SSTI Digest

Roberto Salazar is leaving his post as the Director of the New Mexico Office of Science and Technology at the end of March to assume the position of State Director of the USDA's Rural Development Agency for New Mexico.

The SSTI Weekly Digest will be taking a brief spring break and will resume publication on Friday, April 6.

The Economic Development Administration (EDA) is offering nearly $411 million in financial assistance for distressed areas. The agency has already begun accepting proposals and will continue to do so until the $410,972,866 allocated for FY 2001 is exhausted. EDA seeks proposals for projects that will significantly benefit areas experiencing or threatened with substantial economic distress, and targets assistance to communities with the highest economic distress. Such distress may exist in a variety of forms such as high levels of unemployment, low income levels, large concentrations of low-income families, significant declines in per capita income, substantial loss of population because of the lack of employment opportunities, large numbers or high rates of business failures, sudden major layoffs or plant closures, military base closures, natural or other major disasters, depletion of natural resources, or reduced tax bases. Most of the funding ($286 million) is available under Public Works and Economic Development Assistance program. The remaining funds are distributed…

While venture capital is harder to come by these days in most parts of the country due to the dot-com crash and stock market declines, investment capital may flow more easily in two southern states based on two initiatives. Florida: $450 Million for CAPCOs Considered The state legislature is currently considering CAPCO legislation to triple the maximum limit for tax breaks granted to insurance companies that invest in Florida companies through venture capital funds. Senate Bill 1130, passed unanimously in the Banking and Insurance committee this week, now moves to the Commerce and Economic Opportunities Committee for consideration. More information is available at: http://www.leg.state.fl.us/Welcome/index.cfm Tennessee: $12 million Raised for New SBIC According to a March 15 article in the Tennessean, the Tennessee Technology Development Corp. (TennesSeed) and Technology 2020 have raised $12 million to serve as seed capital for tech start-ups in the state. The University of Tennessee’s endowment contributed $1 million to the investment…

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. Because more than 60,000 teachers have completed the required online assessment, more…

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: the nature of projects that led to inventions, the motivations for undertaking the research, and  the processes employed to connect with industry for technology transfer. Based on case studies of several different inventions from Columbia University and Stanford University, the authors conjecture that “the role of patents, and the role of university technology transfer offices varies significantly from case…

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. NSF has made early release tables for the report available on its website. Table A-12, which provides figures for intramural R&D performance at individual nonprofit organizations by state for fiscal year 1997 may be of particular interest to state and local tech-based economic development officals. The Early Release…

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

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.  While a few of the results are somewhat predictable, the report is full of surprises that may help policy makers in thinking and…

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:  catalyze partnerships for innovation that will enable the transformation of knowledge created by the national research and education enterprise into innovations that create new wealth, build strong local, regional, and national economies, and improve the national well-being;  broaden the participation of all types of academic institutions and of citizens in NSF activities to better meet the broad workforce needs of the national innovation enterprise; and  create enabling infrastructure necessary to foster and sustain innovation for the long-term.  Approximately $6.2 million is available for FY 2001 proposals. While partnerships must include academic…

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.  The legislature also provided $250,000 for the preliminary assessment, analysis, design and cost estimates for the University of Wyoming to…

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:  Texas-based Austin Technology Incubator;  New York's Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Incubator;  the State University of New York at Albany…