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Laurie Lachance recently was named the next president of the Maine Development Foundation, Maine's economic development policy organization. Lachance is a former economist for the Maine State Planning Office.

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.

Reports suggest New Jersey Gov. James McGreevey, resigning his office in mid-November, will be named the first director of the Stem Cell Institute of New Jersey. Securing funding for the center has been a legislative priority for the Governor this year.

New York City Launches Second Biotech Incubator Companies wanting to commercialize new technologies can now bring their companies to Brooklyn, with the June opening of a new technology incubator located near Downstate University's biochemistry department. The Advanced Biotechnology Incubator will eventually house up to 30 companies, according to Eva Brown Cramer, vice president for biotechnology and scientific affairs at Downstate. The $12 million incubator, funded by both government and private sources, is a first for Brooklyn and second to be opened in New York City. The first was opened in 1995 at Columbia University, according to the Daily News.



Colorado Incubator Merges With Venture Company, Becomes CTEK

In a continuing effort to expand its services throughout the state, the Colorado Technology Incubator, a community-based business catalyst, has merged with Colorado Venture Centers, changing its name to CTEK, the Daily Camera reports. According to Vice President of CTEK, Mike Murphy, part of tacking on ventures to its name means several venture centers and plans for a new corporate office to launch such new community centers are underway.



West Virginia Technology Center Expected To Spur Economic Growth

A grass roots technology and entrepreneurial center is expected to open at Concord College in southern West Virginia in 2006. The $13.9 million Technology Center promises to enable technology transfer, entrepreneurial support, technical currency, and business incubation, according to the Charleston Daily Mail. Up to eight small businesses will be housed in the center that hopes to create 130 jobs and bring $60.8 million into the economy by 2009. The college is still seeking $5.7 million to complete the project and expects to receive $5 million from the West Virginia Economic Development grant and other funds.



$3 Million Clean Ohio Fund Grant Provides for Cleveland Technology Center

MidTown Cleveland, Inc. received a $3 million Clean Ohio Revitalization grant in 2002 to purchase the former Ohio Knitting Mills building, and recently announced it will use the facility as an anchor to develop the surrounding neighborhood into the MidTown Technology Center, according to the governor’s press office. The old knitting mill will be transformed into a 72,000 square foot incubator for biotechnology, medical research, and computer software companies among others and is scheduled to open early next year. Once completed, the center expects to provide affordable and flexible space to meet the needs of growing technology companies, and will play an important role in the revitalization of the MidTown area.



Innovation Center Reaching Its Capacity, Plans To Expand (IN)

Innovation Center of Northeast Indiana announced its plans in May to lease an additional 10,000 square feet to accommodate for up to 10 new high-tech businesses. Officials said the incubator is more than 90 percent filled and has doubled in size since opening in 2001, The Fort Wayne News Sentinel reports.



Four Incubators Under Construction for Olmulgee campus of Oklahoma State U.

Four incubators will have a home in Pryor Creek, Oklahoma at the new Enterprise Center, an onsite business incubator aimed at assisting small start-up companies, according to MidAmerica. The state's largest industrial park will build and develop the OSU Okmulgee/MidAmerica Innovation & Entrepreneurial Center, which will be built as an addition to the current facility constructed by MidAmerica that functions as a continuing workforce development training operation. The MidAmerica Board of Trustees voted in May to fund administration of the facility for three years. Each of the four incubators will have 2,000 to 2,200 square feet of space, and construction of the building is scheduled to begin this fall with building completion expected six months after construction begins.

Rowan University Wins Approval for Technology Park Loan

A $5 million low-interest loan was approved in June to fund the South Jersey Technology Park at Rowan University. The Delaware River and Bay Authority’s (DRBA) Board of Commissioners approved the loan, which will be owned by the DRBA and leased to the university until the loan is repaid, according to the Courier-Post. The Courier-Post article states Rowan has secured more than $12 million for the first phase of the project, including a $6 million grant from New Jersey’s Economic Development Authority. The park could open as soon as 2006.

The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) launched last month a $17.2 million national Biotechnology Worker Training Initiative in support of the President’s High Growth Job Training Initiative.

Although a significant gap still exists between women-led companies and their male counterparts, in terms of venture funding, some promising news may suggest a change in fortune for the former, a study released today by Growthink Research of Los Angeles and Chicago-based re:invention Inc. shows.

Janet Yancey-Wrona, director of the Maine Technology Institute (MTI), has been named the Governor's Science and Technology Advisor and the first Director of Innovation for the Maine Department of Economic and Community Development. In her new position, Dr. Yancey-Wrona will oversee the state's research and TBED activities, including MTI, the business incubator program and Maine EPSCoR initiative.

Only a handful of metropolitan areas have the critical mass necessary to ensure sustainability of their local biotech communities, according to America’s Biotech and Life Science Clusters, a new study from the Milken Institute. At the top of the list is San Diego, followed closely by Boston and the Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill metro area. Only another nine are in the running, the report contends.

Concerns for wheat and organic markets remain, however

While state governments across the country are overwhelmingly in favor of health-related biotechnology, agricultural biotechnology has received a somewhat less enthusiastic reception. That may be changing - however slowly - according to new information released last week by the Pew Initiative on Food and Biotechnology.

He may be more traditionally associated with gas-guzzling Humvees than anything remotely environmental, but Gov. Arnold Schwarznegger has become a big believer in alternative energy vehicles. The governor's recent call for creating a "Hydrogen Highway" by 2010 is, perhaps, the country's boldest commitment to getting hydrogen fuel cell vehicles on America's roadways anytime soon. It provides an example of how public-private partnerships, with the government serving as an early adopter of a potentially disruptive technology, could produce positive economic results for the state.