SSTI Digest

Caroline Young has been named executive director of the Tennessee Biotechnology Association and director of the Tennessee Technology Development Corporation's life science initiative.

Golden LEAF, the statewide foundation established in 1999 to use one-half of the state's tobacco settlement for the long-term economic advancement of North Carolina, has announced an $85.4 million economic stimulus package it believes will significantly improve North Carolina's economy and make the state a leader in the biosciences industry. Foundation officials anticipate the public investment stimulating at least $350 million in new private and federal funding biotech activity in the state. The centerpiece of the package is a commitment to invest $42 million in bioscience/biotechnology companies developing or manufacturing their products in North Carolina. If those investments are successful, the Golden LEAF Board anticipates making additional investments of $108 million over the next six years, bringing its total investments in the bioscience sector to $150 million. Other elements of the package include: a $10 million investment in a proposed biodiesel plant in Eastern North Carolina, which Golden LEAF officials say will be a boon to soybean farmers and put the state on the cutting…

Cities predict a stressful future for their budgets, which have been hurt by the economic downturn and the surge in local homeland security spending, according to the annual survey of city finance officers conducted by the National League of Cities (NLC). For the first time since 1993, a majority (55 percent) of the surveyed finance officers said that their cities are less able to meet their city’s financial needs compared to the previous year (2001). The increased pessimism is based on slower-than-expected growth in revenue from sales, income, and tourist-related taxes combined with new responsibilities on homeland security, rising healthcare costs, and increased spending on infrastructure. Also, state budget woes — the National Conference of State Legislatures projects a $57.8 billion gap in revenues for the states — have exacerbated cities’ fiscal plight as states reduce funding to municipalities. Finance officers reported that sales, tourist, and income tax collections fell below budgeted levels in the two quarters following September 11, 2001 (October-December 2001 and January-…

Washington Governor Gary Locke announced the formation of the Northwest Energy Technology Collaborative (NWETC) at a signing ceremony on Wednesday attended by the founding members. The Collaborative is a joint, voluntary effort of business, government, nonprofit, industry and educational institutions in the Pacific Northwest — Avista Corporation, Bonneville Power Administration, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Spokane Intercollegiate Research and Technology Institute, and Washington Technology Center — who share the common goal to position the region as a recognized leader for innovative research, education and product development for energy technology markets around the world. The NWETC believes that during the coming decades, the U.S. energy infrastructure must make a transition to incorporate innovations in operating strategies, technologies and business models to remain economically viable in today’s global economy. The Collaborative sees three primary national issues driving the need for this change: the 21st century global economy requires an energy infrastructure that is…

Greater Philadelphia First (GPF) and the Science Center, a consortium of 34 regional academic and scientific institutions, have established a major new joint initiative designed to make it easier for science and technology entrepreneurs to start, grow and expand their businesses. Modeled on UCSD CONNECT in San Diego, CONNECT Greater Philadelphia will assist entrepreneurs by linking them with needed business, academic and other resources. GPF, the region's business and civic leadership organization, is an association of chief executives of Philadelphia-area companies and nonprofit organizations. The new initiative will be housed within the Science Center. "We see this as key to growing the Greater Philadelphia region's knowledge-based economy," Sam Katz, CEO of GPF, said in a press statement. "Finding ways to leverage science and technology discoveries as engines of regional economic growth is one of GPF's highest priorities." Science Center President Jill Felix said CONNECT was a natural extension of the Science Center's mission and will serve as an invaluable one-stop shop…

With heightened public interest in the state of the economy, the National Commission on Entrepreneurship (NCOE) has released Entrepreneurship: A Candidate’s Guide — Creating Good Jobs in Your Community, a first-of-its-kind publication on how policymakers can help stimulate the creation and growth of new businesses in their local areas. Fast-growth new companies can have a profound effect on local economies. The NCOE guide offers a prescription for developing successful entrepreneurial-friendly environments to foster new companies and fuel jobs. "A key fact revealed in the guide is that high-growth entrepreneurial activity exists in all regions of the country, and most start-ups are not high tech," said Patrick Von Bargen, executive director of NCOE. "There is no reason policymakers and candidates should leave their communities out of this growth opportunity which has resulted in the creation of 2/3 of all net new jobs and over 70 percent of all innovation in the U.S during the last 25 years." The guide addresses several myths, offering a definition for and the role of today’s…

Whether it's oil, gas, mining, lumber, fishing or farming, economies dominated by natural resource exploitation are subject to periods of boom and bust. In order for the four provinces of Canada's Atlantic region to shield themselves from such market swings and scarcity problems, it is necessary to build R&D partnerships and to collaborate more than ever, concludes a report released by Dr. Alan Cornford of GPT Management Ltd., Marin Consultants, Inc. and Gardner Pinfold Consultants Ltd. Innovation and Commercialization in Atlantic Canada, released in March, aims to assist the Atlantic Provinces in identifying ways to improve the area's economy through R&D, innovation and  commercialization programs. The key for the region, the authors say, is to encourage more private R&D investment and activity. The report notes in 2001 the federal government of Canada stressed the importance of improving the nation’s R&D performance to foster an innovative economy. There are specific challenges, the authors caution, that arise for the Atlantic region in this regard: while the…

Most technology-based economic development programs recognize the need to have more people in their states or communities who have received bachelor degrees or higher. Bringing low-income populations into a knowledge-based economy is particularly difficult because of the two significant obstacles low-income students face for college access: insufficient financial aid and inadequate academic preparation. According to a report released last week by the Lumina Foundation for Education, the Twenty-first Century Scholars Program, Indiana's state financial assistance initiative, helps low-income Indiana residents overcome those obstacles. The program also may help address "brain drain" concerns when a state experiences a net outmigration of college graduates. Meeting the Access Challenge: Indiana's Twenty-first Century Scholars Program notes that students who participated as Twenty-first Century Scholars were significantly more likely than non-Scholars to enroll in college. Of the 2,202 Scholars in the study sample, 1,752 — nearly 80 percent — enrolled in an Indiana college or university…

Do personal income tax cuts encourage entrepreneurship? Conventional wisdom and many politicians may suggest that if people have more cash on hand, they may be inclined to launch or start their own businesses. A working paper released earlier this month by the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) concludes just the opposite: lowering personal tax rates in most cases appears to discourage entrepreneurial activity. Because entrepreneurship generates many benefits and spillovers to society, this sort of activity is greatly desired in regional economic development policy. In Taxes and Entrepreneurial Activity: Theory and Evidence for the U.S., Julie Berry Cullen and Roger H. Gordon of the University of Michigan and University of California at San Diego, respectively, explore the effect changes to tax law have on the growth and/or decline of entrepreneurial activity. The economists specifically consider changes to progressive personal income tax schedules and the risks and advantages of incorporating. Since personal tax rates generally are higher than corporate tax rates in the U.S.,…

H. Day Chapin has been selected as the first Director for the new Northwest Energy Technology Collaborative. Maxine Lunn is leaving her position as Vice President for Technology Programs at Virginia's Center for Innovative Technology to work in international development. The Illinois Biotechnology Industry Organization has appointed David Miller to serve as president, effective September 3. John Wik, director of Delaware's economic development office, is resigning in September to pursue interests in the private sector. Gary Woodbury, president and CEO of the Small Business Association of Michigan for the past 15 years, has announced he will retire in June 2003.

H. Day Chapin has been selected as the first Director for the new Northwest Energy Technology Collaborative.

Maxine Lunn is leaving her position as Vice President for Technology Programs at Virginia's Center for Innovative Technology to work in international development.