SSTI Digest

The Spring 2002 edition of the Isuma, the quarterly Canadian Journal of Policy Research, is dedicated to issues surrounding the New Economy. Many of the 16 papers in the free, online issue will be of interest to readers of SSTI's Weekly Digest, including: What’s New About the “New Economy”? by Bradford DeLong The New Economy: Myth or Reality? (Translation), by Bernard Bobe American Economic Growth in the Information Age, by Dale W. Jorgenson Information and Communication Technology and Economic Growth in France, by Jacques Mairesse, Gilbert Cette and Yusuf Kocoglu Canadian Productivity: When Do We Catch Up? (Translation), by Pierre Fortin The Importance of Information Technology: A Canada-U.S. Comparison, by John R. Baldwin, Tarek M. Harchaoui and Faouzi Tarkhani Innovation in the New Economy by Dirk Pilat Clusters and Economic Policy by Clifford Bekar and Richard G. Lipsey Intellectual Property and Innovation in the Knowledge-Based Economy, by Dominique Foray Leveraging the Skills of Knowledge Workers, by Graham S…

The 2002 Special Session of the Louisiana State Legislature has yielded a series of tax credits that aim to benefit biotechnology companies in Louisiana, promote commercialization of technology, encourage R&D investments, and make the state more competitive in information technology. The tax credits are as follows: Biotechnology Tax Credit — Excludes biotechnology companies from paying sales and use taxes on capital expenditures for new research equipment. Technology Commercialization Credit — Offers marketable R&D tax credits to induce Louisiana entrepreneurs to commercialize research conducted at Louisiana universities. Research & Development Tax Credits — Encourages the state's businesses to invest in and increase their existing levels of R&D by offering tax credits to match proportionally any company's claim for federal research credits or Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) grants. Customized Computer Software Development Tax Credit — Phases in a state sales and use tax exclusion for certain custom computer software over…

Buffalo The Buffalo News reports InfoNiagara, a technology council serving 230 IT companies, has signed a reciprocal membership with the Amherst Chamber of Commerce to increase the benefits offered to both organizations' members. The chamber's 2,300 members gain access to InfoNiagara's training and professional development programs, according to the paper, while the tech council is able to offer its members a variety of insurance programs the chamber has in place. Cleveland A portion of a struggling three-story, upscale mall in downtown Cleveland may become part technology incubator, according to the May 6 issue of Crain's Cleveland Business. The article reports several alternate scenarios are being discussed by civic leaders to use sections or an entire floor of the 130,000 sq. ft. glass building to house nascent software development and other IT companies. Fort Worth, Texas The University of North Texas is consolidating several departments to create a new college of engineering, according to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. The new school, which…

The president of the Buffalo Economic Renaissance Corp, Alan DeLisle, is leaving to become director of the Office of Economic and Employment Development in Durham, N.C. Larry Kline has resigned as president of the Wisconsin Technology Council to take a position as chief financial officer and vice president for business development with a biotech firm. Jeffrey Skolnick has been named executive director of the new Center of Excellence in Bioinformatics based at the University of Buffalo. In introducing Skolnick, Governor Pataki confirmed the new state budget includes $50 million for the center, according to the May 10 issue of the Buffalo News. Return to the top of this page

The president of the Buffalo Economic Renaissance Corp, Alan DeLisle, is leaving to become director of the Office of Economic and Employment Development in Durham, N.C.

Larry Kline has resigned as president of the Wisconsin Technology Council to take a position as chief financial officer and vice president for business development with a biotech firm.

Jeffrey Skolnick has been named executive director of the new Center of Excellence in Bioinformatics based at the University of Buffalo. In introducing Skolnick, Governor Pataki confirmed the new state budget includes $50 million for the center, according to the May 10 issue of the Buffalo News.

