With a large land mass and a population surpassing the 21 least populated states and the District of Columbia combined, California has scores of public programs and nonprofit organizations dedicated to encouraging technology-based economic development on the state, regional, local and sub-local levels. Best practices in the field, then, could have applications in a number of other states and communities.
With technology's pervasiveness and important role in most aspects of the policy agenda before Congress, the need for accurate, nonpartisan information on technology may never have been greater. Two approaches to meeting the need were the topic of Technology Assessment: Identifying the Needs of Congress, a recent forum co-hosted by ASME International and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE).
Industrial R&D intensity, or measuring industrial research and development expenditures as a proportion of Gross State Product, is just one method to standardize the data for comparison across states (see the April 12, 2002 edition of the SSTI Weekly Digest). Reviewing a state's expenditures on the basis of its population is another technique.
The U.S. Small Business Administration has named Heath Copp as the Young Entrepreneur of the Year. Mr. Copp, 24, is a resident of Grand Forks, North Dakota.
Gary Neil Drummond has been elected chairmain of the board for the Economic Development Partnership of Alabama.
Joseph Hammang is leaving his position as director of science and technology at the Rhode Island Economic Policy Council to join the pharmaceutical giant, Pfizer, Inc.
The U.S. Small Business Administration has named Heath Copp as the Young Entrepreneur of the Year. Mr. Copp, 24, is a resident of Grand Forks, North Dakota.
Gary Neil Drummond has been elected chairmain of the board for the Economic Development Partnership of Alabama.
Joseph Hammang is leaving his position as director of science and technology at the Rhode Island Economic Policy Council to join the pharmaceutical giant, Pfizer, Inc.
John S. Maxson has been named as the new president of The Illinois Coalition. Mr. Maxson fills the position vacated by Shaye Mandle earlier this spring.
The Illinois Innovation Initiative has named Jerry Mitchell to serve as commercialization manager. Mr. Mitchell is also president of the Midwest Entrepreneurs Forum.
Sacramento's economic development director, Andy Plescia, is moving on to become a private development consultant.
Marguerite Wilbur has been named president and CEO of Joint Venture: Silicon Valley.
David Winder, currently executive director of the Utah Department of Community and Economic Development, has been appointed to a newly created post as Governor Mike Leavitt's special assistant for post-Olympic projects. According to the Salt Lake Tribune, Mr. Winder will serve both positions until a replacement is named for the DCED position.
The State of Colorado is creating an office to recruit and assist space technology businesses, the Associated Press reported. Approximately $240,000 has been raised for the office, which will be led by a yet-to-be-named "Colorado space advocate." One fourth of the funds are provided by the state, with the balance received from the private sector.
The Lehigh Valley Technology Network was launched mid-April in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Organizing efforts were led by the Lehigh Valley Chamber of Commerce, the Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Northeastern Pennsylvania and the Lehigh Valley Economic Development Corp. One of the Network's potential roles, according to The Morning Call, may be to serve as a liaison between high-tech entrepreneurs and a new angel capital group, the Northeast Pennsylvania Angel Network.
The New York New Media Association has been acquired by the Washington D.C.-based Software and Information Industry Association. At this time, the groups plan to maintain separate offices, staffs, boards, and memberships.
Mike Leavitt of the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory has been appointed the Co-chair of the Federal Laboratories Consortium State and Local Government Committee.
Tom Shea with the Office of Economic Adjustment in the Department of Defense has announced his retirement, effective September 30, 2003.
U.S. Department of Commerce Assistant Secretary Nancy Victory has announced her resignation effective mid-August. Victory led the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, which manages the $15.4 million Technology Opportunities Program.
Over the last year, there has been increased public and government attention on issues involving tech-based economic development. For much of the year, Thomas Friedman's The World is Flat has dominated the New York Times bestseller list. A series of reports from the AeA, Council on Competitiveness, and the National Academy of Sciences call for increased action by the federal government.
During his 2006 State of the Union Address, President Bush outlined a decade-long $50 billion American Competitiveness Initiative (ACI) for R&D, education and entrepreneurship. The FY 2007 downpayment on ACI is $5.9 billion, which is accomplished by shuffling priorities within a shrinking federal discretionary budget environment to find $1.3 billion in new funding and $4.6 billion in R&D tax incentives. Specifically, ACI calls for:
Perennially a favorite target for Congressional earmarks, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) budget, at $92.8 billion, is nearly $3 billion below the FY 2006 level of anticipated expenditures. More than three-fourths of the USDA budget outlays for FY 2007 are dedicated to mandatory spending programs such as nutrition assistance, conservation, export promotion and farm commodity programs. The remaining balance of $21.5 billion, $1.7 billion or 7.3 percent less than the FY06 outlay level, is for discretionary programs.
The Administration's FY 2007 $6.138 billion discretionary budget request for the Department of Commerce reflects a 4.23 percent decrease from the FY06 appropriation of $6.410 billion.
The Administration's FY07 budget request for the Department of Defense (DoD) totals $439.3 billion, an increase of 7 percent from FY 2006. However, funding for DoD science and technology decreased 15.9 percent, to a total of $11.1 billion for FY07.
Discussion on competitiveness and innovation take very different tacts between the statehouses and Washington, D.C. Education is the fundamental building block for a skilled workforce and for creating future scientists and engineers. While most states are investing more in education, the Administration's FY07 budget request for the U.S. Department of Education totals $54.41 billion, a 5.5 percent decrease from FY06 total spending of $57.55 billion.