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Listen or read the business news media and the dreaded “R” word, recession, is back in common parlance. State revenue cycles seem to feel it first. Already, with more than a dozen states projecting budget deficits for both current and coming fiscal years, it seems certain: Spending cuts in programs and services and/or tax increases are imminent. The nationwide housing market slump, the rising cost of energy and health care, and increased state spending are cited as a just a few of the reasons for shortfalls in state budgets.

Although Missouri frequently ranks in the top 20 states for federal research grants and academic R&D, the state consistently ranks much lower in the creation of new high-tech companies. A recent report by Dr. Mark Parry of the University of Missouri-Kansas City Bloch School of Business suggests that early-stage high-tech entrepreneurs and companies have been unable to secure sufficient capital to launch successful ventures.

Three major announcements were made in Singapore last month focusing on R&D of new technologies and educating the workforce to produce specialized graduates in upcoming fields.

 

One continuing challenge states and regions are attempting to overcome is adjusting their workforces in a rapidly changing, innovation-driven, global economy. The growing consensus emerging from many people examining science and technology competitiveness is that U.S. students need to be academically stronger in the science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields than they are today and that the supply of graduates with a science background needs to increase.

Nearly 700 new products resulting from university research handled by technology transfer offices reached the marketplace in FY 2006, according to the latest Association of University Technology Managers (AUTM) Survey of U.S. Licensing Activity released this week.

 

The 189 research performing institutions that participated in the survey also reported the creation of 553 start-ups during the year and almost 5,000 new licensing relationships with companies.

 

During the past year, the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program has garnered a great deal of attention, setting the stage for a national debate over potential changes to the well known federal program – namely the issue of participation from companies with venture-capital backing. With congressional reauthorization on the horizon for next year, SSTI examined the SBIR program in-depth during a breakout session at the annual conference in October, looking at both current status and future developments.

The Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development, in concert with the Pennsylvania State University, are presenting the inaugural Creating Pennsylvania’s Future: A Higher Education, Economic and Community Development Summit, aimed at energizing institutions of higher education, busi

Jim Aanstoos is the new economic development director for the city of San Marcos, Texas.

John Adams, director of the Laredo Development Foundation, will become the new director of Enterprise Florida.

Jim Aanstoos is the new economic development director for the city of San Marcos, Texas.

John Adams, director of the Laredo Development Foundation, will become the new director of Enterprise Florida.

Steve Biggers has been promoted to Deputy Director for the Oklahoma Center for the Advancement of Science & Technology.

Warren Erdman, formerly vice president of corporate affairs at Kansas City Southern, is the newly selected chairman of the board of the Economic Development Corp. of Kansas City.

Michael Finney, CEO of Greater Rochester Enterprise, is leaving to become president and CEO of Ann Arbor SPARK.

Dennis "Mickey" Flynn is the new president of Pennsylvania BIO.

The West Virginia Venture Connection has named John Hale as executive director.

Kevin Holmes returned to his alma mater, Santa Clara University, to join the Leavey School of Business as executive director of its Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (CIE).

Bruce Kidd is the first director of entrepreneurship for the Indiana Economic Development Corp.

Angela Kreps is the first president of the year-old Kansas Bioscience Organization.

Cliff Long is the first full-time economic development director for Nampa, Idaho. Long had worked for the Idaho Department of Commerce for the past 14 years.

Christopher Price is the executive director for the Piedmont Triad Research Park and senior vice president, Wake Forest University Health Sciences.

Michael Tentnowski is the new director of the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Incubator.

Anne Wein is the new executive director of Southeast BIO, a nonprofit organization concentrating on the growth of the life sciences industry.

Edison had Menlo Park. Monet had the gardens at Giverny. Ubiquitous computing had PARC. To what extent were the great things that happened at each of these localities influenced by the places themselves? 

 

Reducing that question to economic development policy terms: Can the places of great creations be created by design?

 

Building structures that contain laboratory space are becoming an important component of many entities pursuing TBED strategies. Research spaces such as cleanrooms and wetlabs pop up throughout universities, but they also are being constructed within research parks and business incubators.

 

The theory of spatial clustering has been very popular in the TBED field for many years, as researchers attempt to explain the transformation of places like Silicon Valley and the reasons various locales are economically competitive. Practitioners have utilized the theory as a method to describe their own state and regional economies and to support the development of specific industries. As an industry cluster grows, additional benefits of agglomeration are realized.