In each of the past two years, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has published a list of the top 100 metro areas based on the total distribution of NIH funds. This year's table breaks down the total number of awards and dollar amounts by type of funding: research grants, training grants, fellowships, R&D contracts, and other awards.

North Carolina Gov. Mike Easley was recently joined by Congressional, university, and local and business representatives last week in announcing a 180-acre expansion of Piedmont Triad Research Park in downtown Winston-Salem. The biotech park will include a new research campus for Wake Forest University School of Medicine.

The Southern Innovation Index, a strategic plan created with the governments of 13 Southern states and Puerto Rico to promote innovation, entrepreneurship and economic growth in the South, has been released by the Southern Growth Policies Board, a bipartisan public policy group based in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina.

The amount of time a technology-based economic development (TBED) professional can spend out of the office for professional development is limited. So are travel funds. That's why SSTI packs so much into its annual conference — already the largest event in the country dedicated to improving state, local and regional TBED efforts.

Enrollment in graduate-level computer science and computer engineering (CS&CE) programs continued to grow in 2000-01 as the number of new undergraduates majoring in CS&CE declined, according to a survey released earlier this year by the Computing Research Association (CRA).

The Chronicle of Higher Education has released online the 2002-3 Almanac of Higher Education, an annual collection of facts and figures about U.S. colleges and universities. Published annually at the end of August, the Almanac includes data on students, professors, administrators, institutions, and their resources, as well as state-by-state profiles of higher education in the U.S.

• Jerald Coughter, industry director for biotechnology and medical applications for Virginia’s Center for Innovative Technology (CIT), has been named executive director of Governor Mark R. Warner’s Advisory Board for the Virginia Biotechnology Initiative.

Jerald Coughter, industry director for biotechnology and medical applications for Virginia’s Center for Innovative Technology (CIT), has been named executive director of Governor Mark R. Warner’s Advisory Board for the Virginia Biotechnology Initiative.

Ray Gilley, president of Metro Orlando Economic Development Commission, has been appointed chairman of Workforce Florida.

Caroline Young has been named executive director of the Tennessee Biotechnology Association and director of the Tennessee Technology Development Corporation's life science initiative.

Golden LEAF, the statewide foundation established in 1999 to use one-half of the state's tobacco settlement for the long-term economic advancement of North Carolina, has announced an $85.4 million economic stimulus package it believes will significantly improve North Carolina's economy and make the state a leader in the biosciences industry. Foundation officials anticipate the public investment stimulating at least $350 million in new private and federal funding biotech activity in the state.

Cities predict a stressful future for their budgets, which have been hurt by the economic downturn and the surge in local homeland security spending, according to the annual survey of city finance officers conducted by the National League of Cities (NLC).

Washington Governor Gary Locke announced the formation of the Northwest Energy Technology Collaborative (NWETC) at a signing ceremony on Wednesday attended by the founding members.

Greater Philadelphia First (GPF) and the Science Center, a consortium of 34 regional academic and scientific institutions, have established a major new joint initiative designed to make it easier for science and technology entrepreneurs to start, grow and expand their businesses. Modeled on UCSD CONNECT in San Diego, CONNECT Greater Philadelphia will assist entrepreneurs by linking them with needed business, academic and other resources.

With heightened public interest in the state of the economy, the National Commission on Entrepreneurship (NCOE) has released Entrepreneurship: A Candidate’s Guide — Creating Good Jobs in Your Community, a first-of-its-kind publication on how policymakers can help stimulate the creation and growth of new businesses in their local areas.

Whether it's oil, gas, mining, lumber, fishing or farming, economies dominated by natural resource exploitation are subject to periods of boom and bust. In order for the four provinces of Canada's Atlantic region to shield themselves from such market swings and scarcity problems, it is necessary to build R&D partnerships and to collaborate more than ever, concludes a report released by Dr. Alan Cornford of GPT Management Ltd., Marin Consultants, Inc. and Gardner Pinfold Consultants Ltd.

Most technology-based economic development programs recognize the need to have more people in their states or communities who have received bachelor degrees or higher. Bringing low-income populations into a knowledge-based economy is particularly difficult because of the two significant obstacles low-income students face for college access: insufficient financial aid and inadequate academic preparation.

Do personal income tax cuts encourage entrepreneurship? Conventional wisdom and many politicians may suggest that if people have more cash on hand, they may be inclined to launch or start their own businesses. A working paper released earlier this month by the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) concludes just the opposite: lowering personal tax rates in most cases appears to discourage entrepreneurial activity.

H. Day Chapin has been selected as the first Director for the new Northwest Energy Technology Collaborative.

Maxine Lunn is leaving her position as Vice President for Technology Programs at Virginia's Center for Innovative Technology to work in international development.

H. Day Chapin has been selected as the first Director for the new Northwest Energy Technology Collaborative.

Maxine Lunn is leaving her position as Vice President for Technology Programs at Virginia's Center for Innovative Technology to work in international development.

The Illinois Biotechnology Industry Organization has appointed David Miller to serve as president, effective September 3.

John Wik, director of Delaware's economic development office, is resigning in September to pursue interests in the private sector.

Gary Woodbury, president and CEO of the Small Business Association of Michigan for the past 15 years, has announced he will retire in June 2003.

The number of tech workers immigrating to the U.S. for jobs in the IT industry are down more than 50 percent compared to a year ago, according to figures released by the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) this week. With hundreds of dot-com closures and tens of thousands of layoffs in the information and communication technology industries, the drop was expected by many analysts.