While rural regions strive to establish basic high-speed Internet connections, larger cities such as St. Louis, Oklahoma City and Roanoke, Va., are looking to establish free, wireless Internet access across several blocks to encourage economic development. Recent reports show efforts are underway to speed the technology's deployment in each of the metro areas.
More workers in North Carolina will be trained for jobs in biotechnology, thanks to the Golden LEAF Foundation's recent $60 million commitment to the emerging industry. In all, $64.5 million is going toward a training initiative, with North Carolina's biotech industry expected to contribute $4.5 million.
Perhaps most state and local technology-based economic development (TBED) professionals are not aware of a debate going on within academia, but some of the finger-pointing is directed toward you.
America’s institutions of higher education are undergoing a tremendous transition as the image of an independent and objective Ivory Tower morphs into a structure more closely resembling the modern corporate research facility.
Balancing the role of universities and colleges in economic development can be tricky, as Dr. Bok points out in his new book (see article above), but its important role in building stronger tech-based economies cannot be overstated. SSTI’s 7th annual conference, to be held in Seattle on October 21-22, presents the best opportunity of the year for developing a great understanding of the most effective ways for local and state economies to benefit from the academic research enterprise.
New university-based research efforts in biodesign, nanotechnology, embedded systems and virtual manufacturing show that Arizona has stepped forward to compete in the knowledge economy, according to a recent study by Morrison Institute for Public Policy, a unit of Arizona State University.
The Department of Commerce is accepting nominations for the 2004 National Medal of Technology awards, the nation’s highest honor awarded by the President to America's leading technological innovators.
Alaska, with 25.7 percent of its academic R&D expenditures coming from industrial sources, ranks first in the U.S. in the amount of industry-funded R&D at its academic institutions, according to new data released by the National Science Foundation (NSF). An NSF report, Survey of Research and Development Expenditures at Universities and Colleges, FY 2001, shows $28.4 million of Alaska's $110.2 million in academic R&D expenditures in 2001 were industry-supplied.
After months of analyzing data and hundreds of interviews, organizers of western North Carolina's Future Forward economic development strategy only await the study's approval by local governments. Future Forward is aimed at improving economic development conditions for 12 counties in the Western Piedmont and Mountains of North Carolina located in the 10th and 11th Congressional Districts — Alexander, Burke, Caldwell, Catawba, Iredell, Lincoln, Rutherford, Avery, Mitchell, Watauga, Wilkes and McDowell counties.
TOP Reauthorized and To Grow, Says Senate Commerce Committee
Climate change. Global warming. Foreign oil dependency. Natural gas prices. Ozone alerts. Brownouts. Increasingly, energy related items grab the headlines, copy space and news coverage across America.
Recently released information on per capita income by state reveals the dramatic impact the dot-com boom and bust, plus the economic slowdown has had on income levels. Analyzing per capita income from 1998 to 2002 indicates that during that time every state but Nevada saw their per capita income increase. However, almost half of the states (23) peaked in 2000 and their per capita income has declined since.
Two of the most critical issues in today's tech-based economic development (TBED) involve money — funding for companies and funding for TBED programs.
Large-Scale Biomedical Science: Exploring Strategies for Future Research
The Human Genome Project, considered by life scientists to be their first foray into "big science," has paved the way for future large-scale projects that promise to lead to faster improvements in human health. But no guidelines on how to organize and fund such initiatives in the biomedical sciences have been available — until now.
Before ending its 2003 session, the Rhode Island legislature signed off on nearly all of the technology-based economic development (TBED) initiatives at the core of Gov. Donald Carcieri's strategy to help the state rebound from the down economy. First outlined in his Feb. 4 State of the State Address (see the Feb.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced earlier this week the availability of $6 million in USDA Rural Development grant funds to support rural economic and community development efforts.
The unsettled nature of the venture capital industry is well depicted in two differing reports released Tuesday. Both detail venture capital investments for the second quarter of 2003, but offer a conflicting picture of U.S. investing activity.
The City of Spokane and a group of local organizations have penned a strategic plan designed to help the city and the Inland Northwest achieve an Innovation Economy.
Nearly 60 percent of the new jobs in the knowledge-based economy of the early 21st century will require skills that are held by just 20 percent of the present workforce, states a new report released by the National Coalition for Advanced Manufacturing (NACFAM). The Case for Enhancing American Workforce Skills examines a growing skills gap in the nation's manufacturing sector and the problems employers have in finding skilled workers able to deal with technological changes in the workplace.
Until now, the opportunities have been fairly limited for tech-based economic developers to learn from the lessons of fellow practitioners running successful entrepreneurship programs.
Small businesses in the U.S. should consider a wide and complex range of factors before investing in foreign patents, recommends a new report prepared by the U.S. General Accounting Office (GAO).
We recognize that SSTI's annual conference quickly has become the premier professional development event annually for the tech-based economic development field. It's quite an honor, but it is also quite an obligation. Our conference participants have come to expect a level of unsurpassed quality. At least, that's what they tell us in the evaluations.
The backdrop for this year's annual meeting of the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) was painted in budget cuts, tax increases and nearly three years of gloomy economic news. Only adding salt to the wounds, the meeting was held in California, a state whose FY 2003 deficit – now carried over into FY 2004 because of partisan squabbling – could swallow the entire budget approved in more than half of the states in attendance.
As states forecast the worst fiscal crisis in half a century may be ending, the nation's mayors, too, see marked economic improvement on the horizon, according to a report released last Thursday by the U.S. Conference of Mayors. However, they remain concerned that the economy is still not generating jobs at a sufficient level for U.S. workers.
The 2004 budget for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, as passed by the House of Representatives mid-July, includes $678 million for the Distance Learning, Telemedicine and Broadband program (DLT). Through loans, grants and loan and grant combinations, DLT provides the facilities and equipment to link rural education and medical facilities with more urban centers and other facilities.
Late last week, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) released a Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) calling for academic white papers that will focus on specific areas related to social science issues. This is the first step in the review process for colleges and universities that would like to be selected as a Homeland Security Center of Excellence (HS-Center). The Department anticipates selecting at least one HS-Center by end of November 2003 and up to nine more HS-Centers by end of 2004.