Two new programs from the U.S. Small Business Administration are designed to infuse new capital into economically disadvantaged rural and inner city areas and strengthen existing businesses through technical expertise and mentoring.
Editor's Note: The fifth installment in our review of the Governors' inaugural addresses, state of the state addresses, and budget messages for 2001. The first four articles in the series were over the past four weeks. Those issues of the SSTI Weekly Digest and all other previous editions are available on our website: http://www.ssti.org/Digest/2001/headlines01.htm
With President Bush announcing the creation of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, some analysts and practitioners are pondering the implications for economic local and state development efforts.
Do faith-based organizations have a role in ED?
There is so much happening in state and local tech-based economic development across the country that we’re adding a new Digest feature: the Regional Roundup. Our goal is to provide 1-2 sentence coverage of news stories, reports and resources demonstrating the variety of activities underway to build a stronger tech-based economy. Of course, whenever possible, we’ll include a link or contact for more information.
It is widely argued in the tech-based economic development community that New Economy businesses, specifically computers and information technology, account for the tremendous economic growth of the last half of the 1990s. But does the data support this?
Many tech-based economic development programs recognize the importance of having seed and venture capital accessible to their start up tech firms and entrepreneurs. Some practitioners, though, see a challenge in encouraging equity investment in more conservative, risk adverse regions and localities. The dot-com “correction” of last year probably did not help.
Addressing the Digital Divide, workforce development, and technology deployment in education are among the highest priorities of the nation’s mayors, according to Priorities for the New American City, the 2001 action agenda of the U.S. Conference of Mayors.
With as much emphasis on accessing and applying technology as on creating it, the final report of the Arizona Partnership for the New Economy (APNE) outlines several recommendations to improve Arizona’s position and performance in a tech-based economy.
Editor's Note: This is the fourth installment of excerpts from recent speeches and budget proposals demonstrating the priority governors are placing on tech-based economic development and math & science education.
The Economic Development Administration (EDA) seeks nominations for the second annual Award for Excellence in Economic Development. EDA established this award to recognize outstanding economic development activities of national importance.
NIST has opened the fiscal year 2001 competitions for funding under 13 different research grant programs: Precision Measurement Grants; the Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowships (known as SURF) in six NIST laboratories (Building and Fire Research, Chemical Science and Technology, Information Technology, Manufacturing Engineering, Materials Science and Engineering, and Physics); the Chemical Science and Technology Laboratory Grants Program; the Electronics and Electrical Engineering Laboratory Grants Program; the Fir
The New Mexico Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) program is recruiting a technology transfer and commercialization project manager with a proven track record in related disciplines from the private and/or public sector.
With Congressional approval, the Department of Homeland Security's principal research unit could receive a substantial increase in its fiscal year 2005 budget. The Administration's FY05 request for the Science and Technology Directorate is $1.039 billion -- 13.8 percent higher than the FY04 appropriation level of $913 million.
Venture capital (VC) investments in the U.S. continued to surge in the fourth quarter of 2003, two independent reports show. Among highlights, investment in life sciences companies outpaced other industry sectors. The sector's $4.89 billion total for the full year 2003 is the highest proportion directed to the life sciences in the last 12 years, according to the PricewaterhouseCoopers/Thomson Venture Economics/National Venture Capital Association MoneyTree™ Survey.
As the nation's economy shifts to knowledge- and technology-based industries, Mississippi's colleges and universities must provide expertise and leadership to attract new jobs and build a stable state economy, members of a special committee told the state House of Representatives last week.
In SSTI's final look at the 2004 State of the State and Budget addresses, the importance of building tech-based economies continues to be emphasized by governors across the country. Below are excerpts from speeches given in Alabama, Maryland, Minnesota, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island.
National Science Foundation (NSF) Director Rita Colwell has announced her retirement from the foundation, effective Feb. 21, 2004. Dr. Colwell took office at NSF in August of 1998. With five-and-a-half years as NSF's leader, Dr. Colwell is the third longest-serving director in the Foundation's 54-year history.
The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has announced the top 10 U.S. universities receiving the most patents during calendar year 2003. The University of California tops the list for the tenth consecutive year.
Science policy and tech-based economic development have taken center stage in Idaho with last week’s release of the Idaho Science and Technology Strategy and the supporting new initiatives included in Governor Dirk Kempthorne’s recent budget message.
Editor's Note: The third installment of SSTI's look at recent speeches and budget proposals to demonstrate the priority governors are placing on tech-based economic development and math & science education.
Georgia
Governor Roy Barnes, FY2002 Budget Address, January 11, 2001
– new and increased funding
With his past efforts to strengthen the state’s position in the tech-based economy, new Texas Governor Rick Perry’s budget priorities — $251 million in new spending for college scholarships and math & science programs — should come as no surprise.
An initiative to provide computer training to local teenagers to help jumpstart their information technology careers was launched earlier this month in Minneapolis. The Community IT Learning Center is the result of a partnership involving a North Minneapolis-based youth development organization, two local technology training companies, and Microsoft.
A new resource for tech-based businesses in rural Ohio, Eastern Kentucky, and West Virginia was launched last week. The Appalachian Regional Entrepreneurship Initiative (AREI) is expanding its efforts to support growth of a technology-based entrepreneurial economy in Appalachia Ohio and neighboring states through a new website, http://www.bizfirststop.com
The Maine Science and Technology Foundation has launched http://www.mainescience.org -- a single website clearinghouse for businesses, researchers, educators, students and the public looking for information on science and technology in Maine. Under the headings of Quest, Brainpower, Happenings, and Commerce, the site:
Total research and development investment in the United States was strong in 2000, and is expected to increase about five percent in 2001, according to two separate reports recently released by Battelle Memorial Institute and the National Science Foundation.