SSTI Digest

Pete Tartline has resigned his position as president and CEO of the Technology Council of Central Pennsylvania.

Tina Van Camp has been named the director of the South Dakota Governor's Office of Economic Development.

Former president and CEO of the Columbus Technology Council William "Sandy" White is the new CEO of the University of Alabama at Birmingham Research Foundation.

The board of directors of Mid-America Manufacturing Technology Center (MAMTC) has appointed Lavon Winkler as its new president and CEO.

Includes $24M for Biomedical Research, $50M for Wright Centers Ohio has a biennial budget process so the fiscal year 2005 budget for technology-based economic development (TBED) activities could have been set in stone back in June 2003. With the passage of three bills this spring, however, the state legislature has committed an additional $103 million for its Third Frontier Project for the fiscal year beginning July 1, 2004. The new funds are a staple to the FY 2005 appropriations for other TBED programs such as Ohio's Thomas Edison Program, its SBIR efforts and coal research office. The state's Third Frontier portfolio includes the Biomedical Research and Technology Transfer, the Wright Centers of Innovation, Wright Projects, and the Third Frontier Action Fund. The Biomedical Research and Technology Transfer Trust Fund received $24.1 million for FY 2005 and an additional $23.9 million in FY 2006 from the state's share of the tobacco settlement funds. Since 2002, BRTT has distributed nearly $80 million to several multi-million-dollar collaborative biomedical and biotechnology research projects…

When Florida Gov. Jeb Bush surprised the world last October by announcing the state had landed an East Coast campus for the Scripps Research Institute, the draw from the public coffers cost was pegged at $510 million. The state was contributing $310 million and the county's share was up to $200 million for land acquisition and building construction. Scripps promised to create 545 jobs within the first eight years on its new 100-acre campus. That works out to $935,780 of public investment per job. Pricey, yes, but civic leaders are counting on Scripps to serve as a strong magnet to attract even more high wage, high tech businesses at no or lower cost to the state. Gov. Bush projected an additional 50,000 jobs resulting from the research center's presence in the West Palm Beach area within 15 years. On the basis of these much larger job projections, the county is acquiring more than 6,000 acres to accommodate the office, housing, retail and service needs of this future high tech community. The tax revenues from that growth are supposed to more than offset this initial record public outlay for a…

Michigan small businesses receiving state and federal grants for research and development will be able to put more of those funds into their work, with legislation unanimously passing the state Senate last week. A key component of the Senate Republicans' JOBS II action plan, Senate Bill 1116 now moves to Democratic Gov. Jennifer Granholm. A recent Associated Press article reports Gov. Granholm has not decided whether or not to sign the bill. SB 1116 amends the Single Business Tax Act (SBT) to allow SBT payers to deduct state and federal research grants from their tax base income. The bill's proponents suggest the measure will be a lure to attract high tech businesses to the state and will aid emerging tech firms, many of whom receive much of their start up revenues through federal grants such as the Small Business Innovation Research program. Legislative analysis of the fiscal impact for the bill suggests the cost to the state's general revenue funds will be $500,000 per year. SB 1116 is available through the Michigan Legislature at: http://www.michiganlegislature.org/mileg.asp…

The House Appropriations Committee passed on June 9 its version of the fiscal year 2005 Homeland Security bill, approving $70 million for university programs in the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). The funding level is $40 million above the President's FY 2005 request. The additional $40 million is allocated specifically for university-based centers of excellence. The Association of American Universities quotes the committee report as saying: "Through the Homeland Security Centers of Excellence (HS-Centers) S&T is encouraging universities to become centers of multidisciplinary research. In fiscal year 2004, S&T awarded three HS-Centers in the areas of: Risk and Economic Analysis of Terrorism Events, Foreign Animal and Zoonotic Disease Defense, and Post-Harvest Food Protection and Defense. The future of homeland security science is also being advanced by the development of the next generation of scientists in the Scholars and Fellows Program. There continues to be intense interest from universities with proposals to perform homeland security activities. This additional funding will allow S…

A new report assessing 2002 federal research and development (R&D) funding in U.S. universities and colleges finds 45 percent of all federal R&D funds went directly to the nation’s 126 medical schools. This striking discovery, the authors contend, raises the question of whether other areas having substantial R&D funding needs such as environment, energy, homeland security and education are receiving the attention they require. The federal government's investment in university R&D has grown considerably in recent years, according to the report, and represents a pivotal part of the U.S. innovation system. The analysis from the Science and Technology Institute for the National Science Foundation, is the first of its kind to assess state-by-state trends in R&D funding for institutions of higher education. Vital Assets: Federal Investment in Research and Development at the Nation’s Universities and Colleges, draws upon FY 1996-02 data from the Research and Development in the U.S. (RaDiUS) database. Highlights from the report include: Total R&D funds appropriated to…

Although a significant gap still exists between women-led companies and their male counterparts, in terms of venture funding, some promising news may suggest a change in fortune for the former, a study released today by Growthink Research of Los Angeles and Chicago-based re:invention Inc. shows. The 400-page study, Venture Funding for Women Entrepreneurs, provides a detailed profile of women-led, venture capital (VC)-funded, privately-held business enterprises and companies with women executives. The report is based on a comprehensive analysis of 1,860 companies that raised more than $19 billion of venture capital in 2003. Among major findings, 84 women-led companies in the U.S. received $783.8 million in VC -- 4.5 percent of all funded firms and 4.2 percent of all venture dollars. Thirty-seven of the 84 companies (44 percent) were in the healthcare sector, which accounted for more than half ($427.7 million) of the total funding raised by women. Additionally, 25 companies (30 percent) in the business software and services sector raised $165.3 million, followed by 12 women-led companies (14…

Most states recognize the importance university research plays in building a strong knowledge economy; it is a prominent component of the strongest regional technology clusters. Many states are increasingly focused on expanding their university research capacity and increasing the number of students in key science and engineering fields. To help policymakers assess their relative position regarding university R&D, SSTI has through its Useful Stats column in the SSTI Weekly Digest produced or reproduced several tables standardizing relevant data across states using other commonly available data. An example includes federal research obligations or industrial R&D expenditures at institutions of higher education. "R&D intensity" measures some data set relative to the gross state product; "per capita" simply means the  data set was characterized by a population set or subset, such as total state population or number of science and engineering doctorates. Other ratios and averages are used to standardize useful academic research data as well. SSTI reminds readers of the…

Joe James, director of the South Carolina Council on Competitiveness, has resigned his position with the S.C. Department of Commerce. The new deputy undersecretary for the Technology Administration in the U.S. Department of Commerce is Michelle O'Neill. O'Neill formerly served as deputy assistant secretary for the International Trade Agency. SSTI congratulates Tom Persons, president and CEO of the South Carolina Technology Alliance, for receiving the Individual Achievement Award from the Greater Columbia Chamber of Commerce. Former NASA Administrator Richard Truly, now head of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, announced his plans to retire in November. Janet Yancey-Wrona, director of the Maine Technology Institute (MTI), has been named the Governor's Science and Technology Advisor and the first Director of Innovation for the Maine Department of Economic and Community Development. In her new position, Dr. Yancey-Wrona will oversee the state's research and TBED activities, including MTI, the business incubator program and Maine EPSCoR initiative.