SSTI Digest

The National Science Foundation (NSF) has announced it intends to award approximately $30 million in FY 2005 funding under the Science and Technology Centers (STC): Integrative Partnerships program. NSF is encouraging proposals for high quality innovative research projects that undertake investigations across or within disciplines. The STC program invests federal funds in areas consistent with NSF's goals to enable the nation's future through discovery, learning and innovation. STCs conduct research in partnerships among academic institutions, national laboratories, industrial organizations, and other public-private entities. Their benefit to society is accomplished via a three-pronged approach: to undertake long-term scientific and technological research and education activities; to explore better and more effective ways to educate students; and, to develop mechanisms that ensure the timely transition of research and education advances. To date, four competitions to establish STCs have resulted in 36 centers. The first two competitions, one in the late 1980s and one in the…

To better formulate technology and telecommunications policy, U.S. Secretary of Commerce Don Evans has proposed merging the Department's Technology Administration (TA), the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), and the e-commerce policy functions of the International Trade Administration (ITA) into a single agency. The merger is intended to complement the recent convergence in the private sector of technology and communications companies. Secretary Evans is proposing to reorganize departmental personnel and management to facilitate coordination in domestic and international policy development. Under Secretary of Technology Phil Bond would oversee the new agency that would focus on such issues as technical standards, spectrum management, and technology and e-commerce policy issues. "The synergy between technology and telecommunications is a global reality," Under Secretary Bond said in a press statement. "Bringing TA together with the NTIA and a portion of ITA will enhance the Administration's focus on issues critical to our innovation economy and America's technological…

In these tight state fiscal times, many government functions would view level funding with the previous year as very good news. Since tech-based economic development (TBED) programs are investments toward economic prosperity, conventional wisdom would hold that legislatures would shield these types of investments from deep cuts. The current discussions to eliminate the Colorado Governor's Office of Technology and the entire Texas Department of Commerce, however, suggest that the jury is still out on how future-looking state budgets will be for next year. Utah's TBED efforts, on the other hand, received encouraging news earlier this week as the Utah State Legislature passed the state's FY 2003-04 appropriations bill. The 17-year-old Centers of Excellence Program secured $2 million, consistent with the current fiscal year's funding level. Funding for other science and technology efforts run by the Department of Community and Economic Development, including the Utah Technology Alliance and the Utah Science Advisor's Office, received an additional $1.2 million. During the 2002-03 fiscal…

Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty recently unveiled a plan to help make Minnesota a leader in biosciences. Governor Pawlenty says the state's history, expertise and economic infrastructure make it better prepared than most other states to capitalize on the bioscience industry. Presenting his ideas to the Minnesota Biotechnology Industry Organization (MNBIO) last week, Governor Pawlenty said bioscience advances represent the next frontier and that they will "revolutionize big parts of (the state's) economy within the next two decades." The governor's proposal includes the following: Governor's Biosciences Summit. Governor Pawlenty plans to bring together leaders from education, research, industry, the investment community, and others to exchange ideas and further chart out a course for developing Minnesota's bioscience future. Development of a Bioscience Park. Similar to one of the governor's proposed JOB Zones, this Bioscience Park would be a private-public partnership designed to attract cutting edge bioscience companies to Minnesota. Create Major Partnership in…

The Wisconsin Venture Network (WVN) in Milwaukee has folded into the Wisconsin Innovation Network (WIN) Foundation in Madison, and the combined WIN entity has become a subsidiary of the Wisconsin Technology Council. Members of both the WVN and WIN approved the merger in separate votes last week. The merger means WIN now is formally a part of the Tech Council and there are two WIN chapters — one in Milwaukee and another in Madison. The Madison WIN will be administered through the Tech Council, but the Milwaukee chapter will retain a local board of directors and control of its monthly programs. Over time, WIN hopes to form chapters in other Wisconsin cities where technology-based economic development is a priority. The WIN Foundation was formed in 1984 and has focused on technology-based economic development efforts in the Madison area. It assists companies and individuals in the areas of capital, networking, information and business consultation referrals. WIN programs include the Wisconsin Life Sciences Venture Conference and monthly High-Tech Consortium luncheons. With…

A higher rate of entrepreneurial activity is strongly connected with faster growth of a local economy, the U.S. Census Bureau reports in Endogenous Growth and Entrepreneurial Activity in Cities. The recent working paper, prepared by the Bureau's Center for Economic Studies, examines the connection between knowledge spillover and economic growth in a regional economy. The study concludes that variation in the level of entrepreneurial activity, a diverse mix of industries, and the amount of human capital are positively correlated to growth rates. Three major findings are presented: Firm birth rate is an important factor in regional employment growth — growth is higher in locales with greater competition and fewer obstacles to enter the market. Industrial specialization does not typically lead to higher quantities of externalities or spillovers that support growth in that particular sector. Specifically the study states that "industrial specialization has a negative effect on local employment growth, after controlling for birth rates, agglomeration effects, and differences…

