SSTI Digest

Calling for the program to more than triple in size by 2007, Senator John F Kerry (D-Massachusetts) and several other Senators introduced legislation last week to reauthorize and expand the Small Business Technology Transfer Program (STTR). STTR currently requires five federal agencies -- the National Science Foundation, NASA, and the departments of Defense, Health & Human Services, and Energy -- to award 0.15 percent of their extramural R&D budgets to research partnerships between small businesses and research institutions. If passed, the new bill would gradually increase the set-aside requirement to 0.5 percent by fiscal year 2007. S. 856 also calls for reauthorizing STTR through fiscal year 2010 and increasing the size of Phase II awards from $500,000 to $750,000, the same level as awards in the much larger Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program. After its introduction, S. 856 was referred to the Senate Small Business Committee for consideration. Joining Senator Kerry as original sponsors of the bill were…

In today's edition of the Federal Register, the Small Business Administration (SBA) has issued the draft revised policy directive for the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Program. The public is invited to comment on the proposed directive, which provides guidance to the ten federal agencies participating in the program. SBIR annually awards more than $1 billion to small businesses across the country for research and development. Comments must be received by the SBA on or before June 18, 2001. Legislation passed by Congress in December to reauthorize the SBIR program (Public Law 106-554) required SBA to prepare the first changes to the policy directive since 1993. While the SBIR Reauthorization Act did not include many substantive changes to the federal program, a quick review of the new policy directive reveals several proposed changes of potential interest to the tech-based economic development community. In general, the new directive would provide the federal agencies greater latitude in meeting the legislated requirements of the SBIR program.…

PricewaterhouseCoopers has published the detailed statistics for the Moneytree™ survey of venture capital (VC) activity for the first quarter of 2001. As promised in the May 4, 2001 issue of the SSTI Weekly Digest when the summary results were announced, SSTI has prepared the accompanying table presenting the distribution of VC by state. Please note, the table includes only those states in which some VC activity was reported for the quarter. Several states fell out of the latest survey as fewer deals were reported across the country. The complete detailed statistics can be found on the PricewaterhouseCoopers website: http://204.198.129.80/

The following is a sampling of the more than 60 events included in the SSTI Calendar of Events webpage: http://www.ssti.org/calendar.htm Webcast on 21st Century Agriculture R&D Priorities On May 22 and May 23, the Board on Agriculture and Natural Resources of the National Research Council will hold a web-based workshop Opportunities in Agriculture: A Vision for USDA's Food and Agricultural Research in the 21st Century. Listen in free via live audio Webcast and submit questions to participants using an email form; both are accessible with an agenda and more information on the project's webpage, http://nationalacademies.org/banr/active_projects/agopps Partnerships for the 21st Century The Economic Development Administration will hold its National Economic Development Forum May 29 - 31 at the Washington Hilton Hotel, Washington, DC. This year's theme focuses on encouraging and strengthening public-private collaboration and innovation in support of local economic development. More information is available at http://www.edanationalforum.org/ Technologies at the…

President Bush intends to nominate P.H. Johnson to be Federal Co-chairperson of the Delta Regional Authority. He currently practices law with the firm of Johnson Bobo in Clarksdale, Mississippi. Bill Shipp has been promoted to president and general manager of the Idaho National Engineering & Environmental Laboratory. Currently laboratory director, Shipp will take his new position August 1. Mr. Shipp also serves as Science & Technology Advisor to Idaho Governor Dirk Kempthorne. Jackie Norton, director of the Arizona Department of Commerce for the past five years, has announced she will be leaving the position this summer. Anita Balachandra, formerly in charge of the Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Technology (EPSCoT) in the U.S. Department of Commerce, is now working with the Maryland Technology Development Corp. SSTI welcomes Anulet Jones to our team as a Research Assistant. Ms. Jones has an engineering degree from Georgia Tech and is working on her MBA at Capital University in…

President Bush intends to nominate P.H. Johnson to be Federal Co-chairperson of the Delta Regional Authority. He currently practices law with the firm of Johnson Bobo in Clarksdale, Mississippi.

Bill Shipp has been promoted to president and general manager of the Idaho National Engineering & Environmental Laboratory. Currently laboratory director, Shipp will take his new position August 1. Mr. Shipp also serves as Science & Technology Advisor to Idaho Governor Dirk Kempthorne.

Jackie Norton, director of the Arizona Department of Commerce for the past five years, has announced she will be leaving the position this summer.

Anita Balachandra, formerly in charge of the Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Technology (EPSCoT) in the U.S. Department of Commerce, is now working with the Maryland Technology Development Corp.

SSTI welcomes Anulet Jones to our team as a Research Assistant. Ms. Jones has an engineering degree from Georgia Tech and is working on her MBA at Capital University in Columbus, Ohio.

Governor Tom Ridge’s $90 million plan to create a series of life science research/commercialization centers would be the largest, single technology initiative ever proposed in Pennsylvania, according to a recent press release from the Governor's office. The Life Sciences Greenhouse Initiative would be a network of innovation centers in Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and Harrisburg closely connected to university research activities. To be seeded with a $90 million investment from a one-time surplus of tobacco settlement funds, the centers would be sustained by grants from the ongoing settlement. The initiative hopes to capitalize on increased private and federal research investment as well as the state's 30 percent growth in employment in life-sciences industries over the last five years -- double the rate of overall job growth in that same period. The Life Sciences Greenhouse network would be a university-industry-state partnership for research and commercialization of life science technologies. Governor Ridge hosted leaders of Pennsylvania’s biotech industry last…

The National Journal’s Technology Daily reported Wednesday that the Senate has approved an amendment to the Elementary and Secondary Education Act reauthorization bill (S.1) that would authorize up to $100 million for the Community Technology Centers program. The amendment, introduced by Senator Barbara Miluski of Maryland and passed by a 50-49 vote, also keeps the popular program within the Department of Education. President Bush’s FY 2002 budget had requested the program be moved to the Department of Housing and Urban Development which has a series of computer access centers in its public housing projects. Return to the top of this page