SSTI Digest

More than $800 million for science, engineering, research, and commercialization activities Each year a few state legislatures are more active than others on issues affecting efforts to grow tech-based economies. With $385 million for research infrastructure, $45 million committed to commercialization and seed financing, nearly $150 million for university and life science research, more than $300 million for college scholarships, authorization to create university commercialization centers, a series of tax credits, and $20 million for a biotech park, the recently concluded 77th legislative session in Texas was one of the busiest and most aggressive proponents nationally for technology-based economic development (TBED). By addressing multiple tech-related initiatives proposed by Governor Rick Perry in his State of the State message, as well as many of its members' own creation, this Texas legislature was the most supportive of science, research and tech-based economic development in recent years for the state. Sorting through the…

Collaborative partnerships between universities and industry, a long-standing element of many states’ tech-based economic development strategies, are not without significant issues that threaten to hamper their effectiveness and limit the promises of research, according to Working Together, Creating Knowledge: The University-Industry Research Collaboration Initiative. In addition to identifying the issues, the paper, based on a two-year study by the Business-Higher Education Forum, also presents different courses of action to overcome the challenges. The report examines issues such as intellectual property, confidentiality, indirect costs, conflicts of interest, and background rights. Ownership of intellectual property, particularly when federal funding is involved, was cited as the most problematic area. The report outlines recommendations and best practices for developing and maintaining successful partnerships, including: "When a university-industry research relationship is of sufficient magnitude, collaboration partners should consider…

The placement and retention of women in apprenticeships and positions in nontraditional occupations (A/NTO) has posed significant challenges in fields requiring high technology skills, including computer-based information technology, telecommunications, manufacturing, transportation, utilities, and general services. Now in its third year, the U.S. Department of Labor Women in Apprenticeship and Nontraditional Occupations Grant Program promotes increased participation by women in these fields through placements and apprenticeships in NTO positions. Non-traditional occupations are defined as those in which women account for less than 25 percent of all persons employed in a single occupational group. The 2001 solicitation for proposals in the program is currently open. Grants will be awarded to community-based organizations, or private non-profit organizations, through a competitive process. Proposals should document the following eligibility requirements: Applicants have been able to connect women to A/NTO.  Applicants have enabled women and…

On Thursday, the Department of Health & Human Services and NASA announced respectively 4 and 30 government-owned inventions available for licensing. SSTI has consolidated the announcements on the accompanying webpage: http://www.ssti.org/Digest/Tables/061501t.htm

The President intends to nominate John J. Young to be Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Research, Development and Acquisition. Mr. Young has been with the U.S. Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense since 1991. Ann Lansinger, the director of the Baltimore's Emerging Technology Center, has been named the first president of the Maryland Business Incubation Association, a new organization representing the state's eight publicly funded incubators in the state. SSTI has learned through the KTEC SBIR Bulletin that Clyde Engert will be retiring as Vice President of Innovation & Market Research at KTEC on July 1, 2001. Mr Engert has been a long-active champion of state SBIR outreach and financial assistance. His services will be missed by Kansas companies and the national SBIR community. SSTI welcomes Brandon Lawrence to its staff as a Graduate Research Assistant. Brandon holds a BS in microbiology from Miami University (Ohio) and is working on his MBA at Ohio State University.

The President intends to nominate John J. Young to be Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Research, Development and Acquisition. Mr. Young has been with the U.S. Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense since 1991.

Ann Lansinger, the director of the Baltimore's Emerging Technology Center, has been named the first president of the Maryland Business Incubation Association, a new organization representing the state's eight publicly funded incubators in the state.

SSTI has learned through the KTEC SBIR Bulletin that Clyde Engert will be retiring as Vice President of Innovation & Market Research at KTEC on July 1, 2001. Mr Engert has been a long-active champion of state SBIR outreach and financial assistance. His services will be missed by Kansas companies and the national SBIR community.

SSTI welcomes Brandon Lawrence to its staff as a Graduate Research Assistant. Brandon holds a BS in microbiology from Miami University (Ohio) and is working on his MBA at Ohio State University.

A new biotech-opolis in Quebec soon may serve as one of the best organized business centers for biotech, biopharmaceutical, and biocomputer companies in the world, government leaders hope. The Quebec government, Investissement Quebec, the City of Laval, Laval Technopole and Institut national de la recherche re scientifique (INRS), are investing $250 million over five years in cash, in-kind donations, and forgone tax revenues to support the massive cluster project. Additional partners include various academic, economic and scientific communities in metropolitan Montreal and Laval. The City of Biotechnology and Human Health of Metropolitan Montreal, or Biotech City for short, will function as a business and science center, with more than $100 million alone coming from INRS to equip the city with major scientific facilities and to restructure the INRS’s Armand-Frappier campus. The INRS focuses on research and learning at the graduate school level while responding to the economic, social and cultural needs of Quebec. Biotech City – being situated on…

Editor's Note and Commentary: The changes proposed by the Small Business Administration for the policy directive governing the administration of the $1.2 billion federal Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program are substantial. Some of the controversial changes proposed include blending STTR and SBIR dollars during Phase II, allowing agencies greater flexibility in setting award sizes, and creating the opportunity for impropriety in award selection. Public comment on the draft changes will be accepted by the SBA until June 18, 2001. SSTI would like to commend the SBA Office of Technology for its receptivity over the past several months to input on issues relating to the SBIR Program, including addressing nearly all concerns raised by state tech-based economic development practitioners in the design of the new Federal and State Technology Partnership Program (FAST). Those who have been involved even tangentially in the SBIR Program since the early 1980s should recognize the SBA SBIR Office's new openness is unprecedented and most likely reflects directly upon its current…

The leading indicator of a metropolitan area's high technology success is a large gay population, according to Technology and Tolerance: The Importance of Diversity to High-Technology Growth, a new study published by the Brookings Institution's Center on Urban & Metropolitan Policy. The study's authors are Richard Florida of Carnegie Mellon University and Gary Gates of the Urban Institute. Nine of the top ten cities as ranked by a Gay Index developed by Florida and Gates were in the top 15 “Tech-Pole” Rankings conceived by Ross DeVol of the Milken Institute (see America's High Tech Economy). Florida and Gates conclude “[g]ays can be though of as canaries of the knowledge economy because they signal a diverse and progressive environment that fosters the creativity and innovation necessary for success in high-tech industries.” Using four indices, 1990 census data, and the Milken Institute’s measures of high-tech concentration, the new analysis revealed other indications of diversity, such as a high concentration of artists or foreign-born residents…