SSTI Digest

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…

The Department of Commerce is accepting nominations for the 2004 National Medal of Technology awards, the nation’s highest honor awarded by the President to America's leading technological innovators. The Medal was first awarded in 1985 following its creation in 1980 by Congress. It is given annually to individuals, teams, or companies for accomplishments in the innovation, development, commercialization, and management of technology, as evidenced by the establishment of new or significantly improved products, processes or services. Past awards have been made in five main areas: technology product and process; technology management and policy; technology concepts; technology and human resource development; and environmental technology. The deadline for submitting 2004 nominations is October 30, 2003, and nominations should be submitted by e-mail. Nomination forms and guidelines may be downloaded from the National Medal of Technology website at http://www.ta.doc.gov/medal.

Alaska, with 25.7 percent of its academic R&D expenditures coming from industrial sources, ranks first in the U.S. in the amount of industry-funded R&D at its academic institutions, according to new data released by the National Science Foundation (NSF). An NSF report, Survey of Research and Development Expenditures at Universities and Colleges, FY 2001, shows $28.4 million of Alaska's $110.2 million in academic R&D expenditures in 2001 were industry-supplied. The U.S. as a whole saw more than $32.2 billion go toward R&D activities in its research institutions, with almost $2.2 billion coming from industry, according to the report. Nineteen states ranked above the U.S. average of 6.82 percent. North Carolina finished runner-up to Alaska at 15 percent while Massachusetts, Georgia and Pennsylvania rounded out the top five, percentage-wise. SSTI has prepared a state-by-state table that depicts the share of total academic R&D expenditures stemming from industry sources. The table is available at: http://www.ssti.org/Digest/Tables/082203t.htm Survey of…

Boston The Mystic Valley Development Commission (MVDC) recently secured a $5.5 million loan from Citizens Bank of Massachusetts to finance the final land acquisitions for the first phase of TeleCom City, a 200-acre technology development project along the banks of the Malden River in the cities of Medford, Malden and Everett. MVDC was created by an act of the state legislature in 1996. With the loan from Citizens, the Commission will purchase the project's remaining three parcels of land, which total about eight acres in Medford. The project also has received more than $25 million in state support and $13 million in federal funding. Phase One, the construction of four 110,000-square-foot buildings on about 29 acres in Medford, is scheduled to begin in 2004. Jefferson Parish, LA Two sites in Jefferson Parish are among the frontrunners being considered by local economic development officials for a technology park, the Times-Picayune recently reported. Both sites could enable a campus of at least 25 acres to be built in the Avondale-Waggaman-Bridge City area and a less…

After months of analyzing data and hundreds of interviews, organizers of western North Carolina's Future Forward economic development strategy only await the study's approval by local governments. Future Forward is aimed at improving economic development conditions for 12 counties in the Western Piedmont and Mountains of North Carolina located in the 10th and 11th Congressional Districts — Alexander, Burke, Caldwell, Catawba, Iredell, Lincoln, Rutherford, Avery, Mitchell, Watauga, Wilkes and McDowell counties. Specifically requiring approval are the study's final recommendations, which fall into three broad categories: Education and Workforce Training. The study proposes that the western North Carolina region conduct a campaign to increase the value people place on education and increase the number of people with education beyond high school; establish a Learning and Innovation Network that provides programs and facilities to build technology-based economic development (TBED) across the region; and, promote development of a technology park associated with the Learning and Innovation Network…

TOP Reauthorized and To Grow, Says Senate Commerce Committee The Technology Opportunities Program (TOP), a highly-competitive, merit-based grant program for stimulating digital network technologies in the U.S., might survive after all. The Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation adopted S. 1478 on July 31, reauthorizing the National Telecommunications Information Administration (NTIA) for four years and effectively restoring funding for TOP. Under the reauthorization act, NTIA would receive $18.9 million in 2004 and $21.2 million annually by FY 2008. TOP, which was proposed for elimination by the Bush Administration, would receive $15.9 million in FY 2004, $16.3 million in FY 2005 and $17.9 million in FY 2008. TOP awards matching grants to public and nonprofit organizations to demonstrate practical applications of telecommunications and information technologies and is managed by NTIA. To date, TOP has awarded 555 grants totaling $204.9 million and leveraging $282 million in local matching funds. Illinois Loosens Grip on $11M Fund to Eliminate Digital…