Placing a high priority on the biosciences as a measure for long-term economic development, the Baltimore Workforce Investment Board (BWIB) has released a strategic plan that aims to ensure growth, in part, by securing a highly motivated and well trained workforce for the city's bioscience sector.

The University of Arizona Office of Economic Development (UA OED) has released its annual report card on economic growth and development in the Arizona-Sonora region. Funded by the Arizona-Mexico Commission and the Arizona Department of Commerce, Regional Economic Indicators: Arizona-Sonora 2003 monitors economic changes in the Arizona-Sonora region via 33 indicators across four broad areas:

Carl Russell has resigned as president and CEO of Tucson Technology Incubator Inc. Bo Statham, a consultant to UniSource Energy Corp. on new business development and a client adviser at the incubator, has been named interim president.

Tuesday’s primary resulted in the selection of gubernatorial candidates in nine states: Arizona, Connecticut, Maryland, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Wisconsin. As of press time, Florida’s primary results on the Democratic side were still uncertain.

The new Arizona Technology Council (ATC) has announced its vision and mission as a non-profit association committed to growing member companies and the technology industry in Central and Northern Arizona.

Maryland Lieutenant Governor Kathleen Townsend recently announced the release of Founders of Maryland Bioscience and Medical Instrument Companies, a report on the career pathways taken by founders of biotechnology companies in Maryland.

Arizona was one of the first states to embrace cluster-based economic development in the early 1990s. While the formal clusters have had varying degrees of success since then, one of the challenges of a cluster-based approach to technology-based economic development is the fractionalized focus across sectors. Because of this, clusters can end up competing against each other for limited public resources, making cross-sector strategies difficult to identify or implement.

Correction: Lara Vande Walle is the director of membership and business development for the Maryland Technology Council, not Maryland's TEDCO as was previously reported.

Roger Kilmer was appointed director of the Hollings Manufacturing Extension Partnership program at the National Institute of Standards and Technology. Kilmer served as acting director since Kevin Carr's departure last June.

The Maryland Technology Development Corp. (TEDCO) has hired Lara Vande Walle to serve as director of membership and business development.

Forty-four research universities in 28 states and the District of Columbia will receive $80 million from Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) to help address the challenges of the rapidly changing and increasingly interdisciplinary nature of undergraduate biology education. The grants will support programs that encourage graduate students and postdoctoral fellows to hone their teaching skills in undergraduate courses.

Gov.-elect Robert Ehrlich has officially put forth his first economic development initiative for Maryland, according to recent press reports. His initiative, the creation of the Commission on Development of High Technology Business, is designed to encourage more technology business in the state.

A strategy to make Maryland's Harford County a competitive jurisdiction for attracting and expanding technology ventures has been unveiled by the Northeastern Maryland Technology Council (NMTC). Offering an analysis of the county's technology resources and assets, the Harford County Strategic Plan is expected to serve as a "road map" to help guide policy efforts for the next 5-15 years.

A new biotech report funded by a private foundation finds Arizona possesses many of the essential elements needed to become a national leader in the biosciences. Now, all the state needs is at least 10 years and a $1.4 billion public-private investment, according to the report Platform for Progress: Arizona's Bioscience Roadmap.

Some of the 200-plus ballot measures decided in the 2002 General Election held Tuesday were dedicated to promoting tech-based economic development (TBED). The results were generally mixed, however. Promoters of Michigan's Life Sciences Corridor were pleased with the failure of an initiative that would have dictated the allocation of the state's tobacco settlement funds, including a smaller amount than the state is currently spending on life sciences research.

The Advanced Technology Program (ATP) has announced 40 awards potentially totaling $101.6 million in ATP funding matched by an industry cost-share of $92 million if carried through to completion. These awards were selected from proposals submitted to 2002 competition.

The economic downturn and continuing state and local fiscal problems are not stopping most efforts to develop tech-based economies. Here are a few examples of recent groundbreakings from around the country.

Because knowledge-based services can be supplied anywhere across the world due to increased international investment in IT infrastructure, future U.S. competitiveness hinges on diversification and broadening of the technology-based manufacturing sector, according to NIST Senior Economist George Tassey.

President Bush has nominated Elias Zerhouni, executive vice dean of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, as the new director of the National Institutes of Health.