SSTI Digest

The U.S. Department of Commerce is accepting nominations for the 1998 National Medal of Technology. The Medal of Technology recognizes technological innovators who have made lasting contributions to enhancing America's competitiveness and standard of living.

The Medal of Technology is awarded annually to individuals, teams, or companies for accomplishments in the innovation, development, commercialization, and management of technology, as evidenced by the establishment of new or significantly improved products, processes, or services.

Nominations must be submitted by

October 17. Eligibility requirements include:

President Clinton intends to nominate Ray Kammer to become the next director of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and Duncan Moore as the Associate Director for Technology in the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP). Both appointments must be confirmed by the Senate.

Kammer has served as the deputy director of NIST from 1980 to 1991 and from 1993 to the present. From 1991 to 1993 he was the Department of Commerce's Deputy Under Secretary for Oceans and Atmosphere. Most recently Kammer has been serving on an acting basis as chief financial officer, assistant secretary for administration and chief information officer for the Department of Commerce.

The post of NIST director has been vacant since Arati Prabhakar resigned in the spring to take a private sector position.

The Small Business Innovation Research Program (SBIR) and the Small Business Technology Transfer Program (STTR) were the focus of a hearing before the Technology Subcommittee of the House Science Committee last week. The subcommittee is considering re-authorization of the STTR program.

Discussion focused on three issues: (1) the effectiveness of SBIR and STTR in meeting program goals; (2) the geographic distribution of SBIR/STTR awards; and (3) the need to balance commercialization objectives with funding research to meet agency needs.

The State Science and Technology Institute (SSTI) recently released an issue brief that examines the current efforts of states to write and implement science and technology strategic plans. The report is entitled An Overview of State Science & Technology Strategic Planning.

The issue brief (1) presents an overview of states' science and technology strategic plans and the process by which they were developed; (2) examines the extent to which the plans explicitly address the needs of distressed areas; and, (3) describes science and technology strategic planning activities in Maryland, North Carolina, North Dakota, and Vermont.

SSTI found that 13 states adopted statewide science and technology strategic plans between 1991 and 1995. During this same time, 29 states adopted overall economic development strategies, some of which addressed the science and technology base in the state or the needs of particular technology-based industries.

The Federal Laboratory Consortium (FLC) has released a study entitled "Managing the Successful Transfer of Technology from Federal Facilities: A Survey of Selected Laboratories & Facilities in the Mid-Continent Region of the Federal Laboratory Consortium." The study was commissioned by the FLC and was undertaken by Chapman Research Group, Inc.

The study reports that some of the best practices for transferring technology include: incorporating technology transfer into strategic planning for the lab/installation; developing systematic valuation of technology transfer activities; aggressive management of intellectual property; and, innovative use of the CRADA mechanism.

The Oklahoma Center for the Advancement of Science and Technology (OCAST) is creating the Oklahoma Technology Commercialization Center. The Center will help technology-based firms assess their commercialization needs, guide them through the commercialization process, and link them to a network of technology sources and commercialization assistance services.

The Center will provide access to specialized business development services, early-stage risk financing, and help in transferring technology.

"OCAST's goal for the project is to increase per capita income in Oklahoma by achieving a critical mass of technology-oriented companies and entrepreneurs within the state, thereby attracting other similar firms," said Sheri Stickley, OCAST's director of Technology Development Programs.

Stickley said the Center will accomplish this by:

Virginia's Center for Innovative Technology (CIT) has adopted a new strategic plan through the year 2000. The new plan considers the appropriate balance between short-term and long-term goals and places CIT in a position to serve Virginia as it builds its 21st century knowledge-based economy.

The most significant change in the plan is the development of CIT's role in shaping Virginia's plans for technology. CIT will be a leader in the Commonwealth's efforts to develop and implement a technology strategy. Toward that goal, CIT has already assisted in the development of A Blueprint for Technology-Based Economic Growth in Virginia.

The Blueprint analyzes four key issues related to technology development. It also outlines specific actions Virginia must take to strengthen its economic competitiveness.

The Department of Commerce's Office of Technology Policy (OTP) recently released a policy paper that suggests the global environment affecting U.S. technology policy is changing rapidly, and policymakers are operating without current data or up-to-date conceptual frameworks.

The new report, The Global Context for U.S. Technology Policy, points out that "today's global competitive and technology landscape is profoundly different from the situation during much of the post-World War II period, when most of our current technology policies were developed."

The shifting balance between the U.S. and the rest of the world with respect to research and development activities in the last 40 years has been especially dramatic. In 1950, the U.S. performed 70 percent of the world's R&D activity. By 1994, the rest of the world was performing twice as much R&D as the U.S.

Price Waterhouse recently announced that venture capital investments hit an all-time record in the second quarter of 1997. Total investments exceeded $3.18 billion, a 13% increase over the $2.80 billion reported in the second quarter of 1996, which held the previous record. These findings were released in the Price Waterhouse Venture Capital Survey, a quarterly report of venture capital investments throughout the United States.

The following table represents the amount of venture capital dollars invested by region in the second quarter:

The Department of Energy (DOE) recently announced that, for the first time, its computing resources will be made available to academic researchers. The California Institute of Technology, Stanford University, the University of Chicago, the University of Illinois at Urbana/Champaign and the University of Utah were selected as DOE's Academic Strategic Alliances Program (ASAP) Centers of Excellence.

The program will team the universities with three national laboratories - Sandia, Livermore and Los Alamos - to develop advanced computer modeling and simulations to certify the safety and reliability of nuclear weapons in support of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, as well as broader national goals.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has announced that, as a first step in the transition from paper to electronic exchange of information, it is reformatting the current Notice of Grant Award (NGA) form.

Effective October 1, all NIH grant, cooperative agreement, and fellowship awards will be issued in a letter format. The new letter-format NGA will no longer provide

a cumulative record of all transactions affecting the particular budget period. For example, a supplemental award will only reflect the amount of the supplemental action, not the cumulative support for that budget period.

The Modernization Forum, a national association for the manufacturing extension community, seeks a project manager to join its team of professionals who work with the manufacturing extension community nationwide.

The project manager's responsibilities will include report research and writing, analysis of trends relevant to manufacturing extension, project management, direct interaction with member organizations across the country, and significant contributions to seminars and the annual national conference.

The complete job description can be found on SSTI's home page at http://www.ssti.org. For more information, contact Carol Lessure, Research Director for The Modernization Forum, at 313/271-2790 ext. 7, or by e-mail at clessure@modforum.org