- EDA Offers $411 Million for Local Economic Development
- Accessing Capital: News from the South
- Michigan Launches Two Initiatives for Tech-based Education
- Transferring University Technologies: Challenging Bayh-Dole
- NSF Finds Nonprofit R&D Holding its Own
- 51 Licensing Opportunities from USDA and NIH
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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EDA Offers $411 Million for Local Economic Development
The Economic Development Administration (EDA) is offering nearly $411 million in financial assistance for distressed areas. The agency has already begun accepting proposals and will continue to do so until the $410,972,866 allocated for FY 2001 is exhausted. EDA seeks proposals for projects that will significantly benefit areas experiencing or threatened with substantial economic distress, and targets assistance to communities with the highest economic distress. Such distress may exist in a variety of forms such as high levels of unemployment, low income levels, large concentrations of low-income families, significant declines in per capita income, substantial loss of population because of the lack of employment opportunities, large numbers or high rates of business failures, sudden major layoffs or plant closures, military base closures, natural or other major disasters, depletion of natural resources, or reduced tax bases.
Most of the funding ($286 million) is available under Public Works and Economic Development Assistance program. The remaining funds are distributed through Planning Assistance for Economic Development Districts, Indian Tribes, States, and Other Development Organizations; Technical Assistance-Local Technical Assistance, National Technical Assistance, and University Centers; Economic Adjustment Assistance; Defense Economic Conversion; Research and Evaluation; and Trade Adjustment Assistance programs.
The ability to obtain EDA funding may be enhanced for proposals that address one or more of the following priorities:
- Proposals to construct or rehabilitate essential public works and development facilities required to stabilize and diversify employment in economically distressed communities throughout the United States and its territories.
- Proposals to help communities plan and implement economic adjustment strategies in response to actual or threatened sudden and severe economic dislocations (e.g., major layoffs and/or plant closures, trade impacts, defense restructuring, natural disasters).
- Proposals that support sustainable development (i.e., promote the efficient use of resources without compromising the environment for future generations). Examples include the productive reuse of abandoned industrial facilities and the redevelopment of brownfields.
- Proposals that build local capacity for enterprise development in distressed communities (e.g., small business incubators, revolving loan funds, and other programs to support business start-ups, retention and expansion). This includes proposals that involve minority serving institutions and assistance to minority communities and businesses.
- Innovative proposals and partnerships, particularly those involving regional solutions to problems of high unemployment and low per capita income. Such projects will be given priority over proposals that are more limited in scope.
More details and regional contact information can be obtained at the Federal Register Online, Volume 66, Number 50, under March 14, 2001, Economic Development Administration. For a link, go to SSTI’s resource page <http://www.ssti.org> and click on Information Resources, choose Federal Register, browse, 2001, March 14, 2001.
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Accessing Capital: News from the South
While venture capital is harder to come by these days in most parts of the country due to the dot-com crash and stock market declines, investment capital may flow more easily in two southern states based on two initiatives.
Florida: $450 Million for CAPCOs Considered
The state legislature is currently considering CAPCO legislation to triple the maximum limit for tax breaks granted to insurance companies that invest in Florida companies through venture capital funds. Senate Bill 1130, passed unanimously in the Banking and Insurance committee this week, now moves to the Commerce and Economic Opportunities Committee for consideration. More information is available at: http://www.leg.state.fl.us/Welcome/index.cfmTennessee: $12 million Raised for New SBIC
According to a March 15 article in the Tennessean, the Tennessee Technology Development Corp. (TennesSeed) and Technology 2020 have raised $12 million to serve as seed capital for tech start-ups in the state. The University of Tennessee’s endowment contributed $1 million to the investment pool.
The organizations hope to leverage the money with 2:1 match from the Small Business Administration’s Small Business Investment Company program. The article says plans are to invest in two to three companies per year, during the next five years. Typical investments will range between $500,000 and $3 million, a level that is difficult to receive from venture capitalists because the average VC deal nationally is now $10-13 million.
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Michigan Launches Two Initiatives for Tech-based Education
During the first days of March, Michigan Governor John Engler announced the implementation of two programs through the Michigan Virtual University to integrate information technology into the state’s education system.
Laptops for Teachers
On March 6, the Governor ceremoniously distributed the first laptop computers in the Teacher Technology Initiative (TTI) announced last year. The program allocates up to $1,200 for each eligible educator to receive a computer complete with software, including a productivity package, Internet access, a warranty and web-based professional development. It is funded by a one-time $110 million appropriation made last year by the state legislature, providing 90,000 Michigan teachers with computers and Internet access.
TTI applications from some 211 school districts were processed during the months of December, January and February, representing 23,839 teachers and an investment of $28.6 million.
Because more than 60,000 teachers have completed the required online assessment, more school districts are expected to apply for the TTI program. For more information see the Teacher Training Initiative link under the Michigan Virtual High School at http://www.mivu.org/index.asp700 Free IT Courses for Educators
Earlier this week, Governor Engler announced the creation of a statewide program that will provide education institutions in Michigan with free access to more than 700 computer-related and professional development courses.
