SSTI Digest

Bay Area Regional Technology Alliance (BARTA) has been renamed the TechVentures Network as the Bay Area's leading source of access to financing, business data and services for emerging technology.

John Bradley is the Tennessee Valley Authority's as its first chief of economic development. Bradley had been senior vice president of economic development at the Memphis Regional Chamber of Commerce.

Randy Goldsmith resigned as President & CEO of the Oklahoma Technology Development Corp to assume the role of President and CEO of the San Antonio Technology Accelerator Initiative.

J.A. Hans Roeterink, chief technical officer and vice president of network operations for T-Systems in New York, is the new executive director of the Alaska Science & Technology Foundation. Roeterink begins Nov. 1, succeeding Jamie Kenworthy.

Dennis Yablonsky, who has been serving as CEO for both the Pittsburgh Digital Greenhouse and the Pittsburgh Life Sciences Greenhouse for most of the past year, has decided to focus exclusively on the biotech initiative. His replacement as president and CEO at the Pittsburgh Digital Greenhouse is David Ruppersberger.

A ballot proposal being put forth by Citizens for a Healthy Michigan would reduce funding for Michigan Life Sciences Corridor sponsored projects by nearly $50 million annually, estimates a report released by the Michigan Economic Development Corporation (MEDC).  The annual reduction includes both the cut in direct funding and required matching funds for Corridor funded projects. It also takes into account the loss in expected yields from the Corridor’s loans, equity stakes investments and direct investments in venture capital funds. "Within the past six months, many states have announced that they have eliminated or significantly curtailed their life sciences initiatives," Doug Rothwell, chairperson of the Life Sciences Corridor Steering Committee, said in a press statement. "Michigan, on the other hand, has received national acclaim for its continuing commitment to the program and the positive results that have been achieved. Approval of this ballot proposal would significantly reduce funding for the Life Sciences Corridor and associate Michigan with other states that are pulling back,…

The Advanced Technology Program (ATP) has announced 40 awards potentially totaling $101.6 million in ATP funding matched by an industry cost-share of $92 million if carried through to completion. These awards were selected from proposals submitted to 2002 competition. Managed by the National Institute of Standards and Technology, ATP provides cost-shared funding to industry-led teams which can include non-profits and universities to help advance particularly challenging, high-risk research and development projects that have the potential to spark important, broad-based economic or social benefits for the U.S. The program supports projects that industry cannot fully fund on its own because of significant technical risks. ATP awards are made on the basis of a rigorous competitive peer review process that considers scientific and technical merit of each proposal. In addition, awards are based on potential for broad-based economic benefits to the nation, the need for ATP funding, and evidence of a clear commercialization pathway and broad diffusion. ATP accelerates enabling technology…

The Small Business Administration (SBA) recently named 27 states winners of the second Federal and State Technology Partnership (FAST) awards. At $100,000 each, the awards totaled $2.7 million. Created in December 2000 legislation that reauthorized the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Program, FAST provides matching funds to enable states to augment or expand their tech business assistance and SBIR outreach efforts. The FY 2002 winners are:   Arizona – Arizona Dept. of Commerce – $100,000 Arkansas – U. of Arkansas at Little Rock – $100,000 California – Division of Science, Technology and Innovation - Calif. Technology, Trade and Commerce Agency – $100,000 Delaware – Delaware Small Business Dev. Center Network – $100,000 Georgia – U. of Georgia Small Business Dev. Center – $100,000 Hawaii – High Technology Dev. Corp. – $100,000 Iowa – Center for Advanced Technology Dev., Iowa State U. – $100,000 Louisiana – Louisiana Business & Technology Center, Louisiana State U. – $100,000 Maine – Maine Technology Institute – $100,000 Maryland – Maryland Technology Dev. Corp. (TEDCO) – $100,000…

Construction is underway for the Cool Springs Life Sciences Center (CSLSC), a $74 million biomedical research facility planned for Franklin, TN, 15 miles south of Nashville. When completed, the 10-acre center will be home to life sciences-focused R&D facilities for biotech, pharmaceutical and medical device companies. A $464,218 Tennessee Industrial Infrastructure Program (TIIP) grant awarded to the City of Franklin earlier this year is helping to fund CSLSC. With the creation of an estimated 600 direct and indirect jobs at build-out, the center is expected to generate more than $15 million in spendable payroll and $1.2 million in annual local tax revenue for Williamson County and the City of Franklin. "The economic impact of this project is huge for Williamson County," Rogers Anderson, Williamson County Executive, said in a press statement. "This Center will help put Williamson County at the center of the state's efforts to recruit more technology-based businesses and truly make Tennessee the technology state." Last week, the three charter tenants of CSLSC placed their…

The National Commission on Entrepreneurship (NCOE) has released the American Formula for Growth – Federal Policy and the Entrepreneurial Economy, 1958-1998, a report that provides an extensive review of the role of public policy during the “entrepreneurial revolution” of the past 40 years. A two-year compilation of data and personal interviews with veteran venture capitalists, lawyers, accountants, educators and entrepreneurs, American Formula for Growth poses upcoming policy challenges that America must address to sustain continued innovation and prolong prosperity. The report recommends that policymakers execute an action plan to address specific issues that will expand and extend the entrepreneurial economy. Along with the foundation of our constitutional and legal system, the report focuses on five key areas of public policy that contribute to the American formula for growth: Creating financial markets to fund entrepreneurial growth companies (EGCs); Providing R&D and intellectual property protection for technologies that underlie many of fast growth start-ups;…

In the 1990s, the dialogue on information technology (IT) centered on dot.coms and e-commerce, and little focus was placed on the effect of IT on the labor market. Richard Freeman addresses this issue in The Labour Market in the New Information Economy, an NBER working paper released this month. Freeman relates that employment in IT-producing industries has grown from 3.3 percent of total employment in 1992 to 4.3 percent in 2000. The earnings of these workers, he notes, have risen 1.65 times the earnings of workers throughout the economy in 1992 and 2.11 times the earnings of all workers in 2000. The use of computers and the Internet at work also has risen. In 1984, 25 percent of workers ages 18-65 used a computer at work, and in 2001 that percentage rose to 56 percent. Internet usage rose from 17 percent in 1997 to 41 percent in 2001. The communication and information technologies have changed and will continue to transform the labor market in many significant ways. Freeman associates the effect of IT and the Internet to several relationships in the labor market. First, his analysis…

A Massachusetts Institute of Technology faculty committee has suggested that the university provide off-campus facilities to help faculty perform classified public service or research involving the nation’s security. In the Public Interest, a report of the Ad Hoc Faculty Committee on Access To and Disclosure of Scientific Information of MIT, presents recommendations for the university in handling classified work in the wake of the September 11 attacks. Appointed by Provost Robert A. Brown and Professor Stephen C. Graves, the panel stresses that MIT is firmly committed to it long-standing policy of the intellectual openness of the campus. The panel expresses concern that allowing classified research on university grounds would create two classes of individuals and would restrict faculty and student interaction on campus. It also states that students should not be required to have security clearance for thesis research. The team proposes that MIT provide nearby facilities off campus for faculty to work on classified national security matters. They also recommend that MIT not provide storage…