Despite an economic slowdown, the Twin Cities is more competitive than it was a year ago, according to a study released by the Great North Alliance, a regional civic leadership organization. Conducted annually, the Great North Opportunity Forecast uses regional productivity and innovation to predict future competitiveness and opportunity. The 2002-03 forecast measures 58 key indicators of the regional economy of the Twin Cities and divides the indicators into four areas — current performance, development capacity, innovation capacity and resource flow. Innovation capacity, for example, includes 18 indicators measuring inspiration, invention, and entrepreneurial development. In each area, the Twin Cities' performance is compared against 11 similar sized high-growth regions around the U.S., including Atlanta, Austin, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Orange County (CA), Phoenix, Raleigh, Salt Lake City and Seattle. The Twin Cities is capturing a larger share of resources from equity and financial markets than it has in recent years, the findings show, but the region's ranking has fallen in…

Earlier this week U.S. Department of Commerce Secretary Don Evans announced the Digital Freedom Initiative (DFI) would be piloted in Senegal, a democratic secular nation in which 94 percent of the population is Muslim. DFI is designed to promote economic growth by transferring the benefits of information and communication technology (ICT) to entrepreneurs and small businesses in the developing world. The new initiative leverages the leadership of the U.S. government, the creativity and resources of America's leading companies, and the vision and energy of entrepreneurs in developing countries. If the three-year pilot project is successful in Senegal, it could be rolled out to 20 countries in the next five years. Key elements include: Placing more than 100 volunteers in small businesses to share business knowledge and technology expertise; Promoting pro-growth regulatory and legal structures to enhance business competitiveness; and, Leveraging existing technology and communications infrastructure in new ways to help entrepreneurs and small businesses better compete in both…

The National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education recently released The Rising Price of Higher Education, which documents the rising costs of public education in the U.S. Using the data found in the report, SSTI has constructed a 50-state table presenting a comparison of the cost of tuition and fees at 2- and 4-year public institutions in 2001-02 vs 2002-03. For 4-year institutions, Massachusetts shows the greatest change, 23.7 percent, between the last two academic years. Missouri's average public tuition and fees for 4-year institutions in 2002-03 reflects a 20.1 percent increase over the previous year. In the same category, New Jersey tops all states with the highest average ($6,533), as its overall increase was 13.4 percent. New Hampshire leads all states in average 2-year public tuition and fees ($4,429), but South Carolina and Massachusetts boast the greatest change in such costs, 26.2 percent and 25.5 percent, respectively. The table is located at: http://www.ssti.org/Digest/Tables/030703t.htm The Rising Costs of Public Education report can be…

House Science Committee Chairman Sherwood Boehlert (R-NY) and Rep. Mike Honda (D-CA) recently introduced legislation that would authorize a multi-agency national nanotechnology research initiative. Nanotechnology is one of the top interagency priorities in the Administration's fiscal 2004 proposed budget for non-medical, civilian scientific and technological research and development. H.R. 766, the Nanotechnology Research and Development Act of 2003, authorizes $2.1 billion over three years for nanotechnology research and development programs at the Department of Commerce, the Department of Energy, the Environmental Protection Agency, NASA and the National Science Foundation. The bill provides a formal structure for coordination of research across the agencies, emphasizes interdisciplinary research, addresses societal concerns raised by nanotechnology, and requires outside reviews of the program. Cosponsors of the legislation include: Science Committee Ranking Democrat Ralph M. Hall (D-TX), Environment Technology and Standards (ETS) Subcommittee Chair Vernon Ehlers (R-MI), Research…

Policymakers must understand the ways in which the information technology (IT) revolution is transforming business operations across both new and traditional industries, according to Paul Sommers and Daniel Carlson, the authors of What the IT Revolution Means for Regional Economic Development, a discussion paper prepared for the Brookings Institution Center on Urban and Metropolitan Policy. By achieving this understanding, economic development officials will "be prepared to respond to the new challenges and opportunities these changes present," say Sommers and Carlson, both of the University of Washington Evans School of Public Affairs. The IT revolution, the authors state, has had far-reaching effects. Companies beyond the technology sector "are finding ways to cut costs dramatically by automating tasks, outsourcing certain functions, and linking customers to the factory floor." IT also continues to accelerate the fragmentation of large companies into separately located functional units and the number of strategic relationships among firms. Sommers and Carlson make the following…

Several recent project announcements highlight communities using incubators and research parks, some of the tools for technology-based economic development, in specialized formats to capitalize on existing strengths and nurture additional growth of clusters of related tech firms. Such targeted approaches can help to focus other TBED activities for additional benefits. For example, workforce training can be designed for the particular technology sector rather than tailored at higher costs to the needs of several unrelated technology firms in a general technology incubator or research park. Other savings can come in promotional and marketing strategies, tie-ins to university research capabilities, and specific EPA or OSHA regulations. Examples of some of the projects underway include: In Greenville, ME, an incubator specializing in wood composites was given life earlier this month when the State Senate passed a spending bill that includes $225,000 for the incubator. The authorizing legislation provides that the Greenville facility will house and support businesses seeking to commercialize wood…