Copyright State Science & Technology Institute 2002. Information in this issue of the SSTI Weekly Digest was prepared under a cooperative agreement with the U.S. Department of Commerce, Economic Development Administration. Redistribution to all others interested in tech-based economic development is strongly encouraged — please cite the State Science & Technology Institute whenever portions are reproduced or redirected. Any opinions expressed in the Digest do not necessarily reflect the official position of the U.S. Department of Commerce.
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VENTURE CAPITAL INVESTMENTS AT RECORD LEVEL
Price Waterhouse recently announced that venture capital investments hit an all-time record in the second quarter of 1997. Total investments exceeded $3.18 billion, a 13% increase over the $2.80 billion reported in the second quarter of 1996, which held the previous record. These findings were released in the Price Waterhouse Venture Capital Survey, a quarterly report of venture capital investments throughout the United States.The following table represents the amount of venture capital dollars invested by region in the second quarter:
Region Investment Amount % of Total Silicon Valley 1,034,247,000 32.5% New England 316,984,000 10.0% New York Metro 300,230,000 9.4% Southeast 282,906,000 8.9% Midwest 196,437,000 6.2% Texas 175,781,000 5.5% LA/Orange County 170,657,000 5.4% San Diego 128,420,000 4.0% Philadelphia Metro 113,355,000 3.6% DC/Metroplex 110,846,000 3.5% Northwest 101,177,000 3.2% North Central 87,271,500 2.7% Colorado 78,900,000 2.5% Southwest 26,760,000 0.8% South Central 22,798,000 0.7% Upstate New York 20,247,000 0.6% Sacramento/N. CA 13,000,000 0.4% AK/HI/PR 700,000 >0.1% Total $3,180,716,500 100%
Silicon Valley: N CA, bay area and coastline
New England: ME, NH, VT, MA, RI, and CT (excluding Fairfield Cnty)
NY Metro: Metropolitan NY area, N NJ, and Fairfield Cnty, CT
Southeast: AL, FL, GA, MS, TN, SC and NC
Midwest: IL, MO, IN, KY, OH, MI, and western PA
LA/Orange Cnty: Los Angles, Ventura, Orange, & Riverside Counties
Philadelphia Metro: Eastern PA, Southern NJ, and DE
DC/Metro: Washington, D.C., VA, WV, and MD
Northwest: WA, OR, ID, MT, and WY
North Central: MN, IA, WI, ND, SD, and NE
Southwest: UT, AZ, NM, and NV
South Central: KS, OK, AR, and LA
Upstate NY: Northern NY except Metro NY City area
Sacremento/N. CA: Northeastern CA
A total of 697 companies received financing in the second quarter compared to 565 companies in the same period last year which is a 23% increase.Technology-based companies also set a record in the second quarter. As a group, companies in the classifications of Biotechnology, Communications, Computers & Peripherals, Electronics, Environmental, Medical Instruments, Semiconductors, and Software & Information captured $2.23 billion, or 70% of all dollars invested and 71% of all companies.
More information on the survey results can be located on the web at http://www.pw.com/vc.
PROPOSALS FOR REDUCED-GRAVITY EXPERIMENTS ACCEPTED
Proposals from teams of undergraduate students for the 1998 NASA Reduced Gravity Student Flight Opportunities are being accepted by the National Space Grant College and Fellowship Program (NSGC&FP).Undergraduate students are offered the opportunity to successfully propose, design, fabricate, fly, and assess a reduced-gravity experiment. The selected experiments will take place aboard NASA 931, the Johnson Space Center's (JSC) flying reduced-gravity laboratory.
Up to 48 teams will be selected for the program. Each team may include four undergraduate students, a supervising faculty member, and one professional journalist. All student team members will have the opportunity to fly at least one time.
The program is sponsored by NASA and is administered through the Texas Space Grant Consortium, an affiliate of NSGC&FP.
Letters of Intent are due October 10, 1997. Proposals are due by November 14, 1997, and selections will by announced by December 12, 1997. Copies of the competition guidelines are available on the web at http://www.tsgc. utexas.edu/tsgc/floatn. For further information, contact Mr. Burke Fort at 512/471-7225 or by email at fort@mail.utexas.edu
EPA SOLICITS GRANT APPLICATIONS IN SUPPORT OF SCIENCE TO ACHIEVE RESULTS PROGRAM
EPA's Office of Research and Development (ORD) has announced the first phase of its 1998 Science to Achieve Results (STAR) Grants Program. ORD is requesting applications in three areas: exploratory research; indicators of global climate change; and, interindividual variation in human susceptibility to environmentally-caused disease.STAR is an investigator-initiated research grants program for academic and not-for-profit institutions. EPA's research programs focus on reduction of risks to human health and ecosystems and on the reduction of uncertainty associated with risk assessment.
EPA expects that approximately $13 million will be available under this initial phase of the STAR program. Subsequent announcements requesting grant applications in other areas of research are scheduled for September 15 and October 15. Solicitation topics at that time will include drinking water, air pollution chemistry, urban air toxics, and approaches to multi-scale ecological assessments.
The application deadlines for topics proposed for the exploratory research grants range from December 1997 to March 1998 depending on the subject matter. The deadline for applications for the indicators of global climate and interindividual variation in human susceptibility to environmentally caused disease is February 12, 1998.
More detailed information regarding the STAR Program and forms used for applications can be located on the internet at http://www. epa.gov/ncerqa. For questions regarding the solicitation, call the EPA hotline at 1-800-490-9194.
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