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With a new approach to supporting innovation by pursing business-led initiatives focused on better meeting private sector needs, Minister of Finance Jim Flaherty presented Canada’s Economic Action Plan 2012, providing $1.1 billion CAD ($1.1 billion USD) over five years for direct R&D support. The budget also includes $500 million CAD ($502 million USD) to increase private sector investments in early stage risk capital and support the creation of large-scale venture capital funds led by the private sector.

Lawmakers last month approved a $19.3 billion state budget for FY13, which includes funding for many of the recommendations from a task force convened by Gov. Nathan Deal to enhance the state's innovation economy. Specifically, the budget boosts funding for the Georgia Research Alliance (GRA) to recruit researchers and allocates $5 million for cancer-related research. The legislature also passed a measure expanding the Georgia Jobs tax credits and R&D tax credit.

Life sciences advocates in Arizona are celebrating the passage of HB 2272, a measure to tighten open records laws that require details of intellectual property be disclosed. Passage of the legislation will protect against the loss of current research contracts or the possibility of missed opportunities due to concerns over the state's previous law, according to a statement by the Arizona Bioscience Industry Association (AZBio).

As many states near the mid-point of their 2012 legislative sessions, we thought it would be a good time to take a look at some of the bills advancing in statehouses that could impact states' efforts to improve economic conditions. Several states are seeking to advance access to capital initiatives as they continue to struggle with declining revenue and tight credit restrictions. The following overview provides a sampling of TBED bills supporting access to capital, R&D enhancements and higher education standards.

Providing Access to Capital

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.

The European Union (EU) released its first competitiveness report on all 27 EU member nations and six associated countries — Innovation Union Competitiveness Report 2011. Providing a deeper perspective on European R&D intensity, the report is intended to monitor the progress towards EU and national R&D headline targets and provide economic evidence and analysis to underpin the development of EU and national innovation policies. Twelve key findings are highlighted within the report including:

The Canadian government must focus its research and development (R&D) support efforts on "the goal of growing innovative firms into larger enterprises, rooted in Canada but facing outward to the world and equipped to compete with the best," according to Innovation Canada: A Call to Action — a new report commissioned by the Honorable Gary Goodyear, the Canadian Minister of State for Science and Technology. The authors contends that Canada has a solid foundation to build its knowledge economy.

A newly established policy academy providing guidance and technical assistance will help seven states improve their environment for innovation and align state R&D investments, workforce development and education systems with current and future needs of advanced manufacturing industries. The policy academy will help each state develop a plan or overcome barriers for putting a plan into action through a highly interactive team-based process that includes input from NGA, MEP, EDA, SSTI, private sector consultants, and research organizations.

As budgets for economic development tighten across all sectors, measuring and reporting impact becomes even more crucial for sustaining support. The Association of University Research Parks points to three impressive impact reports released this year from Indiana's Purdue Research Park, Nebraska Technology Park and North Dakota State University Research and Technology Park.

The National Science Foundation (NSF) has announced a $27.5 million, five-year grant to the University of Maryland for a multi-disciplinary research center focused on the interplay of human activity and healthy ecosystems. The grant is the largest ever received by the university and will provide funds for research in environmental sciences, public policy, engineering, computer science and economics.

About 60 percent of U.S. academic R&D spending support research in the life sciences, according to data released by the National Science Foundation (NSF). Engineering R&D, the second largest target of spending, accounted for 15.7 percent of total academic research expenditures. While California leads the country in total spending in every science and engineering field, the District of Columbia leads in per capita spending in life sciences, physical sciences, psychology and social sciences.

The District of Columbia leads the country in per capita academic R&D expenditures, spending about $543.19 per resident, according to new data released by the National Science Foundation. Maryland follows closely behind with $530.06 per resident, while Massachusetts ranks a distant third with $373.60. While California, New York and Texas lead in total expenditures, smaller states, such as North Dakota, Rhode Island and Hawaii place in the top 10 for per capita spending.

At the close of the 2011 legislative session in Louisiana last week, lawmakers approved three measures to encourage investment in high-tech economic endeavors. This includes renewing and enhancing the R&D tax credit and the Technology Commercialization credit and reinstating an angel investor tax credit for investment in emerging startups.

Lawmakers last week passed a measure establishing the Innovate NY Fund to invest $25 million of federal funds in technology development organizations, research universities, and seed-stage investment funds. The Empire State Development Corporation will administer the fund and establish a competitive process for evaluating applicants. Investment priority is given to companies involved in commercialization of R&D or high-tech manufacturing.

Europe needs increased and "smarter" investments in both public and private research and development (R&D) to address the European Union's (EU) "Innovation Emergency," according to the European Commission's 2011 Innovation Union Competitiveness Report. The commission contends it is necessary to accelerate investments into R&D to achieve the EU's target of 3 percent of GDP being spent on R&D. EU members currently invest approximately 2 percent of GDP on R&D spending.

From 2000 to 2008, the U.S. ranked 18th out of 30 countries in the growth of government-funded university research, according to a new report by the Information Technology & Innovation Foundation (ITIF). In University Research Funding: the United States is Behind and Falling, Robert Atkinson and Luke Stewart compared the U.S. government and business funding for public university research against 29 other developed countries.

The Slovenian parliament recently approved the Resolution on the Research and Innovation Strategy of Slovenia 2011-2020, a comprehensive strategy to establish "a contemporary research and innovation system that will ensure a higher quality of life within the country." According to the UNESCO Science Report, Slovenia is drastically ahead of their counterparts in Southeastern Europe.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced that it will commit $25 million over the next five years to support the U.S.-India Joint Clean Energy Research and Development Center, as part of the Partnership to Advance Clean Energy. DOE will provide matching grants to universities, national labs, private companies and others to support research in energy efficiency, second-generation biofuels and solar energy. The $50 million contributed by DOE and award grantees will be matched by an additional $50 million in public and private funds from India.

The Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Department of Energy (DOE) announced the Biomass Research and Development Initiative (BRDI) — a $30 million initiative to support up to 10 research and development (R&D) projects focused on advanced biofuels, bioenergy and high-value biobased products. Projects should propose integrated science and engineering research in three technical areas of interest:

International collaboration in science and technology (S&T) research has risen over the past 15 years from approximately 25 percent to over 35 percent, according to Knowledge, Networks and Nations: Global Scientific Collaboration in the 21st Century — a new report from the Royal Society Science Policy Center.

Proposals that promise job creation and economic growth have taken center stage in several state legislatures. Lawmakers who recognize the importance of R&D, tech commercialization, access to risk capital, and investment in higher education are fighting for passage of TBED-focused bills in the final months of their states' 2011 legislative sessions.

Expanding the federal research tax credit and making it permanent could help generate $10 billion per year in research activity, according to a report from the U.S. Department of Treasury's Office of Tax Policy. Treasury also suggests that the enhanced credit could expand use of the credits, which already generate a one-to-one match in research spending and help support almost one million jobs. The current credit, which has been reauthorized temporarily 14 times since its introduction in 1981, is set to expire at the end of the year.

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 new prototype website allows users to track R&D grants and awards from federal agencies. The current version provides publicly reported federal agency data from the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health from 2001 to 2010. It also provides output data on patents, patent application and publication. Future updates will integrate the site with all federal agency databases and additional output data. Visit the site...