Iowa: Davenport Sells City Land for Tech Incubator


To jumpstart the city's multi-million-dollar revitalization project, the Davenport City Council voted last week to sell city land to a developer to build a tech incubator, according to the Associated Press. The initial phase of the project, valued at $113.5 million in all, will begin with a 40,000-square-foot facility to house start-up, technology-based businesses. Construction of the business incubation center is slated to be finished by June 2004. Once complete, the center could situate up to 10 new high-tech start-up companies.

The National Science Foundation (NSF) has released a statistical report on Science and Engineering Doctorate Awards: 2002. The data show trends in science and engineering (S&E) doctorate awards by S&E field and recipient characteristics, institutions awarding doctorates, and postgraduation plans of recipients.

The majority of an anonymous gift of $26.5 million to the University of Southern California (USC) will be used to increase the representation of women in the hard sciences and engineering faculty and encourage middle school girls to choose a science pathway in education. Money also will be used to create new faculty positions in the sciences, upgrade laboratories, increase scholarship aid for undergraduates, create new fellowships for graduates and fund child care.

Dr. Angeline Dvorak has been named as the first full-time president of Mississippi Technology, Inc. She will also serve as chief executive office of the Institute for Technology Development.

Dr. Angeline Dvorak has been named as the first full-time president of Mississippi Technology, Inc. She will also serve as chief executive office of the Institute for Technology Development.

The Maine Science & Technology Foundation has appointed Dr. Kerri-Ann Jones as statewide director of the Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR).

SSTI is sad to report the October death of Gloria Timmer, executive director of the National Association of State Budget Officers (NASBO). Ms. Timmer was very helpful to SSTI on several projects in her capacity at NASBO and previously as the Kansas state budget director.

With what’s shaping up to be the closest presidential election in the last 40 years and control of the U.S. House and Senate up in the air, little press attention has been focused on the other elections occurring throughout the country. Today’s issue of the SSTI Weekly Digest provides an overview of some of the other races affecting S&T. On Thursday we’ll report on the results.





Gubernatorial Candidates on Technology . . .


While much of the country is focused on the race for the White House, eleven states will hold elections for governor (Delaware, Indiana, Missouri, Montana, New Hampshire, North Carolina, North Dakota, Utah, Vermont, Washington, and West Virginia). In at least five of those states, technology issues were on the front burner for at least one of the candidates. Most of the candidates’ technology initiatives center on access to the Internet, providing tax incentives, and supporting research and educational opportunities for universities and their students.

Minnesota Technology Inc. (MTI), the leading technology-based economic development organization in the state of Minnesota, is seeking a Deputy Director to serve as the right hand to the CEO. This critical position will be responsible for the following:

In an economy driven increasingly by computer literacy and connectivity, leading the nation in the percentage of households not connected to the Internet is a distinction many in the South are working to eliminate. One South, Digitally Divided, the second annual TelecomSouth conference of the Southern Technology Council (STC), and its accompanying report Creating the CyberSouth are efforts in that direction.

After surpassing $1 billion in university-based R&D for the first time ever in FY 2000, and receiving a budget increase of $633 million for FY 2001, NASA has kicked off a major effort to further strengthen its relationship with universities and colleges. On October 19, NASA Administrator Dan Goldin and NASA Science Advisor General Spence Armstrong hosted a NASA/University Cyber-Conference laying out funding opportunities and technical research areas for universities to be more integral partners in NASA research and development programs.

With the goal of developing a common technology agenda among the region’s leaders, the Los Angeles Regional Technology Alliance (larta) has compiled its first regional innovation index benchmarking the area’s strengths and weaknesses in S&T. The Southern California Technology Innovation Index compares the five-county Los Angeles consolidated metropolitan statistical area with the California Bay Area (San Francisco, Oakland and San Jose), Austin, Texas, and Massachusetts. The San Diego and Santa Barbara metro areas are not included in the definition of Southern California.

This year’s Global Competitiveness Report 2000, released in September by the World Economic Forum, marks a significant departure from earlier editions by its level of sophistication in addressing the increasingly global nature of the economies of the Forum’s 59 member nations. While past reports have relied on one index providing a snapshot of a country’s economic performance, two indices are used to measure productivity and advances in the standard of living over different time horizons. A third index is introduced this year to measure the role of technology and innovation in a country’s economy while a fourth index is added to reflect the environmental sustainability of nation’s economic growth.

