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Over the past few decades, state and local policymakers have approached the task of increasing regional innovative activity from a number of directions. Leaders have deployed plans to increase the amount of available capital, to train entrepreneurs, to attract research-based companies and other strategies to create a thriving innovation economy. A key issue in this pursuit is how to keep the beneficial results of these efforts local.

With less money to spend on risky endeavors, many states are taking more targeted approaches toward economic development, seeking out sectors of the economy they consider most likely to grow and be sustainable beyond current conditions. In Hawaii, for example, lawmakers established an Aerospace Advisory Committee this session seeking long-term growth in aerospace-related industries.

In a special session on Tuesday, the Vermont Legislature enacted the state's FY10 budget, overriding last week's veto by Governor Jim Douglas. The budget eliminates or reduces funding for many programs related to economic development and TBED, cutbacks which were cited as concerns by Gov. Douglas in his veto announcement.

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SSTI's Excellence in TBED Award can help you build recognition for your organization and gain support to continue your critical tech-based economic development efforts.

J. Mike Books is leaving his post with the Indiana Health Industry Forum to become the first economic development director for the city of Columbia, Missouri. He also will serve as president of the Regional Economic Development Inc. Brooks will assume his new responsibilities on July 15.

Gov. Charlie Crist signed Florida's $66.5 billion 2009-10 budget into law last week, providing a mixed bag of funding outcomes for the state's existing economic development programs.

Following last week's announcement of the Startup America initiative, the National Economic Council, the Council of Economic Advisors and the Office of Science and Technology Policy have released the details of its innovation strategy.

Vermont Gov. Pete Shumlin has released a jobs package that includes a number of initiatives that could enhance the state's innovation economy. The jobs bill calls for a new creative economy office that would focus on technology efforts, a mentoring program for entrepreneurs, a statewide internship program, and a tax credit for companies that hire STEM graduates. Gov. Shumlin also has renewed his predecessor's pledge to extend full wireless voice and data coverage across the state.

A revamped version of the $8 billion Universal Service Fund (USF) could be used to expand broadband access in underserved areas. On Tuesday, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) proposed a plan to redirect the portion of the USF that provides incentives to extend phone service to high-cost areas to instead support high-speed data networks. A new program, the Connect America Fund, would consolidate several USF programs, eliminate some of the programs' inefficiencies and increase the availability of affordable broadband service.

With support from the Greater Cleveland Partnership, NorTech (the Northeast Ohio Technology Coalition) is accepting applications for the two positions below:

Lawmakers across several western states have reached budget agreements for the upcoming fiscal year or biennium allocating decreased or level funding for tech-based economic development efforts. Lawmakers also passed new legislation supporting job-creation efforts and investments in alternative energy. While funding for many of these programs appear secure in FY10, additional spending cuts are anticipated in the coming months if state revenues continue to decline.

A new report published by BIO, Battelle and the Biotechnology Institute finds that student achievement in biosciences varies widely between and within states. It also finds that many states lag behind in programmatic efforts to improve bioscience education, even as the life science industry grows in stature as a common priority for TBED initiatives.

Last week the NIH issued a request for comments regarding potential changes to existing federal regulations covering conflicts of interest in the design, conduct, or reporting of NIH-affiliated research. Through an Advanced Notice of Public Rule Making (ANPRM), the regulations include topics such as:

Despite the global growth of the industry over the past few decades, U.S. venture capital remains as concentrated as ever in the Silicon Valley region, and to a lesser extent, Massachusetts.

Following up on President Barack Obama's State of the Union pledge to focus on American competitiveness and innovation, the White House announced the Startup America initiative, a program to support and celebrate U.S. entrepreneurs. On Monday, a panel of cabinet members, White House officials, executives and economic development leaders provided an outline of the public/private effort, which has already generated $400 million in private commitments.

Focusing on job growth and promoting the state for new business development, Gov. Brian Sandoval announced his plans to reorganize the Commission on Economic Development into a public-private partnership and increase funding for the state's economic development efforts by an additional $2.2 million in general fund appropriations each year. The governor also included in his 2011-13 biennial budget $10 million in FY12 for a proposed Nevada Catalyst Fund designed as a closing fund to bring new businesses to the state.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) intends to award $20 million in grants to support the construction of new or expanded scientific research facilities. The NIST Construction Grant Program (NCGP) provides competitively awarded, cost-shared grants (non-federal cost sharing of at least 20%) to support construction and expansion projects including laboratories, test facilities, measurement facilities, research computing facilities and observatories.

The Technology Innovation Program (TIP), a program within the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), released its Three-Year Plan covering proposed grant competition topics through FY 2014. Future TIP grant competitions may target specific research topics within eight areas of critical national need: civil infrastructure, manufacturing, energy, health care, water resources, complex networks and sustainability.

In March, Canada's Advanced Research and Innovation Network (CANARIE) will begin a pilot program designed to reduce the time and cost of bringing new information and communications technology (ICT) products, services and protocols to market. The Digital Accelerator for Innovation and Research (DAIR), a virtual research and development environment, will enable small and medium-sized ICT firms to create complex, large-scale products and demonstrate them to customers without building a costly, in-house R&D infrastructure.

For nearly every budget issue SSTI has prepared during the first decade of the 21st century, our opening paragraphs read like obituaries. The previous administration was ideologically opposed to the government taking an active role to support economic development, even tech-based economic development, beyond increases for university and federally based research. Spending for federal programs that support regional community and economic growth were slashed repeatedly.

President Barack Obama called for a renewed commitment to American innovation, education and infrastructure to restore the country's competitive edge in his annual State of the Union address on Tuesday. The administration's "plan to win the future" includes stronger support for research and high-tech businesses in order to maintain leadership in a global economy dominated by technology-intensive industries.

The Obama administration plans to award $2 billion in grants to two-year, degree-granting institutions over the next four years to expand job training programs across the country. The funding was allocated through last year's health care act and will support training programs designed to meet the needs of local employers. Awards will range from $2.5 million to $5 million for individual institutions and from $.25 million to $20 million for consortia.