SSTI Digest

The Board of Directors of BioCrossroads, Indiana's life sciences initiative, announced David Johnson would succeed Charles Schalliol as CEO.

Real estate developer Robert Klein II was selected as chairman of California's stem cell oversight committee.

John Merrill will serve as executive director for the Greensboro Center for Innovative Development, a joint millennium campus and research park between University of North Carolina Greensboro and North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University.

Eric Mittelstadt will become the new CEO of the National Council for Advanced Manufacturing. He replaces founder and current CEO, Leo Reddy.

Wisconsin commerce secretary Cory Nettles is resigning his position and will join his old law firm as a partner.

For all intents and purposes, the SSTI offices will be closed from Dec. 24 - Jan. 3 (although some of us retain the right to stop back into the office for respite when either the in-laws, urchins or eggnog get to be a little much). Next week, SSTI will be switching to a new webhost and, while we do not anticipate any problems, e-mail service may be temporarily interrupted or unavailable. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause. Publication of SSTI's Weekly Digest and Funding Supplement will resume with the Jan. 10 issue. The staff at SSTI hopes each of our readers is enjoying a wonderful holiday season!

In an effort to increase the economic impact of the state's university-based research, Gov. John Hoeven has included $50 million in his 2005-07 budget request to create Centers of Excellence on each of the North Dakota 's college campuses. First proposed by the governor during his state of the state address nearly one year ago, (see the SSTI Weekly Digest for Jan. 16, 2004), the centers are envisioned as hubs for education, research, training and job creation. Individual center activities would be focused in targeted sectors, such as technology, aerospace, value-added agriculture, energy, advanced manufacturing and tourism. To provide at once such a substantial sum for a state with a population of about 634,000, Gov. Hoeven recommends the initial $50 million be borrowed from the Bank of North Dakota and repaid through the biennial appropriations to the state's Department of Commerce. The 2005-07 request includes $5 million toward that obligation. Gov. Hoeven anticipates the state's contribution would be matched on a two-to-one basis by federal and private sector resources. Also…

Commercialized research and Oregon's first signature research center are among those initiatives slated for funding in the governor's 2005-07 proposed biennial budget for the Oregon Economic and Community Development Department (OECDD). Gov. Ted Kulongoski's recommended budget, the "Oregon Principles," is centered around six core principles for targeted investments to deliver a strong return on taxpayer dollars. Gov. Kulongoski recommended $18.4 million in 2005-07 General Fund support for OECDD, a slight increase from the $18.1 million 2003-05 approved budget. Also included is $9 million from the Lottery Fund for a pre-seed or "proof of concept" fund for commercializing research into business ventures through the newly established Oregon Nanoscience and Microtechnology Institute (ONAMI). The fund would be available to businesses with fewer than 100 employees. Michelle Godfrey, communications manager for OECDD, said the goal is to increase collaboration among institutions of higher education and high-tech companies. By investing this modest amount into ONAMI, the state will be able to leverage more private…

Tight restrictions on student visas for foreign graduate students will hasten the erosion of America's global dominance in innovation, according to a University of Colorado at Boulder study. The study, conducted by Economics Professor Keith Maskus and Gnanaraj Chellaraj and Aaditya Mattoo of the World Bank, provides economic results about the contributions of foreign graduate students and skilled immigrants to U.S. innovation and technological change. The study finds that strict enforcement of restrictions on student visas could deteriorate much of the innovative activity sparked by the Bayh-Dole Act of 1980, which allows U.S. universities to commercialize research results. Fewer foreign graduate students have entered U.S. universities since 9-11, based on recent survey data, the study observes. A 10 percent increase in the number of foreign graduate students in the U.S., however, would raise patent applications by 3.3 percent, according to the researchers. With such an increase, they say, patents granted to universities also would go up by 6 percent, while non-university patent…

Massachusetts' innovation indicators may be strong, but the conversion of innovation into new high tech jobs is lagging and the state’s median household income continues to dip, according to the latest Index of the Massachusetts Innovation Economy. The 8th annual index, released last month by the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative (MTC), tracks nine industry clusters and 17 economic indicators that benchmark the state’s strengths and weaknesses against six other states: California, Colorado, Connecticut, Minnesota, New Jersey and New York. Positive signs for innovation in Massachusetts include: Through 2002, federally-supported research and development in Massachusetts totaled $4.6 billion -- up 10 percent from 1999 and second only to California. The number of patents awarded to Massachusetts inventors grew 8.3 percent in 2003, the highest among the benchmark states, and was higher than the 1.1 percent growth across the U.S., overall. Massachusetts' market share of venture capital invested in new U.S. firms has increased from approximately 11 percent to 14 percent during…

Public policies should seek ways to promote entrepreneurship in order to boost economic growth, according to a review of existing research by David Audretsch of Indiana University. Audretsch seeks to distinguish what is known (supported by existing data and theories) from areas of future exploration related to entrepreneurship and economic development in "Sustaining Innovation and Growth: Public Policy Support for Entrepreneurship," an article from the September 2004 issue of Industry and Innovation. The article examines academic literature on small enterprises and entrepreneurship since the early 20th century across various disciplines. The review considers three issues in the literature: (1) the role of small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) in economic growth; (2) theories about the links between entrepreneurs and economic performance; and (3) empirical evidence supporting these linkage theories using different units of analysis, including the firm, region and country. Audretsch discusses how recent research indicates a shift away from traditional outputs such as labor and capital towards…

Foundations and philanthropists are playing increasingly important financial roles for many academic and regional technology-based economic development (TBED) efforts. The latest issue of Philanthropy News Digest, the weekly electronic newsletter of the FoundationCenter, highlights three recent announcements that provide examples of the size, scope and opportunity presented by these types of awards. The announcements are summarized below. The Danforth Foundation awarded the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center a $50 million challenge grant that can be earned by an equal amount of matching gifts. The award will contribute one dollar to the center for each dollar raised from other donors to the center's endowment. The nonprofit research institute focuses on plant science research that leads to increased agricultural production, more nutritious food, and a cleaner environment. Cleveland-based philanthropist and Harvard alumnus Albert Weatherhead III and his wife, Celia, recently created the Weatherhead Endowment for Collaborative Science and Technology at Harvard University. The $30…