SSTI Digest

Seven grants totaling nearly $4.76 million will help Southwest Virginia achieve greater high-speed bandwidth access by enabling deployment of fiber optic cable throughout much of the region. The Tobacco Indemnification and Community Revitalization Commission awarded the grants, including $2.03 million via five grants to Bristol Virginia Utilities (BVU). The balance of the funds was distributed between the Cumberland Plateau and Lenowisco planning district commissions. The 31-member Virginia Tobacco Commission was created by the 1999 General Assembly to make payments to farmers to compensate for the decline of tobacco quotas and to promote economic growth and development in tobacco-dependent communities. BVU, a communications services provider, and the two planning district commissions will use their grants to extend broadband further through Washington County, into Russell, Tazewell, Smyth and Wythe Counties, and eventually Grayson County. Broadband loops also will be extended or completed in Buchanan, Dickenson, Lee, Scott and Wise Counties, and the City of Norton. Officials are hopeful…

California, with a 13.4 percent share of the U.S. total, led the nation in receiving federal obligations for science and engineering (S&E) to colleges and universities in FY 2001, according to a new National Science Foundation (NSF) report. More than $22 billion was provided to all institutions in FY 2001, with the Department of Health and Human Services leading the way at almost $13 billion and NSF second at $3.3 billion. SSTI has prepared two state-by-state tables offering a breakdown of the above data found in NSF's report, Survey of Federal Science and Engineering Support to Universities, Colleges, and Nonprofit Institutions. The first table <http://www.ssti.org/Digest/Tables/082903t.htm> presents the percent of each agency’s total obligations by state and the state's share of the total federal obligations. The second table <http://www.ssti.org/Digest/Tables/082903t2.htm> presents the percent each federal agency represents of each state’s total R&D. The actual dollar amounts from which both tables are developed are contained in Table B-9 of the NSF report. The data presented in…

While rural regions strive to establish basic high-speed Internet connections, larger cities such as St. Louis, Oklahoma City and Roanoke, Va., are looking to establish free, wireless Internet access across several blocks to encourage economic development. Recent reports show efforts are underway to speed the technology's deployment in each of the metro areas. In St. Louis, O2Connect is looking to build possibly the largest, free, wireless Internet network in the nation. USA Today recently reported that the city and O2Connect have agreed to offer the service in a 42-square-block area. O2Connect provides wireless high-speed Internet access and data transport to corporate clients using 2.4/5.8 GHz and 900 MHz technologies to deliver 802.11 radio signals. For St. Louis, the small, 3-year-old company already has installed the first of six antennae to transmit the invisible signals and has donated $25,000 worth of equipment. The Oklahoma City-based 4D Networks, Inc. plans to install portable wireless systems, as well as fixed and mobile ones, throughout Oklahoma and abroad in the near future.…

Blatant SSTI Conference Plug Wanting to keep up with the latest trends in tech-based economic development? Want to know the implications and costs of who's doing what where? SSTI's 7th Annual Conference, to be held in Seattle on October 21-22, offers 24 packed sessions exploring where the field is headed. What works, what doesn't and what's next. Between the speakers and other registrants, you're sure to learn more than a few tricks to improve your local, regional or state efforts toward building a tech-based economy. More information is available at: http://www.ssti.org/conference03.htm [expired]

Michael Gallagher recently was nominated to lead the National Telecommunications and Information Administration. Gallagher succeeds Nancy Victory as assistant secretary of Commerce for communications and information. Jeff Morris has been named Director of the Northwest Energy Technology Collaborative. John Tesoriero has left the New Jersey Commission on Science & Technology to become Associate Director of the Center for Advanced Information Processing at Rutgers University. David Eater is Acting Executive Director for the Commission as a search is conducted for a permanent replacement.

Michael Gallagher recently was nominated to lead the National Telecommunications and Information Administration. Gallagher succeeds Nancy Victory as assistant secretary of Commerce for communications and information.

Jeff Morris has been named Director of the Northwest Energy Technology Collaborative.

John Tesoriero has left the New Jersey Commission on Science & Technology to become Associate Director of the Center for Advanced Information Processing at Rutgers University. David Eater is Acting Executive Director for the Commission as a search is conducted for a permanent replacement.

More workers in North Carolina will be trained for jobs in biotechnology, thanks to the Golden LEAF Foundation's recent $60 million commitment to the emerging industry. In all, $64.5 million is going toward a training initiative, with North Carolina's biotech industry expected to contribute $4.5 million. Golden LEAF (Long-term Economic Advancement Foundation), created in 1999 as a nonprofit corporation, receives one-half of the funds coming to North Carolina from its settlement with tobacco companies. The Foundation's mission is to help the state transition out of a tobacco-based economy while creating new jobs in tobacco-dependent areas. As part of the biotech initiative, North Carolina State University in Raleigh will receive $36 million to build and equip a center to train workers. North Carolina Central University in Durham will receive $19.1 million to establish graduate and undergraduate degree programs in biotechnology. The remaining $9.4 million will go to the State Community College System to implement training programs in local communities, serving as a feeder system to NC State and North…

Perhaps most state and local technology-based economic development (TBED) professionals are not aware of a debate going on within academia, but some of the finger-pointing is directed toward you. America’s institutions of higher education are undergoing a tremendous transition as the image of an independent and objective Ivory Tower morphs into a structure more closely resembling the modern corporate research facility. The debate centers on whether or not this change is a positive one. Proponents applaud universities and colleges becoming more relevant in strengthening America’s competitive position in a global innovation economy — and more efficient or accountable in the process. Opponents point to increasing conflicts of interest, profit-driven decision-making, and corporate influence in curricula content and design as weakening academia’s ability to encourage critical thinking, new ideas, spontaneous innovation and free scientific discovery. The shift toward more business involvement in universities and colleges began more than 100 years ago with athletics but has accelerated…

Balancing the role of universities and colleges in economic development can be tricky, as Dr. Bok points out in his new book (see article above), but its important role in building stronger tech-based economies cannot be overstated. SSTI’s 7th annual conference, to be held in Seattle on October 21-22, presents the best opportunity of the year for developing a great understanding of the most effective ways for local and state economies to benefit from the academic research enterprise. Five interactive sessions have been scheduled to help participants capitalize on this enterprise: Universities as Partners in Local TBED. Across the country in widely varying regions, universities of all kinds are playing an active role in building tech-based economies. In this session, we'll explore the results of new research that looks at factors for engaging a university as an active participant and making a difference for the local economy. We'll also consider in-depth one of the best known examples: San Diego and the University of California-San Diego's CONNECT program. Financing University…

New university-based research efforts in biodesign, nanotechnology, embedded systems and virtual manufacturing show that Arizona has stepped forward to compete in the knowledge economy, according to a recent study by Morrison Institute for Public Policy, a unit of Arizona State University. The Institute's 44-page report, Seeds of Prosperity: Public Investment in Science and Technology, uses the research projects that ASU initiated with voter-approved Proposition 301, proceeds from a sales tax, as a lens for understanding the value of science and technology (S&T) research to Arizona's economy. It also introduces "CAT measures" designed to assess the lasting economic value of such research for the state and region. The CAT measures are intended to help assess whether connections were made among ASU researchers and external groups, attention was attracted to ASU's research, and talent was recruited, retained or developed. The researchers argue, "The CAT measures provide Arizona with a truly original way to evaluate the long-term economic development contribution of public investment in…