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The Department of Education is beginning to implement the first wave of initiatives based on the recommendations of the Commission on the Future of Higher Education. Department Secretary Margaret Spellings recently met with national leaders to discuss the recommendations of the commission's report, released in September 2006. Secretary Spellings emphasized the federal government's commitment to cooperating with states in order to create an educational system tailored to the 21st century economy and the needs of students.

Elaborating on last week's "Useful Stats" article (see the March 26, 2007 issue of the Digest), SSTI has created a table of federal R&D obligations standardized by state population for each of the five years from 2000 to 2004 and ranked by five-year percent change.

 

SSTI is partnering with other organizations to sponsor two conferences that will be of interest to the TBED community: the Regional Workforce Education & Training Best Practices Conference put on by the ASME Center for Engineering Entrepreneurship & Innovation and the Internationalization of Regional Innovation organized by the European-based Technopolicy Network.

 

A little money has gone a long way, when you consider the initial size of venture capital investments each year, the $2.1 trillion in revenues captured in 2005, and the nearly 23,000 venture-backed companies that have received investments. In fact, 16.6 percent of the 2005 U.S. gross domestic product (GDP) was directly attributable to the $2.1 trillion in revenues received by venture-backed U.S. companies, while the $23 billion of VC invested in 2005 only equaled 0.2 percent of GDP.

 

As renewable energy and environmental technologies emerge as some of the promising industries for high-tech economic development, more cities are seeking new ways to boost clean technology research and businesses. Austin, San Jose, Berkeley, Pasadena and Boston have been singled out for their efforts to promote cleantech industries by SustainLane Government, a nonprofit Internet-based organization that provides current practices and news about municipal sustainability.

Browsing the business section of a bookstore may yield dozens of titles purporting to explain the process of innovation. This newsletter and most others serving the nation’s policymakers and science and technology communities have covered reports calling for a national innovation strategy. Unfortunately, most meetings on the subject have to begin by developing a working definition of the term innovation that most can accept.

Information technology (IT) permeates almost all aspects of the economy and is what really drives economic growth, according to a report released this month by the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF). The report’s authors, Robert Atkinson and Andrew McKay, believe the diffusion of information technology increases worker productivity 3-5 times more than non-IT capital.

The federal government distributed $23.8 billion in R&D obligations to universities and colleges in fiscal year 2004 — a 4.4 percent increase from the FY 2003 total of $22.8 billion, according to new National Science Foundation (NSF) data. In its report, Federal Science and Engineering Support to Universities, Colleges, and Nonprofit Institutions: Fiscal Year 2004, NSF details all categories of direct federal science and engineering support to institutions of higher education in the U.S.

 

This past fall, Vermont released what may be the nation's first statewide effort to lay out an economic development strategy based on the creative economy theories advanced most prominently by George Mason professor Richard Florida.

NBIA Releases Revised Business Incubation Guide

Virginia Bauer, former New Jersey commerce secretary, was sworn in as CEO and secretary of the New Jersey Commerce & Economic Growth Commission.

Virginia Bauer, former New Jersey commerce secretary, was sworn in as CEO and secretary of the New Jersey Commerce & Economic Growth Commission.

The Greater Phoenix Economic Council announced Barry Broome will become the new president & CEO beginning in February.

Michael DeAloia has been named tech czar for the City of Cleveland.

Marlo Jenkins will be the new managing director of TechTown, Wayne State University's research and technology park.

The Board of Directors of BioCrossroads, Indiana's life sciences initiative, announced David Johnson would succeed Charles Schalliol as CEO.

Real estate developer Robert Klein II was selected as chairman of California's stem cell oversight committee.

John Merrill will serve as executive director for the Greensboro Center for Innovative Development, a joint millennium campus and research park between University of North Carolina Greensboro and North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University.

Eric Mittelstadt will become the new CEO of the National Council for Advanced Manufacturing. He replaces founder and current CEO, Leo Reddy.

Wisconsin commerce secretary Cory Nettles is resigning his position and will join his old law firm as a partner.

For all intents and purposes, the SSTI offices will be closed from Dec. 24 - Jan. 3 (although some of us retain the right to stop back into the office for respite when either the in-laws, urchins or eggnog get to be a little much). Next week, SSTI will be switching to a new webhost and, while we do not anticipate any problems, e-mail service may be temporarily interrupted or unavailable. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.

Coming a little late in the year to be included among our Tech Talkin’ Govs series (see Digest issues for Jan. 8, 15 and 29 and Feb. 19), Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland delivered his first State of the State Address on Mar. 14. Below are excerpts from his address calling for a $1 billion investment in alternative and renewable energy technologies over four years.

 

More than 51,000 early-stage ventures took in $25.6 billion of angel investment in 2006, according to the 2006 Angel Market Analysis released Mar. 19 by the Center for Venture Research at the University of New Hampshire. The dollar figure reflects a 10.8 percent increase from the 2005 findings. The number of deals made in 2006 only rose 3 percent over the previous year. As a result, average deal size grew 7.5 percent.

 

South Dakota recently announced it is reorganizing its programs to support entrepreneurs and high-tech start-ups. Instead of offering assistance to new firms through small, targeted programs, the state will reallocate the funding for these smaller programs into a larger fund with fewer restrictions on how that money can be spent. The change will allow the state greater leeway to assist expanding businesses, many of which were not eligible for the existing support programs.