SSTI Digest

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. Moore is the Dean of the School of Engineering and Applied Science at the University of Rochester. A physicist by training with a specialization in optics, he also has experience in technology policy including serving as a congressional science and engineering fellow to Sen. Jay…

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. Under STTR, authorized by the Small Business Research and Development Enhancement Act of 1992, federal agencies which have an extramural research and development budget in excess of $1 billion must designate for technology transfer a certain percentage of those budgets for small business. The program operates in a manner similar to SBIR but STTR projects must involve cooperative research by a small business and a non-profit research institution, i.e. a university, college, non-profit research center or government-owned and contractor-operated laboratory …

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. Funding for the report was provided by the U.S. Department of Commerce's Economic Development Administration. A final report outlining best…

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 largest problem still impeding technology transfer is the general lack of top management support at the departmental or agency level. However, the study reports that there is the recognition of the need to change the culture at the laboratory/facility. Management is increasingly aware that "attention must be paid to both current and potential clientele. More effort must be devoted to outreach, making known the capabilities…

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: Accelerating the commercialization process Creating an environment that supports technology-based businesses Creating partnerships between firms and Oklahoma's universities Providing access to early-stage capital Providing expert…

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 Blueprint defines four areas as critical to Virginia's technology competitiveness: development of a highly-skilled workforce; implementation of a knowledge-based infrastructure; the nurturing of an entrepreneurial environment; and the deployment of manufacturing and information…

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. Despite a more dynamic and competitive global economy, the report cites several key industries in which U.S. performance is strong. Information technology and biotechnology are two areas where sustained public investment…

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: Region Investment Amount % of Total Silicon Valley 1,034,247,000 32.5% New England 316,984,000 10.0% New York Metro 300,230,000 9.4% Southeast 282,906,000 8.9% Midwest 196,437,000 6.2% Texas 175,781,000 5.5% LA/Orange County 170,657,000 5.4% San Diego 128,420,000 4.0%…

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. DOE operates the world's fastest computer at Sandia National Laboratories. It is building computers at Lawrence Livermore and Los Alamos National Laboratories that will be three times faster than the Sandia computer. DOE sought assistance from the universities to develop skills and techniques for using this computing power to maintain the nation's nuclear stockpile. The Academic Strategic…

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. NIH has begun pilot testing the electronic NGA with a small group of grantee institutions. These institutions have provided NIH with a generic E-mail address established for this purpose. NIH recommends that any grant recipients wishing to receive electronic NGAs establish a generic and stable E-mail address specifically for this purpose. Similar to the current paper process, the NGA will be sent to the designated e-mail address. The grantee institution will be responsible for…

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

On Tuesday, President Clinton signed two budget bills, approved last week by Congress: one aims to balance the budget by the year 2002, and a companion piece cuts taxes by a net $95 billion over five years. The Taxpayer Relief Act of 1997 includes a provision that extends the 20 percent federal research and development tax credit from May 31, 1997 to June 30, 1998. The Act, while not providing a two-year extension that proponents sought, provides continuity for the program. The tax credit is not a permanent provision and was allowed to expire for months between 1995 and 1996. The Act also includes a three-year Brownfields tax incentive that will reduce the cost of cleaning up thousands of contaminated, abandoned sites in economically distressed areas by permitting clean-up costs to be deducted immediately for tax purposes. The Treasury Department estimates that this $1.5 billion tax incentive would leverage more than $6 billion for private sector cleanups nationwide, allowing redevelopment of 14,000 Brownfield sites. Details of the measures now must be written into 13…