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A community essentially has two options for strategies to diversify its economic base: traditional economic development or technology-based economic development (TBED). The traditional approach of recruiting or inducing companies to relocate to their community from elsewhere creates an atmosphere of competition, rivalry and one-upmanship among cities and regions as they bid to buy firms' location decisions. Often, it is also difficult for small and mid-sized communities to compete on these terms.

Since passage of the Bayh-Dole Act of 1980, universities across the country have established transfer technology offices to assist in commercializing academic inventions. Efforts to transfer university inventions to the market continue to be a difficult proposition, with less than a third of disclosed inventions resulting in license. Start-ups garner only one in eight licenses.

Many community and economic development professionals believe the report released last Tuesday should have predated the President's 2006 Budget to consolidate or eliminate 18 federal programs used by most parts of the country to support growth and well-being (see the Feb. 14 issue of the Digest).

Coming off the heels of the state legislature's approval of a new Emerging Technologies Fund (see the June 13 issue of the Digest), Gov. Rick Perry announced last Saturday that Texas would provide a $50 million grant to establish the Texas Institute for Genomic Medicine (TIGM).

Incubators provide an integral and flexible component of many communities' tech-based economic development efforts. When successful, business incubators can provide a focal point for encouraging entrepreneurship in even the smallest cities and metropolitan areas. Ample evidence is presented in the latest survey of incubators supported through the multifaceted $35 million Entrepreneurship Initiative of the Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC).

For the second year in a row, the Maryland Technology Development Corporation (TEDCO) was the most active source of early-stage or angel capital, according to the July issue of Entrepreneur magazine.

In signing the state budget last Thursday, Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle approved spending $5 million for two new programs supporting agricultural and forestry bio-based industrial development. Bio-based industries convert the carbohydrates in plants into fuels, polymers, fabrics, and other chemicals.

As a precursor to a report expected next month from the President's Commission on Tax Reform, the National League of Cities (NLC) recently issued its findings from a survey citing disapproval of how state and federal tax issues are being handled by the Administration, Congress, and state governors and legislatures. NLC outlined recommendations and called on the federal government to convene a national economic summit to address the issues.

Can patent insurance protect innovations from predators? Yes, particularly if innovators insure their innovation before rivals enter the market, according to Financing and the Protection of Innovators, a discussion paper by Gerard Llobet and Javier Suarez from the Centre for Economic Policy Research.

More than 100 technology clusters may exist in the Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC) area, but challenges to exploit and nurture the clusters still exist. A new report analyzes the ARC region's concentration of technology resources at a sub-regional level and uncovers localized technology strengths that might be promoted through concentrated economic development policy.

Economic growth in a regional economy can be positively linked to an increase in intensity of industry R&D, according to recent research by Marios Zachariadis of Louisiana State University. R&D, Innovation, and Technological Progress: A Test of the Schumpeterian Framework without Scale Effects, released in September 2002, establishes a connection among R&D intensity, patenting, technological change and economic growth.

Manufacturing jobs in rural Minnesota numbered almost 120,000 in 2000, a 25 percent increase since 1990, according to a recent study by the Center for Rural Policy and Development and Minnesota Technology Inc., two agencies dedicated to helping industry in Greater Minnesota.

Universities should revamp how they evaluate S&T teaching, report says

Two independent surveys of venture capital investments made during the third quarter of FY 2002 suggest the downward trends in the flow of money and number of VC placements will continue.

Competition Canceled in Florida

Employing more than two million workers in 2001 with an annual average wage of $47,700, the U.S. civil and commercial aerospace and aviation industry has a major economic and employment impact at the national, state and local levels in all 50 states, according to a report by the Commission on the Future of the U.S. Aerospace Industry. The industry also is a substantial force in civil, military, and space manufacturing and operations in nearly half of the nation's states, the report stated.

Note: With this issue, the SSTI Weekly Digest is launching a new occasional "Programs with Results" series — articles profiling a variety of technology-based economic development programs that have been around many years and are yielding positive results. Our goal is to help answer the question "What Appears to Work?" with models that potentially could be duplicated in other states, regions or communities.

Many states have made substantial strides in preparing students for college-level education, but widespread gains in the proportion of Americans going to college have not been made, according to Measuring Up 2002, a report released by the independent, nonprofit, nonpartisan National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education. The report finds that overall college opportunity in America also is at a standstill, remaining unevenly and unfairly distributed.

The federal laboratories and research facilities associated with nine federal agencies can serve as a treasure chest of technologies for commercialization, according to Intellectual Property: Federal Agency Efforts in Transferring and Reporting New Technology (GAO-03-47). The recent report by the General Accounting Office (GAO) discloses that in fiscal year 2001, nine federal agencies created 3,676 new inventions, issued 1,585 patents and received $74.5 million in licensing revenues.

In an era of tight public budgets, sources of seed funding for early stage and developmental research projects with potential for commercialization is getting harder to come by. Many state initiatives to support these endeavors are subject to the same budget cuts as other areas, and small firms' interests in the federal Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program are increasing pressure for these already competitive grants.

The National Science Foundation (NSF) has announced it intends to have almost $200,000 in fiscal year 2003 funds for new awards under the Presidential Awards for Excellence in Science, Mathematics and Engineering Mentoring (PAESMEM) Program. Nominations to honor individuals and institutions are invited for the 2003 competition of these annual awards.

Each year, the U.S. Department of Transportation's Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Program is one of the most competitive for companies seeking federal research funding. The FY 2002 Phase I solicitation proved to be no different as the agency made only 12 award recommendations from the pool of 202 proposals submitted — an award percentage of only 5.94 percent.

Bill Richardson, Governor-elect of New Mexico, has named Rick Homans as secretary of the state's Economic Development Department.

Fritz Bittenbender will become president of the Pennsylvania Biotechnology Association in December.

Bill Richardson, Governor-elect of New Mexico, has named Rick Homans as secretary of the state's Economic Development Department.

Fritz Bittenbender will become president of the Pennsylvania Biotechnology Association in December.