Members of the House Science Committee introduced legislation this week that would place the National Science Foundation (NSF) on a track to double the agency's budget in five years. The bill, H.R. 4664, authorizes a 15 percent increase for NSF for each of the next three years. The proposal is similar to the bipartisan effort to double the budget for the National Institutes of Health (NIH), which should be completed with the FY 2003 appropriations. While doubling the NIH budget included support from both the Clinton and Bush Administrations, proponents for doubling NSF's budget have yet to win over key people in the Bush White House, including John Marburger, Director of the Office of Science & Technology Policy. At the American Association for the Advancement of Science's 27th annual Colloquium on Science and Technology Policy on April 11, responding to concerns about balance in the R&D component of the Administration's FY 2003 budget request, Marburger shared "my way of discussing the problem of 'balance,' sometimes expressed as too little funding for NSF compared with NIH, or as too…

SSTI has compiled the 2001 statistics from the ten federal agencies participating in the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Program to help states gear up for the next round of competition for the Federal and State Technology Partnership and Rural Outreach Programs (FAST and ROP, respectively). SBIR statistics are also used by several states as one measure or indicator for innovation indices and S&T report cards. For each of the 10 agencies, 50 states, District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, the table provides the number of awards, number of proposals, and the award-to-proposal percentage or conversion ratio as a measure of success or futility. SSTI's table of 2001 SBIR Phase I statistics is available at: http://www.ssti.org/Digest/Tables/050302t.htm The table also includes the U.S. totals and averages for comparison purposes. The Department of Energy (DOE) and the Public Health Service are the only agencies for which the percentage of awards to proposals was higher than one-in-five. For DOE, which includes both STTR and SBIR in its figures, the conversion percentage was as high as 25.6…

Earlier this week, the Michigan Economic Development Corporation (MEDC) and the Michigan Business Roundtable released a benchmarking study that used 140 indicators across seven areas to compare the state's competitiveness with 17 other states. Entitled Benchmarks for the Next Michigan: Measuring Our Competitiveness, the study reveals Michigan ranks 2nd among Midwest/northern states and 9th in terms of overall competitiveness. Colorado, Texas, Minnesota, Virginia and California are the top five states overall. Using a Competitiveness Foundations Web Model developed by SRI International, the study reveals that high business costs continue to be Michigan's greatest competitive weakness, ranking 42nd of all 50 states. According to the report, the states included in the analysis were selected by the following criteria: States where innovative economic development organizations operate state-of-the-art business attraction and assistance initiatives; States with high growth in innovative, technology-based New Economy industries; States strong in the industry clusters that Michigan is…

Savannah, Georgia CyberGeorgia, a pilot effort of the Georgia Department of Industry, Trade and Tourism (GDITT) and the Business and Education Technology Alliance of Southeast Georgia to create more tech-based companies outside the Atlanta metro region, was launched last month in Savannah. According to the April 17 issue of the Augusta Chronicle, the program will include an incubator, investment matching services, intellectual property assistance, and a connection between the area universities and new tech businesses. If successful, GDITT anticipates creating similar centers in other regions of the state, the paper reports. Chicago The IT Resource Center, an 18-year-old Chicago nonprofit organization, has developed the Accelerator Project to help initiate new Community Technology Centers (CTCs) or help existing CTCs expand their services. The IT Resource Center believes CTCs are among the best strategies to foster digital literacy. In 2002, the IT Resource Center will select up to 10 participants in the CTC Accelerator Project through a competitive application…

Washington Technology Center is seeking someone to become the first full-time program manager for the Northwest Energy Technology Collaborative. The Collaborative is a public-private partnership committed to accelerating the emergence of the Pacific Northwest's energy technology industry. The Collaborative seeks to build market-based programs that support businesses, entrepreneurs, investors, researchers and policymakers to address challenges facing this emerging industry. The successful candidate will have demonstrated his/her effectiveness in building high-impact, effective partnerships and will bring exceptional communication skills, energy and business understanding to the position. Responsibilities will include raising additional funds to make the position permanent. The full job description can be found at: http://www.watechcenter.org/wtc/employment.html