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The Senate unanimously confirmed Anne B. Pope of Tennessee as Federal Co-Chairwoman of the Appalachian Regional Commission. Pope currently serves as Commissioner of the Tennessee Department of Commerce and Insurance.

Lewis D. "Luke" Rich, a vice president and Western New York regional director for Empire State Development Corp., is taking early retirement at the end of the year.

Ellis Rubinstein, former editor of the magazine Science, has been appointed to serve as Chief Executive Officer of the New York Academy of Sciences.

At the University of New Mexico, Avi Shama has been named Special Advisor to the President on Economic Development. The new position will encourage, coordinate and promote economic development activities of various UNM units.

Jack Spencer is the new president of the Georgia Biomedical Partnership.

Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) is joining Sen. Bill Frist (R-TN) as co-chair of the monthly Congressional Forum on Technology and Innovation.

The need for the creation of high-wage jobs through tech-based economic development continues to grow at a time when many states are finding it increasingly difficult to make the necessary investments to be true players in a knowledge-based economy.

What constitutes high tech employment? Through aggressive marketing of its annual reports, the AEA, formerly known as the American Electronic Association, has captured most of the media's attention around the country. While a very good report, AEA's Cyberstates only reports employment in its member industries, which represents just one-third of the nation's industrial R&D.

Howard Bell is the new executive director of Wayne State University's Research and Technology Park. One of the state's SmartZones, the park was recently named the permanent site for Michigan's $50 Million NextEnergy Center.

Laurence Gebhardt has been selected to serve as the first director of Idaho's TechConnect East.

Howard Bell is the new executive director of Wayne State University's Research and Technology Park. One of the state's SmartZones, the park was recently named the permanent site for Michigan's $50 Million NextEnergy Center.

Laurence Gebhardt has been selected to serve as the first director of Idaho's TechConnect East.

Chuck Henderson has announced he will retire as president of the University of Nebraska's 130-acre Technology Park next June.

As the House passed its version of the fiscal year 2006 defense appropriations bill last Monday, "Little R, Big D" once again may describe the country's R&D priorities for the largest component of the federal budget.

With hopes of creating a geographic concentration of academic and private bioscience research and commercialization, the Louisiana legislature ended its 2005 session with passage of a bill creating a new development authority.

Technology commercialization can be a slow and arduous process, often taking years to reap the benefits of the investment. Recognizing that defense technology innovations move too slowly from the lab to the field, Congress created three programs within the Department of Defense (DoD) to speed and enhance the transition.

With SSTI's compilation of the FY 2003 Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) proposal and award statistics by state, tech-based economic development programs - specifically SBIR assistance and outreach efforts - now have the requisite data to evaluate conversion trends for most agencies during the four-year period 2001-2004.

The San Antonio Technology Accelerator Initiative (SATAI) Network, a nonprofit organization, is accepting applications from qualified candidates to fill the position of President and CEO. The SATAI Network seeks someone with strong leadership and team-building skills, as well as experience in linking venture capital to venture creation and cultivating an environment and resources for start-up enterprises.

SSTI's annual conference is already considered by many to be the nation's premier educational and networking experience for the tech-based economic development community. However, the ninth annual conference to be held October 20-21, 2005 - keeping with years past - gives certified economic development professionals even more reason to attend.

Universities should revamp how they evaluate S&T teaching, report says

Economic growth in a regional economy can be positively linked to an increase in intensity of industry R&D, according to recent research by Marios Zachariadis of Louisiana State University. R&D, Innovation, and Technological Progress: A Test of the Schumpeterian Framework without Scale Effects, released in September 2002, establishes a connection among R&D intensity, patenting, technological change and economic growth.

Manufacturing jobs in rural Minnesota numbered almost 120,000 in 2000, a 25 percent increase since 1990, according to a recent study by the Center for Rural Policy and Development and Minnesota Technology Inc., two agencies dedicated to helping industry in Greater Minnesota.

Two independent surveys of venture capital investments made during the third quarter of FY 2002 suggest the downward trends in the flow of money and number of VC placements will continue.

Competition Canceled in Florida

More than 100 technology clusters may exist in the Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC) area, but challenges to exploit and nurture the clusters still exist. A new report analyzes the ARC region's concentration of technology resources at a sub-regional level and uncovers localized technology strengths that might be promoted through concentrated economic development policy.

Many states have made substantial strides in preparing students for college-level education, but widespread gains in the proportion of Americans going to college have not been made, according to Measuring Up 2002, a report released by the independent, nonprofit, nonpartisan National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education. The report finds that overall college opportunity in America also is at a standstill, remaining unevenly and unfairly distributed.