SSTI Digest

Bruce Mehlman, assistant secretary of commerce for technology policy in the Department of Commerce, will become the new executive director of the Computer Systems Policy Project on Dec. 1. Mehlman has run the Technology Administration's Office of Technology Policy since 2001.

The Association of University Research Parks has recognized Sandia National Laboratories for the 2003 Excellence in Technology Transfer Award. Over the past five years, Sandia has participated in 183 new cooperative research and development agreements with industry partners to jointly develop technology that is incorporated into commercial products. In addition, Sandia has had 1,472 technical advance disclosures, 639 new non-federal entity agreements to assist partners in addressing specific technical challenges, and 415 commercial licenses that have transferred technologies developed at Sandia to the private sector.

Congratulations to Del Schuh and his staff at the Indiana Business Modernization and Technology Corp. (BMT), honored as the Project of the Year in the Economic Development category from the National Association of Management and Technical Assistance Centers. The award, BMT's second in as many years from the group, was for a program entitled, "Moving from Distress to Commerce through Collaboration."

James Souby, executive director of the Western Governors' Association for the past 13 years, is resigning to become president and CEO of a new private think tank.

Ask most state and local technology-based economic development (TBED) professionals what they are trying to accomplish in their community or region and the majority will probably draw on a few of the well-known high tech centers of the country for examples. Many books, studies and reports have scrutinized the success of Silicon Valley, Boston, Seattle, Austin, etc. For example, the desire to replicate the success of Silicon Valley, has led to litany of "Silicon <insert geographic term here>" branding across the country. Another easy example to point to is the outrage so many communities felt when their metro area didn't make the top ten in the Brookings Institution's seminal report, Signs of Life: The Growth of Biotechnology Centers in the U.S. Why are TBED proponents so prone to wanting to be the biggest? The same size-envy doesn't permeate all aspects of public policy on growth. Few of cities the size of Peoria, Boise, Akron or Burlington would claim in their ten-year growth strategies that they want to become the next New York City, Tokyo, Los Angeles or Chicago. To help bring the goals…

In mid-September, Governor Rod R. Blagojevich unveiled a new approach to economic development in Illinois– regionalism. While several other states currently use or have explored a regionalized approach to delivering state economic development services, the concept is new for Illinois. The Governor’s plan divides the state into ten separate economic regions by finding areas with similar economic strengths and similar economic needs, and then creates a separate regional economic development plan for each. More than 20 state agencies, boards and commissions will be involved in the creation and implementation of each regional plan. Each plan will contain 15-25 tangible actions that the state can take to help create jobs, and give communities the tools they need to attract businesses. Items in the plans will range from creating needed infrastructure like roads and industrial parks to providing job training and consulting services through workforce development programs and new entrepreneurship centers to programs to help promote tourism. "It's time we stopped using a one size fits all approach…

At a time when North Carolina is experiencing record-setting layoffs, the dot-com bubble has burst, and traditional industries are undergoing critical changes, North Carolina needs a cohesive, bipartisan economic development strategy that embraces the dynamics underlying the new economy, according to a new report issued by the Institute for Emerging Issues. Jump Starting Innovation: 10 Principles to Guide North Carolina’s New Economy, is being sent to 5,000 policy makers, business leaders and university officials around the state and the nation. The report aims to help these leaders develop new ways of thinking about innovation, technology and creativity and the role they play in the state’s economy. Developed out of the 2003 Emerging Issues Forum, key points of the report include: State government needs the capacity for ongoing, independent assessments of alternative economic development strategies. Private sector leaders, especially those from the new economy, must shoulder greater responsibility for helping set strategic priorities for the state. Universities can further…

