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C. Michael Cassidy, president of the Georgia Research Alliance, has been appointed to the governing board of the Biotechnology Industry Organization.

Joint Venture: Silicon Valley has named Russell Hancock as its new president and CEO.

Dr. Lee Eiden, SBIR Program Coordinator for the U.S. Department of Education for nearly seven years, is shifting positions within the agency to work for the Office of Management/Chief Information Office. Dr. Eiden's contributions toward improving the state-federal partnership for SBIR outreach and technical assistance will be greatly missed by the state and local tech-based economic development community.

The director of the Arkansas Department of Economic Development has announced his retirement. Jim Pickens will remain in the position until his replacement is named, according to local news reports.

Pari Sabety, director of Ohio State University's Technology Policy Group, is leaving to become Director of the Neighborhood Markets Initiative, a new program of the Center for Urban and Metropolitan Policy in the Brookings Institution.

The director of the Nebraska Department of Economic Development, Al Wenstrand, is leaving to become executive director of the Florida's Great Northwest, an economic development agency serving the Florida Panhandle.

The first three installments of SSTI's four-part look at how TBED will play in the 2006 legislative priorities of the governors can be found in the Digest archives at: http://www.ssti.org/Digest/digest.htm

Oklahoma

Contrary to popular belief, intellectual capital and university collaboration - not just lower costs - primarily attract companies to locate R&D activities in locations away from their home country, according to a new study sponsored by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation.

Hard evidence of the increasing global research competence discussed in the Thursby's paper above was provided last week when the Singapore Ministry of Trade & Industry (MTI) announced plans last week to commit $7.5 billion ($4.6 billion US) over the next five years to sustain innovation-driven growth through economic-oriented R&D. All figures below are in U.S. dollars.

Stem cell research, an expanded tax zone redevelopment initiative and faculty/researcher recruitment are all beneficiaries in the fiscal year 2007 budget proposal submitted by Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich last week. In addition, while overall funding for the state Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity (DCEO) is down 16 percent from the FY 2006 appropriation, the governor's request includes several new programs to assist technology entrepreneurship.

Connecticut Gov. M. Jodi Rell is using the midterm budget request as the vehicle to substantially overhaul how the state supports the entire economic development process. Connecticut Innovations, one of the nation's oldest state-created equity finance programs for tech businesses, would be consolidated with departments that cover focus areas ranging from health education and housing to traditional economic development financing.

Improving higher education is a top priority in almost every state, but fewer than half of states have set specific, measurable goals to track their progress in enrolling, retaining and graduating students, according to a new report from Jobs for the Future (JFF), By the Numbers: State Goals for Increasing Postsecondary Attainment.

Despite a decrease of $44.6 million in National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding from fiscal year 2003,  Boston held the top spot in total NIH funding for FY 2004, maintaining its lead over New York. The two cities had $1.57 billion and $1.25 billion, respectively.

As states forecast the worst fiscal crisis in half a century may be ending, the nation's mayors, too, see marked economic improvement on the horizon, according to a report released last Thursday by the U.S. Conference of Mayors. However, they remain concerned that the economy is still not generating jobs at a sufficient level for U.S. workers.

The 2004 budget for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, as passed by the House of Representatives mid-July, includes $678 million for the Distance Learning, Telemedicine and Broadband program (DLT). Through loans, grants and loan and grant combinations, DLT provides the facilities and equipment to link rural education and medical facilities with more urban centers and other facilities.

Late last week, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) released a Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) calling for academic white papers that will focus on specific areas related to social science issues. This is the first step in the review process for colleges and universities that would like to be selected as a Homeland Security Center of Excellence (HS-Center). The Department anticipates selecting at least one HS-Center by end of November 2003 and up to nine more HS-Centers by end of 2004.

Congressional responses to the Administration's recent proposal to merge the Department of Commerce's technology and telecommunications operations into one coordinated agency ranged from a hearty endorsement to dead in the water, according to Capitol Hill-focused news media.

With the sustained depth of the recession, the IT crash, the rapid growth in unemployment and the speculative office construction craze of the late 1990s, one would expect office vacancies to climb and property lease rates to edge down in many cities. Following this thought further might suggest, with cheaper office space available, the need for publicly supported low-rent technology incubator space would decrease.

The National Science Foundation (NSF) has published online the Science & Engineering State Profiles: 2000-2001, a set of 52 science and engineering (S&E) profiles summarizing state-specific data on personnel and finances. Rankings and totals are given for the 50 states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico, and the report includes a data source page.

Blair Carnahan will be the first director of the new Columbus Regional Technology Center in Columbus, Ga. The new facility will house an incubator, the Columbus Georgia Tech regional office and the Columbus office of the Small Business Development Center.

Blair Carnahan will be the first director of the new Columbus Regional Technology Center in Columbus, Ga. The new facility will house an incubator, the Columbus Georgia Tech regional office and the Columbus office of the Small Business Development Center.

The Sacramento Regional Technology Alliance is losing its executive director as Clare Emerson has announced she is relocating to oversee AEA's Texas office.

John Kotek, formerly with Argonne National Laboratory-West, has been named deputy manager of the Department of Energy's Idaho Operations Office. The office oversees the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory.

Utah House Speaker Marty Stephens began his term as President of the National Conference of State Legislatures during its annual meeting last week.

We recognize that SSTI's annual conference quickly has become the premier professional development event annually for the tech-based economic development field. It's quite an honor, but it is also quite an obligation. Our conference participants have come to expect a level of unsurpassed quality. At least, that's what they tell us in the evaluations.