Search

Whether you call it an incubator, accelerator, technology center or innovation zone, most communities actively engaged in promoting tech entrepreneurship can point to a building or group of buildings that houses some of those efforts. These facilities increase the success of budding tech firms by providing some combination of low-cost space, shared resources, business assistance, intellectual property assistance, and access to capital. 

 

When it comes to new firm survival in the service sector, do regions that have above-average high school dropout rates fare worse than regions with higher percentages of their adult populations earning college degrees? The answer, according to a recent discussion paper by Zoltan Acs, Catherine Armington, and Ting Zhang, is it depends.

 

This week's issue of the SSTI Weekly Digest exposes just the tip of the iceberg of information available on entrepreneurship. That's where the TBED Resource Center comes in handy. The TBED Resource Center, developed by SSTI in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Commerce's Office of Technology Policy, is an interactive website providing a wealth of information for practitioners, policymakers, university faculty, and researchers alike.

Nineteen states that applied for assistance under the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Program in fiscal year 2005 saw an award-to-proposal conversion rate greater than the national average of 16.4 percent. Of those states, five experienced rates of greater than 20 percent ­- Nebraska (29%), Maine (27.3%), District of Columbia (25%), Montana (21.8%), and Washington (20%).

With Entrepreneurship Week, you and your colleagues may be more inspired to take steps to encourage entrepreneurship. But where to begin? What approaches should you consider? Or perhaps you are having problems developing an entrepreneurial culture?

The Georgia Department of Economic Development (GDEcD) is seeking a director to run its Innovation and Technology Office. The director is responsible for implementing and expanding a statewide technology and innovation-based economic development program that encompasses a full range of sales, marketing, business recruitment, business development, community development and public relations activities.

Sheri Stickley, vice president of SSTI, will be leaving SSTI on March 2 to accept a position with the Oklahoma Department of Commerce. Sheri was one of the primary authors of A Resource Guide for Technology-based Economic Development, and we wish her well in her new position. Oklahoma's gain is our loss, but we look forward to benefiting from her advice and wisdom as she enters a new chapter of her career.

With the goals of reducing crude oil consumption by a whopping 72 percent and identifying clean energy sources to cover 70 percent of the state’s energy needs by 2030, Hawaii has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to figure out exactly how to get the job done under the Hawaii Clean Energy Initiative.

 

Transforming as many small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) as possible into globally competitive firms is a challenge, as most TBED practitioners know. The complexity of combining all of Europe into a single market makes the work even more daunting.

 

To simplify the process for SMEs in more than 40 countries, the European Commission recently launched a consolidated Enterprise Europe Network. The network consolidates the older Euro Info Centres and the Innovation Relay Centres.

 

Gov. Rod Blagojevich unveiled a $25 billion capital plan supporting, in small part, several energy and technology projects, while at the same time eliminating funding in his fiscal year 2009 operating budget for several TBED-related programs within the Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity (DCEO).

 

This year's edition of the Angel Capital Association's (ACA) Angel Group Confidence Report reveals that angel investors are "cautiously optimistic" about their opportunities in 2008, despite recent predictions of a slowdown for the overall U.S. economy. In a survey of ACA members, nearly 55 percent predicted that the number of angel investments made by their group and the total dollars invested will increase this year.

Across the nation, policymakers, business leaders, private foundations and nonprofit groups are investing in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) graduates to maintain a competitive U.S. workforce. From middle school math and science labs to engineering-centered summer camps and tuition reimbursement for undergraduates who pursue these fields, there is widespread support for STEM graduates.

 

The best path to breaking the cycle of poverty from one generation to the next is a college degree, according to a new Brookings Institution report. Getting Ahead or Losing Ground: Economic Mobility in America reveals 41 percent of degree-holding people whose parents’ income placed their families in the bottom 20 percent of the population, or quintile, now have incomes placing them among the top 40 percent.

BioConnect of Greater Charlotte, a new networking group for Charlotte, N.C.-area workers in life-science-related fields, held its inaugural meeting earlier this month.



The North Carolina Biotechnology Center has hired Yonnie Butler as business development director of its business and technology development unit.

BioConnect of Greater Charlotte, a new networking group for Charlotte, N.C.-area workers in life-science-related fields, held its inaugural meeting earlier this month.