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The seventh installment of SSTI's Tech Talkin' Govs series includes excerpts from speeches delivered in Alabama, Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Rhode Island. The first six installments are available in the Jan. 5, Jan. 12, Jan. 19, Jan.

Lawmakers approved many of Gov. Bob McDonnell's proposals aimed at growing Virginia's technology and life sciences industries by dedicating about half of the funding requested by the governor to support R&D, commercialization, SBIR matching grants, and funding for early stage equity investments.

Established to focus solely on job creation and replace the state's Department of Commerce, Wisconsin's new public-private partnership would receive nearly $200 million over the next two years for operating expenses and to administer economic development programs. Lawmakers also will consider measures to improve existing tax programs focused on enhancing angel investments and eliminating capital gains taxes during the upcoming legislative session. Gov.

Over the last week, several states have announced/passed new programs focused on increasing the capital available to spur small business growth and innovation. Officials from New Jersey announced the state's new angel tax credit will take effect July 1. In Arizona and Wisconsin two bills await gubernatorial approval that would rework the Arizona R&D tax credit program and establish a $75 million venture capital fund in Wisconsin. Meanwhile, the Minnesota state legislature did not approve an additional $5 million for its popular Small Business Investment Tax Credit.

For several states, this year's legislative session resulted in continued austerity toward new investments and level funding for established tech-based initiatives producing good results. Workforce initiatives seemed to be the exception, garnering greater attention from state leaders eager to boost employment numbers — especially in high-tech fields.

SSTI is honored to welcome advertising legend Dan Wieden, co-founder+global executive director of Wieden+Kennedy and the man behind the "Just Do It" slogan as the keynote speaker for SSTI's 2013 Annual Conference being held in Portland, OR, September 15-17.

Dan Wieden grew up in Portland, graduated from the University of Oregon and worked briefly in public relations before trying his hand at copywriting. In retrospect, it wasn't such a bad career move.

Earlier this month, President Obama announced plans to expand broadband and wireless Internet access to every school and library in the U.S. The new initiative, ConnectEd, has a goal of connecting 99 percent of students to the Internet within five years by having the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) modernize and leverage its existing E-Rate program. The president claimed that millions of students lack access to high-speed broadband and fewer than 20 percent of educators say that their school's internet connection meets their needs, particularly those in rural America.

Business, civic, and political leaders in St. Louis are coming together to raise $100 million in private funds over the next five years to support the Regional Entrepreneurial Initiative, a new effort aimed at helping emerging regional businesses grow and thrive. The project was launched with funding from the federal government and will draw on several ongoing fundraising initiatives in the community.

State economies appear to be re-energizing after several years of slow recovery from recession, according to the Spring 2013 Fiscal Survey of States by the National Association of State Budget Officers (NASBO) and the National Governors Association (NGA). As a result, state government revenues also are improving with 42 governors recommending higher spending levels in FY14. Total FY13 spending, however, remains below the pre-recession 2008 peak, and much of the increased spending will be dedicated to areas where spending was reduced over the past five years.

The Manufacturing Institute, in partnership with the National Science Foundation, has released an inaugural roster for the “M-List,” which includes academic institutions training workers up to industry standards in advanced manufacturing. M-List schools have designed their curriculums to compliment industry standards and provide their students with credentials through the NAM-Endorsed Manufacturing Skills Certification System.

Two projects, one in the United Kingdom and another in Africa, are working to improve the information economy, university training and research in their respective regions. A new United Kingdom strategy includes a partnership between the national government, industry, and academia in support of the information technology sector. In Africa, the World Bank will engage in an international effort to promote education and research, supporting regional economic development across the continent.

In 2010, almost one-quarter of every dollar spent on R&D by U.S. businesses was spent in the state of California, according to data from the National Science Foundation. Together, the top seven states for business R&D spending (California, New Jersey, Texas, Massachusetts, Washington, Illinois and Michigan) were host to almost 53 percent of private research investment.

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Major research universities are an invaluable asset in building thriving high-tech regions, but institutions of all sizes can play a key role in local innovation economies. Our July webinar will feature two successful regional networks connecting smaller colleges and universities to maximize their contribution to the high-tech economy. These networks are promoting inter-institutional collaboration, while also providing entrepreneurs with easy access to research services and commercializable technologies.

The Small Business Administration (SBA) announced a new pilot program that will to support more than 1,000 startup and earlystage firms across the country. The goal of the Entrepreneurial Mentor Corps' (EMC) is to mobilize members of the current generation of successful business owners to mentor and support startups and entrepreneurs to help them become the next generation of great American companies. In February, SBA Administrator Karen Mills announced one of the EMC's first initiatives to match approximately 100 clean energy startups with mentors.

In an effort to help spur economic prosperity, several universities recently have unveiled new initiatives to connect potential entrepreneurs with university resources and help integrate the entrepreneurs into their region’s innovation ecosystem. The Blackstone Charitable Foundation also announced it will expand LaunchPad, a university-led entrepreneurship program, to a partnership that includes three universities in Southern California.

Nevada legislators recently approved $10 million in funding for the state's Knowledge Fund, a technology development and commercialization support program first introduced in 2011.

Since 2011, three states (Kansas, Georgia and North Carolina) have enacted securities exemptions that allow their state's entrepreneurs and small businesses to raise up to $1 million dollars via the sale of securities to residents of the state — Washington lawmakers introduced similar legis

Rice University's Rice Alliance for Technology and Entrepreneurship has been named the top university business incubator in the world by the University Business Incubator (UBI) Index based in Sweden. The group reviewed 550 university business incubators and studied 150 incubators to determine the top incubators in the world based on their value for the ecosystem, their value for clients, and their attraction rate and past performance. Other U.S.

While policymakers often tout workers in the field of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) as a critical element of U.S. competitiveness in the global economy, the Brookings Metropolitan Policy Program claims that a narrow definition of STEM occupations neglects vital employees in these technical fields.

A new series of briefs from the National Institute of Standards and Technology lays out the argument for federal, state and local intervention in the high-tech economy. Authors Gary Anderson and Gregory Tassey suggest that U.S. economic policy places too much emphasis on macrostabilization efforts at the expense of policies targeted to promote technology development and entrepreneurship. They make the argument that one effective approach to federal intervention is through the support of research consortia and regional cluster development programs.

While public debate rages over the role of surveillance in our society, one particularly infamous government surveillance technology, drones, is being prepared for private sector deployment in the U.S. Drone-related technologies are predicted to revolutionize commerce in the U.S., with industry projections valuing their initial deployment as an $82 billion boost to the national economy.

Seventy-one percent of the rural population had access to basic broadband service compared to 98 percent of the urban population according to a report from the National Telecommunications and Information Administration. The report examines the disparity of broadband availability between rural and urban areas based on 2011 broadband availability data. However, as broadband speeds increase, the access gap between these populations grows.

Compiling SBIR Phase I awards and proposal statistics by state for FY12, SSTI finds the 10 states with the most awards in FY12 were California (724), Massachusetts (415), Virginia (207), Maryland (154), Ohio (138), Texas (138), New York (137), Colorado (129), Pennsylvania (124), and Florida (85). Maryland gained two spots rising to fourth place. Ohio and Texas tied for fifth place, while New York and Colorado both fell from their prior year positions.

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Yuka Nagashima, executive director of the High Technology Development Corp. and center director for the Innovate Hawaii program, has resigned from both posts and will leave the state agency in August. Nagashima will be leaving for Denmark to support her husband's research career. Len Higashi, current senior economic development manager, was selected to become the acting executive director.