SSTI Digest

For Texas, the appropriate role for the state to serve in fostering economic development continues to evolve. With the passage of Senate Bill 275 earlier this month, the third organization in seven years will take the lead to encourage economic growth — this time with a strong focus on clusters and technology-based economic development.

The act abolishes the Texas Department of Economic Development (TDED) and creates an Economic Development and Tourism Office within the Governor's Office. Accompanying the transfer of duties will be just over 100 of the 127 TDED employees.

Citing inadequate information available to those who oversee technology incubators, yet emphasizing the incubators' significant and measurable impact on communities, the U.S. Department of Commerce's Technology Administration has released a study that highlights 17 of the nation's top incubators. A National Benchmarking Analysis of Technology Business Incubator Performance and Practices details the role business incubators have in technology development strategies.

Working with the National Business Incubation Association (NBIA), Commerce's Office of Technology Policy (OTP) sought to identify factors that contribute to business incubator performance. OTP collaborated with NBIA and the Southern Technology Application Center at the University of Florida to produce the study, ultimately to allow economic development officials to gauge their efforts and increase the return on investment in business incubation.

"The Federal Government has primary responsibility to lead the Nation in developing and implementing a coordinated, effective response to our long-term needs for science and engineering skills in the U.S. workforce in ways unlikely to be addressed by market mechanisms or interventions at the state and local levels," concludes the National Science Board (NSB) in the draft final report of its Task Force on National Workforce Policies for Science and Engineering. The NSB is the governing board for the National Science Foundation.

Global competition for science and engineering talent is intensifying, the NSB finds, at the same time that the number of U.S. citizens entering the fields is likely to decline unless more is done to attract students in demographic groups traditionally underrepresented in science and engineering (S&E) disciplines.

Five major policy recommendations are presented:

The National Science Foundation has released Graduate Students and Postdoctorates in Science and Engineering: Fall 2001, a collection of 54 statistical tables present the distribution of graduate students in science and engineering (S&E) across population segments, fields of science or engineering and by college and state. Overall long-term trends for S&E graduate students from 1975 to 2001 and short-term trends from 1994 to 2001 by detailed fields are presented.

Nationally, there were 426,342 graduate S&E students in 2001, up 2.8 percent from 2000. The tables report California, New York, Texas and Illinois had the most graduate S&E students in 2001; these same states represented the top four in the previous year as well.

The Fourth of July might just be a paid holiday for New Jersey's tech-based economic development agency after all. Since Governor James McGreevey released his FY 2004 budget request six months ago, the New Jersey Commission on Science and Technology has been living under a June 30 death sentence. Facing a deficit forecast in excess of $4 billion, the governor had called for the elimination of the $15 million program.

The Commission, which has been the state's lead S&T organization since 1985, administers an array of programs that support academic research, technology incubators, business financing, SBIR proposal assistance, and the state's affiliate network for the Manufacturing Extension Partnership. The latest independent analysis, assessing the long-term impact of Commission activities as of 2002, revealed an economic impact of $120 million annually and job creation figures averaging approximately 750 each year.

One of the greatest challenges for university technology transfer offices (TTOs) trying to maximize commercialization of university technologies is convincing faculty researchers to disclose their inventions, according to a new working paper from the National Bureau of Economic Research. Richard Jensen (Notre Dame), Jerry Thursby (Emory University) and Marie Thursby (Georgia Institute of Technology) – the authors of The Disclosure and Licensing of University Inventions – state the "higher quality" or "most productive" faculty are most often the least likely to be bothered with the distraction of pursuing commercialization.

The paper presents, as one plausible explanation, the fact 71 percent of university inventions require further research and development in a more applied direction than the original scientist or engineer may wish to expend time and resources. The disclosure process itself is time-consuming and takes many researchers away from their work.

Kenneth Alfred will become the first executive director for the new Ohio Fuel Cell Coalition.

Diane Duff is the new director for the National Governors' Association economic development and commerce committee. Duff formerly was executive director of the Alliance for Rail Competition.

Robin Schabes, Chicago Mayor Richard Daley's special assistant for technology, has announced her resignation. Schabes staffed the Mayor's Council on Technology Advisors.

Mass Ecomm has changed its name to the New England Business & Technology Association to better reflect its regional nature and broader mission.

Kenneth Alfred will become the first executive director for the new Ohio Fuel Cell Coalition.

Diane Duff is the new director for the National Governors' Association economic development and commerce committee. Duff formerly was executive director of the Alliance for Rail Competition.

Robin Schabes, Chicago Mayor Richard Daley's special assistant for technology, has announced her resignation. Schabes staffed the Mayor's Council on Technology Advisors.

Mass Ecomm has changed its name to the New England Business & Technology Association to better reflect its regional nature and broader mission.

Capital for start-up and early-stage business ventures should become more plentiful in Vermont based on legislation, S. 178, passed in late May. A spokesperson for Governor Jim Douglas appraised the act's total impact as representing a $105 million investment into the state's economy.

Injecting more higher risk investment capital into the state's economy had been one of the key economic development priorities for Gov. Douglas during his first legislative cycle. The cornerstone of the Douglas Plan for Prosperity was to recapitalize and expand the financing mechanisms offered by the Vermont Economic Development Authority, the state's commercial and agricultural low-interest lending agency. S. 178 raises the state's commitment to the fund from $25 million to $70 million.