SSTI Digest

The Industries of the Future (IOF) strategy creates partnerships between industry, government, and supporting laboratories and institutions to accelerate technology research, development, and deployment. Led by the Department of Energy's Office of Industrial Technologies (OIT), the Industries of the Future strategy is being implemented in nine of the country's most energy- and waste-intensive industries: agriculture, aluminum, chemicals, forest products, glass, metal casting, mining, petroleum and steel.  The effort is unique among federal programs because the IOF research agenda is almost entirely defined by the partnering industry sectors. Industry members of each cluster jointly prepare documents with the industry's vision for the future and a technology roadmap to identify the technologies that will be needed to reach that industry's goals. IOF then provides matching grants for research projects to carryout the roadmap.  To date, more than 140 first-generation technologies have been transferred to market benefitting industry and society…

Blythewood, South Carolina  With an estimated population of 450, the community of Blythewood is soon to be home to the largest technology development project undertaken by the South Carolina Department of Commerce, according to an August 9 article in The State. The agency has identified 1,400 acres of land for creation of a research and technology park. Planners anticipate the community's proximity to Columbia, the University of South Carolina, and several large tech businesses will help attract new tech jobs to the area.  Camden, Arkansas  The Associated Press reports grants to Camden, totaling $3 million, from the Economic Development Administration and the Environmental Protection Agency are being used to clear and decontaminate a brownfield site to make way for a new business incubator and light industrial park. The incubator facility will be financed by a local sales tax approved by Camden voters to support economic development efforts.  Lorain, Ohio  Lorain County Community College is…

VentureEconomics, a division of Thomas Financial is now providing online summary information for their quarterly survey of venture capital activity. Until now, findings from the surveys, which are conducted in partnership with the National Venture Capital Association, has only been available by purchase. The summaries provide a level of detail that should be attractive to many tracking venture capital investments by region, state, or 20 different metro areas. For each state, data for total investments and number of companies are provided for the past ten years (1991-2001) and the most recent nine quarters (second quarter 1999 through second quarter 2001). SSTI has prepared the accompanying summary table presenting the VentureEconomics 1991-2000 total venture capital investments and number of companies for all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Current quarter information for each state is further described by industry/technology sector, by stage, by county, by state of funding source, by state of companies receiving money from venture capital firms located within the state, the most active firms in the state, the companies receiving investment,…

Natural gas, oil, and coal-based power production has driven and will continue to be integral to America's technological and economic success. To make fossil fuel power production more efficient and environmentally benign, future power plants will incorporate a host of advanced technologies, many of which are researched and funded through the National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL). Located in Pittsburgh and Morgantown, NETL is a multi-purpose laboratory, owned and operated by the Department of Energy (DOE). NETL conducts and implements science and technology development programs for DOE in energy and energy-related environmental systems.  NETL's research and development activities are conducted on- and off-site through partnerships, cooperative research and development agreements (CRADAs), grants, and contractual arrangements. NETL partners with industry, universities, other national and federal laboratories, private research organizations, and other federal and state agencies. The nearly 900 research, development, and demonstration projects in NETL’s portfolio are…

Early registration for SSTI's 5th Annual Conference, Creating Opportunity: Tools for Building Tech-based Economies ends on Wednesday, September 5. To lock in the discounted rate, submit your registration by the end of September 5 by fax to 614.901.1696 or online at https://www.ssti.org/registration01.htm Those paying by check are encouraged to submit their registration form by fax or online as well and post the check by regular mail.  Participation in the conference grows each year; for the 2001 event, we already have registrations for people from more than 40 states, 5 countries and 4 continents. Join us!   Return to the top of this page 

With the emphasis many state and local tech-based economic development organizations have placed on biotechnology over the past 12-18 months, few are far enough along in implementing their strategies to point to more than a handful of successes or new construction projects. The recent explosion in public investment of resources and policies toward developing local biotech capacity is largely based on the promise of anticipated economic gains in the near or not-so-near future.  Independent analysis of the long-term impact of specific state and local tech-based economic development policies are rare. Some programs launched in the 1980s that have commissioned outside impact studies, such as the Edison Technology Centers, the Ben Franklin Technology Partnership and Utah’s Centers of Excellence, have discovered strong returns for the public’s investment. (See the 12/20/96, 10/22/99, and 1/28/00 issues of SSTI’s Weekly Digest in our web archives for these stories.)  Reviews of localized impacts of state tech-based economic development policy…

