SSTI Digest

Against a backdrop of futuristic vehicles at the Detroit Auto Show on Wednesday, Secretary of Energy Spencer Abraham and executives of Ford, General Motors and DaimlerChrysler announced a new cooperative automotive research partnership between the U.S. Department of Energy and the U.S. Council for Automotive Research (USCAR).

Under the new program, Freedom CAR (Cooperative Automotive Research), the government and the private sector will fund research into advanced, efficient fuel cell technology, which uses hydrogen to power automobiles without creating pollution.

A student’s opportunity to gain access to and afford a college education varies significantly from state to state, according to a report recently issued by Lumina Foundation for Education.

Unequal Opportunity: Disparities in College Access Among the 50 States, a study of 2,887 degree-granting colleges, classifies each college by admissibility and affordability and examines differences in the patterns within and among states for different types of institutions and different groups of students.

Institutions are defined as admissible if they are open to college-qualified students with test scores and grades that place them in the 25th to 75th percentiles of college-bound high school graduates from their state.

Two reports released lated in 2001 by the U.S. General Accounting Office (GAO) highlight challenges presently faced by the Small Business Administration (SBA) and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

In Current Structure Presents Challenges for Service, the GAO addresses the issues posed by SBA's current organizational alignment and presents "information SBA should consider in determining if and how to reorganize." Such issues, including ineffective lines of communication and confusion over the mission of district offices, are said "to impede the efforts of SBA staff to effectively deliver services." The GAO report does not make recommendations to SBA; however, the report calls the restructuring efforts of other federal agencies "a framework and a set of steps and considerations that may prove useful to SBA."

Albany, New YorkHealth Reseach Inc., a branch of the New York State Department of Health, is looking to move its Pharmacogenomics Institute to a vacant laboratory in Rensselaer Technology Park, according to a recent article published in the Times Union. The 25,000-square-foot building that housed the Virogenics Corp., a vaccine-research company that left in 2000, has not been officially purchased. The state expects to lease the site when the Rensselaer County Industrial Development Agency closes on the purchase.

Science and math education funding recently took the equivalent of a roller coaster ride, winding up on the bottom end, according to the Dec. 28 issues of FYI: The Bulletin of Science Policy News of the American Institute of Physics (AIP).

On Dec. 18, Congress — fresh off approving $450 million for the newly-established Math & Science Partnerships Program under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) on Dec. 13 — approved only $12.5 million for the Partnerships Program in its FY 2002 Labor-HHS-Education appropriations report.

Although the ESEA bill reformed, consolidated and streamlined many Education Department programs and created the Partnerships Program, it did not provide the full $450 million recommended in ESEA, the AIP bulletin states.

The Maryland Technology Development Corporation (TEDCO) kicked off the new year with a new $330,000 program to support Maryland companies wishing to develop technology-based products and/or services in collaboration with Johns Hopkins University (JHU), Morgan State University (MSU) or federal laboratories in Maryland. The Maryland Technology Transfer Fund (MTTF) will award non-equity investments of up to $50,000 per project.

The program supports company technology development projects that transfer technology from JHU, MSU or a federal laboratory in Maryland to the commercial sector and the development of technology-based products and/or services for future government uses. The Fund, made possible by a grant from the Maryland Department of Business and Economic Development (DBED), is also providing $100,000 to JHU and MSU to develop innovative ways to partner with industry.

The Tri-Cities (Richland-Kennewick-Pasco) ranks near the top 10 percent nationwide in technology industry growth and offers significant quality-of-life advantages over comparable communities, according to a recent report on local technology business.

Released in November 2001, Tri-Cities Innovation & Technology Index provides the first analysis of the Tri-Cities' ability to meet the needs of technology companies and how the community's business and quality-of-life attributes compare with other Northwest cities and national averages.

The Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory prepared the report in support of DOE's regional economic diversification efforts.

Several warnings have been issued in recent years about U.S. dominance in the world's scientific and technological communities slipping: the number of science and engineering (S&E) doctorates awarded per capita; the dearth of women and minorities entering technical fields; the facility in which knowledge, companies and people can be transferred globally; scores on standardized math and science tests; and indicators for global entrepreneurship, to name a few.

The latest alert, a draft report released in December by the National Science Board (NSB), urges the National Science Foundation (NSF) to take a more active, even strategic, role in fostering and participating in international S&E partnerships and collaborations.

Regional Technology Strategies, Inc. (RTS), a national nonprofit workforce and economic development group based in Carrboro, N.C., has published Cultivating Successful Rural Economies: Benchmark Practices at Community Colleges.

Through a grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Fund for Rural America, RTS identified by a competitive process 43 dynamic and effective programs at rural community colleges in the U.S. and abroad that are helping rural businesses adapt to current economic trends.

RTS' publication profiles several benchmark practices that encompass effective responses to the regional economic conditions, from a fiber arts program at Northern Mexico Community College to a hospitality-industry training program in Northern Ireland.

Annual R&D expenditures at America's academic institutions topped $30 billion for the first time, according to the early release tables from the National Science Foundation's Survey of Research and Development Expenditures at Universities and Colleges, Fiscal Year 2000. The final results of the latest annual survey reveals a nine percent increase over 1999 expenditures.

Despite growing by more than $1.4 billion during 2000, the federal government's share of total support for academic R&D, at 58.19 percent, fell to its lowest percentage since 1959. State and local government share dropped to 7.33 percent, the lowest level since the survey began in 1953. Institutional funds, on the other hand, accounted for 19.71 percent of academic R&D expenditures in 2000, the highest level ever for this source of funding.

Chicago Chicago CivicNet recently named 22 firms as finalists for an endeavor to build and operate a network connecting 1,600 public buildings in Chicago with fiber optic cable. CivicNet, an initiative of the City of Chicago and the Mayor's Council of Technology Advisors, saw more than 60 companies respond to the Request for Information issued by the City in November 2001. A finalist competing for CivicNet's Request for Proposals (issued in December) will win $25 million a year for the next 10 years to build the digital network that, being extended to private homes and businesses, would mean considerable additional revenue. A listing of the finalists, who must submit proposals by March 29, is available at: http://www.chicagocivicnet.net/

While visions of sugarplums will be dancing in the heads of most Americans, SSTI's staff will be boxing up its files and moving to new offices on Dec. 20-21.

Due to the move and because SSTI will be closed during the week of December 24-28, the next issue of the SSTI Weekly Digest and the funding supplement will be published January 4, 2002.

That said, we extend a special holiday wish to all readers, friends and supporters. SSTI especially thanks the Economic Development Administration, without whose generous support, the Digest would not be possible.

Wishing you a more peaceful and successful 2002, Dan, Becky, Cathy, Ruth, Sue, Mark S. and Mark K.