The Trent Lott National Center of Excellence for Economic Development & Entrepreneurship is pleased to announce its inaugural Excellence in Technology Based Economic Development Research award will be made to Dr. Edward Feser on Oct. 19, 2007, at the SSTI 11th Annual Conference in Baltimore.
Early registration is nearly over and the conference hotel is full, but you still have the opportunity to join representatives from 47 states and Canadian provinces at SSTI's 11th Annual Conference in Baltimore, Oct. 18-19, 2007 -- the nation's premier gathering for the tech-based economic development field.
Only a dozen seats remain available for new registrations to attend SSTI's 11th Annual Conference, which will be held Oct. 18-19 in Baltimore's fun-packed Inner Harbor. That's 12 seats, not a baker's dozen of 13. Given the two-week lead time before the event, SSTI strongly anticipates we will not be able to accommodate walk-in registrations the day of the conference. We encourage those of you making arrangements or planning to attend to register as soon as possible.
Just a few short months ago, many states were wrapping up their 2007 legislative sessions and preparing for the start of a new fiscal year. Laying the groundwork for a successful 2008 session, two governors recently announced major TBED initiatives that will be presented to lawmakers in the coming months.
Socially-responsible entrepreneurs at the University of Maryland now have a new financial resource available to help them get new businesses off the ground. The university's Impact Pre-Seed Fund program will offer grants to students with business plans that could offer potential benefits to global society.
Earlier this year, Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano and the Arizona State Legislature committed $100 million over four years to support Science Foundation Arizona, a nonprofit public-private partnership to coordinate the state’s R&D investments in science and technology. The catch? The law required a dollar-to-dollar match of non-government funding of the annual $25 million allotment before the state could release its funding to Science Foundation Arizona.
At some point, most start-up businesses require an infusion of outside capital to grow into a profitable enterprise. This infusion often comes in the form of venture capital (VC) investment, which provides capital and some degree of managerial guidance in exchange for an equity stake in the company.
Within economic development literature, many researchers believe the success of regional industry clusters is dependent on the strength and quantity of local “gatekeepers” – the organizations, firms and individuals that both draw knowledge from outside the region and distribute knowledge within the region. But what are the characteristics of these gatekeepers that may lead to a more productive exchange of knowledge?
Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue this month proposed a new $40 million Georgia Research Alliance (GRA) Venture Capital Fund to be fueled by $10 million from the state legislature and subsequently matched with $30 million from the private sector. Of the entire suite of GRA initiatives, this will be the first program not funded entirely by the state of Georgia.
Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty recently unveiled four energy initiatives to promote clean energy R&D and the use of renewable energy technologies in the state. Through a combination of executive orders and legislative proposals, the programs are intended to push Minnesota towards its goals of having 25 percent of the state’s energy come from renewable sources by 2025 and reducing the state’s greenhouse emissions 80 percent by 2050. These new initiatives are:
Referring to his fiscal year 2008-09 budget recommendation as “back to basics,” Gov. Phil Bredesen proposed significant investments in research and workforce initiatives while vowing not to tap into reserves or raise taxes.
The fourth installment of the Tech Talkin’ Govs series includes excerpts from governors’ speeches delivered in Georgia, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Michigan, Tennessee, and Wisconsin.
Georgia – see article in this issue of the Digest.
Kentucky
Gov. Steve Beshear, State Budget Address, Jan. 29, 2008
Ten to forty percent of entrepreneurs launching businesses in high-income countries expect that more than a quarter of their customers will come from outside of their country, according to a new study of trends in global entrepreneurship.
Considerable changes are affecting the structure of traditional manufacturing supply chains, and firms that do not adapt to these shifts will suffer economically, according to a recent report from the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM).
Using data from the Small Business Administration's Office of Advocacy, SSTI has prepared a table showing how each state (and the District of Columbia) has ranked in business churning over the past seven years. Business churning is a measure of the creation of new companies and the death of existing companies as a share of total firms (small businesses with employees). Churning increases as the number of new start-ups and existing business failures per year increase.
It is only through the involvement of the each and every one of our more than 185 members that SSTI is able to continue its mission -- to lead, support and strengthen efforts to improve state and regional economies through science, technology and innovation. Together, we’re growing a strong and vibrant tech-based economic development community. New members include:
State Sponsors
Kansas Bioscience Authority
Four years ago, President Bush launched a nationwide initiative to increase the availability of affordable, high-speed Internet access. The Administration's Broadband Initiative, which included efforts to expand the wireless spectrum available for commercial use and new funding to support broadband research, sought to eliminate the gaps in service that existed in many areas of the country and to improve U.S. competitiveness through its broadband infrastructure.
Gov. Charlie Crist outlined several new alternative and renewable energy initiatives aimed at diversifying the state’s economy and creating high-wage jobs in his fiscal year 2008-09 budget recommendation. Many of the new proposals would be financed by tapping into the state’s budget reserves and relying on casino and lottery revenues.
Gov. Brad Henry unveiled the details of his fiscal year 2009 budget recommendation earlier this week, providing a substantial increase in funding to the state’s lead TBED agency and proposing a permanent funding mechanism for cutting-edge research through the EDGE Endowment.
Several months of debate leading into a special legislative session late last year was not enough to convince lawmakers to approve funding for two of the governor’s major TBED priorities. With the release of the fiscal year 2008-09 budget recommendation, Gov. Ed Rendell is again asserting the importance of the alternative energy legislation and the Jonas Salk Legacy Fund, urging lawmakers to quickly enact the initiatives.
Measuring the strength of a state or region’s economy, particularly the elements related to tech-based economic development, is a tricky but vital tool for developing and updating TBED policies. Several challenges present themselves when deciding what information to present on the elements of the innovation system and assessing the region’s health and performance relative to appropriate surrogates.
This is your opportunity to shine in the spotlight! By hosting SSTI’s 14th Annual Conference in 2010, you can increase your national and international visibility by showcasing the success of your state and/or community’s tech-based economic development efforts to thousands of TBED professionals.
A national space agenda based on competition and national pride — the space race as it has been called — fits bygone times, according to the new National Space Policy statement released by the Obama administration on June 28. The new era outlined in the 14-page document calls for space-venturing nations to embrace shared principles of responsibility, peace, transparency, no claims of national sovereignty, and recognizing "purposeful interference" with another nation's space systems is an infringement of that nation's rights and grounds for self-defense or deterrence.
U.S. manufacturing competitiveness will continue to decline, according to the 2010 Global Manufacturing Competitiveness Index (GMCI). Index projections suggest, by 2015, Brazil will have overtaken the U.S. for fourth in the global rankings behind China, India and the Republic of Korea. The report concludes the increasing talent pools worldwide, coupled with higher U.S. wages, have placed U.S. manufacturing at a disadvantage in the global markets. However, the U.S.
On June 11, Gov. Donald L. Carcieri signed the Job Creation Guaranty Program. Sponsored by House Finance Chairman Steven M. Costantino and Senate Finance Chairman Daniel Da Ponte, the legislation establishes a $125 million dollar loan-guarantee program for the knowledge and technology-based sectors. Under this program, the state will not directly issue any loans. Instead, it will provide state backing to facilitate private loans. The Rhode Island Economic Development Corporation (RIEDC) will administer the program.