This week, 30 states were named recipients of the first Federal and State Technology Partnership (FAST) awards administered by the Small Business Association (SBA). The awards range from $100,000 to $150,000, totaling almost $3.5 million. FAST, included in December 2000 legislation reauthorizing the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Program, provides matching funds to enable states to augment or expand their tech business assistance and SBIR outreach efforts.

They may be separated by more than 6,000 miles, but tech-based economic development initiatives in Hawaii and Connecticut have adopted similar strategies to encourage the commercialization of alternative energy technologies: they're buying them. 

In a bid to make the South a knowledge economy leader, the Southern Growth Policies Board has released Invented Here: Transforming the Southern Economy, a 10-year strategic plan to create an innovation-driven economy in the South. 

The New Economy Transition Team (NETT) of the Northern Kentucky Chamber of Commerce has issued a 73-page plan that, if implemented successfully, could position Northern Kentucky as a center for life sciences and information technology, advanced manufacturing and financial services. 

Alaska 

Many areas of the country are lamenting the workforce challenges presented by the out-migration of technically skilled college graduates, a “brain drain” for short. Two studies released during the past few days, however, provide positive data to the contrary for Michigan and the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania metro region.



Michigan

Thirteen months ago, the General Accounting Office issued an unfavorable report on the licensing and royalty returns the National Institutes of Health (NIH) receive for commercialization of technologies resulting from federal funds (see: http://www.ssti.org/Digest/2000/081800.htm).

Alabama

A series of separate economic reports, revenue forecasts, and analyses of current trends released during the past week suggests the need for local, regional and state efforts to grow tech-based economies is increasing. As economic development practitioners and policymakers in science and technology prepare for the 2002 program, legislative, and budget cycles, they may want to consider:

The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM), through the Mathematics Education Trust, funds special projects that enhance the teaching and learning of mathematics at all levels. An organization valuing the use of instructional technology tools, NCTM currently has at least 10 grant opportunities supporting in-service programs, the improvement of professional competence and other related causes.

Earlier this week, the National Science Foundation (NSF) announced awards estimated to total $65 million over five years to fund six major centers in nanoscale science and engineering. The awards are part of a series of NSF grants – totaling $150 million in fiscal year 2001 alone – for nano research in multiple disciplines. 

In an effort to create a high tech center, officials in Ohio's Butler County anticipate spending more than $100 million during the next five years to increase telecommunications, biomedical innovations, electronic commerce, and other research. Funding for the measure would come from as much as a half-penny sales tax hike, according to a story published August 1 by the Cincinnati Enquirer. 

Whether it's called clusters or localization economies, the aggregation of firms in the same or closely related industries has captured the attention of many state and local tech-based economic development efforts. Understanding the phenomenon and formulating effective public policy to encourage or support clustering presents challenges for practitioners and researchers alike. 

The development and application of new information technologies across virtually every segment of the American economy has resulted in rapid, sustained growth in demand for highly skilled information technology (IT) workers. The Department of Labor estimates between 1983 and 1998 the number of high-skilled IT workers increased from 719,000 to 2,084,000 – an increase of 190 percent, more than six times the overall U.S. job growth rate during this period. 

The 2001 Farm Bill 

Declaring September “Nonprofits & Technology Month,” the Foundation Center has launched a website presenting myriad financial and technical assistance resources to support the acquisition and use of information technology in nonprofit organizations.

SSTI’s fifth annual conference, Creating Opportunity: Tools for Building Tech-based Economies, has been rescheduled for December 3-4. The agenda and location of the conference remain the same.

If the corporate leaders, educators, scientists, and technology entrepreneurs who make up the Birmingham Area Technology Task Force have their way, Birmingham, Alabama in the 21st century will be a mecca for technology-based businesses and jobs.

State and land-grant universities provide major stimulus to their state and regional economies – generating jobs, attracting and helping create new high-tech businesses, and increasing state tax revenues in addition to providing a well-educated work-force, according to Shaping the Future – The Economic Impact of Public Universities. The study, prepared by National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges (NASULGC), is based on a survey of its 212 member institutions.

The Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) is a nationwide network of not-for-profit Centers in over 400 locations nationwide, whose sole purpose is to provide the more than 361,000 small and medium-sized manufacturers in the country the help they need to succeed in a global economy.

With all its promise of connecting businesses and residents of even the remotest areas the country to the global economy, the Internet led most states and communities to invest resources toward the Digital Divide. Will these investments pay off? Will the Internet lead to an economic geographic revolution similar to that caused by past technological advances such as the automobile?