SSTI Digest

With significant emphasis on academic research and commercialization, the New York Office of Science, Technology, and Academic Research (NYSTAR) has provided Governor George Pataki its first strategic plan. The $130 million NYSTAR, which absorbed the functions of the NY State Science and Technology Foundation, was formed in 1999 as a result of the state’s Jobs 2000 legislation (see the 12/3/99 issue of the SSTI Weekly Digest).  The plan calls for several new academic initiatives:  the establishment of several “world-class” Strategically Targeted Academic Research (STAR) Centers by the “dynamic combination of state-of-the-art facilities, cutting edge technology, and the world’s most sought after academic and scientific talent;”  two grant programs to support new facilities and intellectual infrastructure development within the STAR centers;  a competitive program to expand the collaborative research activities of some of the state’s 14 existing Centers of Advanced Technology (CATs);  a technology transfer incentives program to…

The next U.S. supercomputing system operating at speeds well beyond a trillion calculations per second will reside at the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center (PSC) through an expected $45-million award from the National Science Foundation (NSF). Last week, the National Science Board (NSB), NSF's governing body, authorized the three-year award following a national competition. Pending negotiations between NSF and PSC, the Terascale Computing System (TCS) would begin operation in February 2001, reaching peak performance by the end of that year.  The TCS will be incorporated into the NSF Partnerships for Advanced Computational Infrastructure program as a third leading-edge site, joining the National Center for Supercomputing Applications at Urbana, Illinois and the San Diego Supercomputer Center in California. Computational scientists and engineers across the U.S. will access the TCS through a nationwide grid of research networks.  The Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center was established in 1986 by its partners at Carnegie Mellon University, the University of Pittsburgh, and Westinghouse.…

Ten multi-state consortia have been selected to receive funding from the U.S. Department of Education through the FY 2000 competition of the Eisenhower Regional Mathematics and Science Education Consortia Program. Each consortia will receive $1.47 million in the first year and $1.475 million annually for years 2-5 of the award.  The consortia program supports a regional and national technical assistance and dissemination system that focuses on mathematics and science education to help build the capacity of states and schools to implement their school reform initiatives. Grantees also help coordinate federal, state and local education plans and activities, and assist educators to adopt, adapt and implement promising and exemplary practices for improving teaching and learning.  The awardees are:  Appalachia Educational Laboratory, based in Charleston, West Virginia  Pacific Resources for Education and Learning, based in Honolulu, Hawaii  University of North Carolina at Greensboro  Southwest Educational Development Laboratory, based in Austin…

The Department of Energy has posted its selections for Phase I and Phase II awards under the FY 2000 competition of the agency’s Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Program. SSTI has been unable to obtain proposal statistics from DOE. Lists of the SBIR Phase I and Phase II awards can be found at: http://sbir.er.doe.gov/sbir/  and the STTR award lists are located at: http://sttr.er.doe.gov/sttr/  

Two-thirds of all U.S. research and development (R&D) expenditures in 1997 were concentrated in just ten states according to a July 10, 2000 Data Brief from the National Science Foundation. In contrast the 20 lowest ranking states in R&D expenditures accounted for only four percent of the $199 billion total.  The top 10 states by total R&D expenditures were: California ($41.7 billion), Michigan ($14.0 B), New York ($12.3 B), New Jersey ($12.1 B), Massachusetts ($11.1 B), Texas ($9.5 B), Pennsylvania ($8.2 B), Illinois ($8.0 B), Washington ($7.5 B), and Maryland ($7.4 B).  The Data Brief also graphically presents the ten-year trends for state R&D expenditures. With an annual, inflation-adjusted growth rate of 14 percent, New Hampshire experienced the greatest increase in R&D expenditures. Alabama saw the greatest decline at six percent. Real R&D growth for the country as a whole averaged two percent per year over the same period. States with real growth over the three percent threshold for statistical significance were (in alphabetical order):…

