SSTI is hosting an informal phone call on Wednesday, May 13 at 2:00 PM EDT to answer your questions about the 2009 Excellence in TBED Awards.
Who should join the call?
Anyone considering submitting an application for the 2009 awards cycle or anyone who wants to learn more about the program will find the call useful.
To help the United Kingdom out of the recession, Alistair Darling, chancellor for the exchequer for the United Kingdom, outlined several significant TBED priorities in his budget address to the House of Commons last month.
Top among them is a £750 Million ($1 Billion USD) Strategic Investment Fund that "will provide financial support, focusing on emerging technologies and regionally important sectors in, for example, advanced manufacturing, digital and biotechnology," Darling said in his address.
The Montana Legislature adjourned last week after passing an $8 billion biennial budget for FY10 and FY11. The state Department of Commerce was allocated $74.9 million over the biennium, $1.7 million more than the governor's request. Newly funded initiatives within the department include $3.7 million over the biennium for workforce training grants through the New Worker Training program, $1.6 million for tribal economic development projects, $2 million for high-performance computing and $2.5 million in FY10 for biomedical research grants.
For nearly every budget issue SSTI has prepared during the first decade of the 21st century, our opening paragraphs read like obituaries. The previous administration was ideologically opposed to the government taking an active role to support economic development, even tech-based economic development, beyond increases for university and federally based research. Spending for federal programs that support regional community and economic growth were slashed repeatedly.
Lawmakers across several western states have reached budget agreements for the upcoming fiscal year or biennium allocating decreased or level funding for tech-based economic development efforts. Lawmakers also passed new legislation supporting job-creation efforts and investments in alternative energy. While funding for many of these programs appear secure in FY10, additional spending cuts are anticipated in the coming months if state revenues continue to decline.
With less money to spend on risky endeavors, many states are taking more targeted approaches toward economic development, seeking out sectors of the economy they consider most likely to grow and be sustainable beyond current conditions. In Hawaii, for example, lawmakers established an Aerospace Advisory Committee this session seeking long-term growth in aerospace-related industries.
In a special session on Tuesday, the Vermont Legislature enacted the state's FY10 budget, overriding last week's veto by Governor Jim Douglas. The budget eliminates or reduces funding for many programs related to economic development and TBED, cutbacks which were cited as concerns by Gov. Douglas in his veto announcement.
Can you afford to miss out on valuable publicity for your organization's outstanding accomplishments, particularly as legislators look for places to cut spending?
SSTI's Excellence in TBED Award can help you build recognition for your organization and gain support to continue your critical tech-based economic development efforts.
Not all of the news coming out of governors' offices is bad for TBED strategies. For example, just in the past week, governors in Missouri, Ohio and Texas proposed increases in state investments for job creation in emerging fields, higher education scholarships, and technology commercialization and research programs. The following overview provides highlights of their recommendations for TBED proposals in the upcoming fiscal year or biennium.
The fifth installment of the Tech Talkin' Govs series includes highlights from state of the state, budget and inaugural addresses from governors in Alabama, Michigan, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania and Utah.
As the U.S. Congress is ironing out the details of the stimulus package, the final share of science and technology investments within the bill is not known at this time. However outside of the U.S., other countries have recently announced their own proposals to improve the research and innovation infrastructure of their countries.
Gov. Jim Doyle unveiled last week several proposals to boost university-based research and commercialization efforts in emerging fields and encourage private industry R&D and job growth through the creation of several new tax credits.
Gov. Jennifer Granholm's FY10 budget includes increased funding to support programs aimed at job creation in emerging fields and maintains level funding for year three of an initiative to train displaced workers for in-demand careers.
As governors across the nation seek to fill record deficits, many new and longstanding TBED initiatives are facing challenging cuts or elimination. At the same time, governors are shoring up support for critical, targeted investments in the economy that they say are needed now more than ever.
In support of the state's goal to attract and grow biotechnology companies, Gov.
SSTI has an effective new learning tool for TBED policymakers and practitioners seeking guidance in approaches to building and sustaining tech-based economies.
The need for state and local support for tech-based economic development grows more critical in the current recession, based on recent unemployment reports for key technology sectors. Layoffs at high-tech companies during the first quarter of 2009 were at their highest point since 2002, according to outplacement firm Challenger, Gray and Christmas. Reported job losses at tech companies totaled 84,217, up 27 percent over the fourth quarter of 2008 and up 485 percent over the first quarter last year.
Growth is most noticeable in dogs, cats and humans when they are puppies, kittens and infants. A new analysis by the Kauffman Foundation looking at the Census Bureau's Business Dynamics Statistics reveals the same phenomenon in businesses: growth, as measured by net employment, is most significant for younger companies compared to their more mature counterparts. Infant mortality of young firms is very high, though - nearly 20 percent of all jobs at very young startups are lost due to the businesses failing within the first year.
Legislators in New York rejected Gov. David Paterson's proposal to consolidate the state's primary organization for supporting and enhancing technology-based economic development into the state's traditional economic development organization (see the Dec. 17, 2008 issue of the Digest).
Funding for the New Jersey Commission on Science and Technology, which administers the state's stem cell research program, would be cut nearly in half under Gov. Jon Corzine's FY10 budget recommendation. The commission is slated to receive $10.4 million, a decrease of $9.9 million from the FY09 adjusted appropriation, to administer grant programs focused on commercializing new technologies, develop early-stage growth companies and business incubators, and enhance New Jersey's stem cell research capability.
One of the biggest challenges for green technologies and products is breaking into the market. Achieving the critical mass that allows production volume to drive down prices is difficult, particularly when the commodity being sold is, at least initially, more expensive to make because more of the actual cost of production is captured in the green company's business model.