SSTI Digest

The National Science Foundation (NSF) has several solicitations open currently. Four opportunities of particular interest to the S&T community are highlighted below. These and additional funding opportunities from NSF can be found on a web page that conveniently lists the solicitations by deadline: http://www.nsf.gov/home/deadline/deadline.htm 

The Washington Technology Center has released its first annual Index of Innovation and Technology. The report examines 34 performance indicators in six broad areas: Innovation, Competitiveness, Growth, Financial Capacity, Human Potential, Quality of Life, and Internet Infrastructure. For each indicator, Washington is compared to several other states or to national averages. 



Six summary findings or recommendations are made in major areas that government, education, and industry must focus upon to ensure the state's continued economic success. They include: 

Reliably measuring performance in federal programs, particularly programs involving state-federal partnership is difficult, according to the U. S. General Accounting Office (GAO). Managing for Results: Challenges Agencies Face in Producing Credible Performance Information (GAO/GGD-00-52) and the two supporting written testimonies, Challenges in Producing Credible Performance Information (T-GGD/RCED-00-134) and Using GPRA to Help Congressional Decision making and Strengthen Oversight (T-GGD-00-95), identify several of the same issues state technology-based economic development programs have encountered for years as they attempt to define their own success for state legislatures and constituencies. 

article prepared by Kay Etzler, SBIR Specialist for the North Carolina Small Business Technology Development Center

Arizona 

The Ways & Means Committee of the Arizona House of Representatives has passed a bill to eliminate $250 million in sales tax exemptions for a number of products and services, including telecommunications equipment and solar devices. If the bill passes, proceeds would be used to raise teachers' salaries. 

President Clinton has nominated Arthur C. Campbell as Assistant Secretary for Economic Development at the U.S. Department of Commerce. Mr. Campbell, of Chattanooga, Tennessee, currently serves as the Deputy Under Secretary for Rural Development at the United States Department of Agriculture. 



Lura Powell, former Director of the Advanced Technology Program within the Department of Commerce, has accepted the position as Director of the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland, Washington. 



Steven Zylstra, chair of the Technology Transfer Committee of the Arizona Governor's Strategic Partnership for Economic Development, has accepted the position of President and Chief Executive Officer of the Pittsburgh Technology Council and the Southwestern Pennsylvania Industrial Resource Center. 

President Clinton has nominated Arthur C. Campbell as Assistant Secretary for Economic Development at the U.S. Department of Commerce. Mr. Campbell, of Chattanooga, Tennessee, currently serves as the Deputy Under Secretary for Rural Development at the United States Department of Agriculture. 

Lura Powell, former Director of the Advanced Technology Program within the Department of Commerce, has accepted the position as Director of the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland, Washington. 

Steven Zylstra, chair of the Technology Transfer Committee of the Arizona Governor's Strategic Partnership for Economic Development, has accepted the position of President and Chief Executive Officer of the Pittsburgh Technology Council and the Southwestern Pennsylvania Industrial Resource Center. 

SSTI has learned the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) reauthorization language the Senate Small Business Committee (SBC) will be marking up on Tuesday, March 21 is substantially different than HR 2392, passed by the House last fall. While HR 2392 basically makes housekeeping revisions to the $1.1 billion SBIR program, the SBC version includes several components addressing issues a majority of states identified as problems for their own SBIR outreach and assistance efforts. SSTI understands the proposed Senate language has support from key Committee members from both political parties.

Last week, Mary Harney, Ireland’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, announced the establishment of a £560m ($681M U.S.) Technology Foresight Fund to establish Ireland as a location for world class research excellence in niche areas within biotechnology and information and communication technologies. According to Reuters’ reports, funding for the new initiative will be spread over seven years. The Technology Foresight Fund — the country’s single largest investment ever for research, technological development and innovation — was conceived and designed by the Irish Council for Science, Technology, and Innovation (ICSTI), a publicly created organization to advise the Irish government on the strategic direction of science, technology and innovation policy. Separate Task Force panels or subcommittees investigated technology development issues in eight industrial sectors: natural resources; chemicals/pharmaceuticals; health and life sciences; information and communications technology; materials and manufacturing; transport and logistics; construction/infrastructure; and energy. From the panels’ findings, the Task Force advanced several recommendations for consideration by the Ministry of Science, Technology and Commerce. The culmination was the decision for the Technology Foresight Fund to focus its activities on biotechnology and information and communication technologies — sectors identified to hold significant potential for Ireland as it moved to a technology-oriented economy. A new research foundation will be established to evaluate research projects and to manage and allocate funding from the Technology Foresight Fund. The foundation’s objective will be to create a critical mass of world-class research within the biotech and information technology niche areas to be identified by the foundation. The new research foundation, to be established over the next three months, will support researchers in Ireland’s colleges and research institutes through competitive international peer reviewed solicitations. In addition, the foundation will have the authority to established its own laboratories, if necessary, to secure world class performance. More information on the Technology Foresight Fund can be found at: http://www.entemp.ie/pressrel/080300.htm

Digest readers may have noticed in our headlines over the past few months that state efforts to improve their economic standing through science and technology are undergoing a tremendous period of growth and expansion. While state S&T programs have been in existence since the 1950s, most activity occurred in the early 1980s and early 1990s during severe economic downturns. The activity of the last 15 months rivals that of the early 1980s and will in all likelihood ultimately surpass it.