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Stephen Jeffery has been appointed the new president/executive director of the Technology Association of Georgia.

Sandy Layman was named commissioner of the Iron Range Resources and Rehabilitation Agency (IRRRA) earlier this month. IRRRA promotes economic development in Northeastern Minnesota.

Tim Witsman recently resigned as president of the Wichita Area Chamber of Commerce to pursue other opportunities in the community. Witsman headed the area's lead economic development agency for 15 years.

Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. released last week his fiscal year 2007 budget request, providing a substantial boost in funding for the Utah Science, Technology and Research (USTAR) Initiative. In FY 2005, the legislature appropriated $4 million to fund the initial phase of the initiative. This year, the governor is recommending $62 million for infrastructure and programs.

Over the last 15 years, few states have been as focused on investing in higher education to encourage sustainable economic prosperity as Georgia. At SSTI's 9th Annual Conference on Oct. 19-21, 2005, presenters made the case that the southern state is a national leader in American higher education.

An increasing number of states are realizing the potential role renewable energy can play in their tech-based economic development strategies (TBED) and future growth.

Britain’s Pre Budget Report 2005, released Dec. 5, calls for the United Kingdom to double spending for stem cell research to £100M within the next two years and launch a number of new initiatives to sustain innovation and science.

In China, leaders of the rapidly growing nation dogged by soaring energy needs and unrelenting pollution problems made a commitment to double the nation’s use of renewable energy resources within the next 15 years.

Tuition at South Carolina's four-year public institutions increased by 106 percent over the five-year period, 1999-2004, the highest such increase in the nation, according to the Department of Education's National Center for Education Statistics (NCES).

Congress begins consideration of the Economic Development Administration (EDA) reauthorization legislation, which continues to include several initiatives to promote tech-based economic development. With the current authorization due to expire on September 30, 2003, the new legislation would authorize EDA's operations for five more years, beginning in FY 2004 and extending to FY 2008. The Administration's proposal includes $331.03 million for assistance programs and planning grants.

Within two years, Indiana's agency for promoting economic development will become a quasi public-private partnership similar in concept to the Michigan Economic Development Corporation.

While in Minnesota, an agreement that resolved the budget impasse gives the state's lead science and tech organization a 12-month timeline to fully privatize from the state's support.

The Army last week announced the creation of a $25 million Venture Capital Initiative (VCI) to satisfy a critical Army technology requirement — obtaining lighter, more efficient power sources for individual soldier systems.

A 19-year veteran of the technology-based economic development field has co-authored a guide that outlines strategies for growth in the knowledge-based economy. The Keys to Growth in the New Economy:Investing in Discovery, Engineering, and Entrepreneurship draws on the experiences of John Ahlen, who has led the Arkansas Science and Technology Authority (ASTA) since 1984. The report is co-authored by Mark Diggs, Chairman and CEO of Maryland-based Ontology Works, Inc.

Royalties on product sales from technology developed by Canadian and U.S. academic research institutions jumped to $845 million in 2001, up 12 percent from the previous year, according to the AUTM Licensing Survey: FY 2001. Gross licensing income received from licenses and options, however, declined from $1.26 billion in FY 2000 to only $1.071 billion in FY 2001 as 7 percent fewer new licenses and options were executed.

Initial public offerings (IPOs), the darlings of the dot-com boom, would be put on the endangered species list if they were a plant or animal — based on how few have been seen in the past year. Investor sentiment toward IPOs has been almost as negative since the bubble burst as the IT hype was positive before. But is the aversion to IPOs warranted? Have IPOs really become more risky than they were in years past?

A bill that includes $20 billion for state fiscal relief was to be voted on by U.S. senators Thursday, according to the Federal Funds Information for States (FFIS), a joint subscription service of the National Governors' Association and the National Conference of State Legislatures.

Whether it is oil, gas, logging or fishing, only one other state in the nation, Alaska, is as dependent on natural resource extraction as Wyoming. Using tech-based economic development to diminish the impact of the boom and bust cycles experienced by all "colonial" economies to diversify the state's economy has been one of the goals of Alaska's gubernatorial leaders since 1988, with the creation and continuation of the Alaska Science and Technology Foundation (ASTF).

The continuous decline of venture capital investing persisted in the First Quarter 2003 with total investments of $3.8 billion, down from the prior quarter of $4.3 billion, according to the latest PricewaterhouseCoopers/Thomson Venture Economics/National Venture Capital Association MoneyTree™ Survey. A total of 623 companies received funding in the first quarter compared to 726 companies in the fourth quarter of last year.

To help build the state's technology sectors, Governor Jeb Bush and the State Board of Education have selected Florida's first three Centers of Excellence. The Centers are designed to foster innovative, cutting-edge technology research at Florida’s colleges and universities, develop commercially viable applications for that research, and recruit high-tech industries and thinkers to the state.

The three projects are:

The National Association of Regional Councils (NARC) is holding on June 4 its fourth telecast on economic development. NARC is a nonprofit membership organization that assists regional councils and metropolitan planning organizations nationwide. Its telecast, "Three Rural Economic Development Strategies," will feature Dr. David Sampson, Assistant Secretary of Commerce, and Mark Drabenstott, Vice President of the Kansas City Federal Reserve to discuss economic development in rural areas.

Funding Supplement for Members Only in 2006 As long-time subscribers to the SSTI Weekly Digest know, during the past five years SSTI has published a separate element of the newsletter identifying federal and foundation funding opportunities that support either tech-based economic development directly or scientific inquiry and R&D.

At the end of November, President Bush signed the fiscal year 2006 Appropriations Bill for the Department of Energy & Water, H.R. 2419. A summary of the Administration's budget request for DOE is available in the Feb. 14 issue of the Digest. Highlights of the bill include:

Note: This is the first in a series of articles SSTI will be running over the next several weeks to provide synopses of selected breakout sessions from SSTI's 9th Annual Conference, held Oct. 19-21, 2005, in Atlanta. Ideas for 2006 conference sessions can be forwarded to skinner@ssti.org.

In another wing of the InterContinental Buckhead Atlanta, site of SSTI's 2005 conference, participants shared what their states and regions are doing in the area of encouraging the development and deployment of alternative energy.

The rise in the late 1990s in the concept of a "new economy" was coupled with the rapid growth in research and innovation investment within the information and communication technology (ICT) sector. When the dot-com bubble burst, some state and local strategies were revamped to look for the next big thing, which in many places was biotechnology or nanotechnology.