SSTI Digest

The latest issue of the National Commission on Entrepreneurship's E-News brought our attention to survey results revealing that, despite the media and Wall Street attention given to dot-coms, only 13.1 percent of recent college graduates would like to work for the start-up, Internet-based businesses given a choice. Fortune 500 companies were the preferred choice for 42.2 percent of the survey respondents, while 24.7 percent opted for small businesses (specifically not dot-coms). One-in-five respondents wanted to work for their own companies. Released in June, the survey was conducted by the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE). 

The Technology Administration of the Department of Commerce has prepared a web-based database of public, private, and educational programs and activities dedicated to developing the information technology workforce. The site is searchable geographically, by program type, by sponsor, or by keyword. Entities are invited to add information for additional programs and initiatives to the site as well. More information is available at: http://www.go4it.gov 

Our thanks to Keecia James at the Southern Technology Council for making us aware of this resource.

The National Governors’ Association (NGA) Center for Best Practices, with support from the Kauffman Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership (KCEL), will convene an 18-month policy academy this fall to help officials from ten states to develop strategies governors can use to support entrepreneurship. Idaho, Illinois, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Nevada, Utah, Washington and Wyoming were selected to participate in the policy academy project.

"The policy academy will involve a high level commitment by the states to achieve demonstrable results," said incoming Center Board Chair, Michigan Governor John Engler. "Governors will appoint teams of eight to ten senior staff, cabinet officials and entrepreneurs who will work together as a state team, led by a Governor’s policy advisor. Each team will share information and gain perspective from similar teams representing other states."

DoD 2000 SBIR Phase I Awards Announced The Department of Defense has posted the Phase I selections for the 00.1 Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Program solicitation. Out of the 4,829 proposals received, DoD awarded 856 SBIR Phase I grants, which equates to a  17.73 percent success rate.

The accompanying table presents both the distribution of awards and the number  of proposals submitted by state and by agency (# of awards received/# of proposals submitted). The state ranking corresponds to the number of awards received.

Abstracts for each Phase I award can be found on the agency's SBIR-STTR website: http://www.sbirsttr.com

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, as big defense contractors closed their doors and unemployment climbed, San Diego looked as if it might not recover. Between 1990-1993 alone, nearly 60,000 high-paying jobs were lost to defense and aerospace cutbacks. Although the region had some of the ingredients to be successful (defense technologies, a strong university, medical and bioscience institutes, and a desirable climate), the players did not come together to face their economic woes. It took losing two major bids for federal R&D facilities to spur community leaders to action.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) requests cooperative agreement proposals to support an intervention epidemiologic research study of HIV/AIDS. The purpose of the program is to evaluate how different levels of antiretroviral therapy affect HIV-1 infection. Eligible applicants include public and private nonprofit organizations, governments, universities, research institutions, hospitals, and Indian tribal organizations. A total of $400,000 is anticipated to fund two awards. Proposals are due by August 17, 2000. To view the complete RFP, visit: http://www.cdc.gov and click on “funding.”

The July-August issue of Technology Review, MIT's Magazine of Innovation, includes a special report on university research. The TR University Research Scorecard, written by TR associate editor Rebecca Zacks, ranks the top U.S. universities for their performance in patent quality (called "technological strength") and licensing revenues.

According to a study by Scarborough Research, a market research firm, Salt Lake City leads the country with 73 percent of households owning a PC. San Francisco and Washington DC follow closely behind with 72 and 71 percent respectively. The average home PC penetration across the 64 metropolitan markets measured is 59 percent. The survey, which has been done since 1997, found even the lowest ranked cities were nearing 50 percent; computers are in the homes of 46 percent of 64th-ranked Charleston, West Virginia.

The increasing importance of computers and the Internet also is evident. Two-thirds of all households with computers have Internet access. San Francisco, at the top of the list, has 75 percent of its homes with computers connected to the Net.

The standings could change fast, however, with 19 percent of all households currently without computers planning to purchase one in the next year.

Last week, Governor Gray Davis signed into law California’s $99.4 billion budget which provides nearly $305 million for science and technology related programs plus an additional $20 million in research and development tax credits. Specific  initiatives include:

The 21st Century Workforce Commission has released its final report, A Nation of Opportunity, and recommendations for developing the nation's new high tech workforce. The report provides an analysis of how leadership in regional partnerships of education, business and government can effectively address critical shortages of skilled workers in information technology jobs.

The Commission makes several recommendations for each of nine "Keys to Success" for overcoming the gap in IT workers and for increasing opportunities for changing composition of the American workforce and population. While intended to address IT, the report’s findings and recommendations have application across broader workforce issues in a knowledge-based economy.

The Commission's nine "Keys to Success" are:

In an effort to provide quality, high-speed telecommunications services throughout the state, North Dakota has committed $3 million for the first phase of a broadband telecommunications network that is expected to cost the state $20 million when completed. When the first phase is finished later this year, 218 locations in 64 communities will be connected.

“When complete, North Dakota’s network will provide the greatest universal access to high-speed telecommunication services of any rural state in the nation,” according to a Governor’s Office press release.

The initiative has three goals:

Public and private sources in the United States invest approximately $45 billion each year into medical research, but attempts to measure the return on that investment have been few. Exceptional Returns: The Economic Value of America’s Investment in Medical Research presents a preview of the findings of nine economists from the University of Chicago, Harvard University, Yale University, Stanford University and Columbia University. The paper’s release is timed to be of value for the 2001 budget debates in Congress.

In summary, the economists found: