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SSTI Digest
Michigan Launches Two Initiatives for Tech-based Education
During the first days of March, Michigan Governor John Engler announced the implementation of two programs through the Michigan Virtual University to integrate information technology into the state’s education system.
Laptops for Teachers
On March 6, the Governor ceremoniously distributed the first laptop computers in the Teacher Technology Initiative (TTI) announced last year. The program allocates up to $1,200 for each eligible educator to receive a computer complete with software, including a productivity package, Internet access, a warranty and web-based professional development. It is funded by a one-time $110 million appropriation made last year by the state legislature, providing 90,000 Michigan teachers with computers and Internet access.
TTI applications from some 211 school districts were processed during the months of December, January and February, representing 23,839 teachers and an investment of $28.6 million.
Transferring University Technologies: Challenging Bayh-Dole
Does patenting encourage or speed the transfer of technology from universities? Does the prospect of receiving royalties and licensing fees increase motivation among university researchers to work with businesses to commercialize technology? A recent paper suggests the answers to both questions is "no," but that more empirical and statistical research is needed to determine whether or not increased emphasis on intellectual property rights is achieving the desired results.
How Do University Inventions Get Into Practice?, prepared by a team of researchers from across the country, is the first report on a study that attempts to understand:
NSF Finds Nonprofit R&D Holding its Own
Research and development activity in the nonprofit sector share of total U.S. R&D held steady at 3 percent from 1973 to 1997, according to a February 15 Data Brief prepared by the National Science Foundation (NSF). The Data Brief reports on the first survey of nonprofit R&D activity since 1973.
The new study captured R&D funding and performance by nonprofit organizations for fiscal years 1996 and 1997. In 1997 nonprofit organization intramural R&D expenditures totalled $7.3 billion. The average annual current dollar increase from 1973 to 1997 was five percent when adjusted for inflation. Extramural R&D activity for nonprofits was estimated to be approximately $1.5 billion for the same year.
51 Licensing Opportunities from USDA and NIH
The U.S. Department of Agriculture and the National Institutes of Health released information on 51 inventions that are available for license. Descriptions and contact information for each invention/patent are presented on the accompanying SSTI web page: http://www.ssti.org/Digest/Tables/031601t.htm
The Difficult Task of Clogging the Brain Drain
Growing and keeping an educated workforce, one ready to help build a technology-based economy, is one of the greatest challenges even the most high-tech areas. The problem can be quite severe. For example, a new statewide survey of Florida college students, conducted by Leadership Florida and Nova Southeastern University, revealed that only 48 percent of the students plan to remain in Florida after graduation. (For a copy of the Florida survey report see http://www.leadershipflorida.org/survey.asp)
Who Will Stay and Who Will Leave?, a forthcoming report from the Southern Technology Council (STC), provides one of the first in-depth looks at what factors influence graduate migration behavior after college. With emphasis on recent science and engineering graduates, STC identified several individual, institutional, and state-level predictors of student retention using a series of regression analyses of 44 different variables.
Partnerships for Innovation Opens
Partnerships for Innovation (PFI), a National Science Foundation (NSF) program started just last year, has released its Program Solicitation for FY 2001. The program will support 10-15 new government-university-industry partnerships that explore new approaches to support and sustain innovation. An academic institution must be the lead for the partnership
The program was designed to:
New Wyoming Laws Encourage Tech-based Economic Development
The Wyoming legislature wrapped up its 2001 General Session on March 1. Several laws and supplemental appropriations were made that affect local efforts to grow a stronger tech-based economy.
Senate Enrolled Act (SEA) 10 permits the Wyoming Business Council to use state funds to provide bridge financing to businesses, not to exceed 35 percent of the total cost of any particular project.
SEA 71 creates a ten-year University of Wyoming endowment challenge program through which the state treasurer will match 1:1 each substantial private donation made to the university’s endowment fund. The legislature appropriated $30 million for the program in this year’s budget.
House Enrolled Act (HEA) 32 repeals the sunset provisions for the University of Wyoming technology transfer center program, which without the law, would have terminated July 1, 2001.
NREL Forms Alliance to Encourage Clean Energy Entrepreneurship
The U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) has selected six more incubators to join the National Alliance of Clean Energy Business Incubators, formed by NREL in April 2000. Alliance member incubators will focus on accelerating the growth and development of U.S. technology-based start-up companies working on a broad range of clean energy technologies, including solar, wind, biomass, geothermal, microturbine, fuel cell, power quality, energy efficiency, alternative fuels and infrastructure, and information technologies.
The Alliance teams NREL with the seven business incubators and a network of venture capitalists and energy industry leaders to provide business and financial services to clean energy entrepreneurs. Each selected incubator received a $1 million grant from NREL to support incubator operations.
Participating incubators include:
NCOE Explodes Myths of Entrepreneurship
There is often a disconnect between government policies to encourage entrepreneurship and the actual practice of launching fast growing companies, according to the fourth major report from the National Commission on Entrepreneurship (NCOE). Five Myths about Entrepreneurs: Understanding How Businesses Start and Grow is being released to educate policymakers about the vitally different characteristics of entrepreneurs and traditional small business owners. The report also sets out key policy implications based on these different characteristics.
NCOE argues many policies are based on misconceptions about entrepreneurship:
Useful Stats: FY 2000 SBIR Phase I Awards by State
The state-by-state results for the 2000 SBIR Phase I awards — as reported individually by the 10 participating federal agencies and compiled by SSTI --- are presented in the accompanying table. Totals may not reflect new awards or cancellations made by an agency after the initial selection announcements. Abstract information for funded SBIR projects may be obtained on each agency’s SBIR website. Easy links are available from the DOEd SBIR web side: http://www.ed.gov/offices/OERI/SBIR/links.html
For the “Oh, Yeah?” Department: More on Local Technology Incubators
Editor’s Note: For the skeptical Digest reader that viewed our assertion in last week’s issue that there is an average of at least one incubator-related article published somewhere in the country each day. Since we have several clippings on hand, it is easy to provide more examples of the continuing explosion of communities and states using non-profit incubators as tools for developing and expanding tech-based economies. Due to space considerations, a list of 17 more local incubator stories published in the last nine days alone is provided on the accompanying web page.
People
President Bush has nominated Los Angeles resident Hector Barretto to serve as Administrator of the Small Business Administration.
Philip Psilos is the new Director of Economic & Technology Policy for the National Governors' Association.
Timothy A. Klein has been selected to become the Associate Administrator for Innovation, Research, and Education for the U.S. Department of Transportation.
SSTI extends its congratulations to Bruce Gjovig, Director of the Center for Innovation in Grand Forks, North Dakota, for his induction into the North Dakota Entrepreneur Hall of Fame.