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Bills have been passed and budgets approved with the close of several 2007 legislative sessions in the western states. The below article is part of the Digest's continuing coverage of the legislative outcomes of some of what governors proposed in their State of the State and budget addresses (see SSTI’s Tech Talkin’ Govs Series in the Jan. 8, Jan.

Experience can be an invaluable, and sometimes irreplaceable, asset during the intense and complicated process of building a new firm. Many theorists believe that past entrepreneurial experience, whether with successful or unsuccessful firms, prepares entrepreneurs for the pressures and risks involved in starting a company.

A popular strategy in the TBED community is the attempt to both recruit and develop academic entrepreneurs that may have a substantial effect on the growth of a region's economy. Successful efforts to attract researchers, such as the Georgia Research Alliance and Kentucky's Bucks for Brains programs, are being replicated across the country. However, if one of the hoped-for payoffs is the successful creation of innovative companies, what types of researchers are best suited for this role?

Cities play a pivotal role in producing the technologies that sustain high-tech industries, hosting a majority of the businesses and individuals that comprise those industries. Modern urban theory, including the work of Edward Glaeser and Richard Florida, has popularized the idea of cities as key nodes in which new knowledge is created, spread and adopted by innovative businesses and entrepreneurs.

Industrial R&D expenditures in the U.S. totaled $208 billion in 2004 — an increase of 2.1 percent ($4.3 billion) from 2003, according to the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Survey of Industrial Research and Development.

With the title America Creating Opportunities to Meaningfully Promote Excellence in Technology, Education, and Science Act, it isn’t surprising that S. 761 had 69 cosponsors in the U.S. Senate. The bill’s passage last night by an 88-8 vote by the full chamber sends an even stronger signal that the vast majority of the Senate has heard the message regarding the need for the federal government to be more aggressive in its support for science and technology.

 

Over the last few months, three states have announced new strategies to encourage regional tech-based economic development. Several states have experimented with how best to support or encourage regional TBED in the past, resulting in both successes and failures. In some cases, state sought partnerships at the local level in the creation of new programs while other states took a more hands off approach, such as providing seed funding to create regional technology councils.

 

California accounted for 22.4 percent of the nation’s total industrial R&D in 2004, leading the U.S. with $46.6 billion in total industrial R&D expenditures, according to the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Survey of Industrial Research and Development: 2004. Michigan ($15.2 billion), Massachusetts ($11.8 billion), New Jersey ($11.0 billion), and Texas ($11.0 billion) rounded out the top five.

 

As the 2007 legislative session in Maryland came to a close last week, Gov. Martin O'Malley celebrated an important victory for the future of life sciences with a $10 million increase for stem cell research and the creation of a life sciences advisory board. Gov. O'Malley requested the 66 percent increase during his Jan. 31 State of the State Address (see the Feb. 19, 2007 issue of the Digest).