From a pool of more than 1200 applications, NASA has selected 111 projects across 30 states to receive funding through the Cross-Enterprise Technology Development (CETD) program. Designed to support one-to-three year research projects with high payoff technologies to revolutionize future space-flight systems, the $120 million CETD program is a primary method for identifying and developing revolutionary space technologies to stimulate new concepts for missions not yet conceived.

More Americans than ever have Internet access and own computers, but disparities remain in many areas, according to two new reports by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA). Falling Through the Net: Toward Digital Inclusion, completed by NTIA staff, and Historically Black Colleges and Universities: An Assessment of Networking and Connectivity, which was conducted by the National Association for Equal Opportunity in Higher Education, offer insights as well as outline work which still needs to be done to address the Digital Divide.

As the digital economy matures and more regions around the country are prepared to offer the telecommunications infrastructure and skilled workforce required to compete for high-tech businesses, the implications for Silicon Valley were presented in a new report from Joint Venture: Silicon Valley Network. Internet Cluster Analysis 2000, released last week, outlines several challenges facing the region.

While the Development Report Card of the States, issued annually by the Corporation for Enterprise Development (CfED) usually generates a news story in most local papers, a quick scan of several articles reveals the science and technology-related components of the report card get mixed play. This year’s report, funded by the Economic Development Administration, is available on-line in its entirety and has a customizing feature for ease of comparison.

In an effort to improve the image of technology professionals and encourage teens to prepare for technical careers, the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Office of Technology Policy (OTP) has kicked off Get Tech, a national awareness campaign directed at America’s youth. The campaign is designed to inspire teens to prepare for the technology-driven jobs of tomorrow.

As mentioned in the last week's SSTI Weekly Digest, access to capital is a challenge for women-owned businesses. Springboard 2000, one nationwide initiative to overcome that obstacle, in less than one year, has assisted women entrepreneurs in science and technology businesses to raise more than $235 million in venture funding. The investments have been raised directly as a result of two forums held this year in Redwood City, California and Dulles, Virginia.

Last Friday, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) awarded 19 grants through the NIH Institutional Development Award (IDeA) Program to biomedical research institutions located in states that had not fully participated in NIH funding in the past. Created in 1993, the IDeA Program is designed to enhance biomedical research capacity building among academic institutions and research institutions within the eligible 23 states and Puerto Rico.

During the past two weeks, the Milken Institute has issued two similar reports documenting the difficulties and successes minority- and women-owned business have accessing capital.

The National Science Foundation’s Division of Educational System Reform is funding cooperative agreements with 13 urban school districts: Birmingham, Chattanooga, Chicago, Fresno, Memphis, Miami, Minneapolis, Nashville, Newport News, Oklahoma City, Omaha, Pittsburgh, and Philadelphia to improve K-12 mathematics and technology education. The awards are aimed at districts that already have improvement programs in place. The funds will help them expand current programs in science, mathematics, and technology as well as initiate new activities so all students have access to the programs.

State science and technology initiatives have been given higher profile in California as the state's lead economic development department changes its name to the Technology, Trade, and Commerce Agency. The new Division of Science, Technology and Innovation, led by Deputy Secretary Joe Raguso, will oversee the state's tech-based economic development efforts. In addition to assuming the responsibilities of the Office of Strategic Technology, the new division will also be responsible for science and technology-based strategic planning, developing funding programs to address the state's digital divide issues, and managing the state's Small Business Development Center program. Two new advisory councils, the California Research and Development Council and the Small Business Competitiveness Council will be created to advise and assist the new division. More information can be found at: http://info.sen.ca.gov/pub/bill/sen/sb_1101-1150/sb_1136_bill_20000930_chaptered.pdf and http://dsti.tech4ca.com/

The Department of Energy, the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are offering for license several government owned patents, inventions and a trademark. A description and contact information for each opportunity are posted on the following SSTI webpage: 


http://www.ssti.org/Digest/Tables/101300t.htm

The National Science Foundation (NSF) has recommended awards for 24 projects in communities around the country to help translate knowledge gained from basic research into new products, businesses and services, as well as to provide workforce education and training opportunities focused on innovation. Totaling more than $14 million, each averaging about $600,000 over two or three years, the first-ever Partnerships For Innovation (PFI) awards cover projects in 20 states and Puerto Rico.