SSTI Digest

Although much collaborative work is underway in the United Kingdom, there is more to be done on the parts of universities, government and businesses, according to the Lambert Review of Business-University Collaboration. The conclusions and recommendations of the report span the Atlantic, offering advice of potential value for American university-industry relations.

Through research and various case studies, the review compiles the following broad recommendations for each individual sector:

A new report released by the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) suggests research and innovation will be key to the department’s success in fiscal year 2005.

In Fiscal Year 2004/2005 Performance Plan, DOT’s Office of Research Development and Technology (RD&T) sets forth numerous challenges and commitments, detailing 82 research initiatives for its infrastructure and safety program areas. RD&T also outlines 35 ongoing projects for its operations division. Anticipated goal impacts and target completion dates are established for all initiatives.

Within the RD&T plan are four basic challenges:

The Technology Administration (TA) has released the fourth edition of its guide of state science and technology (S&T) indicators. The Dynamics of Technology-based Economic Development provides an updated collection of data on the technology infrastructure of states, such as high school and advanced degree graduation levels, R&D investment and the numbers of patents issued. All 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico are included in the report.

For the first time, Dynamics contains a new section showing data changes for periods up to 10 years, which TA hopes will help state and regional efforts to track trends in state performance and the impact of policy decisions. Thirty-eight metrics are included; 25 measure inputs and 13 measure outputs or performance.

On Feb. 12, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced the first round of Phase I awards under the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program competition. Administered by the Homeland Security Advanced Research Project Agency (HSARPA), the DHS SBIR 2004.1 solicitation selection process took only three months — quick by most SBIR standards. HSARPA selected 66 winning projects across 23 states from 368 proposals. Each awardee will receive a maximum of $100,000 to complete a six-month feasibility or proof-of-concept study.

Jonetta Fantroy, a management analyst with HSARPA, provided SSTI statistics for the distribution by state for the proposals received and awards made. The table is available at: http://www.ssti.org/Digest/Tables/031904t.htm

For just over eight years, the SSTI Weekly Digest has come to you every Friday...first it was by fax, then by e-mail.  Starting with this issue, the Digest makes a change and will be distributed each Monday.  We believe this change will help you get your week started right...and will give the SSTI staff something to do on the weekend.

The South Carolina Technology Alliance calls it the most significant victory for South Carolina's research universities and tech entrepreneurs in the last 50 years. An idle exaggeration? Probably not.

Senate Bill 0560 creates a $50 million venture capital (VC) fund for the state and offers tax credits and other incentives to attract large life science and pharmaceutical businesses. It also facilitates borrowing up to $250 million for university construction and improvement projects encouraging research and tech-based economic development (TBED). The bill, which passed overwhelmingly in both the state senate and house, includes three sections:

With the recent passage of much economic development legislation in South Dakota, Gov. Mike Rounds' 2010 Initiative would seem to be moving along as planned. The 2010 Initiative, an economic stimulus plan introduced last fall, outlines a series of goals for growth in South Dakota by the year 2010 (see the Oct. 31, 2003, issue of the Digest).

Gov. Rounds signed House Bill 1145 on March 3, setting up a $3 million loan program for entrepreneurs and start-up companies wanting to do business in their home state. Under the bill, any entrepreneur or start-up company located in South Dakota can apply for low interest loans. Start-up companies are defined as new technology, communications, service or manufacturing businesses.

The Indiana General Assembly recently passed legislation that would make permanent a 10 percent research and development (R&D) tax credit, if signed by Gov. Joe Kernan.

Indiana's Research Expense Tax Credit provides for a credit based upon a taxpayer's increased research activities conducted in Indiana. The credit is 10 percent of the increase in qualified research expenses paid or incurred in a taxable year over a taxpayer's base amount of research expenses.

Last month's action taken by the Indiana General Assembly is the latest development with the state's R&D tax credit. During the 2003 Legislative Session, the expiration date for the credit was extended from Dec. 31, 2004, to Dec. 31, 2013. The General Assembly also has doubled the credit from 5 percent to 10 percent.

The creation and subsidization of CAPCOs, certified capital corporations intended to encourage venture capital (VC) investment, is one of the more controversial policies some states have adopted to encourage the growth of tech-based economies. With substantial revisions to Colorado's short CAPCO experiment this month, questions are raised once again for other states that either have passed or are considering various approaches to increasing the availability of risk capital for new tech firms.

Colorado Governor Bill Owens signed two bills on March 4 effectively ending the state's two-year-old CAPCO program -- and blocking an additional $100 million in tax credits scheduled for distribution in April.

Legislators in Utah have passed a constitutional amendment that, with approval by voters, would allow the state's universities to take ownership in private businesses in exchange for intellectual property. The proposed amendment cleared the Utah State Legislature with relative ease, despite some concerns it will thwart the incentive of researchers wanting to commercialize their results.

Approved on March 3 with a unanimous vote by the senate, the amendment states that Utah and any of its schools may "acquire an equity interest in a private business entity as consideration for the sale, license, or other transfer to the private business entity of intellectual property developed in whole or in part" by state agencies or schools. The Utah Constitution would retain a ban on state investment in railroad, telegraph or other companies.

With the goal of encouraging interdisciplinary and collaborative research, the Research Business Models Subcommittee of the National Science and Technology Council (NSTC) has issued a list of initiatives to improve management of academic research grants made by various agencies of the federal government. The recommendations are also expected to result in greater consistency across agencies in award policies and reporting requirements.

The selected initiatives are the result of a series of workshops held last fall involving academic officials, researchers and federal grant administrators. The Association of American Universities (AAU) has noted that cost issues of concern for the academic research community, such as reimbursement rates for facilities and administrative costs, are not addressed by the initiatives.

In its e-newsletter, AAU identifies the NSTC initiatives as being:

With contributions of nearly $64 billion annually to the gross state product, manufacturing remains the largest of all industry sectors in Pennsylvania, according to a new report sponsored by the Team Pennsylvania Foundation. Data released by the nonprofit public-private partnership documents the role of manufacturing in Pennsylvania and analyzes the forces shaping the future of the industry.

Manufacturing Pennsylvania’s Future: Regional Strategies that Build from Current Strengths and Address Competitive Challenges shows Pennsylvania's manufacturing sector remains the primary economic driver in the state. Sixteen industries that collectively produce nearly half of the state's manufacturing output have grown and concentrated in Pennsylvania over the past 10 years, the report states. Small and medium-sized manufacturing firms are identified as providing the broad foundation for manufacturing in Pennsylvania.