SSTI Digest

The Idaho Economic Development Association has named Jan Rogers as new president.

The Grand Forks Region Economic Development Corp. has named Klaus Thiessen as its new president.

The Association of American Universities has selected Patrick White as the new director of federal relations.

240 events already posted on SSTI's web calendar Although only a few events remain for 2003, SSTI's web calendar of science and technology (S&T) items has brief descriptions and contact links for 240 regional or national conferences, meetings and workshops planned for 2004. The first and foremost one to put on your schedule will be SSTI's 8th annual conference, which will be held Oct. 13-15, 2004, in Philadelphia. Other items on SSTI's calendar range from venture capital forums and workshops on how to secure federal technology funding for programs such as the Small Business Innovation Research program to professional development opportunities for tech-based economic developers. Annual meetings for many associations involved with tech-based economic development also are included, as are several research and policy symposia on issues encouraging regional innovation and entrepreneurship. The calendar is available at http://www.ssti.org/calendar.htm. Suggestions for additional events for inclusion should be directed to calendar@ssti.org. Note: events…

The Modernization Forum reported on Thursday that Congressional appropriators have agreed to gut the Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP), the main federal program serving America’s small manufacturers. The move came Wednesday night, despite the pleas of more than 300 members of Congress who supported $110 million in letters to the CJS Subcommittee. The U.S. has lost 2.5 million manufacturing jobs since the beginning of 2001. Congress will provide only $39.6 million for MEP this year, a 63 percent cut from the current funding level. Last year, Congress provided MEP with $106.6 million. The cut to MEP came during last-minute wrangling over a final Omnibus Appropriations bill that would provide about $700 billion for up to 12 federal departments. As of press time, the Omnibus bill had not been approved by Congress. Funding levels were unknown for the Advanced Technology Program, Economic Development Administration, and other programs of interest to the tech-based economic development community. MEP assists small manufacturers and helps boost their productivity, sales, employment and investment…

Despite more than a year of economic recovery, the economies of well-performing states are still stressed by higher unemployment, lower wage jobs, slower pay growth and declining employer-provided health coverage, reports the Corporation for Enterprise Development (CFED). In its seventeenth annual Development Report Card for the States, the nonprofit, nonpartisan think tank observes many American families also are still struggling financially. CFED uses 68 measures to provide a relative, state-by-state assessment of economic development in three main areas — performance, business vitality and development capacity. Massachusetts, Minnesota and Virginia were the top performers in 2003, all earning straight A's. Five other states – Colorado, Connecticut, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Utah – joined them on an honor roll with all A's and B's. Eleven states got an F in at least one of the three categories. One of the longest-running barometers of state economic development policies and their impacts, the CFED study asserts that, while overall American productivity is growing, some experts have rushed to…

The University of Arizona Office of Economic Development (UA OED) has released its annual report card on economic growth and development in the Arizona-Sonora region. Funded by the Arizona-Mexico Commission and the Arizona Department of Commerce, Regional Economic Indicators: Arizona-Sonora 2003 monitors economic changes in the Arizona-Sonora region via 33 indicators across four broad areas: Position in North American Free Trade Agreement and global markets; Cross-border economic integration; Performance of leading industry sectors; and, Dimensions of quality of life. Almost half of the 32 indicators are covered in the report's Leading Sectors section, which includes manufacturing, agribusiness, mining and transportation. The Arizona-Sonora region's share of border states' and U.S.-Mexico production levels is measured in each sector by looking at the sector's contribution to GSP. How Arizona and Sonora performed individually also are considered. In conducting the Arizona-Sonora region report, UA OED researchers relied on data from such sources as the U.S. Census Bureau,…

