The second installment of SSTI's Tech Talkin' Govs' series includes excerpts from speeches delivered in Arkansas, Connecticut, Idaho, Kansas, New Hampshire, Virginia, Washington, and Wyoming. Our first installment was in the Jan. 5 Digest.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced plans to direct $200 million in existing funds to establish 10 regional economic development councils to allocate funds and provide business assistance programs across the state. At the same time, the governor would consolidate programs supporting high-tech companies currently administered by the New York State Foundation for Science, Technology and Innovation (NYSTAR) with the Empire State Development Corporation (ESDC) — a move he says will eliminate duplicative functions and save the state $1.9 million in the coming year.

The fourth installment of SSTI's Tech Talkin' Govs series includes excerpts from speeches delivered in Alaska, Delaware, Hawaii, Michigan, Missouri, Nevada, and Vermont. The first three installments are available in the Jan. 5, Jan. 12 and Jan. 19 issues of the Digest.

Gov. Martin O'Malley last week unveiled details of his proposed $100 million venture fund announced last year during his re-election campaign as an initiative to grow the state's knowledge-based industries, particularly within the life sciences sector (see the June 9, 2010 issue of the Digest).

Funding for university-based research initiatives would be cut significantly under Gov. Nathan Deal's proposed FY12 budget as the governor aims to close a projected deficit of nearly $1 billion. The Georgia Research Alliance (GRA), a nationally recognized model for creating and sustaining tech-based economies, would receive $4.5 million in FY12, a 75 percent reduction from the current year. The governor's budget also would transfer GRA funds to the Department of Economic Development, a move that would align TBED with the state's more traditional economic development efforts.

While seeking to spur economic growth through new investments in university-based research, Gov. Sam Brownback also proposes to consolidate the efforts of a longstanding program recognized for creating high-wage jobs and diversifying the state's economy. Under the governor's FY12 budget proposal, many of the programs currently managed by the Kansas Technology Enterprise Corporation (KTEC), which provides dedicated support for researchers, entrepreneurs and technology companies, would be transferred to the Department of Commerce.

The sixth installment of SSTI's Tech Talkin' Govs series includes excerpts from speeches delivered in Connecticut, Illinois, New Hampshire, New Jersey and North Carolina. The first five installments are available in the Jan. 5, Jan. 12, Jan. 19, Jan.

Gov. Bill Haslam is the latest governor to unveil a broad-based proposal to grow the state's economy and create jobs through investments in S&T by asking lawmakers to dedicate $10 million for a research consortium that would recruit senior scientists to advance scientific discoveries into commercial applications and spur high-growth companies.

Leasing the state's wholesale liquor distribution system to JobsOhio to provide a dedicated funding source of about $100 million annually for job creation is a key component to reforming Ohio's economic development efforts under Gov. John Kasich. The governor unveiled the plan last week as part of the 2012-13 biennial budget. The proposed budget also sets aside $33 million in the second year of the biennium to facilitate the transfer of economic development initiatives from the Ohio Department of Development (ODOD) to the newly established nonprofit corporation.

Lawmakers approved many of Gov. Bob McDonnell's proposals aimed at growing Virginia's technology and life sciences industries by dedicating about half of the funding requested by the governor to support R&D, commercialization, SBIR matching grants, and funding for early stage equity investments.

During the campaign trail and in speeches delivered during their first few weeks in office, governors in Florida and Nevada announced plans to overhaul economic development efforts without providing many details on how the new systems would operate. Draft legislation recently was introduced in the respective states, providing some insight on the structure and governance of the proposed agencies.

Recruiting bioscience faculty to universities and investing in R&D infrastructure tops the list of strategies recommended for Iowa to capitalize on a growing bioscience economy. A report commissioned by Innovate Iowa also finds that while significant progress has been made in growing the state's bioscience industry over the last 10 years, declining state funds to build research capacity and provide seed and venture capital remains a challenge for bioscience companies and entrepreneurs to compete regionally and globally.

Three recent reports from Maine provide insight into the challenges of fostering an innovative economy in a rural state. Overall, the research suggests that Maine has done well in its efforts to support startups, but could do more to help those startups expand and find new markets. By encouraging innovation-based businesses to expand to markets outside of Maine and by offering mentoring services, the state could overcome the stagnation that can occur when companies and states focus on local markets.

A $25 million fund providing grants for tech commercialization, matching funds for research, and funding to attract "star" researchers to Virginia's universities is a key component of Gov. Bob McDonnell's $54 million Opportunity at Work agenda presented to lawmakers as part of his amendments to the 2010-12 budget. The governor's budget also includes $5 million for a refundable R&D tax credit and an extra $50 million for higher education directed toward increasing college access and economic development opportunities.

DARPA, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, and the Semiconductor Research Corporation have announced a five-year $194 million program working with six universities across the country to support the growth of the semiconductor industry. These research centers are:

The sixth installment of SSTI's Tech Talkin' Govs series includes excerpts from speeches delivered in New Hampshire and North Carolina. Our first five installments were in the Jan. 9, Jan. 16, Jan. 23, Jan.

U.S. innovation policy, which in the latter half of the twentieth century became focused on massive federal investment in basic research, is no longer tenable, according to a new report from the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF). In the post-World War II era, the federal government funded a wide variety of costly basic research projects at U.S. universities and federal laboratories without a guiding economic strategy for these investments.

A new program that builds upon the successes of North Dakota's Centers of Excellence and Research Excellence programs will fund up to half of the cost of R&D and commercialization projects conducted by the state's research universities. Under Research North Dakota (RND), the development and commercialization of new products will be achieved on a project-by-project basis and state funds will be matched with private-sector cash investment.

Research collaborations between institutions of higher education are becoming an increasingly important facet of U.S. R&D, according to the National Science Foundation (NSF). A new NSF InfoBrief reveals that pass-through funds, R&D expenditures transferred from one institution to another, represented seven percent of total expenditures in 2009. In 2000, they represented only five percent of expenditures.

The National Science Foundation (NSF), in partnership with NASA, the National Institutes of Health and the U.S. Department of Agriculture awarded nearly $50 million to grantees for the development and use of robots that cooperatively work with people to enhance individual human capabilities, performance and safety.

Whether to attract federal grants, keep up with demand to graduate more highly skilled students, or advance the capabilities for research and exploration, universities are pushing for state funding to invest in science buildings and other infrastructure needed to expand research capacity and improve competitiveness. In New Jersey, a measure to approve $750 million in higher education borrowing to build and renovate campus facilities will go to the voters in November.

In FY11, the top 30 U.S. research universities accounted for over 40 percent (approximately $26.1 billion) of total academic R&D spending in 2011, according to survey data collected by the National Science Foundation. The other 882 universities surveyed accounted for approximately $39 billion of the total academic R&D spending for the 2011 fiscal year (approximately $65.1B billion). The Higher Education Research and Development Survey population also increased from 742 universities in 2010 to 912 in 2011.

To help meet the goals of Virginia's Top Jobs Act enacted earlier this year, Gov. Bob McDonnell proposed $200 million in additional higher education funding over the next two years. A large portion of the new funds would support cancer and high-tech research, competitive research grant awards, and efforts to graduate more science, technology, engineering, mathematics and healthcare (STEM-H) majors.