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Michael Finney, vice president for Emerging Business with the Michigan Economic Development Corp (MEDC), is leaving MEDC to become the first president and CEO for the Greater Rochester Enterprise in New York.

Otto Loewer is leaving his position as dean of the College of Engineering at the University of Arkansas to become the founding director of the university's new Economic Development Institute.

Secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development for the past five-and-a-half years, Sam McCullough is resigning effective October 25.

Doug Rothwell, President and CEO of MEDC, has announced his resignation with the end of Governor John Engler's term in December.

The Rhode Island Economic Policy Council has named Jerry Schaufeld as director of the Samuel Slater Technology Fund.

Envirogen, Inc. cofounder Ronald Unterman will be the executive director of the newly created Slater Center for Marine & Environmental Technologies. The center was created through the merger of two existing Slater centers.

Kathleen Wise is the new Director of Programs for the New York Office of Science, Technology and the Advancement of Research. She fills the position vacated this summer by Keith Servis.

At its August 28th meeting, the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) approved sending a letter to President Bush urging him to "improve funding levels for physical sciences and certain areas of engineering" as the Administration prepares the FY 2004 federal budget request. The letter also encourages the federal government to establish a graduate fellowship program to attract more students into critical fields of science and engineering.

Maryland Lieutenant Governor Kathleen Townsend recently announced the release of Founders of Maryland Bioscience and Medical Instrument Companies, a report on the career pathways taken by founders of biotechnology companies in Maryland.

A public entity setting up a satellite office for promotion and business recruitment is not new. Many state economic development departments have done it for years in foreign countries to encourage international trade. State film promotion boards do it in Hollywood to attract movie projects to their home states.

U.S. Commerce Secretary Don Evans has awarded a $6.44 million grant, the largest-ever economic development grant given by the Bush Administration, to Advancing California’s Emerging Technologies (ACET) to expand the Oakland Alameda Bio Tech Incubator to a 40,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art laboratory.

Manufacturing is a robust driver of California's economy according to a Manufacturing Matters: California's Performance and Prospects, a new report prepared by the Milken Institute. The analysis was prepared for the California Manufacturing and Technology Association.

Many efforts to encourage young Americans to pursue careers in science, engineering and manufacturing took advantage of students having the summer off from regular classes. Programs range from one-week science camps to season-long internships and cooperative workstudies. To help other communities begin planning for the end of the 2003 school year, SSTI highlights a few examples from this past summer in this article.

In each of the past two years, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has published a list of the top 100 metro areas based on the total distribution of NIH funds. This year's table breaks down the total number of awards and dollar amounts by type of funding: research grants, training grants, fellowships, R&D contracts, and other awards.

While Congress and the Administration are looking for ways to flatten or even reduce spending for research, entrepreneurship and innovation, leaders on the other side of the pond are committing hard currency to strengthening Europe's position in the global, tech-based economy.

With the recent passage of the state's biennial budget, North Dakota's universities and colleges can now compete for a share of $20 million in matching funds to create Centers of Excellence. The money is the first installment of the state legislature's $50 million commitment to the Centers program, which is the centerpiece of Gov. John Hoeven's initiatives to transform the state's economy toward science and technology.

A ballot initiative designed to bolster the Ohio economy and create jobs by continuing the state’s public works infrastructure program and supporting the commercialization of science and technology-based research was announced last week by Gov. Bob Taft and other legislative leaders. The initiative, to appear on the Nov.

Gov. Donald Carcieri last month announced two new initiatives targeting Rhode Island's science and technology (S&T) and manufacturing industries. On April 12, Gov. Carcieri signed an Executive Order creating the Science & Technology Advisory Council.

Efforts to capitalize Hawaii's $120 million State Private Investment Fund (SPIF) collapsed Friday as a joint conference committee of the state legislature could not reconcile differences between House and Senate versions of the measure. Passage of Senate Bill 1695 was one of Gov. Linda Lingle's top economic development priorities for this legislative session.

States such as Oklahoma must leverage scarce resources if they hope to attract top scientists, stimulate development, and achieve measurable economic impact, says the latest impact report from the Oklahoma Center for the Advancement of Science and Technology (OCAST).

As low-skill, labor intensive jobs are increasingly replaced by technology or outsourced in the emerging knowledge-based economy, a two-tiered labor market has emerged, thus presenting a challenge for workers to either work cheaper or work smarter, says a new report from the Southern Growth Policies Board. Only one of those options is appealing for those trying to improve your standard of living.

During the months of May and June, the SSTI Weekly Digest and Funding Supplement will be published every other week. SSTI staff over the next two months will be completing work on two major projects that require focused concentration. We look forward to resuming the Digest and Funding Supplement on a weekly basis in July. The next issue of the Digest will be May 16.

North Carolina Gov. Mike Easley was recently joined by Congressional, university, and local and business representatives last week in announcing a 180-acre expansion of Piedmont Triad Research Park in downtown Winston-Salem. The biotech park will include a new research campus for Wake Forest University School of Medicine.

The Southern Innovation Index, a strategic plan created with the governments of 13 Southern states and Puerto Rico to promote innovation, entrepreneurship and economic growth in the South, has been released by the Southern Growth Policies Board, a bipartisan public policy group based in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina.

The amount of time a technology-based economic development (TBED) professional can spend out of the office for professional development is limited. So are travel funds. That's why SSTI packs so much into its annual conference — already the largest event in the country dedicated to improving state, local and regional TBED efforts.