SSTI Digest

Many organizations are wondering if, when and how severe their budgets could be impacted by the economy and the continuing fiscal crises in the states. While foundation endowments also have taken a hit by the stock market slump, several are increasing their contributions in building local or statewide technology-based economies. Two recent examples highlight the trend and point toward a funding path few TBED efforts have fully tapped.

The National Science Foundation (NSF) plans to fund $9 million in new FY 2003 awards under the Partnerships for Innovation (PFI) Program, according to the program solicitation's recent release. To promote PFI, NSF will sponsor 15-25 partnerships among academe, government and the private sector that explore new approaches to innovation.

The purpose of the program, as defined in the PFI solicitation, is threefold:

SSTI continues a series begun in last week's Digest, highlighting key economic development and science & technology positions being filled by some of the nation's 24 new governors. Many of these individuals are expected to help set the state's tech-based economic development agenda and determine budget cuts, reorganization plans or program eliminations.

In addition, President Bush has announced Charles McQueary of North Carolina will be his nominee to be undersecretary for science and technology at Homeland Security. Dr. McQueary is the retired President of General Dynamics and a former member of the Board of Directors of the National Defense Industrial Association.

Alabama

Neal Wade, vice president of economic development for a Florida real estate corporation, has joined the cabinet of Alabama Governor Bob Riley as director of the Alabama Development Office.

Annually, SSTI looks at the various addresses given by the nation's governors at the beginning of the year. Over the next several weeks, the SSTI Weekly Digest will profile the excerpts concerning programs, policies and issues immediately affecting the tech-based economic development community.

The states are facing their worst fiscal crises in more than 50 years — the latest combined deficit figures were a whopping $90 billion. It should not be lost on the governors the important role tech-based economic development plays in strengthening state and local economies through higher wage jobs and more competitive businesses. Do their speeches bear that out?

The National Governors' Association (NGA) is urging leaders of the House and Senate Commerce-Justice-State (CJS) Appropriations Subcommittees "to maintain the federal government's share of support for the Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) in the fiscal year (FY) 2003 appropriations."

Governors Mike Johanns (R-NE) and James McGreevey (D-NJ), co-chairs of NGA's Economic Development and Commerce Committee, sent a letter on behalf of the nation's governors. They point out that MEP is a partnership supported by states, federal government and small manufacturers.

If states are to emerge from the recession stronger than when they went in, state policymakers must make long-term investments in economic fundamentals such as a skilled workforce, technological capacities and quality amenities, reports the Corporation for Enterprise Development (CFED). They also need help from the federal government, according to the 16th annual Development Report Card for the States by CFED, a nonpartisan Washington-based think tank.

Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Southeastern Pennsylvania (BFTP/SEP), an independent nonprofit economic development organization, has announced the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania's $2 million commitment to establish the Ben Franklin Investment Partners venture guarantee revolving fund. The fund is the first such development financing vehicle of its kind in the U.S.

The multifaceted fund provides a guarantee of up to 25 percent of any loss experienced by a group of qualified private investors – angels – in seed investments made in technology companies located in southeastern Pennsylvania. The goal is to respond to the capital needs of these early-stage companies, most of which have experienced difficulties raising early stage risk financing and other challenges as a result of the economy's downturn.

U.S. companies had $199.5 billion in R&D investment in 2000, a 9 percent increase over the 1999 total, according to the annual Survey of Industrial Research and Development published by the National Science Foundation (NSF). The survey data is presented in a recent NSF InfoBrief, which shows the total industrial R&D increase to be 7 percent after adjusting for inflation.

Company funding of R&D rose from $160.2 billion in 1999 to $180.4 billion in 2000 – a 13 percent increase – and continued its steady climb since 1953, the report notes. Meanwhile, federal funding of industrial R&D contributed to the overall increase despite falling from $22.5 billion in 1999 to $19.1 billion in 2000, a 15 percent decrease. After adjusting for inflation, company-funded R&D experienced a 10 percent increase, and federal investment dropped 17 percent.

The challenges of creating a cluster of companies in related technologies, both the processes and factors for influencing cluster development, are different than the requirements for maintaining the cluster, concludes "Old Economy" Inputs for "New Economy" Outcomes: Cluster Formation in the New Silicon Valleys. The paper contests cluster development is a combination of elements of both new economic theory focusing on increasing returns and old economic theory, which concentrated on comparative advantage.

In preparing their study, the authors analyzed geographic clusters of information and communication technology (ICT) firms from different parts of the world and stressed the importance of studying clusters in-the-making, not only clusters that were already established. ICT clusters were located in Ireland, Cambridge UK, Israel, Scandinavia, India and Taiwan, present-day Northern Virginia and Silicon Valley in the 1960s.

Several of the key economic development and science & technology positions have been filled by some of the nation's 24 new governors. Many of these individuals will be involved in setting the state's tech-based economic development agenda and determining budget cuts, reorganization plans or program eliminations to handle the money squeeze. In addition, a few other lead S&T agencies have announced top-level changes.

Arizona

Chris Cummiskey has been named director of the Government Information Technology Agency by Governor Janet Napolitano. Cummiskey served in the state senate since 1994 before running unsuccessfully for secretary of state last fall.

Placing a high priority on the biosciences as a measure for long-term economic development, the Baltimore Workforce Investment Board (BWIB) has released a strategic plan that aims to ensure growth, in part, by securing a highly motivated and well trained workforce for the city's bioscience sector.

Conducted by two consulting firms, the Baltimore Bioscience Initiative finds that the city and surrounding region already have a sizable employment base of approximately 11,000 people. The majority of this workforce is housed at university medical schools and hospitals and National Institutes of Health (NIH) laboratories, the report states. Of the 78 companies (4,800 employees) that make up the bioscience sector, however, 12-15 percent of their workforce is comprised of low-skill workers, such as lab assistants, technicians, production technicians and clinical technicians.

Sixty-nine percent of Kentucky businesses use computer technology to handle some of their business functions, but only 36 percent use the Internet and little more than 20 percent have a website, according to a report released by Governor Paul Patton's Office for the New Economy. Kentucky Prepares for the Networked World, which details computer, Internet and website use among the state's businesses, shows more than 50 percent see "no need" to use the Internet.

The report is part of the governor's connectkentucky strategic plan that is designed to give Kentucky a sophisticated information network. It was commissioned by a steering committee to respond to the governor's request to assess the condition of the Kentucky's Internet highways, high-speed on-ramps to the highways and current use of the Internet by business, government and consumers.