Storm prediction, extreme ultraviolet light, clean chemical manufacturing, and implantable electronics for treating incurable diseases — all of the above will be tackled by four new Engineering Research Centers (ERCs) created by the National Science Foundation (NSF) last week. The new centers will receive a $68 million from NSF over the next five years. Each center, to be based at a university, will function as a collaborative partnership. The maximum possible duration of NSF support is 10 years, after which the ERCs are expected to become self-sufficient. NSF will provide roughly $17 million to each center over the next five years, with each center focusing on a specific area: Engineering Research Center for Extreme Ultraviolet (EUV) Science and Technology (EUV ERC), headquartered at Colorado State University in Fort Collins, will develop short-wavelength, optical measurement instrumentation to further nanoscience and nanotechnology research. Engineering Research Center for Environmentally Beneficial Catalysis (CEBC), headquartered at the University of Kansas…

Arizona Universities Partner to Create Joint Biomedical Campus In an economy in which nearly every public university across the country is facing tighter budgets, the presidents of the three state universities of Arizona – the University of Arizona, Northern Arizona University, Arizona State University – have decided the best way to expand and improve the state’s biomedical research capabilities is to jointly form a single biomedical campus in downtown Phoenix. According to an Oct. 1 article in the Arizona Republic, the Arizona Biomedical Collaboration will facilitate coordination of research and encourage better interaction among student, faculty and other researchers. The project also should yield biotech spinoffs and additional economic development benefits for the city. ASU and UA have committed a combined $27 million toward the Arizona Biomedical Collaboration facility, which is expected to house as many as 15,000 students. Accelerator Expanding at Idaho State University Contributions totaling $1.8 million from the state, Idaho National Engineering and…

The National Science Foundation (NSF) has given us the first peek at the results of the 2001 survey of industrial research and development expenditures and, while the news is better than expected given the economy, the first figures provide further evidence of the struggles of the U.S. manufacturing base. Issue Brief 04-301, U.S. Industry Sustains R&D Expenditures During 2001 Despite Decline in Performers' Aggregate Sales, provides aggregate figures for industrial R&D by performer, size of company, and sector. Overall, NSF found company funding of R&D totaled $181.6 billion in 2001. Before adjusting for inflation, the amount is up from the 2000 total of $180.4 billion. In constant dollars, industrial R&D expeditures declined less than one percent. When the total is distributed between manufacturing and non-manufacturing industries, a different picture emerges. In constant dollars, manufacturing industries posted a 3.7 percent drop in R&D expenditures between 2000 and 2001. Non-manufacturing industry R&D, on the other hand rose by 1.5 percent. The Issue Brief…

A group of Kansas City bi-state community development organizations, led by KCCatalyst and the Kansas City Area Life Sciences Institute (KCALSI), released a report Friday that illustrates Kansas City’s bi-state life sciences initiative and lays out how the region can become a national and global center for life sciences research and commercialization. The report, A Guide to Life Sciences in Greater Kansas City, serves as a basic primer on the nature of the life sciences industry today and the potential role it can play in the economy of greater Kansas City’s bi-state region. One of the report’s direct purposes will be to market and promote the bi-state region’s life sciences initiative to the bi-state region and across the country. The KCADC, for example, will use this report in all of its national marketing efforts to recruit life sciences-focused companies and jobs to the bi-state region. According to A Guide to Life Sciences in Greater Kansas City, the stakes are high in this race. Leading economic forecasters, for example, predict that 15 to 18 percent of the U.S. Gross Domestic…

Jennifer Alexander is the new president of the Greater Madison Chamber of Commerce. Dr. George C. Atkinson has been appointed Science and Technology Adviser to the Secretary of the U.S. Department of State. The first director for the new Indiana Venture Center will be Steve Beck. Buddy Buckingham, director of regional planning at Murray State University, will serve as interim director of the new MSU Innovations and Commercialization Center. Buckingham also currently serves in the Kentucky General Assembly. The University of California, San Diego's CONNECT program will begin a search for a new director since Fred Cutler's resignation at the end of September. Indiana Governor Joe Kernan has nominated Katherine Lyon Davis to serve as Lieutenant Governor. Among her past positions, Davis served as manager of Indiana's 21st Century Research and Technology Fund in 1999. Julian Manly Earls is the new director of the NASA Glenn Research Center in Cleveland. Team Northeast Ohio has picked Texan Robert Farley for its first executive director. …