SSTI Digest

The National Science Foundation has released a new set of statistical tables that show research and development (R&D) funding levels, reported by 31 federal agencies for the last three fiscal years.

Federal Funds for Research and Development: Fiscal Years 2000, 2001, and 2002 offers R&D totals in terms of both outlays and obligations. The R&D obligation data are categorized according to character of work (basic research, applied research, and development), performer, field of science or engineering (for research but not for development), and federal R&D funding by state. The report also shows obligations for research performance at colleges and universities by fields of science or engineering, and additional data is given for R&D plant.

Albuquerque, New Mexico Tenants of the Sante Fe Business Incubator have seen their one-story building increase from 10,000 sq. ft. to 30,000 sq. ft., according to a story by the Albuquerque Journal. The expansion is part of a $2.5 million project funded by the federal Economic Development Administration (EDA), the Regional Development Corporation and other agencies.

Arizona The U.S. Women's Chamber of Commerce has started the Women's Business Growth Leadership Council to help boost women owned business revenue in Arizona, the Business Journal in Phoenix reported. The group is designed to help women better obtain financing and procurement opportunities from the government and large corporations.

One of the most widely used barometers of states' relative positions in technology-based economies has been updated and expanded. The 2002 State New Economy Index: Benchmarking Economic Transformation in the States, published by the Progressive Policy Institute's Technology and New Economy Project (PPI) and released online this week, offers an innovation-oriented public policy framework for the states to foster success in the New Economy. States that overhaul traditional approaches to economic development and replace them with a new approach focused on boosting skills, entrepreneurship, technology and quality of life are best prepared to prosper in the New Economy, according to this new accounting of state economic transformation to the New Economy.

The results of Tuesday's primary election in Maine reveal the state's voters continue to be committed to improving their economy through technology-based economic development. Winning approval at the ballot was Question 2, allocating $35 million in bond revenues for 11 specific projects - a majority of which were tied directly to research and technology-based economic development.

Maine-based biomedical research institutions will receive $5.5 million to be used to obtain matching federal funds for health research to cure disease, other medical R&D, and to retain Maine graduates by providing quality Maine jobs.

Nine million dollars will be used to construct manufacturing centers at the University of Maine and the University of Southern Maine. The product development and support facilities will enable the institutions to help Maine industries to solve daily manufacturing and engineering problems.

The Illinois General Assembly has passed legislation to encourage venture capital investment in technology businesses across the state. HB3212 creates the Technology Development Fund, which permits the State Treasurer to use up to 1 percent of the state's total investment portfolio for equity investments through Illinois venture capital firms.

The Chicago Tribune reported last Friday that the total amount of state funds available for venture capital investment will be as much as $60 million.

Eligible Illinois venture capital funds to receive monies from the new Technology Development Fund must use the state funds to place investments in technology businesses seeking to locate, expand, or remain in Illinois.

Canada already has seen its number of biotech firms grow from 227 in 1997 to 400 in 2000, second only to the U.S. in biotech concentration. Last week's announcement of a $51 million (Canadian) biotechnology strategy is intended to further strengthen the Ontario's position in health research and commercialization.

Ontario's Biotechnology Strategy, outlined by Ernie Eves, Ontario's Premier, and Jim Flaherty, Minister of Enterprise, Opportunity and Innovation, includes the following highlights:

Nine metropolitan areas have been identified as the nation's possessing the greatest concentration of the U.S. biotechnology industry in a new Brookings Institution report entitled Signs of Life: The Growth of Biotechnology Centers in the U.S. The report says the nine areas listed below in order account for: more than 60 percent of all spending on research by the National Institutes of Health; slightly less than two-thirds of all biotech-related patents; eight of every nine VC dollars invested in biopharmaceuticals; and, 95 percent of the dollars in research alliances.

Few private foundations across the country have made a comparable commitment in size or duration toward improving a single state's ability to participate in a knowledge-based economy as the Lilly Foundation has for Indiana. The latest round, reported in this week's online Chronicle of Higher Education, promises a total of $138 million to match donations received by Indiana's accredited colleges and universities. The pledge of $3.5 million to each institution is open to 38 two-year and four-year schools.

The Chronicle reports that to be eligible for the matching donation from the Lilly Foundation, schools must commit to using the raised funds only to strengthen academic programs. Thirty schools were signed on at press time and each had received $150,000 grants from Lilly to seed their fund raising efforts.

Through the 2002 Federal and State Technology Partnership (FAST) solicitation, the Small Business Administration (SBA) anticipates making up to 27 awards to state efforts to stimulate and encourage broader participation in Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) programs.

The agency has up to $2.7 million available in FY 2002 for new awards. In FY 2002, all awards made will be equal to $100,000. Each state represented in the multi-state application will not be eligible to receive an award amount exceeding $100,000.

In FY 2001, the SBA funded the first round of FAST awards to 30 states. Awards ranged from $100,000-150,000.

Both new applicants and and prior year awardees are encouraged to apply for FY 2002 funds.

The U.S. Department of Education's National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) has released its annual progress report on education, The Condition of Education 2002, presenting 44 indicators on the conditions and trends in elementary, secondary and postsecondary education. In one of two special analyses, the report focuses on the experience of nontraditional college students, who comprise the majority of college students today.

Analysis of NCES's National Postsecondary Student Aid Study shows that almost 75 percent of undergraduate students are in some way nontraditional. Only 27 percent of college students fit the "traditional" profile of a college student: a high school graduate who has gone directly from high school to college, who attends school full-time and does not hold a full-time job, who is financially dependent on his or her family and who has no spouse or other dependents.

Besides supporting life science research in universities, one of the other key areas states and communities are using to encourage the growth of a local biotech industry is by supporting an increase in the availability of wet lab and other biotech facilities. Biotech space, however, is extremely expensive compared to other traditional tech incubator facilities for a variety of reasons (design, HVAC, environmental, security, regulatory, etc.)

New Hampshire Biotechnology Business Incubator Feasibility Study, a very detailed report released by the State of New Hampshire, presents a critical assessment of New Hampshire's ability to support technology-related business incubators, with emphasis on biotechnology facilities connected to universities such as Dartmouth College and the University of New Hampshire (UNH).

The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) has selected 10 states to receive continuation awards of up to $47,000 for the SBIR/STTR Rural Outreach Program. The three-year-old program provides matching grants to states to establish or expand programs to assist small high technology businesses to increase their participation and success in SBIR and STTR programs through training, counseling and outreach.

Of the 25 eligible states, the recipients — Delaware, Hawaii, Iowa, Indiana, Louisiana, Maine, Montana, South Dakota, Vermont, and Wyoming — were found by an outside peer review panel to be the top performers based on FY 2001 performance reports.

The narrow award pool and more rigorous review process resulted from the 67 percent cut in the FY 2002 Congressional appropriations for the Rural Outreach Program. The FY 2001 budget for the program was $1.5 million, while the FY 2002 budget was $500,000.