SSTI Digest

In an appropriations bill where cuts are viewed as good news -- compared to the President's request for program termination, that is -- the small Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFI) Fund could consider itself very lucky after Friday's full House Appropriations Committee mark-up of the VA-HUD and Independent Agencies bill. CDFI would receive $60.4 million in fiscal year 2005. The funding level is equal to the FY 2004 appropriation, but $12 million over what the Administration had requested for next year. Authorized in 1994, CDFI's goal is  to expand the availability of credit, investment capital, and financial services in distressed urban and rural communities. Funding activities leverage private-sector investments from banks, foundations, and other funding sources. Programs administered by the CDFI include the New Market Tax Credits. Appropriations for CDFI have decreased steadily since FY 2001, when it received $118 million. Local economic development strategies dependent on some of the other elements of the bill may breathe a small sigh of relief knowing the…

July has been a tech-friendly month for Delaware Gov. Ruth Ann Minner. On July 14, the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) named her "BIO Governor of the Year," recognizing her contributions toward growing the state's biotechnology industry, one of the strongest concentrations in the country. Further attesting to her grasp of biotech issues, Gov. Minner also serves as a co-chair of the National Governors Association Biotechnology Partnership. More importantly though, the state legislature passed a capital budget in the early morning hours of July 1 that included all of the key components of the governor's New Economy Initiative. Gov. Minner signed the legislation later that same day. First outlined by the governor in February (see the Feb. 27 issue of the SSTI Weekly Digest), the $30.5 million initiative consists of several different elements to complement and expand the state's existing tech-based economic development portfolio. New appropriations and programs administered through the Delaware Economic Development Office and the Delaware Economic Development Authority include: $12…

Earlier this month, a Science Committee bill that would reauthorize the Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) program and create a more robust manufacturing sector cleared the U.S. House of Representatives. House Resolution 3598, the Manufacturing Technology Competitiveness Act of 2004, was passed by a voice vote after the House accepted one amendment and rejected three others. H.R. 3598 would help improve the competitiveness of U.S. manufacturers by providing grants to help develop new manufacturing technologies, establishing a fellowship program for manufacturing sciences postdoctoral and senior research fellows, and reauthorizing and strengthening the MEP program. H.R. 3598 was brought to the floor under a modified rule, and the four amendments were offered. The House agreed to an amendment by Representative John Peterson (R-PA) that would require a public audit of all MEP centers but defeated: By a vote of 170 to 192, an amendment by Science Committee Ranking Minority Member Bart Gordon (D-TN) that would have further increased funding for MEP to enable the federal…

Gov. Mike Rounds announced last week the creation of four new specialized research centers at the state's public universities. The $2.8 million in awards mark South Dakota's first foray into using university-based research investments as a tool to grow the state's economy, the governor said. The four 2010 Research Centers are: Center for Infectious Disease Research and Vaccinology, South Dakota State University, $780,000 - This center will foster research leading to the development of novel therapeutic and diagnostic technologies and products for infectious diseases in humans and domestic animals. South Dakota Signal Transduction Center, University of South Dakota, $900,000 - This center will examine the pathways that regulate cell growth and differentiation, cell death, response to stress and the maintenance of constant physiological conditions, with a goal of reducing cardiovascular disease and cancer. Center for Accelerated Applications at the Nanoscale, South Dakota School of Mines and Technology, $585,000 - This center will focus on research in the areas of nanoparticles…

The National Institutes of Health (NIH), the largest federal funding source for life sciences research conducted by small tech firms, has selected the Larta Institute to manage its nationwide Commercialization Assistance Program. The multi-year $2.5 million award will target Phase II recipients of the NIH Small Business Innovation Research and Small Business Technology Transfer Programs (SBIR/STTR). "NIH is interested in seeing products derived from SBIR funding make their way into the marketplace for the benefit of the American people," said Jo Anne Goodnight, NIH SBIR/STTR Program Coordinator. "We are committed not only to supporting high quality research through NIH SBIR awards, but to investing in the long-term success of our SBIR-winners." Los Angeles-based Larta, will provide assistance in all aspects of commercialization, including: business development, funding and capital acquisition, government regulatory processes, intellectual property protection, licensing strategies, and merger and acquisition opportunities. The new program will involve a combination of training…

Encouraging entrepreneurship has been a predominant focus since the recession and jobless recover, but a recent report from one of the country's leading colleges for entrepreneurial education cautions the current wave of new business starts will not cure many job woes. Less than one out of every five businesses started in the U.S. has the innovative spark that could lead to strong job generation capabilities over the next five years, according to the 2003 Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM), a study conducted by Babson College. The GEM research shows a rise in new business start-up activity last year after two years of decline, yet most of these new companies are self-employed start-ups that replicate existing goods or service businesses and project less than five employees over the next five years. While the U.S. maintains a leadership position in encouraging new business formation, more is needed to spur innovation, the report advises. After two years of decline, entrepreneurial activity in the U.S. is bouncing back, increasing from 10.5 percent in 2002 to 11.9 percent in 2003…