While technological advancements occur every day, truly revolutionary technologies over the past three hundred years — those that promise so many diverse applications that they result in disruption and restructuring of several different industries — can be counted on one hand. The field of nanotechnology, with major implications for nearly every industrial sector, appears to be one of those once-in-a-lifetime breakthroughs.  At this point, only a few states are preparing on a large scale to capitalize on the research and resulting economic growth of this exciting field. A $350 million research institute taking shape in southern California at the universities of California at Los Angeles and Santa Barbara is one of the most aggressive investments to date.  The California NanoSystems Institute (CNSI), with 300,000 sq. ft. in two buildings on the two campuses, will house industry researchers, teachers, students and scientists. CNSI will facilitate the development of the science and engineering of integrated, macroscopic systems characterized by…

The President has nominated Arden Bement, Jr. to be Director of the National Institute of Standards and Technology at the Department of Commerce. Bement has been at Purdue University since 1993, where he is the head of the School of Nuclear Engineering. Bement is Chairman of the Advanced Technology Program's Advisory Committee, has served on the National Science Board, and was active with the Cleveland Advanced Manufacturing Program (CAMP), an Edison Technology Center.  From 1980 to 1993, he was with TRW, Inc., where he was Vice President for Technical Resources from 1980 to 1988 and then Vice President for Science and Technology from 1988 to 1993. A graduate of the Colorado School of Mines, Bement has received a Master's degree from the University of Idaho and a Ph.D. from the University of Michigan.  Return to the top of this page 

With the completion of the 2001 edition of the Maryland Innovation and Technology Index, the Maryland Technology Development Corporation (TEDCO) is able to show state policymakers and tech community leaders graphically and statistically the state’s progress since the first Index was prepared two years ago.  Innovation indices or S&T report cards, as some states and communities refer to them, help identify areas of strength, weakness or underperformance. The first assessment undertaken, for Maryland in 1999, provides a benchmark for measuring future growth or progress. Subsequent indices can help tech-based economic development practitioners refine their efforts.  Comparing Maryland on 66 items to five other states – Massachusetts, New Jersey, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Virginia – TEDCO concludes from the 2001 Index that “the report paints a picture of opportunities missed. Maryland is at best holding its own among competitor states, or worse, losing ground.”  While demonstrating Maryland’s overall improvement across most…

The Air Force Dual Use Science & Technology (AF DUS&T) Program is part of a congressionally mandated, tri-service program to cost-share research projects with industry for the development of a technology that has both military utility and sufficient commercial potential to support a viable industrial base. A main objective of the AF DUS&T Program is to obtain for defense procurements the economies of scale, accelerated product improvements, and increased sustainability inherent in the commercial marketplace.  From its inception in FY97, the AF DUS&T Program has initiated 121 projects totaling $476 million. These projects, being conducted outside the Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR), are investment partnerships designed to allow more flexibility than the standard federal contract, which assumes a buyer-seller relationship. Hence, the AF DUS&T Program uses cooperative agreements and other transactions as funding instruments for the overwhelming bulk of its work. One major advantage of these instruments is the flexibility in dealing with intellectual…

What impact do state taxes have on entrepreneurship?  The Small Business Survival Committee (SBSC) has released its sixth annual rankings of the states according to their respective policy climates for small business and entrepreneurship. In the Small Business Survival Index 2001, the D.C.-based organization combines the following 17 factors to develop the overall rankings: personal income taxes, capital gains taxes, corporate income taxes, property taxes, sales taxes, estate taxes, unemployment taxes, health insurance taxes, electricity costs, workers' compensation costs, crime rates, right-to-work status, number of government employees, tax limitation status, Internet taxes, gas taxes, and state minimum wages. The rankings received a fair amount of attention in the media.  Raymond Keating, the report’s author, states, "The best policy environment for entrepreneurship consists of low taxes, limited government, restrained regulation, and government protecting life, limb and property. States following such a governing philosophy will reap great rewards from…

As a national security laboratory operated for the U.S. Department of Energy by the Sandia Corporation, a Lockheed Martin company, Sandia’s science and technology competencies are leveraged to support several missions that are synergistic to its primary mission — to ensure the safety, security, and reliability of the nation’s nuclear weapons stockpile in the absence of underground testing, indefinitely. Indeed, Sandia designs all non-nuclear components for the nation’s nuclear weapons and works on assignments that respond to national security threats of both military and economic nature. Sandia's strengths are demonstrated in the following disciplines:  Advanced Manufacturing  Microelectronics & Photonics  Biotechnology  Modeling & Simulation Computational & Info. Sciences  Nanotechnology  Electronics…