Increased cooperation among the private sector, federal and state governments, education, and the nonprofit community will be critical for sustaining our current economic boom, according to the National Coalition for Advanced Manufacturing (NACFAM), in its recent white paper, Smart Prosperity: An Agenda for Enhancing Productivity Growth. The plan is the culmination of the 20-month Advanced Manufacturing Leadership Forum, organized by NACFAM to provide strategic guidance and direction for policy development efforts.  After discussion of the role increases in manufacturing productivity has played in the strong economy, Smart Prosperity focuses on three key elements to continued growth: national research investment, workforce skills development and enhancing the small- and medium-sized manufacturing enterprise supply chains. The paper outlines a six-point policy agenda:  increasing the federal commitment to research in the engineering and physical sciences, with an emphasis on basic manufacturing science and technology;  expanding private commitment to longer-…

The Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC) has released a new report on the growing importance of development venture capital funds in attracting more private capital investment into the Appalachian Region. Co-sponsored by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the Federal Housing Finance Board, the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, and the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, the report outlines the need for development venture capital funds in rural and distressed communities, and presents several specific investment opportunities within Appalachia.  Capitalizing on Rural Communities notes that during the past two and one-half years, more than $50 billion in venture capital has been invested in the United States, mostly in high technology firms. However, only a small percentage of these investments—about one percent—has flowed into new businesses in the 13-state Appalachian Region.  To attract more equity financing and help small businesses expand, Appalachian communities increasingly are looking at development venture capital (DVC) funds as a first step toward…

The key for converting a community or region into the next high-tech hot-spot is an economic development strategy promoting the growth of fast-growing, high-risk companies and a strong networking culture, according to Building Companies, Building Communities, the latest report from the National Commission on Entrepreneurship. The brief report presents the findings of 18 focus groups held with more than 250 entrepreneurs across the country to discuss two topics: "what factors, other than their own business acumen, help them to succeed, and what factors make a community entrepreneurial?"  The four issues identified through the process were:  Finding and keeping talented people is the greatest obstacle for entrepreneurs these days -- ahead of the need for capital  The local business culture must nurture an entrepreneurial community through broad and informal networks.  Public policy can positively and negatively affect the ability of entrepreneurs to succeed. Dialogue between government and entrepreneurs is critical for entrepreneurial…

The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) has issued a special update to its 1997 study of the impacts of federal R&D on the New England states. The report is one of several AAAS has done examining the impacts of federal research investments on states and regions; others include the Midwest (Aug 96), the Pacific Northwest (Feb 97), the South Atlantic (Sep 97) and the Gulf States (April 1999). The latest includes state-level data on R&D, highlights of New England R&D, and several data tables. All eleven of the state and regional reports can be found at: http://www.aaas.org/spp/dspp/rd/states.htm 

After a frustrating week for many, the SSTI web site is back on line. We apologize for the problems with the site and email while we transitioned to a new web host. We've updated the conference web center (see related below), calendar of events, job postings and Digest archives for you. Please let us know (skinner@ssti.org) if you experience any problems (images or pages missing, bad links, etc.) 

Reservations for Beyond the Hype: Tools for Building Tech-based Economies and limited-seating, pre-conference workshops started coming in only hours after we posted the date (October 3-4), price (extremely reasonable) and location (Chicago) on our web site. We’re glad to see so many of you are as excited about this year’s conference as we are.  Sticking to this year’s theme, Beyond the Hype, we’ve identified great people from across the country to lead us in our exploration of 14 topics handpicked by SSTI’s state sponsors. The conference speakers will provide a good balance between discussion of the burning policy issues and practical techniques for tech-based economic development. The conference agenda and many of the speaker bios are now available on our conference web center at: http://www.ssti.org/Conf00/conf--00.htm 

The “New E-Conomy Transformation Act of 2000," legislation introduced in the District of Columbia (DC) Council, contains eleven incentives designed to help transform the DC economy. Councilmember David A Catania and the New E-conomy Advisory Group comprised of seven business leaders, developed the incentives targeted at companies engaged in e-commerce, Internet-based businesses, information technology, and other sectors of the New Economy. The Advisory Group identified barriers to locating in the District such as workforce development, affordable facilities and then crafted incentives designed to help businesses overcome them.  A brief summary of each incentive is listed below:  Workforce Development Employment Opportunity Relocation Cost Credits: Encourages high technology companies to locate in the District by providing a $5,000 per-employee tax credit to each company that moves at least 10 full-time jobs into the District for a total of up to $100,000 per company.  Employment Wage Credits: Offers a tax credit equal to 10 percent of…