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Tennessee's Sullivan County took a big step toward reducing the presence of a brain drain when it approved a scholarship program for its high school graduates.

The third part in a series, "Tech-talkin Govs" highlights programs, policies and issues in tech-based economic development that were considered in the following governors' State of the State and Budget addresses.



California

Gray Davis, 2002-2003 Budget proposal, January 2002

http://www.dof.ca.gov/HTML/Budget02-03/00_toc.htm

Last week, Texas Governor Rick Perry announced the formation of the Governor's Council on Science and Biotechnology Development. The Council will strive to create a seamless system of innovation from the laboratory to the marketplace in rapidly developing areas of biotechnology — such as biopharmaceutical development, bioinformatics, genomics and nanotechnology.

Two of SSTI's sponsoring organizations, the Kansas Technology Enterprise Corp (KTEC) and Virginia's Center for Innovative Technology, are looking for strong candidates to fill two critical positions. A brief description of each opportunity is provided below. More detailed information is available on SSTI's website at: http://www.ssti.org/posting.htm

Lincoln, Nebraska

Implementation of the Global Grid Exchange, a state-sponsored open public computing grid in West Virginia, is underway. Hewlett Packard will provide the infrastructure technology that will power the grid, an initiative of the West Virginia High Technology Consortium (WVHTC) Foundation.

What policies, investments and programs would be most effective for communities trying to attract, retain or build a local pharmaceutical industry? Research parks? Tax incentives? Biotech seed capital funds?

If you haven't purchased your 2005 wall calendar or updated your computer-based planner yet, you will need to soon, to schedule travel and update budget requests. At the top of many lists will be SSTI's 9th annual conference, Oct. 19-21, 2005 in Atlanta, but how do you conveniently find out about the many other high quality events happening throughout the year?

Thirty-Six Percent Drop in First-Year Foreign Engineering Students Reported

Last year, China replaced the U.S. as the most popular destination for foreign direct investment (FDI). The creation of an IBM Research Innovation Center as an extension of its China Research Lab near Beijing University provides a recent example of U.S. interest in capitalizing on China's emergence as the planet's hottest economy.

As the angel investment community continues to evolve from individual investors to sophisticated angel investment groups, the Kauffman Foundation and the Angel Capital Association (ACA) have jointly published a new guide designed to help angels form the most effective angel organizations for their communities.

Yesterday's edition of USA Today reported "the Commerce Department's Manufacturing Extension Program [sic], funded this year at $107 million...would be eliminated [in FY 2003] because the White House says they should be financed by the private sector."

With biotechnology taking center stage on several occasions during the past year, President Bush has appointed an 18-member Council of Bioethics to address some of the more controversial aspects of the field. Policy suggestions to emerge from the council are likely to impact the activities of the significant investments many states and localities are making for biotechnology research and seed capital.

The nation faces social and economic crisis unless America succeeds in promoting and taking advantage of racial and ethnic diversity, according to a report released last week by the Business-Higher Education Forum (BHEF).

Describing Maine as making "modest progress" in strengthening its capacity for innovation-driven economic growth, the Maine Science and Technology Foundation (MSTF) released on Tuesday The Maine Innovation Index 2002, a report on Maine's performance in the new economy.

Five Shoes Waiting to Drop on Arizona's Future, a 50-page report released by the Morrison Institute of Public Policy, details five key trends that could harm the state's future if they are not well managed.

AEA, formerly the American Electronics Association, in conjunciton with the Nasdaq stock market, has released CyberEducation 2002, a compendium and comparative analysis of several trends and educational statistics from across the country.

This week, the SSTI Weekly Digest continues its series on governors' State of the State addresses, highlighting those portions concerning programs, policies and issues immediately affecting the tech-based economic development community.

Three Texas cities, Dallas, Houston and Austin, top the second annual Affordibility Index prepared by techies.com, a technology workforce placement company. The study tracks which cities offer the best combination of top salary and low cost of living for information technology professionals.

Salt Lake City, Atlanta, the DC/Baltimore corridor, Seattle and Phoenix round out the top eight metro areas.

Going into yesterday's elections, it was clear at least five states would have freshmen governors as three incumbents chose not to run for re-election and two incumbents lost their parties’ nominations to seek new terms. The five states were Missouri, Montana, Utah, Washington and West Virginia.

The Oct. 25 issue of the SSTI Weekly Digest previewed ballot issues in six states that would have implications for their respective state efforts to grow a knowledge-based economy. The unofficial results at press time for each are provided below:

Unofficial results posted today on the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) website reveals political control of at least 10 of the country's 99 state legislative chambers (Nebraska has a unicameral legislature resulting in the odd total for the country) changed parties in yesterday's election.

Gov. Rick Perry announced last month a long-term, strategic job creation plan that will focus state efforts on six industry clusters that economists say will be the engine of future job creation and economic growth in the U.S. Although the state already has an advantage in terms of a growing workforce, the key is retaining workers that are skilled and trained in emerging technology fields, the governor said.

While 2002 marks the 20th anniversary of the creation of the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Program, it also may be remembered as the first time an agency successfully finagled its way out of SBIR's requirement that 2.5 percent of extramural R&D be awarded to small technology companies.

Each year, SSTI looks at the various addresses given by the nation's governors at the beginning of the year. While the aftermath of September 11 weighs heavily in the content of this year's State of the State addresses, the important role tech-based economic development plays for strengthening state and local economies during a recession has not been overlooked by many governors.