This program, touted as the largest nationwide, will:
- Provide free, non-credit courses to students enrolled in Michigan schools and colleges for skill development and IT certification study;
- Provide free courses to all K-12 teachers, college faculty and staff who want to improve their information technology (IT), management and communications skills; and
- Provide core IT content that teachers and faculty can use to enhance or create new courses and programs.
Dubbed the Information Technology Training Initiative, the program will make online training available through Michigan Virtual University to as many as 850,000 faculty, staff and students in Michigan’s K-12, university and community college system. Later this year, the Initiative will also make the courses available free to as many as 25,000 Michigan workers.
According to news accounts, the initiative will cost the state approximately $3 million over the next three years.
For more information see the Information Technology Training Initiative link at http://www.mivu.org/index.aspReturn to the top of this page
Transferring University Technologies: Challenging Bayh-Dole
Does patenting encourage or speed the transfer of technology from universities? Does the prospect of receiving royalties and licensing fees increase motivation among university researchers to work with businesses to commercialize technology? A recent paper suggests the answers to both questions is "no," but that more empirical and statistical research is needed to determine whether or not increased emphasis on intellectual property rights is achieving the desired results.
How Do University Inventions Get Into Practice?, prepared by a team of researchers from across the country, is the first report on a study that attempts to understand:
- the nature of projects that led to inventions,
- the motivations for undertaking the research, and
- the processes employed to connect with industry for technology transfer.
Based on case studies of several different inventions from Columbia University and Stanford University, the authors conjecture that “the role of patents, and the role of university technology transfer offices varies significantly from case to case.” Additional research is needed to identify and isolate the factors that characterize when patenting and licensing are the most expedient and beneficial methods for moving university technology into the marketplace.
The team’s current work stems from initial research questioning some of the commonly held beliefs about the impact of the Bayh-Dole Act of 1980, which made it easier for universities to retain title to inventions resulting from government-funded research.
While Bayh-Dole is commonly credited with the explosion of university patent activity over the past two decades, an earlier paper by members of the research team found evidence that suggests other factors may have led to increased patenting and licensing activity and that Bayh-Dole may have added fuel to trends already underway and heightened university marketing efforts.
After a review of the patent activities of three schools that were among the leaders in royalty and licensing income in the 1990s, David Mowery, et al., reported in The Effects of the Bayh-Dole Act on U.S. University Research and Technology Transfer: An Analysis of Data from Columbia University, the University of California, and Stanford University that, even before Bayh-Dole, universities had begun shifting their research emphasis into areas, disciplines, and fields that were more likely to result in patentable inventions. Engineering and
software development are offered as examples. Increased research in biomedical sciences, in particular, account for significant levels of patent and licensing activity at the three universities, and predated the Bayh-Dole Act at two of the institutions. University patents remain highly concentrated in these few fields.
Effects of Bayh-Dole also points out court decisions in the 1970s that expanded the definitions of what was patentable (“engineered molecules” are cited as examples) led to increases in university patent applications prior to Bayh-Dole taking effect.
The Act, though, is credited with many universities taking more aggressive roles in marketing or licensing their inventions, in some cases reversing or abandoning policies that discouraged the institutions from engaging in technology transfer. Nearly every major research university now has a technology transfer office.
The authors raise concerns that Bayh-Dole may have resulted in universities patenting or protecting information that historically would have entered the public domain and encouraged more scientific exploration and advances in knowledge (scientific research versus applied research, for example). The authors ask if universities and private firms are now over-patenting and possibly stifling or retarding scientific progress?
The Effects of the Bayh-Dole Act on U.S. University Research and Technology Transfer: An Analysis of Data from Columbia University, the University of California, and Stanford University is available for download at
http://www.haas.berkeley.edu/~pierce/Nelson1.pdfHow Do University Inventions Get Into Practice? Can be downloaded at
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NSF Finds Nonprofit R&D Holding its Own
Research and development activity in the nonprofit sector share of total U.S. R&D held steady at 3 percent from 1973 to 1997, according to a February 15 Data Brief prepared by the National Science Foundation (NSF). The Data Brief reports on the first survey of nonprofit R&D activity since 1973.
The new study captured R&D funding and performance by nonprofit organizations for fiscal years 1996 and 1997. In 1997 nonprofit organization intramural R&D expenditures totalled $7.3 billion. The average annual current dollar increase from 1973 to 1997 was five percent when adjusted for inflation. Extramural R&D activity for nonprofits was estimated to be approximately $1.5 billion for the same year.
NSF has made early release tables for the report available on its website. Table A-12, which provides figures for intramural R&D performance at individual nonprofit organizations by state for fiscal year 1997 may be of particular interest to state and local tech-based economic development officals.
The Early Release Tables can be found at http://www.nsf.gov/sbe/srs/srs01411Return to the top of this page
51 Licensing Opportunities from USDA and NIH
The U.S. Department of Agriculture and the National Institutes of Health released information on 51 inventions that are available for license. Descriptions and contact information for each invention/patent are presented on the accompanying SSTI web page: http://www.ssti.org/Digest/Tables/031601t.htm
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