In an appropriations bill where cuts are viewed as good news -- compared to the President's request for program termination, that is -- the small Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFI) Fund could consider itself very lucky after Friday's full House Appropriations Committee mark-up of the VA-HUD and Independent Agencies bill.
July has been a tech-friendly month for Delaware Gov. Ruth Ann Minner. On July 14, the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) named her "BIO Governor of the Year," recognizing her contributions toward growing the state's biotechnology industry, one of the strongest concentrations in the country. Further attesting to her grasp of biotech issues, Gov. Minner also serves as a co-chair of the National Governors Association Biotechnology Partnership.
Earlier this month, a Science Committee bill that would reauthorize the Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) program and create a more robust manufacturing sector cleared the U.S. House of Representatives.
Gov. Mike Rounds announced last week the creation of four new specialized research centers at the state's public universities. The $2.8 million in awards mark South Dakota's first foray into using university-based research investments as a tool to grow the state's economy, the governor said.
The four 2010 Research Centers are:
Encouraging entrepreneurship has been a predominant focus since the recession and jobless recover, but a recent report from one of the country's leading colleges for entrepreneurial education cautions the current wave of new business starts will not cure many job woes.
One of the few new spending bills to make it through the 2001 session of the Minnesota Legislature provides $10 million in seed money for technology commercialization through a new Biomedical Innovation and Commercialization Initiative (BICI – pronounced beach-ee). The BICI appropriation is contingent upon state economic development officials securing a three-to-one private sector match.
Ohio Governor Bob Taft last week signed legislation creating the Ohio Aerospace and Defense Council to examine state and federal laws, rules, and policies that affect the two industries and associated federal installations in Ohio. Ohio is home to Wright Patterson Air Force Base, the state’s largest single-site employer, and the NASA Glen Research Center in Cleveland.
Six objectives are to be addressed by the council:
The Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Southeastern Pennsylvania has issued a Request for Proposals to develop an asset-mapping study of the nanotechnology sector in the four-state Philadelphia Consolidated Metropolitan Statistical Area.
The Rhode Island Technology Council (RITEC) is launching a benchmarking survey this week of the state’s information technology (IT) industry to determine how the council and state economic development organizations can be most effective at addressing the sector’s needs in light of the continued restructuring of the national IT industry.
Brain drains and a lack of technically skilled workers, both scientists and engineers, are commonly heard complaints of state and local tech-based economic development practitioners across the country. But are federal and state innovation policies part of the problem? Paul M. Romer, of the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University, says yes in Should the Government Subsidize Supply or Demand of in the Market for Scientists and Engineers?
Women made significant progress in the sciences over the last two decades, but gains have stalled — and in some cases eroded — in engineering and computer sciences, according to a report released Tuesday by the National Council for Research on Women (NCRW). The downturn comes despite effective new programs to increase women's participation in these fields.
With federal support for the National Institues of Health increasing substantially each year -- to the point now that NIH supports more than 50 percent of the federal basic research budget -- and some states directing millions of dollars each year into health and biotechnology research, one might stop to ask: is it worth it?
Pennsylvania Governor Tom Ridge will deliver the keynote address at Creating Opportunity: Tools for Building Tech-Based Economies, SSTI’s Fifth Annual Conference, which will be held September 19-21, 2001 at the Omni William Penn in Pittsburgh.
Albany, New York
The National Science Foundation has released Federal Funds for Research and Development: Fiscal Years 1999, 2000, and 2001, Vol. 49, presenting 111 detailed statistical tables.
George Atkinson is taking a year-long leave of absence from his position as a professor in chemistry and optical sciences at the University of Arizona to serve as the first American Institute of Physics science fellow at the U.S. State Department.
George Atkinson is taking a year-long leave of absence from his position as a professor in chemistry and optical sciences at the University of Arizona to serve as the first American Institute of Physics science fellow at the U.S. State Department. 
Margie Emmermann has been named Director of the Arizona Department of Commerce. For the past seven years, Ms. Emmermann has been the state's policy adviser to Mexico and liaison to the Hispanic Community. 
The National Science Foundation has named Judith A. Ramaley as the Foundation's new Assistant Director for Education and Human Resources (EHR). A biologist, Dr. Ramaley served most recently as president of the University of Vermont.
New Technology Week reports William Schneider, president of International Planning Services, has been picked to chair the Defense Science Board. 
Dennis J. Sysko is serving as interim president of the Anne Arundel County High Technology Council, following the resignation of president John G. Rice. Mr. Sysko, who is currently serving as the group's treasurer, will perform both roles until a replacement president is elected in January.
The Office of Technology Transfer in the National Institutes of Health has published abstracts of eight government-owned patents that are available for licensing. To help bring these commercialization opportunities to the attention of a wider audience, SSTI has reprinted the abstracts on the following webpage: http://www.ssti.org/Digest/Tables/072001t2.htm
There are less than 100 of our readers - now approaching a total of 100,000 - that may be able to look into their electronic mailboxes and even eight-year-old paper files to see that this issue of the SSTI Weekly Digest is our 400th. What began in March 1996 as a two-page weekly fax to key science and technology leaders in most states has evolved into the one of the most widely read e-news sources for the tech-based economic development community in the U.S.
If you consider North America's public investment to encourage economic growth through science and technology at the state or provincial government level, Ontario should be in your top 10. And the recent injection of $63 million for technology commercialization might have bumped the province of 12 million residents up a place or two.
Science Spending to Rise £1B Over Next 3 Years Alone
"..because we want Britain to be the most attractive location in the world for science and innovation, we are setting a new and ambitious target of increasing UK R&D investment as a proportion of national income from its current level of 1.9 percent to 2.5 percent by 2014 over the next decade."