Industrial R&D intensity — measured by the ratio of industry R&D to Gross State Product (GSP) — can be a useful S&T indicator, because it indicates the level of private sector R&D activity and standardizes the data to eliminate geographic, demographic, historical, and natural resource differences among the states. 

Small businesses bearing a critical role to the regional economies of upstate New York must overcome several barriers to growth if they are to enjoy future success, suggests a report by the Buffalo Branch of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

The National Science Foundation has released a new set of statistical tables that show research and development (R&D) funding levels, reported by 31 federal agencies for the last three fiscal years.

The National Science Foundation (NSF) has published the Science & Engineering State Profiles: 1999-2000, an online database. One-page statistical summaries are given for each state, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico, permitting calculation of per capita statistics and rankings.

New York's initiatives to support technology-based economic development (TBED) will share more than $520 million in state appropriations during Fiscal Year 2003. The highlight: two originally competing budget proposals to support university-based centers of excellence survived with a combined $470 million in state funds (see the Jan. 5, 2001 issue of the SSTI Weekly Digest for background).

Jeffrey Skolnick has been named executive director of the new Center of Excellence in Bioinformatics based at the University of Buffalo. In introducing Skolnick, Governor Pataki confirmed the new state budget includes $50 million for the center, according to the May 10 issue of the Buffalo News.

Increasing globalization of research and development (R&D) and the prolific growth of information technology (IT) are major elements in a "science and engineering enterprise that is in transition," the National Science Board (NSB) reports in Science and Engineering Indicators 2000.

The National Science Foundation has released two statistical reports that present several science and engineering statistics by state: 

Roger Biagi was named to the newly created position of director of government relations at the New York State Office of Science, Technology and Academic Research.

One of the more interesting uses of funds from the national tobacco settlement with the states, Virginia officials announced a $12 million economic development and broadband technology infrastructure initiative to serve more than 25 towns, cities and counties of rural Virginia.

Plans for a joint five-year $320-$403 million program to accelerate the development of next generation lithography were announced Thursday by International SEMATECH (ISMT) and The University at Albany-SUNY (UAlbany).

Keith Servis has left his position as director of programs at the New York Office of Science, Technology, and the Advancement of Research to return to the New York Department of Health.

Robert Templin, Jr., has been named the new president of Northern Virginia Community College, effective August 17. Templin, currently a senior fellow at the Morino Institute, was a previous president of Virginia' Center for Innovative Technology.

Virginia is one of the most connected states in the country with 5.19 million access lines, 2.76 million wireless telephone subscribers and 218,808 high-speed lines, according to a report issued by Virginia’s Center for Innovative Technology (CIT).

The National Science Foundation's Directorate for Education and Human Resources has released A Report on the Evaluation of the National Science Foundation's Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research. The report (NSF 99-115) was prepared under contract by the COSMOS Corporation.

Among the report's findings are:

The National Science Foundation's (NSF) Directorate for Mathematical and Physical Sciences Division of Materials Research has announced that approximately $22 million will be awarded in FY 2000 for grants to support 10-15 Materials Research Science and Engineering Centers (MRSECs).

Virginia's Center for Innovative Technology is seeking a new President and Chief Executive Officer. The CIT president's primary responsibility will be to assist the Secretary of Technology in implementing the Commonwealth's technology strategy by developing and directing CIT's key role in the strategy. Applications are due by June 22, 1999.

The Environmental Protection Agency and the National Science Foundation have announced approximately $5 million will be awarded in FY 2000 for grants to support research toward "Technology for a Sustainable Environment."

Entities eligible to submit proposals include universities and not-for-profit institutions. The agencies anticipate making 20 grant awards for the solicitation in January 2000. Proposals are due July 26, 1999.

Robert Templin, president of Virginia's Center for Innovative Technology (CIT), has resigned. Wolfgang Tolle, managing director, has been named acting president. Patsy Brown, CIT's director of public affairs, also has left CIT.

Kate Latta Hoffher, senior public affairs specialist with the National Science Foundation's Office of Legislative and Public Affairs, is on detail to NSF's Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR) until the end of July.

The National Science Foundation has issued a call for nominations for the 1999 Presidential Awards for Excellence in Science, Mathematics and Engineering Mentoring (PAESMEM). Each award is accompanied by a $10,000 grant.

The President announced his intent to nominate Dr. Joseph Bordogna as Deputy Director of the National Science Foundation (NSF). Dr. Bordogna has served as Acting Deputy Director and Chief Operating Officer of the National Science Foundation since 1996. For the four years prior to this service, he was the Assistant Director for Engineering at the National Science Foundation.

The accompanying table on the SSTI website http://www.ssti.org/Digest/Tables/NSFfy98_SBIR1.htm presents the results of the 1998 SBIR Phase I competition held by the National Science Foundation in rank order by total dollars awards in each state. The award figures were compiled from the NSF Fast Lane website. (There were no Phase I awards reported within the 13 states omitted from the table.

The National Science Foundation (NSF) has invested $10 million to fund the first year of new Engineering Research Centers (ERCs) in Georgia, Hawaii, Maryland, South Carolina and Virginia. Each of the five centers will receive $2 million in the first year from the NSF, leveraged by support from industry, state governments and partnering universities. NSF will support the centers for five years, after which the support agreement is subject to renewal.

Innovative manufacturing, plasma and photon processing, and Internet technology will be the focus of three new Centers of Excellence in Virginia. The Commonwealth of Virginia and Virginia’s Center for Innovative Technology (CIT) recently announced the selection of these three new Centers as the second-generation of CIT’s Technology Development Centers program.