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While the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the National Science Foundation (NSF) have voiced caution and funded efforts to understand the potential societal and environmental implications of nanotechnology deployment, both agencies announced much larger funding commitments - totaling $213 million - to expedite commercial applications for the explosive field.

Nanotech Solutions for Cancer

During the states' fiscal crisis, a number of TBED programs were eliminated, while others survived. SSTI staff spent a fair amount of time analyzing what the survivors had in common, and we boiled the results down to three items that successful TBED programs have in common. While it may seem simplistic, the three commonalities are:

In order to provide further incentives for crucial research and development (R&D) and to encourage more industries to carry out R&D in Scotland, Scottish Enterprise, the economic development agency for Scotland has launched a new funding scheme.

Thirty-six states received failing grades on a biennial report card that reveals the cost of attending college represents a higher portion of American families’ incomes today than it did a decade ago. A separate report from the Pell Institute supports those conclusions by showing students from the lower-income bracket are finding it more difficult than ever to keep pace with rising tuition costs.

The importance a well educated populace plays in a knowledge-based economy is a given for most tech-based economic development strategies. Ensuring that a larger percentage of the population pursues that education through and beyond high school is another matter -- often the responsibility of other state agencies, organizations and decision makers.

They may be separated by more than 6,000 miles, but tech-based economic development initiatives in Hawaii and Connecticut have adopted similar strategies to encourage the commercialization of alternative energy technologies: they're buying them. 

In a bid to make the South a knowledge economy leader, the Southern Growth Policies Board has released Invented Here: Transforming the Southern Economy, a 10-year strategic plan to create an innovation-driven economy in the South. 

The New Economy Transition Team (NETT) of the Northern Kentucky Chamber of Commerce has issued a 73-page plan that, if implemented successfully, could position Northern Kentucky as a center for life sciences and information technology, advanced manufacturing and financial services. 

Alaska 

Many areas of the country are lamenting the workforce challenges presented by the out-migration of technically skilled college graduates, a “brain drain” for short. Two studies released during the past few days, however, provide positive data to the contrary for Michigan and the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania metro region.



Michigan

Thirteen months ago, the General Accounting Office issued an unfavorable report on the licensing and royalty returns the National Institutes of Health (NIH) receive for commercialization of technologies resulting from federal funds (see: http://www.ssti.org/Digest/2000/081800.htm).

Alabama

A series of separate economic reports, revenue forecasts, and analyses of current trends released during the past week suggests the need for local, regional and state efforts to grow tech-based economies is increasing. As economic development practitioners and policymakers in science and technology prepare for the 2002 program, legislative, and budget cycles, they may want to consider:

The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM), through the Mathematics Education Trust, funds special projects that enhance the teaching and learning of mathematics at all levels. An organization valuing the use of instructional technology tools, NCTM currently has at least 10 grant opportunities supporting in-service programs, the improvement of professional competence and other related causes.

Both the Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) and the Advanced Technology Program (ATP) would see budget increases in FY 2005 if the version of the Commerce, Justice, State Appropriations Bill that passed the Senate Appropriations Committee last week survives what is expected to be a contentious conference with the House on an mega-omnibus appropriations bill sometime after the election.

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.

While it appears that federal programs in the U.S. have succeeded in efforts to increase enrollment in higher education, the nation has fallen behind in retaining college graduates, according to a new report from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

During the recent past, heavy loss of manufacturing jobs has created considerable economic upheaval in several states, particularly the industrial heartland of the country where manufacturing represents more of a state's private payrolls than the national average. Michigan, alone, lost 18 percent of its manufacturing-related jobs from 2000 to 2003, a staggering 163,000 mostly high-wage jobs. Still, the manufacturing sector comprises 17 percent of the total jobs in the Great Lakes state.

Seekers for evidence of the increasingly global nature of competition on the research and innovation levels need look no further than some recent announcements stemming from Malaysia.

The role community colleges play in building tech economies has grown substantially during the past decade beyond important, yet traditional, worker training programs. A new compendium from the National Association for Community College Entrepreneurship (NACCE) provides several examples of efforts by its 14-member community colleges and technical schools to foster entrepreneurship. Highlighted programs include:

The presentations from last week's conference, Knowledge Clusters and Entrepreneurship in Regional Economic Development, now available online, provide a good introduction to many of the topics and issues to be discussed at SSTI's annual conference, Building Tech-based Economies: Preparing for Tomorrow's Challenges, in Philadelphia, Oct. 13-15.

Earlier this week, the National Science Foundation (NSF) announced awards estimated to total $65 million over five years to fund six major centers in nanoscale science and engineering. The awards are part of a series of NSF grants – totaling $150 million in fiscal year 2001 alone – for nano research in multiple disciplines. 

In an effort to create a high tech center, officials in Ohio's Butler County anticipate spending more than $100 million during the next five years to increase telecommunications, biomedical innovations, electronic commerce, and other research. Funding for the measure would come from as much as a half-penny sales tax hike, according to a story published August 1 by the Cincinnati Enquirer. 

Whether it's called clusters or localization economies, the aggregation of firms in the same or closely related industries has captured the attention of many state and local tech-based economic development efforts. Understanding the phenomenon and formulating effective public policy to encourage or support clustering presents challenges for practitioners and researchers alike.