SSTI Digest

Connecticut Gov. Jodi Rell named Marie O'Brien to oversee the Connecticut Development Authority.

Connecticut Lt. Gov. M. Jodi Rell was sworn in as the state’s 87th governor on July 1, taking over from former Gov. John Rowland, who resigned amid a federal corruption investigation and a threatened impeachment for allegedly accepting gifts from employees and state contractors. Senate President Pro Tem Kevin Sullivan was sworn in as Lieutenant Governor. Rell is a Republican, while Sullivan is a Democrat.

The winners of the Siemens Westinghouse/AAAS Competition for the Best Teen Scientists and Mathematicians of the Year were announced this week: 17-year-old Yin Li of New York City was the individual grand prize winner for his project "Characterizing the Prion Properties of a Translational Regulator Expressed in Mouse Brain." Brothers Mark and Jeffrey Scheider, 18 and 16, respectively, of South Windsor, Conn., won the grand prize in the team category for the "Simulation of the West Nile Virus using STELLA 7.02." Each award comes with a $100,000 prize. More information, including a list of all national winners, is available at: http://www.aaas.org/news/releases/2003/1208siemensIntro.shtml

The Connecticut Technology Council has named Matthew Nemerson as its new President and CEO, replacing Michael Theodore.

Connecticut-based bioscience research and development (R&D) investment in 2001 totaled $3.6 billion, an 18 percent increase over 2000, according to the Seventh Annual Economic Report of Connecticut United for Research Excellence (CURE), Connecticut's bioscience Cluster. 2001 Gains and Future Opportunities, released last week at Yale University, highlights several economic indicators that demonstrate the growth of the bioscience industry in Connecticut, including: Connecticut's bioscience cluster total R&D investments increased 139 percent to $3.6 billion between 1995 and 2001. The most significant growth, 437 percent to $277 million, was noted in the biotechnology sector. Companies reporting from the biotechnology sector raised nearly $557 million in private and public capital last year despite a difficult financial environment nationally. Connecticut-based pharmaceutical R&D companies now account for more than 12 percent of all R&D dollars spent by the nation's pharmaceutical companies. Total cluster employment in 2001 increased 3 percent…

This is the fifth installment in the "Tech-talkin' Govs" series which provides highlights of programs, policies, and issues included in the Governors' addresses related to tech-based economic development. Connecticut John G. Rowland, Budget Address, February 6, 2002 http://www.state.ct.us/governor/news/budget2002.htm Announced "21st Century UCONN," a second ten-year $1 billion bond schedule of rebuilding and revitalizing the University of Connecticut. Ohio Bob Taft, State of the State Address, February 5, 2002 http://www.state.oh.us/gov/MajorSpeeches/sos2002.htm To address the brain drain, provide workforce investment money to help create 10 new graduate retention programs throughout Ohio by the end of the year. Third Frontier Project — invest $1.6 billion over the next ten years to provide better research facilities and create new centers of innovation. The Project includes: $500 million over the next 10 years for the Technology Action Fund and the Biomedical Research Fund. Derived from the state'…

They may be separated by more than 6,000 miles, but tech-based economic development initiatives in Hawaii and Connecticut have adopted similar strategies to encourage the commercialization of alternative energy technologies: they're buying them.  Using the purchasing power of the public sector to affect change has been an effective tool in the past for socio-political projects ranging from helping topple the apartheid regime in South Africa to addressing environmental goals such as providing a large enough market for recycled paper products to warrant the substantial private investment needed in pulp mill construction and refurbishment.  Combining public purse strings with the need to demonstrate commercially unproven-yet-promising technologies such as all-electric cars and fuel cells, however, is a less commonly applied strategy. Public transportation projects, such as buses run on natural gas, provide perhaps the most widely known application of the concept.  An advantage to technology demonstration projects using public…

After seven years of serving as the first president of the Connecticut Technology Council, Laura Kent is resigning her position at the end of June. The Council now boasts over 400 members.

With 26 percent more of its workforce involved in information technology (IT) than the national average and with IT-producing industries growing faster in the state than the national average, Connecticut has possibly felt the pinch of the IT worker shortage more than other parts of the country. Add to that the fact that the number of IT-related graduates from the state’s universities and community colleges declined during the late 1990s. As a result, last year the state legislature ordered the development of a statewide IT workforce development strategy. Responsibility for the plan was given to the state Office for Workforce Competitiveness (OWC) and the Connecticut Economic Resource Center, Inc. (CERC). CERC is a private, not-for-profit 501(C)(6) corporation formed through a partnership of utility/telecommunications companies and state government in 1992. The challenge for the state, according to the draft plan, is to integrate IT workforce skills development “in a practical manner across the full knowledge supply chain” of K-12, colleges, universities,…

The 2000 session of the Connecticut legislature proved to be an active and favorable one for the state’s technology community and Connecticut Innovations, Inc. The Connecticut Technology Council summarized the session this way, “For the first time in recent memory, the debate at the Capitol was not over whether legislation affecting tech companies would pass, but which legislation affecting tech companies would pass.” A shift in legislature focus to broader strategic policies rather than bills that incrementally modify programs gets much of the credit, according to the Council. “The 2000 session was marked by an increased level of understanding of technology issues by the General Assembly and to their importance in the state’s cluster-based economic development strategy, ” according to the Council's summary of the session. Bills affecting science and technology approved by the legislature include: An Act Concerning Education Aid (Public Act 00-187)  Establishes within Connecticut Innovations a high technology research and development program for the purpose of…

After only ten years of investments, Connecticut Innovations, Inc. achieved a net income of $21.4 million in 1999, according to Connecticut Innovations’ latest annual report. The corporation reversed a deficit of over $20 million in retained earnings accumulated through 1995 to a positive $24.7 million by June 30, 1999. The corporation's record provides one of the strongest examples of successful state-funded, technology-based seed and venture capital investment to date. Surpassing another significant milestone, total fund equity for Connecticut Innovations grew to slightly more than $103 million. The return on fund equity was 20.8 percent in 1999, also a new best for the corporation. Connecticut Innovations reported an internal rate of return on its equity and near-equity portfolio of 40 percent since inception. Connecticut Innovations is the State of Connecticut’s leading investor in high technology, making risk capital investments in entrepreneurial companies across the state. The corporation has several different financial and technical programs and investment funds to assist qualified…

Senators Bill Frist (R-TN) and Joe Lieberman (D-CT), Co-chairs of the Science & Technology Caucus, issued a joint statement reacting to the Clinton Administration’s FY 2000 budget request for R&D. Calling the President’s request a "mixed blessing," the senators praised the commitment to civilian R&D, while disagreeing with proposed cuts for defense research of nearly six percent. The senators also raised concern that in future years, according to the President’s projections and citing spending caps, appropriations for much of the civilian R&D program would see only modest increases, remain static or even face reductions. Earlier this month, Senator Frist introduced S 726, legislation calling for doubling federal civilian R&D spending over the next twelve years; Senator Lieberman was a co-sponsor of the bill (see related article). In the House, Science Committee Chair James Sensenbrenner (R-WI) issued an eight-page critical reaction to the Administration’s budget request for R&D. Rep. Sensenbrenner said the President’s budget overspends the budget cap by $17 billion…