In the May 26, 2000 Issue:

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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MEDC Counters Cyberstates with Own Tech Employment Study
Last week, the Michigan Economic Development Corporation (MEDC) announced the findings of Michigan: The High-Technology Automotive State, a new study that demonstrates that the state’s high-tech workforce is dramatically larger than previously reported by national rankings. The MEDC study shows that the American Electronics Association (AEA) uses a narrow definition of high-tech in their annual ranking, Cyberstates 4.0, which was released the next day.

Under current AEA reporting guidelines, high technology jobs in the auto industry and other traditional industrial sectors are excluded from the Cyberstates data. According to the new MEDC report, which uses the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics definition of high-tech industries, there are 530,492 high-tech workers in Michigan, compared to 96,013 reported by the AEA. As a result, Michigan’s ranking, viewed as critical by the MEDC to changing the nation’s perception of Michigan as a high-tech center, moves to 4th in the country from 17th in Cyberstates.

Ohio and Pennsylvania, among others, also benefit from the new study. Massachusetts, Florida, Colorado and Georgia are among the states to see lower overall rankings from the study.

The MEDC study, undertaken with the Michigan Automotive Partnership, also found that 65,674 workers in the auto industry alone are high tech and not counted by AEA, according to the state’s study. In fact, 15.9 percent of auto employment in Michigan at these companies is in high-tech fields, a rate higher than some other industries traditionally considered high-tech. About 79 percent of high-tech employment for GM, Ford and DaimlerChrysler is located in Michigan.

The MEDC study, Michigan: The High-Technology Automotive State, was conducted by the University of Michigan’s Office for the Study of Automotive Transportation and is available on the web at: http://medc.michigan.org/ Cyberstates 4.0 is available for $190 from the American Electronics Association at: http://www.aeanet.org

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Federal Agency Updates & Funding Opportunities 

Agriculture
Abstracts for the FY 2000 grant awards for the USDA Small Business Innovation Research Program have been posted on the agency’s website: http://www.reeusda.gov/sbir/ Chris Busch and Jill Kline reported statistics on the distribution of proposals and awards by state in last week’s Wyoming SBIR Initiative Newsletter. For this issue and other archived editions of their resourceful newsletter, visit: http://uwadmnweb.uwyo.edu/sbir/newsletters.htm

Commerce
The National Telecommunications and Information Administration announced it received 662 proposals in response to the 2000 Technology Opportunities Program (TOP) solicitation. Applicants requested $270 million, pledging an additional $430 million is non-federal matching funds. TOP has only $12.5 million available this year for new grants. Award decisions should be announced in September. A complete list of applicants and grants is posted on the TOP website: http://ntiaotiant2.ntia.doc.gov/top/2000info/index.cfm

The National Sea Grant College Program and the US Fish and Wildlife Service seek proposals for innovative research, outreach and demonstration projects that address the problems of aquatic invasive species in U.S..waters. In FY 2000, $1,000,000 is available to support projects to improve ballast water treatment and management in the Chesapeake Bay and Grant Lakes in particular and U.S. coast waters in general. Any person may apply for funding in response to this announcement. Proposals must be submitted by June 19, 2000. For further information contact: Leon M. Cammen, Invasive Species Coordinator, National Seat Grant College Program, 301-713-2435; or Sharon Gross, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, 703-358-1718. [See also the May 19 online edition of the Federal Register]

Energy
The Office of Research and Engineering in the Office of Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation is interested in receiving grant applications for its Chemical and Biological Nonproliferation Program. Research is sought for experimental and computational studies for biological detection and the underlying enabling science. The formal solicitation document will be issued in early June 2000 at http://doe-iips.pr.doe.gov  Potential applicants are strongly encouraged to submit a brief two to four page pre-application. All pre-applications, referencing solicitation DE-PS01-00NN20115, should be received by DOE by June 23, 2000. The due date for full applications will be July 28, 2000.

Health
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a request for proposals for the cooperative agreement research program for Optimizing Strategies to Provide STD Partner Services. Applications may be submitted by any for-profit or non-profit organization, government or Indian tribal government agency or entity, or academic institution. Approximately $750,000 is available in FY 2000. Awards are anticipated to average $250,000 Letters of intent are to be submitted by June 12, 2000. More information on this and several other opportunities are available under “Funding” on the CDC website: http://www.cdc.gov

National Science Foundation
The National Science Foundation High Performance Connections (HPC) program has awarded high performance network connections for ten additional universities, bringing the total number of institutions assisted through such grants to 177. They will join previous awardees in connecting to a national grid of research networks that operate at speeds up to 2.4 billion bits per second. The two-year awards average $350,000, which will be matched at least equally by each recipient.

