SSTI Digest

Governor John Baldacci used his February 5 budget address to outline a proposal to float a $70 million economic development bond, the majority of which would be dedicated to research and development projects. Citing the successful results of several R&D bond packages approved by voters over the past five years – with last summer's $35 million bond being the most recent – Gov. Baldacci wants the state to take advantage of historically low interest rates and the state's good bond rating to commit an additional $43 million for R&D projects.

The Governor says the funds will support the joint biomedical research efforts of the University of Maine System, Jackson Laboratory, and the other biomedical research organizations around the state. Other funds will continue research in natural resource based industries in the university system.

Rural economic development policies must build upon the natural assets of rural America, advises the latest issue brief from the National Governors' Association (NGA) Center for Best Practices. Innovative State Policy Options to Promote Rural Economic Development suggests rural strengths include natural resources, local business networks, and an under-exploited entrepreneurial culture.

Rural economic development presents distinct challenges as well, including poor links to markets, geographic isolation, a lack of infrastructure and tools for business development and growth, and the out-migration of human capital. The recent economic downturn in the U.S. also has hit rural areas harder than urban and suburban areas, intensifying the challenges for rural communities.

To help formulate the best approach for the state to deploy to help build a stronger technology sector, Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano has established a state advisory group of consisting entirely of high tech business leaders. Created by executive order, the Governor's Council on Innovation and Technology will recommend ideas for energizing the industry.  The Council will include committees on capital formation, technology transfer and infrastructure and supply chain development.

The Council on Innovation and Technology will focus on implementing a statewide strategy for a smooth transfer of technology from universities to the private sector; attracting more venture capital to the state to assist growing and new tech-based businesses; and developing Arizona's infrastructure so it can support tech growth. Additionally, the Council will provide ongoing long-term policy input to the Governor.

The State of Maine's Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR) Committee is seeking a Statewide EPSCoR Director to provide leadership and vision for the State's EPSCoR Committee, called the Research Capacity Committee (RCC), and the state's research enterprise. Working directly with the RCC, the Director participates in the development and implementation of the state's EPSCoR strategy. The Director also reports to the Chair of the RCC. For more information, visit http://www.ssti.org/posting.htm or access the full job description at http://www.mstf.org.

Certified economic development professionals have an extra reason to attend Building Tech-based Economies: From Policy to Practice, the nation's premier educational and networking experience for the TBED community. The 2003 SSTI Annual Conference will be recognized by the International Economic Development Council (IEDC) as a professional development event that counts toward the recertification of Certified Economic Developers (CEcD).

The IEDC CEcD program is designed to unite the economic development profession around a core level of professional competency in eight topic areas. To sit for the certification exam, prospective candidates must have 10 years of professional experience, or at least four consecutive years of paid experience, and a series of professional development training courses across at least six of the eight competency areas.

With more than 20 new governors and hundreds of newly elected state legislators, mayors and city council members across the country, many states and communities are seeing fresh faces in key positions that will influence the shape and direction of tech-based economic development policy, funding and program implementation. SSTI encourages its readership to get issues of the SSTI Weekly Digest in their hands to help bring your new partners into the larger tech-based ED community as soon as possible. If the Digest doesn't forward well, back issues, including this one, and the subscription form are available online for your convenience: http://www.ssti.org/Digest/digest.htm

As more states settle into their 2003 legislative sessions, fewer Governors are giving Inaugural or State-of-the-State addresses. During the past 10 days, the Governors of Alaska, Delaware, Georgia, Maryland, Massachusetts, Vermont and Wisconsin offered outlines of their priorities for the coming year(s). The following excerpts are directly relevant to building a technology-based economy.

Georgia Governor Sonny Perdue, State of the State Remarks, January 27, 2003

"Knowledge is the new economic fuel, not physical labor. It is the essential ingredient for success in this information age. Providing all our citizens with the knowledge, skills and training they need to compete in the information economy is the best economic development plan we can have. Education and workforce training will prepare our people for the jobs.

The Economic Development Administration (EDA) has announced it is accepting nominations for the Excellence in Economic Development Awards 2003. The awards will be presented in Washington, D.C. at EDA's National Conference Engines of Economic Growth for the 21st Century May 7-9, 2003.

Nominations for the awards will be accepted across seven categories:

Public-private partnerships involving cooperative research and development activities among industry, universities and government laboratories can play a key role in speeding new technology from the concept stage to the marketplace, argues a new report conducted by the National Research Council (NRC). The Council's Board on Science, Technology, and Economic Policy analyzed two major innovation and award programs, the Advanced Technology Program (ATP) and the Small Business and Innovation Research (SBIR) program, in preparing the NRC report.

Government-Industry Partnerships for the Development of New Technologies considers how partnerships, representing a way to improve innovation output in the U.S., can lead to benefits such as new products, new processes and new knowledge. The report states, "Partnerships facilitate the transfer of scientific knowledge to real products... (They) help by bringing innovations to the point where private actors can introduce them to the market."

State and local governments are starting to develop entrepreneurship programs, but the past decade's progress could be threatened by the looming fiscal crisis facing the states, according to a new study released by the National Commission on Entrepreneurship (NCOE) and the Center for Regional Economic Competitiveness (CREC).

Understanding Entrepreneurship Promotion as an Economic Development Strategy: A Three-State Survey is part of preliminary research dedicated to understanding the growth of entrepreneurial development programs and the effect of these investments on new economic activity.

During the past two years, efforts have been launched in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex to boost its capacity for building a technology-based economy. The efforts have been directed toward increasing public-private cooperation, especially across organizations and jurisdictions that traditionally have thought of themselves as competitors, and conducting a critical review of the area's strengths and weaknesses.

The steady decline of venture capital abated in the fourth quarter of 2002 with total investments of $4.2 billion, essentially flat from the prior quarter of $4.5 billion, according to the PricewaterhouseCoopers/Venture Economics/National Venture Capital Association MoneyTree Survey. A total of 692 companies received funding in the fourth quarter compared to 671 companies in the third quarter.

Venture capital investing has continued to decline since the run-up that peaked in 2000. For all of 2002, venture investing totaled $21.2 billion, approximately half of 2001's $41.3 billion. Investment levels in 2002 were similar to 1998, when $21.6 billion went to entrepreneurs.