Growing and keeping an educated workforce, one ready to help build a technology-based economy, is one of the greatest challenges even the most high-tech areas. The problem can be quite severe. For example, a new statewide survey of Florida college students, conducted by Leadership Florida and Nova Southeastern University, revealed that only 48 percent of the students plan to remain in Florida after graduation.
Partnerships for Innovation (PFI), a National Science Foundation (NSF) program started just last year, has released its Program Solicitation for FY 2001. The program will support 10-15 new government-university-industry partnerships that explore new approaches to support and sustain innovation. An academic institution must be the lead for the partnership
The program was designed to:
The Wyoming legislature wrapped up its 2001 General Session on March 1. Several laws and supplemental appropriations were made that affect local efforts to grow a stronger tech-based economy.
Senate Enrolled Act (SEA) 10 permits the Wyoming Business Council to use state funds to provide bridge financing to businesses, not to exceed 35 percent of the total cost of any particular project.
The U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) has selected six more incubators to join the National Alliance of Clean Energy Business Incubators, formed by NREL in April 2000. Alliance member incubators will focus on accelerating the growth and development of U.S.
There is often a disconnect between government policies to encourage entrepreneurship and the actual practice of launching fast growing companies, according to the fourth major report from the National Commission on Entrepreneurship (NCOE). Five Myths about Entrepreneurs: Understanding How Businesses Start and Grow is being released to educate policymakers about the vitally different characteristics of entrepreneurs and traditional small business owners.
The state-by-state results for the 2000 SBIR Phase I awards — as reported individually by the 10 participating federal agencies and compiled by SSTI --- are presented in the accompanying table. Totals may not reflect new awards or cancellations made by an agency after the initial selection announcements. Abstract information for funded SBIR projects may be obtained on each agency’s SBIR website.
Editor’s Note: For the skeptical Digest reader that viewed our assertion in last week’s issue that there is an average of at least one incubator-related article published somewhere in the country each day. Since we have several clippings on hand, it is easy to provide more examples of the continuing explosion of communities and states using non-profit incubators as tools for developing and expanding tech-based economies.
President Bush has nominated Los Angeles resident Hector Barretto to serve as Administrator of the Small Business Administration.
Philip Psilos is the new Director of Economic & Technology Policy for the National Governors' Association.
Timothy A. Klein has been selected to become the Associate Administrator for Innovation, Research, and Education for the U.S. Department of Transportation.
President Bush has nominated Los Angeles resident Hector Barretto to serve as Administrator of the Small Business Administration.
Philip Psilos is the new Director of Economic & Technology Policy for the National Governors' Association.
Timothy A. Klein has been selected to become the Associate Administrator for Innovation, Research, and Education for the U.S. Department of Transportation.
SSTI extends its congratulations to Bruce Gjovig, Director of the Center for Innovation in Grand Forks, North Dakota, for his induction into the North Dakota Entrepreneur Hall of Fame.
Arizona taxpayers paid at least $100 million for the TGen Institute. The east coast version of Scripps cost Florida a cool $500-plus million. How much should Kansas City expect to pay the Stowers Institute for Medical Research to double the size of its 600,000 sq. ft. research facility instead of locating a second campus elsewhere?
Not a dime.
California's Treasurer Phil Angelides called earlier this month for the nation's largest and third largest pension funds to invest at least $1.5 billion into environmental technologies and environmentally responsible companies.
The Fund for Our Economic Future, a new collaboration of Northeast Ohio private, community and corporate foundations to support regional economic development, has secured more than $22 million in commitments and is expected to grow to $30 million. Launched last week, the fund is believed to be the largest and most comprehensive philanthropic collaboration of its kind in the U.S.
As promised in her 2004 State of the State Address, Gov. Ruth Ann Minner released a New Economy Initiative last week that includes several new elements to encourage economic growth in Delaware. The $34 million package is expected to generate at least $16 million more in federal and private match. Many of the elements of the plan were recommended by the governor's Strategic Economic Council.
Advanced research grants and equity financing are just two items slated for funding in Maine Gov. John Baldacci's $120 million revenue bond package, unveiled last week. The tech-based economic development (TBED) items would receive a combined $7 million in funding. The largest portion of the governor's package, $65 million, is dedicated to land conservation and parks. Other elements address housing, health and environmental issues.
"We cannot be satisfied with simply passing stem cell research legislation."
A new plan to grow North Carolina's biotech industry to 48,000 jobs by 2013 and 125,000 by 2023 was released earlier this month by the North Carolina Biotechnology Center, a state-supported nonprofit organization. If implemented, the 108-page plan would cost up to $650 million over five years. That figure does not include the "to be determined" cost for 15 of the plan's 54 recommendations.
The 54 action steps span a variety of objectives:
With the slowdown in the economy, there is widespread concern about the kind of painful belt-tightening which occurred in the states in the early 1990s. Because of this perception and the rapid change in so many states’ fiscal situations, the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) released this week a new survey to update its January 4, 2001, State Fiscal Outlook for 2001.
On February 26, President Bush issued a memorandum to 21 departments, agencies and other executive offices to create an Interagency Working Group on Federalism. The group is to:
a) Identify initiatives that promote principles of federalism, such as:
The headlines of many tech and business publications scream of massive Internet incubator layoffs, closures, and restructuring. The rapid rise and fall of these organizations has left some local tech-based economic development practitioners wondering if encouraging the growth of incubator facilities is a worthwhile strategy to pursue.
The National Science Foundation has published online the latest edition of the annual series: Science & Engineering State Profiles: 1998-99. By presenting one-page statistical summaries for each state, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico, Profiles provides rankings, state and US figures for easy reference across 30 science and engineering statistics as well as the distribution of federal R&D obligations by department and performer.
With the 1994 School-to-Work Opportunities Act sunsetting this year and the increasing importance of developing a skilled workforce for a tech-based economy, many are asking if the initiatives launched or expanded by the Act have been successful.
Two new Governors, Bob Wise of West Virginia and Wisconsin's Scott McCallum, have put tech-based economic development in the forefront of their respective economic agendas.
West Virginia