New recipients include: Binghamton University (State University of New York); California State University at Hayward; Idaho State University; Jackson State University (Mississippi); New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology; Rockefeller University (New York); State University of New York at Stony Brook; University of Texas at El Paso; Virginia Commonwealth University; and Wright State University (Ohio).

A list of all other HPC awardees is available at: http://www.interact.nsf.gov/CISE/ASC/CISEWeb.nsf/program_ani?OpenView&Count=500

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State S&T Update

Alabama
The Alabama Commerce Commission, appointed by Governor Don Seigelman last year, has released an executive summary report of recommendations for a long-range strategic plan for economic development in the state. The Commission recommends the creation of a scholarship program with no minimum grade point average requirements to provide free tuition to high school graduates who enter targeted vocational and technical programs in two year colleges or technical schools. The Commission also recommended the creation of privately run Alabama Research Alliance involving the state’s six research universities. The Alliance would distribute an unspecified amount of funding for research projects designed to produce new products, businesses, and jobs.

Arkansas
Fiscal worries for 2001 threaten state S&T efforts that were started with unexpected budget surpluses in 1999, according to reports in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. The chair of the Joint Budget Committee anticipates potential problems finding more funds in 2001 for the College of Information Science and Systems Engineering at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock The College was started last year with an initial appropriation of $10 million. In addition, the popularity of the state’s Academic Challenge Scholarship Program among college-bound students has resulted in an $8 million shortfall for the program that must be addressed.

California
Technology-based businesses in the state will most likely receive a tax cut for research and development expenditures this year. How large of one, though, remains to be determined as the state wrestles with a $11-13 billion surplus. Governor Gray Davis has proposed increasing the R&D tax credit to 15 percent from the current level of 12 percent of R&D expenses. Two others bill have been introduced in the state legislature that would increase the credit even more.

Colorado Governor Bill Owens has signed HB 1440, legislation that exempts Internet access services from sales and use taxes. Telephone and cable services are excluded from the bill. The bill can be found at: http://www.leg.state.co.us

Separately, the Colorado Department of Local Affairs awarded $161,440 in state funds to six Colorado towns and counties to finance technical planning efforts related to extending high-speed telecommunications to rural Colorado. The funds will allow for preliminary or advanced planning aimed at aggregating local or regional telecommunications traffic to develop the critical mass of revenues sufficient to make the extension of broadband, fiber-based telecommunications economically feasible for private telecommunications service to all parts of Colorado.

Kentucky
The commonwealth’s universities and colleges are most likely pleased with the new biennial state budget in that it includes several unexpected but welcomed S&T items, according to Kentucky newspapers. Appropriations for new S&T facilities include $15 million for a new business and technology building at Eastern Kentucky University that will also house a new small-business incubator; $10 million for lab and research space for Western Kentucky University’s applied science and technology program; and $11 million for “several dozen” technology centers within the community and technical college system.

Louisiana
Governor Mike Foster has announced he will cut the state’s workforce by 8 percent, 5,200 positions, before July 1 to deal with a looming $200 million deficit. The Department of Economic Development would lose 20 positions from the current staff level of 326. In addition, funding for rural and urban development would be slashed $10 million or 50 percent of the total available for loans and grants. The Executive order comes after the state legislature failed to address any of the Governor’s tax and revenue generation proposals.

Ohio
Ohio has chartered its first virtual charter school, the Electronic Classroom of Tomorrow, which will provide K-12 instruction over the Internet. Based in Toledo, the school expects to enroll 1,900 students statewide this fall. Ohio’s 60,000 home-schooled children are a primary marketing audience for the school’s student body. Other targeted groups include children with disabilities, teenagers in detention centers, and older people seeking to pass high school equivalency exams.

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NGA Releases Third New Economy Paper
The National Governors' Association has released its third paper in the New Economy Series. Nurturing Entrepreneurial Growth in the New Economy, written by Thom Rubel and Scott Palladino, outlines eleven different approaches states have implemented to encourage entrepreneurship:

Several examples of each approach are described in the 23-page paper. Copies can be downloaded from the NGA website: http://www.nga.org

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Navy Offers 104 Inventions for Licensing
The Department of the Navy has published a list of 104 inventions that are owned by the federal government and are available for exclusive or partially exclusive licenses. The list and contact information are available for review on the SSTI web site at: http://www.ssti.org/Digest/Tables/052600t.htm

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S&T Career Opportunities
Sue Rhoades is leaving her role as State Coordinator with Ben Franklin Technology Partners in Pennsylvania to take a position in the private sector. As a result, the Ben Franklin Technology Partners are seeking candidates to fill her position. The posting, as well as several other S&T career opportunities, is available on the SSTI website at: http://www.ssti.org/posting.htm

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