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After its first year of work, India's National Innovation Council has released a report on development of a long-term innovation roadmap. The keystone of this strategy is a Rs 5000 crores ($968,615,000 U.S.) India Inclusive Innovation Fund to support small businesses, paired with an Industry Innovation Cluster Initiative. The report provides background on other Indian initiatives, such as the pilot University Innovation Cluster at the University of Delhi, the country's twenty Design Innovation Centres and the new State Innovation Councils.

To bring more tech-related companies and jobs to Wyoming, Gov. Matt Mead's budget request for the new biennium adds $15 million to broaden an existing fund established last year for the recruitment of mega data centers. If approved by the legislature, the state would make available $30 million for both large-scale recruitment and to attract smaller technology companies. Anticipating flat growth over the next two years, the budget for 2013-14 proposes a slight reduction in ongoing spending from last biennium.

The White House announced two initiatives intended to help entrepreneurs grow their businesses and create jobs by increasing their access to capital and resources. The first initiative focuses on providing up to $1 billion in new capital to help early-stage small businesses. The other will attempt to provide entrepreneurs with free resources and services needed to help startups grow their businesses and create jobs. Read the press release...

Innovative companies involved in commercializing research with universities and federal agencies often cite complicated contracts and uncertainty surrounding the process as a barrier to bringing more technologies to the marketplace. In an effort to remove some of those hurdles, two new initiatives recently were announced from the University of Minnesota (UM) and the Department of Energy (DOE).

A new Office of Manufacturing Policy within the National Economic Council (NEC) will work across agency lines to coordinate the federal government's manufacturing programs and help develop manufacturing policy. On Monday, President Obama named Commerce Secretary John Bryson and NEC Chair Gene Sperling as co-chairs of the office, which will convene cabinet-level meetings on the administration's manufacturing initiatives.

To rebound from the global recession, the United Kingdom will focus on transforming their cities in to powerful, innovative 21st century cities according to a new economic growth plan from its coalition government. The government already has taken several steps towards making their cities "engines of growth" including:

West Virginia coal-mining and farming businessman James C. Justice II confirmed a $10 million donation to Cleveland Clinic Innovations this week, according to an article in the Cleveland Plain Dealer. The gift will be used to establish a chair in medical innovation, to fund patent applications and to provide space and seed funding to early stage businesses. Inspired by the move, Cleveland Clinic Innovations Chairman Thomas Graham announced that he will contribute an additional $1 million for patent applications.

Most state economic development programs employ quantifiable metrics, but too few report metrics related to job creation and job quality, according to a study and report card released by Good Jobs First. The authors examined 238 economic development subsidy programs in all 50 states and Washington D.C., including corporate income tax credits, cash grants, loans, enterprise zones, worker training grants and other types of programs. Though none of the states scored an "A" in the report ratings, Nevada, North Carolina and Vermont took the top spots.

The Idaho Department of Commerce has named Gynii Gilliam as its new chief economic development officer. Gilliam brings more than 20 years of experience to the position. Most recently, she served as executive director of Bannock Development Corporation.

David Kerr, director of the Missouri Department of Economic Development, will step down from the position Dec. 31.

To help meet the goals of Virginia's Top Jobs Act enacted earlier this year, Gov. Bob McDonnell proposed $200 million in additional higher education funding over the next two years. A large portion of the new funds would support cancer and high-tech research, competitive research grant awards, and efforts to graduate more science, technology, engineering, mathematics and healthcare (STEM-H) majors.

After 14 short-term continuing resolutions and years of negotiations, the federal Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Tranfer (STTR) programs have been reauthorized through 2017. The legislation changes a number of features of SBIR/STTR, including making it possible for companies that are majority-owned by venture capital firms to receive awards. President Obama is expected to sign the bill in the near future.

This week, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) established a new office to coordinate the Advanced Manufacturing Partnership (AMP), an initiative created by the White House in June 2011 to facilitate advanced manufacturing collaborations among industry, academia and government partners. The National Program Office for AMP involves all federal agencies related to manufacturing, including the new Office of Manufacturing Policy of the National Economic Council.

RIAN, the Regional Innovation Acceleration Network, is launching a webinar series beginning in January. These webinars will be presented by experts and practitioners in the field on a range of topics that will help to connect the Venture Development Organization community and exchange best practices and new ideas. The January schedule includes presentations on integrity, accelerators, and the EB-5 program. See the RIAN Events page or the News page for more information.

Ownership of intellectual property (IP) rights has become central to the strategies of innovating firms worldwide, according to The Changing Face of Innovation, a new report from the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). Researchers contend that rapidly growing global investments in innovation and the globalization of economic activities are key drivers of this trend. Between 1980 and 2009, global patents rose from 800,000 applications to 1.8 million.

A new report from the Milken Institute, Best-Performing Cities 2011, finds cities that saw significant improvements to their economic performance between 2010 and 2011 were able to:

Finding new and creative ways for high-tech companies to succeed is an important component in business incubation. A recent study examining best practices for supporting new company formation finds it is the synergy among multiple practices, policies and services that produces optimal outcomes. At the same time, collecting standardized measures, reporting on progress annually, conducting external independent evaluations, tracking programs, and continuing to enhance practices are singled out as important policy implications.

SSTI's Tech Talkin' Govs series has returned for its 12th annual edition. The series highlights new and expanded TBED proposals from governors' State of the State, Budget and Inaugural addresses across the nation. The first installment includes excerpts from speeches delivered in Georgia, Iowa, New York, Kentucky, South Dakota, Vermont, and Virginia. Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal, State of the State Address, Jan. 10, 2012 "... I want to announce two ambitious goals.

Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell unveiled his 2012 legislative and budget actions that support his administration's ongoing Opportunity to Learn K-12 education agenda. The governor's proposed budget also includes $438 million in new K-12 funding over the next biennium.

A new statewide network will coordinate the regional economic development activities of Indiana University, according to an announcement released by the university this week. The Innovate Indiana Network will complement the work done by the Innovate Indiana initiative and the university's Council for Regional Engagement and Economic Development (CREED). The network will include representatives from 16 schools, offices and centers across the state that offer services that could potentially benefit regional economies.

A recent report from the U.S. Department of Commerce highlights university programs across the country working to facilitate student and faculty entrepreneurship as part of a larger federal effort to improve tech transfer activities and external partnerships. Information was collected from the leaders of 131 research universities to understand what universities are doing programmatically and strategically to nurture innovation, commercialization and entrepreneurship.

Growth in the number of patent assertions facing startup companies is hampering U.S. venture capital, according to a new survey of venture capitalists (VC) and venture-backed companies from the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA) and Robin Feldman, director of the Institute for Innovation Law at University of California Hastings. Eighty percent of VC respondents note that the number of patent assertions filed against portfolio companies have increased over the past five years, with half indicating these assertions were a major deterrent to investment.

A measure to increase the sales tax in Jackson County, MO, to fund medical research across Kansas City and St. Louis was rejected by greater than a 5-to-1 ratio, reports the Kansas City Star.

This week, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) released a wide-ranging roundup of new and ongoing efforts to leverage availability of large, accessible data sets to spur innovation. While many of these efforts were focused on supporting research on the potential of big data, several agency efforts are using the model of open data app competitions to fuel private-sector business creation.

Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick has made a series of announcements over the past few weeks aimed at improving the high-tech skill set of the state's workers and students. A new STEM strategic plan released yesterday would refine Massachusetts' efforts to expand the pipeline of young, skilled science and technology workers and improve the quality of STEM education.