SSTI Digest

Recognizing the potential economic impact of biotech, nearly every state, most colleges and dozens of communities are developing programs to build bio-based economies. Everyone wants a piece of what may be the guiding field for industrial transformation over the next several decades. Is there enough bio for everyone? What strategies work for building bio-based economies? What approaches are states and localities taking, and what's working?

The answers to these key questions can't be covered in an hour. As a result, SSTI's first one-day educational workshop, Growing Your Own: Building Blocks for Bio-based Economies, will focus on how to support and nurture a strong life science industry. The event will be held October 1 in Dearborn, Michigan, immediately preceding SSTI's 6th Annual Conference. Registration at the full conference is not required to attend Growing Your Own: Building Blocks for Bio-based Economies.

Venture capital investment continued downward in the second quarter of 2002, according to the PricewaterhouseCoopers/Venture Economics/National Venture Capital Association MoneyTree™ Survey.

Total disbursements, which dropped to $5.7 billion and the lowest level since the third quarter of 1998, reflected an 11 percent decrease from the first quarter of 2002. A total of 819 companies received venture funding — a small change from the 826 companies the previous quarter.

The legal ban on non-compete contracts may have played a role in and continues to affect the development of the high tech sector in California. This is the conclusion of Rob Valletta, Research Advisor, in the August 16, 2002, edition of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco Economic Letter. The article, On the Move: California Employment Law and High-Tech Development analyzes the relationship between high tech development and states that do not legally allow non-compete contracts.

Using at- least squares statistical analysis, Valletta concludes that when non-compete contracts are prohibited, employee mobility and knowledge transfer are enhanced. While employees may not be able to share specific trade secrets, general industry knowledge can be shared readily. This freedom can then play an important role in the advancement of innovating technology sectors.

Arizona was one of the first states to embrace cluster-based economic development in the early 1990s. While the formal clusters have had varying degrees of success since then, one of the challenges of a cluster-based approach to technology-based economic development is the fractionalized focus across sectors. Because of this, clusters can end up competing against each other for limited public resources, making cross-sector strategies difficult to identify or implement.

Research and studies also are usually concentrated on a particular sector rather than looking at the similar needs and issues that arise in several clusters or span many clusters.

The Environmental Protection Agency has posted its selections for the FY 2002 Phase I solicitation of the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Program.

The Scientific Consulting Group, Inc., which provides contracted support for the EPA SBIR program, made available to SSTI the program's FY 2002 proposal statistics, allowing SSTI to generate a table presenting the state-by-state distribution of awards and proposals by number of each and number of firms. The statistical table presents how competitive the EPA SBIR program is — only 9.5 percent of the 370 proposals were selected for funding.

SSTI's table is available at: http://www.ssti.org/Digest/Tables/081602t.htm

The Council on Competitiveness, a non-profit, Washington-based organization, is seeking an executive director for its new National Center on Regional Innovation and Competitiveness. The new center will identify and advance innovation-based regional development strategies, conduct regional workshops, and disseminate best practices in managing regional innovation. The successful candidate will have the vision and management experience to launch this new center.

Responsibilities for the position will include setting agenda, overseeing funding, and working with a high-level advisory committee. Candidates should be able to interact effectively with private sector leaders and high-ranking federal, state and local officials. An advanced degree and a minimum of 10 years in economic development are preferred. Experience working with state and local government is a plus.

Charlotte A. Hayes, president of DCTech, the Washington DC Technology Council, has resigned to return to the private sector. John Sanders has been named interim president, while the council seeks a permanent replacement.

Jim Hayes is serving as interim president of the Economic Development Partnership of Alabama as the group works to fill the position. Hayes was a former director of the Alabama Development Office.

William Parsons is serving as acting executive director of the Rhode Island Economic Development Corp. Parsons is the vice president of operations.

Correction: Lara Vande Walle is the director of membership and business development for the Maryland Technology Council, not Maryland's TEDCO as was previously reported.