There are less than 100 of our readers - now approaching a total of 100,000 - that may be able to look into their electronic mailboxes and even eight-year-old paper files to see that this issue of the SSTI Weekly Digest is our 400th. What began in March 1996 as a two-page weekly fax to key science and technology leaders in most states has evolved into the one of the most widely read e-news sources for the tech-based economic development community in the U.S. The addition of the funding supplement to the Digest in January 2001 made the publication a powerful and popular tool for encouraging research, innovation and entrepreneurship by increasing local access to and awareness of federal and foundation research and economic development grant opportunities. The explosive growth of readers can be explained in part by the phenomenal growth of the field over the past eight years as more and more cities, universities, regions, states and countries recognize the important role investment in science and technology can and will play in creating higher wage jobs, economic prosperity and sustainable growth. The theme of SSTI'…

If you consider North America's public investment to encourage economic growth through science and technology at the state or provincial government level, Ontario should be in your top 10. And the recent injection of $63 million for technology commercialization might have bumped the province of 12 million residents up a place or two. Late last month, the Ontario provincial government outlined a four-year commercialization plan to link public research institutions with companies that can move the research out of the lab and into the market. Universities, colleges and hospitals will receive $27 million to help them identify promising research and make them investor-ready; and institutions will receive an additional $36 million to establish pools of seed capital to commercialize the best ideas. The goal is to create more spin-off companies and accelerate the growth of small- and medium-sized enterprises and leading-edge jobs. To further support Ontario’s focus on commercialization, the McGuinty government will: Create an Ontario Commercialization Advisory Committee to advise the Minister of…

Science Spending to Rise £1B Over Next 3 Years Alone "..because we want Britain to be the most attractive location in the world for science and innovation, we are setting a new and ambitious target of increasing UK R&D investment as a proportion of national income from its current level of 1.9 percent to 2.5 percent by 2014 over the next decade." The quote is from the first page of the United Kingdom's new Science & Innovation Investment Framework: 2004-2014, which lays out a specific and ambitious commitment to strengthening the nation's position as both a center for knowledge creation and as a world leader in technology commercialization. Toward these goals, the government's spending for science and research will increase annually at a real, average rate of 5.7 percent during the next three years to more than £5.3 billion. In addition, the framework outlines steps to increase business investment in research from its current level equal to 1.25 percent of Gross Domestic Product to 1.7 percent by the end of the decade. Total UK-based research currently approximates £22.…

One Goal would see Science Share of GDP Surpassing US before 2010. Not to be outdone by its European neighbor across the Channel (see story above), the French government announced at the end of June it will create a national research agency modelled after the National Science Foundation, according to The Scientist, the European Commission and several French news reports. While the budget for the new government agency will not be released until November, the press reports indicate an additional $1.23 billion (US) could be available for research grants in 2005. While recent public expenditures have been below average for the European Union, France has set a goal to raise the percentage of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) that is spent on science to 3.0 percent by 2010. In 2002, science spending represented 2.2 percent of the French GDP. Science in the U.S., for comparison, has seen its share of the GDP decline in each of the past three years to approximately 2.6 percent. To achieve its goal, French research spending will need to average an annual real growth rate of 10 percent…

Innovation policy approaches need to address specific challenges, problems and opportunities found in different types of regions, according to a new research paper from the Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration. The paper, One Size Fits All? Towards a Differentiated Policy Approach With Respect to Regional Innovation Systems, was presented at the recent German Institute of Economic Research conference. In it, the authors stress there is no ideal model for innovation policy in tech-based economic development, instead making a case for more differentiated policies. Various types of regions are analyzed, based on their preconditions for innovation, networking, and innovation barriers. The authors highlight the regional innovation system (RIS) approach, which is said to provide a useful framework for a differentiated approach. Regions characterized by low levels of clustering, a lack of interaction and networks, and old dominant industries do not fit previous models upon which innovation polices were shaped, the authors argue. For example, best practice models of interactive…

The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) launched last month a $17.2 million national Biotechnology Worker Training Initiative in support of the President’s High Growth Job Training Initiative. “This $17.2 million in training funds will recruit and train workers for jobs in the biotechnology field, which is expected to be one of the fastest growing sectors by 2012,” said Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao. An initial award of $2.4 million was made to the Pittsburgh Life Sciences Greenhouse (PLSG), a public-private partnership dedicated to Western Pennsylvania's life sciences industry. Chao said the grant to PLSG would help increase awareness about promising biotech-related careers in the state, while addressing the need for skilled workers. As part of the project, PLSG will try to match trained workers with local biotech companies by developing curriculum and training that aims to shape workers with a “hybrid” of desired capabilities. The project will integrate various industry skills sets and academic disciplines. Key partners include Renal Solutions Inc. of Pittsburgh, Pa., the Community…