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Atlanta, Georgia 

With disaster comes opportunity for dramatic changes to occur through the healing and rebuilding processes. Floods, hurricanes and tornados have helped to energize devastated areas into becoming more vibrant communities. The deep recession of the late 80s and restructuring of many key industrial sectors ushered in many state tech-based economic development programs, the benefits of which are being felt more than a decade later. 

larta has issued its 2002 Federal Technology Funding Guide, a survey of federal funding sources for technology firms. The sixth edition of the guide provides information on more than 90 regularly scheduled programs, hundreds of links to resources on the Web, and a special section funding for technologies to fight terrorism. An index identifies program by technology area or funding emphasis. 

While the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the National Science Foundation (NSF) have voiced caution and funded efforts to understand the potential societal and environmental implications of nanotechnology deployment, both agencies announced much larger funding commitments - totaling $213 million - to expedite commercial applications for the explosive field.

Nanotech Solutions for Cancer

During the states' fiscal crisis, a number of TBED programs were eliminated, while others survived. SSTI staff spent a fair amount of time analyzing what the survivors had in common, and we boiled the results down to three items that successful TBED programs have in common. While it may seem simplistic, the three commonalities are:

In order to provide further incentives for crucial research and development (R&D) and to encourage more industries to carry out R&D in Scotland, Scottish Enterprise, the economic development agency for Scotland has launched a new funding scheme.

Thirty-six states received failing grades on a biennial report card that reveals the cost of attending college represents a higher portion of American families’ incomes today than it did a decade ago. A separate report from the Pell Institute supports those conclusions by showing students from the lower-income bracket are finding it more difficult than ever to keep pace with rising tuition costs.

The importance a well educated populace plays in a knowledge-based economy is a given for most tech-based economic development strategies. Ensuring that a larger percentage of the population pursues that education through and beyond high school is another matter -- often the responsibility of other state agencies, organizations and decision makers.

Two reports released during this past week examine state fiscal conditions for FY 2002 and a slowing national economy following the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11.



State Fiscal Outlook for FY 2002: October Update

Philanthropic individuals and foundations are increasingly vital contributors for tech-based economic development, particularly for "big-ticket" initiatives. Most gifts, such as that covered in the second item below, are tied to a specific relationship with a university or field of research, working independently of the strategies or programs developed by state or local tech-based economic development organizations.

Nearly every state legislature annually appropriates some level of funding to support research and development activities in the state's nonprofit, university, and industrial research communities. Few, though, have developed long-term, systematic attempts to measure the impact of those investments.

With almost every state seeing declining revenues in light of the recession and Sept. 11 attacks, projections from the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities that the economic stimulus package passed by the House on Wednesday could further reduce states’ revenues by as much as $5 billion for each of the next three years may further exacerbate the problem.

The Pittsburgh Technology Council's State of the Industry Report shows the region's technology sector, while continuing its growth, has become a significant driver of southwestern Pennsylvania's overall economy. 

The Army Research Office (ARO) recently created an initiative – a University Affiliated Research Center (UARC) to be known as the Institute for Soldier Nanotechnologies – to develop nanometer-scale science and technology solutions for soldiers. 

Meeting Challenges in the New Economy, recently released by the Oklahoma Center for the Advancement of Science and Technology (OCAST), presents a comprehensive look at Oklahoma's position in science and technology. 

Venture capital invested during the past three decades created 7.6 million U.S. jobs and more than $1.3 trillion in revenue as of the end of 2000, according to an economic impact study released Monday by the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA). 

A national conference since 1997, the RuralTeleCongress (RTC) has transformed into a national organization devoted to rural telecommunications. RTC, which held its inaugural session October 14-16 at the Aspen Institute in Colorado, has launched a redesigned website as part of its transformation. 

Jefferson County, Missouri 

During the recent past, heavy loss of manufacturing jobs has created considerable economic upheaval in several states, particularly the industrial heartland of the country where manufacturing represents more of a state's private payrolls than the national average. Michigan, alone, lost 18 percent of its manufacturing-related jobs from 2000 to 2003, a staggering 163,000 mostly high-wage jobs. Still, the manufacturing sector comprises 17 percent of the total jobs in the Great Lakes state.

Seekers for evidence of the increasingly global nature of competition on the research and innovation levels need look no further than some recent announcements stemming from Malaysia.

The role community colleges play in building tech economies has grown substantially during the past decade beyond important, yet traditional, worker training programs. A new compendium from the National Association for Community College Entrepreneurship (NACCE) provides several examples of efforts by its 14-member community colleges and technical schools to foster entrepreneurship. Highlighted programs include:

The presentations from last week's conference, Knowledge Clusters and Entrepreneurship in Regional Economic Development, now available online, provide a good introduction to many of the topics and issues to be discussed at SSTI's annual conference, Building Tech-based Economies: Preparing for Tomorrow's Challenges, in Philadelphia, Oct. 13-15.

Both the Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) and the Advanced Technology Program (ATP) would see budget increases in FY 2005 if the version of the Commerce, Justice, State Appropriations Bill that passed the Senate Appropriations Committee last week survives what is expected to be a contentious conference with the House on an mega-omnibus appropriations bill sometime after the election.

More than half since recession "officially" ended

There is little comforting news in a new statistical report for workers in the U.S. information and communication technologies (ICT) sector. Researchers from the University of Illinois-Chicago found the sector lost 403,300 jobs between March 2001 and April 2004.

While it appears that federal programs in the U.S. have succeeded in efforts to increase enrollment in higher education, the nation has fallen behind in retaining college graduates, according to a new report from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).