New figures on the proportion of foreign-born workers in science and technology occupations suggest the federal government must "act now" to meet future needs in science, engineering and technology fields, a new National Science Board (NSB) report argues. A sampling from 2000 census figures indicates a larger than previously known percentage of degree-holding, foreign-born professionals working in the U.S. in science and engineering (S&E) occupations, states NSB, the governing board for the National Science Foundation (NSF). Meanwhile, the number of H1-B visas issued to foreign-born workers in science and technology has declined. According to NSF's figures, derived from the 1990 census, estimates of foreign-born workers in 1999 holding bachelor's degrees represented 11 percent of the total population in S&E-classified occupations. Foreign-born individuals with master's degrees held 19 percent of the S&E occupations held by master's recipients overall. Foreign-born Ph.D.s represented 29 percent of those positions. The 2000 census figures, however, allowed for the first time a sampling that…

Unless federal agencies do more to safeguard against financial conflicts of interest in universities, the government may not be able to properly regulate the flow of federally funded research, suggests a new report published by the U.S. General Accounting Office (GAO). Conflicts of interest, as an issue, is of growing significance for the academic community. Of eight federal agencies surveyed, only the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the National Science Foundation (NSF) have policies in place for identifying and managing fiscal conflicts for the research they fund, GAO states. The other six agencies – the Departments of Agriculture, Defense, Education and Energy; the Environmental Protection Agency; and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration – are said not to have financial conflict of interest standards for university research grants. These agencies and 200 of the nation's leading research universities were reviewed by GAO via a Web-based survey. GAO sought to answer two questions in conducting its survey, including whether universities implement the above standards. Of the…

DOE Releases 20-Year Strategic Plan Last week, U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Secretary Spencer Abraham outlined the Office of Science's 20-year science facility plan, a roadmap or "wish list" for future scientific facilities to support the department’s basic science and research missions. The plan prioritizes new, major scientific facilities and upgrades to current facilities. The 28 big-ticket facilities cover the range of science supported by the DOE’s Office of Science, including fusion energy, materials science, biological and environmental science, high energy physics, nuclear physics and advanced scientific computation. Twelve facilities earn recognition as near-term priorities. Priority one is ITER, an international collaboration to build the first fusion science experiment capable of producing a self-sustaining fusion reaction, called a “burning plasma.” Priority two is an UltraScale Scientific Computing Capability, to be located at multiple sites, that would increase by a factor of 100 the computing capability available to support open scientific research.…

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) recently released a table presenting the top 100 cities for NIH awards in FY 2002. Boston and New York City are the only two cities to receive more than $1 billion in NIH funding. Boston’s lead shrank from $140 million in FY 2001 to $14 million in 2002. There are additional changes in ranking among other top cities, but longer-term data is needed to determine how much real movement there is in the distribution of NIH funding. For FY 2002, Philadelphia ranks third at $730 million. Baltimore, San Diego, Seattle, Los Angeles, Houston, Cambridge (Mass.) and San Francisco round out the top 10. Forty-six cities garnered more than $100 million of NIH awards in FY 2002, compared to only 38 in both 2001 and 2000. This is the third annual report NIH has prepared on a local level, providing a useful measure for tech-based economic developers interested in their region’s performance in NIH research. The FY 2002 table presents the distribution of NIH awards across research grants, training grants, fellowships, R&D contracts, and other. The tables for FY 2002…

The American Association of University Professors has appointed Roger Bowen to succeed Mary Burgan as the association's next general secretary. Virginia's Institute for Defense and Homeland Security recently named Henry Connors Jr. as its business development director. The National League of Cities has hired Marilyn Mohrman-Gillis as director of policy and federal relations. George Herrera, president and chief executive officer of the United States Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, recently announced his resignation, effective Jan. 20, 2004. LaMoyne Hyde, director of the Idaho Department of Commerce, also announced he will resign his position by the end of the year. Karl Koehler is returning to the Indiana 21st Century Research and Technology Fund to serve as its director. Jerry Lonergan is Kansas Inc.'s new president. Dr. Doros Platika is the new chief executive officer of the Pittsburgh Life Sciences Greenhouse. Minnesota Technology Inc. has hired Wayne Pletcher as its new president. Larry Walther has replaced Jim…