SSTI Digest

Ellis Rubinstein, former editor of the magazine Science, has been appointed to serve as Chief Executive Officer of the New York Academy of Sciences.

At the University of New Mexico, Avi Shama has been named Special Advisor to the President on Economic Development. The new position will encourage, coordinate and promote economic development activities of various UNM units.

Jack Spencer is the new president of the Georgia Biomedical Partnership.

Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) is joining Sen. Bill Frist (R-TN) as co-chair of the monthly Congressional Forum on Technology and Innovation.

More than 100 technology clusters may exist in the Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC) area, but challenges to exploit and nurture the clusters still exist. A new report analyzes the ARC region's concentration of technology resources at a sub-regional level and uncovers localized technology strengths that might be promoted through concentrated economic development policy. Regional Technology Assets and Opportunities: The Geographic Clustering of High-Tech Industry, Science and Innovation in Appalachia, written by Edward Feser, Harvey Goldstein, Henry Renski and Catherine Renault, shows the technology sector of the Appalachian region is small, yet expanding. In 1998, more than one million technology workers belonged to the 406-county ARC area. This represents an 11.2 percent increase since 1989 when 959,000 technology workers were present in the area. The ARC region's technology clusters are organized in eight technology areas – chemicals and plastics, motor vehicles and related, industrial machinery, information technology and instruments, aerospace, communications services and software, and…

Economic growth in a regional economy can be positively linked to an increase in intensity of industry R&D, according to recent research by Marios Zachariadis of Louisiana State University. R&D, Innovation, and Technological Progress: A Test of the Schumpeterian Framework without Scale Effects, released in September 2002, establishes a connection among R&D intensity, patenting, technological change and economic growth. Zachariadis uses 2-digit SIC code industry data from U.S. manufacturing between 1963-1988. Defining R&D intensity as the fraction of output that is devoted to R&D expenditures, the research supports the position for a growth model in which policy decisions can have a positive impact on economic growth. Zachariadis' work also supports a direct and indirect relationship between R&D intensity and productivity growth. The author establishes several relationships: (1) R&D intensity has a positive impact on the rate of patenting, (2) the rate of patenting has a positive impact on the rate of technological change, and (3) technological change has a…

Manufacturing jobs in rural Minnesota numbered almost 120,000 in 2000, a 25 percent increase since 1990, according to a recent study by the Center for Rural Policy and Development and Minnesota Technology Inc., two agencies dedicated to helping industry in Greater Minnesota. Meanwhile, manufacturing jobs in the state's metro area increased only 1.7 percent during the same period, the study shows. The study was the third part of the 2002 Rural Minnesota Internet Study, an annual collection of surveys designed to monitor computer, Internet and broadband use. Part III examines the telecommunications needs of the state's rural manufacturing firms. A survey of 300 of these firms revealed factors contributing to why some use the technology and others do not. Ninety-three percent of the surveyed companies reported having an Internet connection, and 28 percent said they buy or sell products through e-commerce applications. Among those with Internet hook-ups, 47 percent said they had a dial-up connection, while the majority of those with a broadband connection (42 percent) reported using…

Universities should revamp how they evaluate S&T teaching, report says Because advances in science and technology have done much to fuel U.S. economic growth over the past 50 years, both the public and private sectors have invested heavily in university research. However, the evaluation of teaching in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics has been haphazard and less exacting, says a new report from the National Academies' National Research Council. Fair strategies for evaluating undergraduate teaching and learning in these fields deserve wider appreciation and use, the report states. First-rate scholarship focused on improving teaching and learning also should be recognized and supported as a bona fide academic endeavor on par with top-notch research. Likewise, faculty members who excel in the classroom should be publicly recognized and rewarded, the report suggests. Many of the nation's higher-education institutions stress the need for superior science and mathematics instruction, especially in lower-level undergraduate courses, but faculty members and…

Two independent surveys of venture capital investments made during the third quarter of FY 2002 suggest the downward trends in the flow of money and number of VC placements will continue. MoneyTree™ Survey Venture capital continued its downward trend in the third quarter of 2002 with total investments of $4.5 billion into entrepreneurial companies, a decrease of 26 percent from the prior quarter, according to the PricewaterhouseCoopers/Venture Economics/National Venture Capital Association MoneyTree™ Survey. Venture capitalists invested $6 billion in the second quarter and $6.4 billion in the first quarter. The last time quarterly venture capital investments were below $5 billion was the first quarter of 1998, when it totaled $4.2 billion. A total of 647 companies received funding in the third quarter of 2002, compared to 838 in the prior quarter. All major industries experienced declines, however. Software showed some resilience in dropping only 10 percent to $993 million and 180 deals, accounting for 22 percent of all venture capital, but telecommunications, the…

Competition Canceled in Florida The 2002 Florida 100, a competition meant for recognizing the state's fastest-growing private businesses, was canceled earlier this year due to a lack of program funding, the Sun-Sentinel reported. The competition is sponsored annually by the Warrington College of Business Administration at the University of Florida and administered by the school's Fisher School of Accounting. To qualify, companies must demonstrate an increase in sales revenues for the previous three years. Most of the program's private funding in the past has come from major accounting and law firms in Florida. Incubator in Tampa Shut Down Officials overseeing TechVillage Tampa Bay, an incubator established last fall, voted to dissolve the nonprofit organization last month, according to the Tampa Tribune. Initially, the incubator had funding and was backed by area sponsors such as the Greater Tampa Chamber of Commerce and the University of Tampa. As the economy stumbled, however, so did the support, the article states. The incubator's budget was approximately $120,000…

Employing more than two million workers in 2001 with an annual average wage of $47,700, the U.S. civil and commercial aerospace and aviation industry has a major economic and employment impact at the national, state and local levels in all 50 states, according to a report by the Commission on the Future of the U.S. Aerospace Industry. The industry also is a substantial force in civil, military, and space manufacturing and operations in nearly half of the nation's states, the report stated. The Commission, a 12-member panel formed in 2001 by the President and the U.S. Congress, offers a picture of the industry in a national and state-by-state analysis entitled U.S. Aerospace and Aviation Industry: A State-by-State Analysis. Their 112-page statistical study examines the industry by direct employment, wages, establishments and payroll, providing comparative economic data for review. Air transportation, among other segments of the aerospace and aviation industry, was the leading employer with more than 1.3 million jobs in 2001, the report shows. Air transportation workers earned an average of $40,600 per year…

Note: With this issue, the SSTI Weekly Digest is launching a new occasional "Programs with Results" series — articles profiling a variety of technology-based economic development programs that have been around many years and are yielding positive results. Our goal is to help answer the question "What Appears to Work?" with models that potentially could be duplicated in other states, regions or communities. The California Technology Investment Partnership (CalTIP) provides matching grants of up to $250,000 to support California companies that receive competitively awarded federal research and development grants for projects in emerging technologies with the potential to be commercialized in the state. Begun in 1993 in response to federal defense conversion activities, CalTIP has evolved to focus almost exclusively on supporting small technology-based firms with financial awards and technical assistance through the state's six Regional Technology Alliances (RTAs). With more than nine rounds of CalTIP funding, the state has provided a total of $46 million through 237 awards. To assess…