In support of Gov. Bill Richardson's proposal to develop a workforce trained for 21st century jobs, the New Mexico State Legislature passed two bills this session allocating funds and creating training programs for green jobs. Lawmakers also supported a technology transfer initiative and several measures aimed at growing the state's solar industry.
With its most recent release of academic research and development expenditures, the NSF has provided insight into the portion of funding that originates from private companies.
Congress has been debating the need to revise U.S. patent law for years, and, while the debate certainly is not over, a significant hurdle was passed last week when the Senate Judiciary Committee voted 15-4 to move S.515, as amended, for full Senate consideration.
Venture capitalists increasingly turn their attention to investment opportunities outside of the U.S., according to several recent industry reports. Though the U.S. continues to dominate the global venture industry, the current economic crisis has negatively affected national fundraising, investment and exits. At the same time, venture investment outside the U.S. reached a record $13.8 billion in 2008, a five percent increase over the previous year. China, India and Israel in particular have made strides in building thriving VC markets.
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) last week published the final version of its guidelines regarding human stem cell research, in part determining which human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) are eligible for research with NIH funding. The final guidelines contain adjustments from the draft version of the guidelines released on April 23 for public comment, from which the NIH received approximately 49,000 statements from advocacy groups, scientists, medical organizations, religious groups, members of Congress, and private citizens.
Three metropolitan areas dominate the U.S. venture capital landscape: San Francisco, Boston and New York. These cities are home to about half of all U.S. venture firms and about half of all U.S. venture-backed companies. Though venture firms have sprung up around the country over the past 25 years, the three cities have maintained, and even expanded, their share of national firms and investment.
SSTI has prepared a table displaying the amount companies spent on R&D in each state from 2003 to 2007, the state's rank in 2007, the percent change over this five-year period, and the rank of that percent change. For the U.S. as a whole, industry-funded R&D was $204 billion in 2003 and rose to $269.3 billion in 2007 - a five-year jump of 32 percent. Note, the amounts in the chart are not indexed to a single year, but reflect values from when the data was released.
The U.S. venture capital industry showed signs of growth during the second quarter of 2009, according to the most recent update from the National Venture Capital Association and PricewaterhouseCoopers Moneytree Report. While the total number of deals remained flat, total dollars invested increased by 15 percent over the first quarter of the year. Much of the growth is the result of increased investment in seed and early-stage companies, which grew 67 percent over the previous quarter in an encouraging sign for entrepreneurs.
Rebecca Bagley, who left her position as deputy secretary for the Technology Investment Office within the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development, was appointed president-elect of NorTech. Bagley will succeed Dorothy Baunach, the founding staff director of NorTech, as president and chief executive officer. Baunach will become president emeritus, serving as an adviser until December 2010.
The growing need for a skilled workforce in the U.S. has prompted policymakers, educators and industry leaders alike to explore a wide range of options for ensuring a pipeline of qualified workers with specialized skills to fill both new economy jobs and those that will be vacated by the aging population. Two recent examples include grants awarded to states to help re-train older generation workers for jobs in high-growth industries and legislation introduced in the U.S. Senate to provide resources for high-school students to secure high-wage careers in their regions.
The complete description of this opportunity and others are available at http://www.ssti.org/posting.htm.
Gov. Jim Doyle signed the 2009-11 biennial budget last month, providing funding for university-based research and enhancing tax credits for angel and venture investors supporting high-tech R&D.
In 2007, the federal government dedicated $111.4 billion to R&D, an amount roughly equal to 0.81 percent of the U.S. gross domestic product (GDP), according to a recent report from the National Science Foundation (NSF). While research-intensive states, such as California, Maryland, Massachusetts and Virginia are the leading targets for federal R&D spending, several other states attracted a comparable amount of federal funding relative to their economies between 2002 and 2007.
The vast majority of basic research performed in this country is funded by the federal government, so odds are most innovations also stem from our federal research investments, right? The generalization may seem logical but it could never be proven. Let alone following research through to any resulting technologies, it is currently impossible even to tell the number of jobs resulting from federal research investments–supporting people in positions ranging from top of the field faculty researchers to research assistants, lab technicians, and administrative/custodial support staff.
The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) invites public comment on a proposed new patent examination initiative that would provide applicants greater control over the speed with which their applications are examined and promote greater efficiency in the patent examination process. The new "Three-Track" program aims both to provide applicants with the timing of examination they need and to reduce pendency of patent applications.
VC Investment Up As Cleantech Sector Hits Record High
A recent report from the National Governors Association Center for Best Practices provides states with a blueprint to create a skilled workforce based on the success of the Automotive Manufacturing Technical Education Collaborative (AMTEC). AMTEC is a partnership of 30 community colleges and 34 auto-related plants in 12 states that worked to identify and implement improvements in technical education for workers in advanced automotive manufacturing.
Several components of Gov. Bev Perdue's JobsNOW small business package related to tech-based economic development efforts in North Carolina were approved in the FY11 budget signed into law on June 30. A program to provide matching funds for Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) will see its budget more than double in the second year of the biennium and life science programs will receive more than $22 million in recurring appropriations. The enacted budget also extends to Jan.
The National Science Foundation (NSF) has begun reporting employment and R&D investment figures for companies that perform R&D based on the agency's new Business R&D and Innovation Survey. The inaugural data, based on 2008 results, shows that U.S. companies that perform R&D employed 27.1 million people worldwide 1.9 million of whom were directly involved in research. Domestic employment within these companies totaled 18.5 million, with 1.5 million R&D workers.
President Barack Obama has authorized the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) to spend an additional $129 million of the fees it will collect this year to improve operations and hire new patent examiners. The newly authorized funds represent fee collections that exceed earlier projections for the year, due to an improving economy and a streamlined review process. Despite that bump in productivity, a recent survey of the U.S. patent system found that entrepreneurs believe that the system is merely "muddling through" and does little to encourage innovation.
Canadian universities and affiliated hospitals disclosed and reported 1,613 new inventions in 2008, a 20 percent increase over the previous year, according to a new report from Statistics Canada. These same institutions reported that 19 new spin-off companies were created using university intellectual property in 2008, bringing the total number of spin-off companies to 1,242 since 1999. The reported value of research undertaken at Canadian universities and hospitals reached an estimated $2 billion in 2008, a 55 percent increase over 2007.
Companies that engage in R&D activities — either through performing R&D or funding others to perform R&D — are far more likely to innovate than companies that do not, according to new data from the National Science Foundation's (NSF) 2008 Business R&D and Innovation Survey (BRDIS). NSF researchers found that companies with R&D "exhibit far higher rates of innovation than do non-R&D companies. However, only 47,000 (3%) U.S. companies engaged in R&D activities from 2006 to 2008.
Marking the first decline in a decade and despite a then-healthy economy, federal R&D for the Department of Energy (DOE) declined from FY05 to FY06. The percentage of total federal R&D obligations dedicated to DOE R&D also declined from FY05 to FY06.
Complete descriptions of this opportunity and others are available at http://www.ssti.org/posting.htm.
Missouri Small Business Technology Development Center invites applications for an associate state specialist (counselor). This position serves as a statewide specialist to provide leadership, expertise, and training to University faculty and staff, and private sector clients with SBIR/STTR.