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In the September 11, 1998 Issue:
CONNECTICUT ALLOCATES $30 MILLION TO BUILD BIOTECH LAB SPACE
Connecticut Innovations, Inc. recently allocated $20 million of new state funds and $10 million of its own funds to develop biotechnology laboratory space in Connecticut. Connecticut Innovations’ new facilities fund can be administered using a variety of investment vehicles. The fund may offer loan or lease guarantees, enhancing the credit of companies that would not otherwise be able to qualify for leases. Alternatively, Connecticut Innovations may provide direct financing to high-tech companies or to real estate developers working with high- tech companies that have specific laboratory space requirements.
The determination to provide this funding was made primarily due to the financial needs of biotechnology companies. While it costs approximately $100 - $125 per square foot to construct traditional office space, laboratory space can run upward of $200 - $400 per square foot. Projections indicate that existing companies in Connecticut will need 230,000 square feet of laboratory and office space by the year 2000. Add the needs of the emerging companies and the number reaches nearly 400,000 square feet.
Biotechnology is a research intensive industry, with more than 83% of expenditures dedicated to research and development. Companies in this industry typically do not have the dollars necessary to spend on outfitting laboratories without third party assistance or a financial history that lenders could accept.
Connecticut Innovations, Inc. is the state of Connecticut’s leading investor in high technology companies. Connecticut Innovations also fosters the transfer of university research into commercial applications for the next generation of enterprises. The goal of these efforts is the creation and sustainable growth of a community of high-technology companies vital to Connecticut’s future. The state hopes that the biotech facilities fund will retain and attract biotech companies to Connecticut.
For additional information visit Connecticut Innovations website at http://www.ctinnovations.com or contact Pamela Hartley by phone at 860/563-5851 or via e-mail at pamela.hartley@ctinnovations.com
HIGH-TECH INDUSTRIES DRIVING GLOBAL ECONOMIC ACTIVITY
Four industries (aerospace, computers and office machinery, electronics and communications equipment, and pharmaceuticals) are growing at a rate more than twice as fast as other manufactured goods, thereby driving national economic growth around the world, according to a National Science Foundation (NSF) Issue Brief, High-Tech Industries Drive Global Economic Activity (NSF 98-319).
The study found that since 1980, these industries’ inflation-adjusted growth has averaged nearly 6 percent annually compared with a rate of 2.4 percent for other manufactured goods. Global economic activity in high-tech industries was especially strong from 1992-95, when output grew at over 8 percent per year, once again more than twice the rate of growth for all other manufacturing industries.
The report also examines how high-tech industries benefit national economies finding that:
* High-tech firms are associated with innovation. Firms that innovate tend to gain market share, create new product markets, and use resources more productively.
* High-tech firms are associated with high value-added production and success in foreign markets, which helps to support higher compensation to the workers they employ.
* Industrial R&D performed by high-tech industries has other spillover effects. These effects benefit other commercial sectors by generating new products and processes that can often lead to productivity gains, business expansions, and the creation of high-wage jobs.
* Data provided by the report for the 1990s shows an increased emphasis on manufacturing in the four high-tech industries among the major industrialized countries. In 1995, high-tech manufactures are estimated to represent 15 percent of manufacturing output in both the United States and Japan, 14 percent in the United Kingdom, and 10percent each in France and Germany.
Two Asian countries, China and South Korea, typify how important these R&D intensive industries have become to the newly industrialized economies. In 1980, high-tech manufactures accounted for just 4 percent of China's total manufacturing output; this proportion jumped to nearly 10 percent in 1989 and then reached 12.5 percent in 1995, more than for France or Germany. In 1995, high-tech manufacturing in South Korea accounted for about the same percentage of total output as in Japan and the United States (15 percent).
For more information or additional details, visit the NSF Issue Brief website at http://www.nsf.gov/sbe/srs/issuebrf/sib98319.htm.
EPSCoT UPDATE
The first round of applications for the Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Technology (EPSCoT) have been submitted. Eighteen of the nineteen eligible states participated, either by submitting single-state applications or by collaborating with others to produce multi-state applications. In all, 25 applications were received, requesting over $9.4 million in funding.
SBA ANNOUNCES 1998 TIBBETS AWARD WINNERS
The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) has announced that 61 individuals representing all fifty states and the District of Columbia will be honored this year as recipients of the Tibbets Award. The Tibbets Awards recognizes the technological innovation, economic impact and business achievements of those involved in the federal Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Program.
For an alphabetized listing of the recipients, search the SBA’s Tibbets website at http://www.inknowvation.com/Tibbets/Tibbetts98winners.html
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