SSTI Digest

Blair Carnahan will be the first director of the new Columbus Regional Technology Center in Columbus, Ga. The new facility will house an incubator, the Columbus Georgia Tech regional office and the Columbus office of the Small Business Development Center. The Sacramento Regional Technology Alliance is losing its executive director as Clare Emerson has announced she is relocating to oversee AEA's Texas office. John Kotek, formerly with Argonne National Laboratory-West, has been named deputy manager of the Department of Energy's Idaho Operations Office. The office oversees the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory. Utah House Speaker Marty Stephens began his term as President of the National Conference of State Legislatures during its annual meeting last week.

Blair Carnahan will be the first director of the new Columbus Regional Technology Center in Columbus, Ga. The new facility will house an incubator, the Columbus Georgia Tech regional office and the Columbus office of the Small Business Development Center.

The Sacramento Regional Technology Alliance is losing its executive director as Clare Emerson has announced she is relocating to oversee AEA's Texas office.

John Kotek, formerly with Argonne National Laboratory-West, has been named deputy manager of the Department of Energy's Idaho Operations Office. The office oversees the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory.

Utah House Speaker Marty Stephens began his term as President of the National Conference of State Legislatures during its annual meeting last week.

With the next fiscal year underway or looming, budget data recently released by the National Governors Association (NGA) and National Association of State Budget Officers (NASBO) indicate that states continue to struggle with declining revenues amidst an uncertain economy. The latest Fiscal Survey of the States shows most states are unable to protect their highest priority programs from budget reductions. Fiscal 2003, which ended June 30 for most states, was a grueling year for the majority of the nation's governors, the Fiscal Survey observes. Based on state budget data collected during spring 2003 by NASBO, most governors chose spending reductions coupled with revenue increases and drawing down their remaining reserve funds to balance budgets. Thirty-seven states were forced to reduce already enacted budgets by nearly $14.5 billion — the largest spending cut ever recorded by the 27-year-old survey. Governors in 29 states recommended tax and fee increases in fiscal 2004, resulting in a net increase of $17.5 billion — the largest since 1979. Furthermore, state spending growth was cut to only…

State Partnership with Texas Instrument Yields $3B Investment From the outsider's perspective, it could be analogous to a world wrestling prize fight, except the punches and stakes are real. Two big, proud states wrestling for dominance in one lucrative industry — semiconductors. For those keeping score, the venerable leader for a long time was Austin, Texas, with the university, Sematech, Dell Corp., and other industries. Austin boomed right along with the IT sector's explosion. One year ago this week, upstart Albany, NY, caught everyone's attention with the surprise announcement of capturing Sematech North. The high-profile, big-price tag announcement, coupled with a more comprehensive tech-based economic development strategy put central New York on the map for many (see a 7/19/02 Digest article for the details: http://www.ssti.org/Digest/2002/071902.htm). Folks in Texas certainly took notice and have roared back with two recent announcements of their own. The main headquarters of Sematech is staying put, thanks in part to a $40 million injection of funds…

Technology Network (TechNet), a national network of more than 200 CEOs and senior executives in the high technology and biotechnology industries, yesterday unveiled its ranking for how consistent state policies to encourage next-generation broadband deployment are with the network's policies. A TechNet report, The State Broadband Index, shows Michigan's programs and policies as the most favorable for the industry. Florida, Missouri, Texas, Ohio, Washington, Kansas, Virginia, Colorado and Iowa round out the top 10. The report ranks the top 25 states based on the extent to which TechNet believes their public policies spur or impede broadband deployment and demand, and includes a Best Practices Guide to what TechNet considers the most innovative state broadband initiatives. TechNet points to a low U.S. ranking internationally as justification for the individual states to take more active roles to encourage broadband deployment. According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the U.S. currently ranks sixth in the world in broadband access behind Korea, Canada, Sweden…

New blade technology that could make energy generation by wind turbines more efficient and virus-resistant tissues for skin grafts are just two novel technologies to be developed by the private sector with support from 16 Advanced Technology Program (ATP) awards made last week. The recipients could be among the final new ATP awards made as the Bush Administration's FY 2004 budget request has recommended terminating the program. Administered by the Commerce Department's National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), the ATP awards figure to help birth numerous technologies, including a method for operating a car's devices through conversational speech and an automated Web-searching and data organizing software system. The new awards represent a total of up to $35.46 million in ATP funding and an industry share of up to $22.28 million, if all projects are carried through to completion. The 13 individual companies with projects selected for funding are: AdvanTek International LLC (Boothwyn, Pa.) Bit 9 (Somerville, Mass.) Chromatin Inc. (Chicago) HandyLab Inc. (…

New NBER study suggests different tact may be necessary to breed entrepreneurial growth Public strategies aimed at promoting tech-based entrepreneurial activity by providing capital or investment incentives may not be enough, posit Paul Gompers, Josh Lerner and David Scharfstein in Entrepreneurial Spawning: Public Corporations and the Genesis of New Ventures, 1986-1999. Instead, “regions may need to attract firms with existing pools of workers who have the ‘training and conditioning’ to become entrepreneurs.” The authors' recent research, which analyzed numerous factors that affect the total number of venture capital-backed tech companies spawned by public companies during a sample period from 1986-1999, suggests the stimulation of entrepreneurial activity in a region with a small number of existing entrepreneurial companies is a difficult task. Gompers, Lerner and Scharfstein find entrepreneurial activity in a region has increasing returns — venture capital backed entrepreneurial companies spawn more VC-backed tech start ups. Additionally, they warn, the local group of suppliers and…

Today's issue of the Idaho SBIR Competition News, an electronic newsletter, includes a table presenting the FY 2002 award statistics by state for the Small Business Technology Transfer Program (STTR). The table includes state totals for the number of awards given and total dollar amount received for both Phase I and Phase II awards. Only Puerto Rico and five states were without some funding during the year from at least one of the five federal agencies required to participate in the STTR program — the departments of Defense, Energy and Health & Human Services, NASA and the National Science Foundation (NSF). STTR is a highly competitive program that reserves a very small percentage of federal R&D funding for awards to small business and nonprofit research partnerships. Federal agencies with extramural R&D budgets over $1 billion are required to administer STTR programs using an annual set-aside of 0.15 percent. The set-aside will increase to 0.3 percent in FY 2004. The table is available at: http://www.webs.uidaho.edu/sbir/docs/STTR_Rankings.htm The table was…

After 30 years as leader of the Greater Madison Chamber of Commerce, Robert Brennan is leaving to become a consultant to the new Office of Corporate Relations at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Maine Governor John Baldacci has nominated one of his senior policy advisors, Jack Cashman, to become Commissioner of the state Department of Economic and Community Development. Cashman formerly served as a Democratic state representative from Old Town. Cameron Carter is serving as interim president and CEO of Indiana's TechPoint, following Donna Gastevich's resignation to spend more time with her family. Mike Leavitt of the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory has been appointed the Co-chair of the Federal Laboratories Consortium State and Local Government Committee. Tom Shea with the Office of Economic Adjustment in the Department of Defense has announced his retirement, effective September 30, 2003. U.S. Department of Commerce Assistant Secretary Nancy Victory has announced her resignation effective mid-August. Victory led the…