In the October 13, 2000 Issue:
- NIH Awards $165.5 Million To Institutions in 19 States
- Milken reports on Women and Minority Challenges in Capital
- 13 Cities Receive $89 Million from NSF for Math and Science Ed
- Funding Opportunities
- California S&T Gets Promotion
- Energy, Health and Biotech Inventions Available
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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NIH Awards $165.5 Million To Institutions in 19 States
Last Friday, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) awarded 19 grants through the NIH Institutional Development Award (IDeA) Program to biomedical research institutions located in states that had not fully participated in NIH funding in the past. Created in 1993, the IDeA Program is designed to enhance biomedical research capacity building among academic institutions and research institutions within the eligible 23 states and Puerto Rico.States eligible to apply for IDeA grants are those that received less than $70 million in NIH funding from 1994 to 1998 or had an NIH grant award success rate of less than 20 percent over that period. In 1998, investigators from the 23 eligible IDeA states and Puerto Rico accounted for only eight percent of the total number of research grant applications received by NIH.
Totaling approximately $165.5 million over five years, the new IDeA grants were made to:
- University of Arkansas, Fayetteville
- University of Delaware, Newark
- University of Idaho, Moscow
- University of Kansas Center for Research, Inc., Lawrence
- University of Kentucky Research Foundation, Lexington
- University of Louisville, Kentucky
- Maine Medical Center Research Institute, Portland
- University of Montana, Missoula
- University of Nebraska, Lincoln
- University of Nevada, Reno
- Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation, Oklahoma City
- Oklahoma University Health Science Center, Oklahoma City
- University of Puerto Rico, San Juan
- Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island
- University of South Dakota, Vermillion
- University of Vermont and State Agricultural College, Burlington
- West Virginia University, Morgantown
- University of Wyoming, Laramie (2 grants)
Each new grantee institution will establish a Center of Biomedical Research Excellence (COBRE), to be led by an established investigator who will direct a multidisciplinary effort to focus on a basic or clinical research theme, such as neuroscience, cancer, structural biology, immunology, or bioengineering.
For more information, visit the NCRR Web site: http://www.ncrr.nih.gov.
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Milken Reports on Women and Minority Challenges in Capital
During the past two weeks, the Milken Institute has issued two similar reports documenting the difficulties and successes minority- and women-owned business have accessing capital.The Minority Business Challenge: Democratizing Capital for Emerging Domestic Markets presents new findings and several specific recommendations to sustain minority businesses growth. The findings include:
- Three growth gaps exist in the United States: “the gap between the current growth rate and the rate necessary to sustain future long term economic growth; the gap between the labor force growth and labor force participation; and, the gap between the growth of emerging domestic markets and current investment rates in those markets.”
- Without increased capital infusions into the minority and immigrant business communities, economic growth in the U.S. cannot be sustained. Minority-owned firms are growing at a rate six times faster than the average growth rate for all firms – annual sales growth reported by minority firms of 34 percent is more than twice the rate of all firms. Minority firms received only two percent of all private equity investments and only three percent of all Small Business Investment Company funding.
- Every level of financing for minority businesses – equity, mezzanine and senior debt – is experiencing capital gaps. Only $2 billion of the estimated $95 billion invested in the private equity market in 1999 was managed by companies focusing on entrepreneurs in traditionally underserved markets.
The report, released September 25, 2000, was funded by the Minority Business Development Agency within the U.S. Department of Commerce. Several of the report's seven recommendations correspond to or reiterate
Clinton Administration objectives (e.g. “Implement the New Markets Initiatives.”) Other recommendations include:
- Encouraging minority business incubator creation
- “Establish a National Innovation Development program – patterned after the Small Business Innovation Program – directed at minorities to nurture and finance high-growth ventures”
- Encourage state and municipal minority entrepreneurship programs, based on the success of existing state-based seed funds
- Support more research into best practices of successful, innovative financial instruments currently used to increase capital and investment in minority-owned businesses
- Provide tax investments to encourage investment in minority-owned businesses.
Along with the growth of minority businesses described above, the past decade has seen an explosion of women-owned enterprises:
- The number of women-owned firms has doubled since 1987, employment has risen four-fold, and revenues have quintupled.
- Today, women own 38 percent of America’s small businesses, approximately 9.1 million businesses.
- While the Small Business Administration has nearly tripled the dollar value and number of loans awarded to women since 1992, women-owned firms still only receive “12 percent of all credit provided to small businesses in the U.S. economy. For the first nine months of FY 2000," 16 percent of SBA-backed loans were awarded to women.
Economic Prosperity, Women and Access to Credit: Best Practices in the Financial Markets, funded by the National Women’s Business Council, a Congressionally established federal advisory council, takes a different approach to present the challenges women face in securing investment capital and financing. After a brief discussion of the current state of lending and investment in women-owned businesses, the report presents several case studies and examples of private and public (mostly federal) programs and initiatives that have been successfully implemented to overcome the challenges.
Several recommendations are included in the October 4 report:
- Create new credit scoring models to incorporate data relevant to women and women-owned businesses
- Amend Federal Reserve Regulation B – Equal Credit Opportunity Act to permit the collection of demographic information from borrowers Implement a national capital access program
- Financial institutions should pool standardized small business loans and sell them as securities to institutional investors; and
- Increase appropriations and congressional support for the five-year Economic Census, which provides the only national data on women and minority business operations.
