following the 1998 Master Tobacco Settlement Agreement, states across the country set out to dedicate significant amounts of funding from their share of the settlement to support research and other TBED programs. Several states expressed concern in 2003 when a $10 billion judgment against Philip Morris threatened settlement payments for that year. The judgment required a $12 billion bond to appeal the case and the tobacco company considered filing bankruptcy (see the April 4, 2003 issue of the Digest). According to a press release from the New Mexico Attorney General's office, attorneys general from across the country urged the presiding judge to modify the bond order to assure states would receive their annual payment. The court accepted a new order that reduced the bond almost in half the day before the annual payment was due, and Philip Morris subsequently confirmed the $2.6 billion annual payment would be made. Over the years, the Digest has covered several of these proposals and initiatives. Following is an update to proposals covered previously in the Digest, in addition…

On Monday, Sept. 26, 2005, the Economic Development Administration will host a one-hour telecast, to discuss the final report of the Strengthening America’s Communities Advisory Committee. The telecast will feature members of the Strengthening America’s Communities Advisory Committee to discuss recommendations on the planning and successful implementation of the President’s Strengthening America’s Communities Initiative (SACI) (see the July 25 issue of the Digestfor SSTI review). The report is now public and is available at the SACI website at www.doc.gov/SACI The report’s overarching premise is that globalization has fundamentally changed the American economy, and that the economic health of the U.S. is now dependent upon the competitiveness of its regions. Despite these economic changes, America continues with policies, organizational structures, and investment strategies from a past era. Therefore, the SACI committee argues, it is necessary to build a new system of federal economic and community development that invests in the strengthening of regions and their…

For more information on the positions below, visit SSTI's online Job Corner at http://www.ssti.org/posting.htm. Program Research Analyst - Battelle Battelle, a global science and technology enterprise that develops and commercializes technology and manages laboratories for customers, is seeking a full-time program research analyst for its Cleveland office.Primary job responsibilities will includeconducting and/or participating in assigned technical tasks and activities with minimum supervision and within time and budget constraints; maintaining both formal and informal communications and relationships with clients, including responsibility for reports and presentations; and achieving high technical quality in assigned projects. Applicants should have a relevant master’s degree (e.g. business administration, economics, city/regional planning, geography, or public policy) or a bachelor’s degree with additional experience. The successful candidate will have prior experience in technology-based economic development, cluster analysis, and research & strategy formulation. At least three years of…

With the proper utilization of existing resources, the development of key new programs, strong leadership within state government and coordinated efforts among all programs and stakeholders, Kentucky has the opportunity to become a world leader in specific niches of the life sciences industry, says a report from the Governor's Life Sciences Consortium. The consortium, created in July 2004 by Gov. Ernie Fletcher, is comprised of experts in professional, entrepreneurial, governmental, and academic fields. The group recently released a strategic plan for positioning Kentucky a leader among states and regions in the life sciences by focusing on four key areas: natural products, medical devices, health technology services, and niche pharmaceuticals and niche biotechnology. The report, which outlines a strategy for leveraging current assets and developing new opportunities, notes that Kentucky is considered to be an emerging novice state in the life sciences area, particularly in commercialization of research. An aggressive economic growth plan is needed for the life sciences because the state is so far behind,…

Cluster theories for explaining geographically distinct areas of economic activity have guided state and local economic development policy to varying degrees for the past 25 years. Encouraging cluster growth will be hot in one state’s strategies to encourage growth while cooling or completely absent from its neighbors. The confusion as to what works and what doesn’t for cluster development extends well beyond the level of  practitioner, however. The more abstract and theoretical world of academic research also suffers from muddled language in attempts to be original and shared terms with more than one meaning. It essentially boils down to one man’s cluster is not necessarily another’s. A recent working paper by Peter Maskell, on the faculty of the Copenhagen Business School and one of the major contributors to understanding regional innovation systems, and his colleague Leila Kebir, dares to answer the question, What Qualifies as a Cluster Theory? The paper, released through the Danish Research Unit for Industrial Dynamics (DRUID), investigates the theoretical backgrounds of…

When it comes to managing a portfolio of programs, do you know what really works to ensure they will have the most impact for building a tech-based economy? "Maximizing Impact: Evaluating Science and Technology Programs," one of four full-day pre-conference workshops to be held at SSTI's 9th Annual conference on Oct. 19-21, 2005, strives to answer the question. Designed for those advanced in the field, this engaging workshop will examine the programmatic and political effectiveness of different evaluation models, dissecting applied evaluation tools to assess their replicability across states and regions. One of several objectives for the day is to give attendees the evaluation research design tools they need for building sophisticated evaluations. The session will focus on: mapping organizational missions and goals to evaluation design; selected methods such as surveys, case studies, econometric models, Social Network Analysis, bibliometrics and expert judgment; causality and attribution; and, lessons learned. Upon completion of the workshop, attendees will be equipped to identify…

There is increasing speculation that China's surge in the global economy is unsustainable, in part, because of its debt (see the Aug. 22, 2005 issue of Business Week). Closer to home, others point out, with the addition of the recent record U.S. budget deficits, America’s national debt will be too burdensome on generations X and Y and whatever letter comes next. But at "only" $7.9 trillion (most recent figure), the federal government can write smaller IOUs than its citizens can, according to a March 2005 brief by the Center for Retirement Research. Will Baby Boomers Drown in Debt? reports total household debt for the U.S. is nearing $10 trillion, rocketing up from less than $6 trillion only five years ago. To put the figure into perspective, the current total is equal to a staggering 83 percent of the country’s annual gross domestic product. As one might expect, personal bankruptcies also have risen, climbing by 50 percent during the last decade. The focus of the report is on baby boomers, those aged 50-62, whose looming collective retirement launched discussions of…

Idaho Gov. Dirk Kempthorne named Idaho National Lab Director John Grossenbacher as the new chairman of the Governor's Science & Technology Advisory Council. Chandler Howard, co-president of Bank of America, is leaving to become president and CEO of Connecticut Innovations. Peter McPherson, president emeritus of Michigan State University, is the next president of the National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges.

Idaho Gov. Dirk Kempthorne named Idaho National Lab Director John Grossenbacher as the new chairman of the Governor's Science & Technology Advisory Council.

Chandler Howard, co-president of Bank of America, is leaving to become president and CEO of Connecticut Innovations.

Peter McPherson, president emeritus of Michigan State University, is the next president of the National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges.

If the innovation powerhouse that represents the U.S. economy for the past century were a cinder block foundation of a house, then China and India would present two of the more significant cracks. These two great nations may grab the headlines, but the improved innovation and research capacities of any country provide new challenges for continued U.S. domination of the world's economy. As this week's article on the Czech Republic and Singapore reveals, these are just two more blocks in the U.S. wall to show stress fractures. "Now, hold on SSTI," you may be saying to yourself. "You want me to lose sleep over the smaller economies, too?" Worry and lose sleep? No. But we do want more people to wake up to what's going on in the basement. As this week's article on the latest National Science Foundation Issue Brief points out, the continuing decline in foreign students pursing graduate science and engineering degrees may give cause for concern. The U.S. has always been dependent on immigrant talent for science and innovation, but that is likely to become a less reliable strategy as opportunities grow at home for foreign…