SSTI Digest

The Coopers & Lybrand Money Tree Report, reported on in the March 7 issue of the Digest, inadvertently omitted Ohio from its list of the top states receiving venture capital investments in 1996. The Survey should have ranked Ohio tenth with $279.0 million in investments. This revised information drops Virginia to 11th with $275.7 million, New Jersey to 12th with $264.3 million, and Tennessee to 13th with $261.5 million.

The present organizational structure for science and technology advice in the White House should be retained and its operations fine-tuned to better serve the needs of the President, according to recommendations of the Carnegie Commission on Science, Technology, and Government.

The Commission suggests integrating the various S&T advisory organizations more fully into the operations of the White House and Executive Office and to focus the S&T advice on presidential priorities and initiatives. For example, the Commission recommends that the Assistant to the President for Science and Technology should give primary attention to serving the President and should play a policy and advisory role similar to that of other Assistants to the President.

The Commission's recommendations include:

NASA selected the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston to lead a consortium for its new National Space Biomedical Research Institute.

The space agency started the selection process last spring when it announced its intent to establish science institutes as a means of maintaining the scientific excellence of its applied biomedical research through greater involvement of the scientific community in NASA's overall research program. (SSTI Weekly Digest, May 3, 1996). The National Space Biomedical Research Institute is the first such organization to be formed.

New York Governor George Pataki amended his proposed FY 1997-98 budget to restore funding for the state's technology programs. Pataki's revised budget calls for more than $20 million for technology programs, almost twice what was originally submitted to the legislature in January.

The new request calls for more than $16 million for university-industry projects, including Centers for Advanced Technology (CATs). Funding was also restored for the Industrial Technology Extension Service (ITES) and the Technology Development Organizations (TDOs) which operate New York's Manufacturing Extension Program (MEP). ITES and the TDOs had been eliminated from the Governor's Executive Budget.

Results are in from a new nationwide survey of 2,000 manufacturing executives conducted by the National Association of Manufacturing (NAM). Nearly two-thirds of the respondents to the 1997 Survey on Economic Growth believe that a lack of skilled workers is hindering their ability to grow. Sixty-four percent of those surveyed report that a significant number of their entry level employees do not have the skills needed to help increase productivity and growth.

NAM also reports that 65 percent of the respondents invest between one and five percent of annual payroll in worker education and training. Eleven percent invested between six and ten percent of payroll while twenty-two percent spend less than one percent of annual payroll on worker development.

Nominations of individuals to serve on the Sea Grant Review panel are being solicited. The panel advises the National Sea Grant College Program on the operations of the program, including review of applications or proposals for grants and contracts and the designation and operation of sea grant colleges and sea grant regional consortia.

Resumes should be sent to Dr. Ronald Baird, National Sea Grant College Program, 1315 East-West Highway, Room 11716, Silver Spring, MD 20910 by March 26. A copy of the full Federal Register notice describing the panel can be obtained by calling SSTI at 614/421-SSTI (7784).