Both reports are available for download from the Milken website: http://www.milkeninstitute.org
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13 Cities Receive $89 Million from NSF for Math and Science Ed
The National Science Foundation’s Division of Educational System Reform is funding cooperative agreements with 13 urban school districts: Birmingham, Chattanooga, Chicago, Fresno, Memphis, Miami, Minneapolis, Nashville, Newport News, Oklahoma City, Omaha, Pittsburgh, and Philadelphia to improve K-12 mathematics and technology education. The awards are aimed at districts that already have improvement programs in place. The funds will help them expand current programs in science, mathematics, and technology as well as initiate new activities so all students have access to the programs.The Urban School Program targets urban districts with a student population of at least 20,000. Districts must demonstrate that reform is significantly underway in the district and that it will have an impact on the full breadth of K-12 science and mathematics education. Districts must provide what NSF describes as compelling plans to scale up efforts to substantially increase student achievement in the fields of science, mathematics and technology. The plans must also show a high quality curriculum for science and mathematics that is available to a majority of students as well as improved education for teachers, both inservice and preservice. They must address the number, quality, and diversity of the teaching workforce. Finally, they must include efforts to increase the number of skilled workers entering the technological workforce by ensuring the convergence of resources and bolstering of partnerships to support a coherent program for science and mathematics for all students.
For more information, contact Costello Brown at (703) 292-8690/clbrown@nsf.gov
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Funding Opportunities
National Collegiate Inventors and Innovators Alliance
Over the next two years, the NCIIA will award approximately $2 million in grants for the creation and establishment of programs and courses that promote invention, innovation, and entrepreneurship and support the work of student/faculty E-teams. E-Teams are groups of students working with faculty and mentoring professionals who join together to pursue the development of an idea, product, or invention, or to solve a problem in a way that has the promise of creating a licensable technology, product, or developing an enterprise that will generate jobs and social benefits.Individual Course and Program Grants ranging from $2,000 to $50,000 will be awarded to support the development, implementation, and institutionalization of new courses and programs in which student teams will develop innovative, entrepreneurial solutions to real-world problems. Advanced E-team Grants ranging from $1,000 to $20,000 will be awarded to advanced E-Teams for further development and steps leading to commercialization of their ideas. Grants will be renewable for up to three years in declining amounts. Application guidelines are available online.
To be eligible for grants, a faculty member's or student's institution must be a member of the NCIIA. The FY 2001 deadlines are December 15, 2000 and May 15, 2001. For more information, visit: www.nciia.org/grants
NASA Offers Schools Link to Mars Mission
The NASA Marslink Initiative is an effort to bring one of the most current NASA missions into the classrooms of various schools across the country. NASA reports Marslink is one of the very first programs designed specifically for the Internet, supported by standards-based, online curricula, and also provides an interactive program which focuses on the areas of science, math, and technology.Marslink is designed to impact one school per congressional district in the U.S., and is being funded by $75,000 in matching grant money from NASA. Schools will be chosen on a first come, first serve basis for the grant, and only for a limited time. School districts are to pay $225 of the cost of the program; NASA funds will cover the remaining $275. Applications are available online. For more information visit http://www.space-explorers.com/grantinfo/nasamars.html
Department of Justice
The National Institute of Justice (NIJ), the research arm of the US. Department of Justice, has issued the NIJ Science and Technology Solicitation, seeking proposals for near-term (1-3 years) development and implementation projects for technology to aid law enforcement and correction officers. The deadline to submit proposals is October 24. More information on this and other NIJ research opportunities is available at: http://www.ncjrs.org/fedgrant.htm#nijDepartment of the Navy
The Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, D.C. seeks sources for research and development proposals in any of the following three areas: (1) compact capacitor components capable of operating up to 100 kVdc or higher; (2) compact Marx Bank style pulsed high voltage generators (or similar technology); and, (3) compact high voltage/high average-power modulator systems. No formal request for proposals will be released. For more information see the October 6 printed issue of the Commerce Business Daily or the October 4 CBDNet version. Questions should be directed to Dr. Frank Peterkin, (540) 653-2623, peterkinfe@nswc.navy.milReturn to the top of this page
California S&T Gets Promotion
State science and technology initiatives have been given higher profile in California as the state's lead economic development department changes its name to the Technology, Trade, and Commerce Agency. The new Division of Science, Technology and Innovation, led by Deputy Secretary Joe Raguso, will oversee the state's tech-based economic development efforts. In addition to assuming the responsibilities of the Office of Strategic Technology, the new division will also be responsible for science and technology-based strategic planning, developing funding programs to address the state's digital divide issues, and managing the state's Small Business Development Center program. Two new advisory councils, the California Research and Development Council and the Small Business Competitiveness Council will be created to advise and assist the new division. More information can be found at: http://info.sen.ca.gov/pub/bill/sen/sb_1101-1150/sb_1136_bill_20000930_chaptered.pdf and http://dsti.tech4ca.com/Return to the top of this page
Energy, Health and Biotech Inventions Available
The Department of Energy, the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are offering for license several government owned patents, inventions and a trademark. A description and contact information for each opportunity are posted on the following SSTI webpage:
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