In the July 27, 2001 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.

Subscription to the SSTI Weekly Digest is free. If you are reading a forwarded copy of this issue and would like to receive your own copy each week directly, please subscribe at: http://www.ssti.org/Digest/digform.htm Requests to unsubscribe should be sent to sstiwd@ssti.org

$40 Million Biotech Commercialization Fund Seeded in Minnesota
One of the few new spending bills to make it through the 2001 session of the Minnesota Legislature provides $10 million in seed money for technology commercialization through a new Biomedical Innovation and Commercialization Initiative (BICI – pronounced beach-ee). The BICI appropriation is contingent upon state economic development officials securing a three-to-one private sector match.

BICI is a collaborative economic development initiative involving the State of Minnesota, the University of Minnesota and the state’s medical research institutions, companies and investors. It establishes a commercial enterprise – independent of both the university and state government – to bridge the gap between academic basic research and the commercialization of new technologies.

The explicit mission of BICI is to identify and invest in biomedical ventures that have long-term commercial development potential. It targets biomedical research at the University of Minnesota’s Academic Health Center, the area of academic basic research that has the most immediate commercial potential. Successful implementation of the BICI model could result in similar future ventures in other areas such as digital or media technology, nanotechnology or agriculture.

More information is available at: http://www.dted.state.mn.us/00x05f.asp and in the February 2001 concept report on the website of Minnesota Technology, Inc. http://www.minnesotatechnology.org/BICIReport.pdf

Return to the top of this page

Ohio Creates Aerospace/Defense Advisory Council
Ohio Governor Bob Taft last week signed legislation creating the Ohio Aerospace and Defense Council to examine state and federal laws, rules, and policies that affect the two industries and associated federal installations in Ohio. Ohio is home to Wright Patterson Air Force Base, the state’s largest single-site employer, and the NASA Glen Research Center in Cleveland.

Six objectives are to be addressed by the council:

  1. to increase federal funding for research and development conducted at federal installations in the state;
  2. to increase, where appropriate, the operational presence of defense and aerospace activities within the state;
  3. to create and improve economic opportunities for aerospace and defense companies and their workers;
  4. to advise the Governor, the General Assembly and other key state officers of the policies and activities needed to achieve the council’s goals;
  5. to encourage collaboration between Wright-Patterson Air Force Base and the NASA Glenn Research Center on projects of major strategic importance to the Department of Defense and NASA; and
  6. to act as the advocate with Congress, the General Assembly, regional and local leaders and the general public for aerospace and defense issues affecting the Ohio economy.

The new council, which is to be supported financially by businesses, private institutions and the state, will be made up of 11 voting members and no more than six non-voting members. At least two of the voting members must be faculty members of a public or private institution of higher education associated with aerospace technology matters.

A July 26 story in the Dayton Daily News reports Governor Taft also plans to create a new senior-level position within the Department of Development to staff the council and serve as the state’s liaison with the two large federal installations.

Return to the top of this page

Southeastern PA To Map Nanotechnology Assets
The Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Southeastern Pennsylvania has issued a Request for Proposals to develop an asset-mapping study of the nanotechnology sector in the four-state Philadelphia Consolidated Metropolitan Statistical Area.

A key objective of the engagement is to facilitate comparison of the region’s Nanotechnology sector with other regions and benchmark performance in this sector to enable longitudinal comparisons in the future. Another primary objective is to provide data and analysis critical to informing policy decisions for the Nanotechnology Institute. The study would secondarily provide information that could be used to promote Greater Philadelphia’s role as an early leader in Nanotechnology. Proposals are due August 15, 2001.

More information is available from Robert E. Gittler, Coordinator, Regional Initiatives, Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Southeastern Pennsylvania at robert@sep.benfranklin.org The RFP can be downloaded at http://www.sep.benfranklin.org/rfp.pdf

Return to the top of this page

Rhode Island Tech Council Assessing IT Industry Needs
The Rhode Island Technology Council (RITEC) is launching a benchmarking survey this week of the state’s information technology (IT) industry to determine how the council and state economic development organizations can be most effective at addressing the sector’s needs in light of the continued restructuring of the national IT industry. The survey includes two components: a company survey to collect demographic and compositional information on the industry; and an IT professional survey for skill and training assessment.

Conducted in partnership with the Rhode Island Economic Development Corporation and the Economic Policy Council, the survey results will be compiled and released in September. For more information, visit http://www.ritec.org

Return to the top of this page

Is Government Policy to Blame for S&E Worker Shortage?
Brain drains and a lack of technically skilled workers, both scientists and engineers, are commonly heard complaints of state and local tech-based economic development practitioners across the country. But are federal and state innovation policies part of the problem? Paul M. Romer, of the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University, says yes in Should the Government Subsidize Supply or Demand of in the Market for Scientists and Engineers?

Conclusions drawn from several studies indicate problems on the supply side are likely to continue for some time. A June survey from the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) reveals the number of bachelor degrees awarded in engineering peaked at more than 77,000 in the mid-80s. During the past decade, while the demand for technical positions soared, the number of all engineering degrees awarded dropped to 63,000. Things are not bad, however, in all engineering fields; the number of biomedical and chemical engineering degrees granted doubled during the same time period.

Romer feels that U.S. innovation policy during the past 20 years has been too heavily focused on initiatives to expedite the process of developing and commercializing technological innovation, such as increased spending on R&D and R&D tax incentives, increase demand without considering the availability of the scientists and engineers required to support that demand, Romer argues. He contends this has been shortsighted and will be detrimental to continuing or sustaining the nation’s competitive position in a global economy.

Given that the key component of most research and innovation is knowledge capital, Romer contends government must increase the quantity of scientists and engineers, not simply the cost of the existing pool of available researchers.

Romer believes that better-defined goals and programs should be initiated in order to increase scientists and engineers in the workforce, including:

Romer also recommends structural changes to the way schools prepare Ph.D students. Ph.D. training in research institutes is different than in professional schools: research institutes are oriented for eventual placement in an academic setting and business schools train for placement in industry. Romer believes that changing the traditional university teaching to that which is taught in business schools should be done without disrupting the essence of science education.

Fortunately, programs and policies to support the supply side of scientists and engineers are increasing in both state and federal portfolios of tech-based economic development policy. While many of these programs are broader, such as the Math and Science Education Partnership initiative of the National Science Foundation or state scholarships to support college education, there are more specific activities to encourage an increased pool of future scientist and engineers, particularly in targeted populations such as women and minorities.

Romer’s research into the supply of scientists and engineers may be found in the closing paper of the inaugural volume of Innovation Policy and the Economy, edited by Adam Jaffe, Josh Lerner and Scott Stern. Among the other five papers in Vol. I are Publicly Funded Science and the Productivity of the Pharmaceutical Industry (see the 7/20/01 issue of the SSTI Weekly Digest), and Numbers, Quality and Entry: How Has the Bayh-Dole Act Affected U.S. University Patenting and Licensing? (see the 3/16/01 issue of the SSTI Weekly Digest for a related story)

Published by the National Bureau of Economic Research, Innovation Policy and the Economy is available for purchase for $24.00, plus $4.50 shipping and handling from SSTI. More information on the ASEE, including an online database profiling more than 340 colleges and engineering and engineering technology, can be found at http://www.asee.org

Return to the top of this page

State Science & Technology Institute
5015 Pine Creek Drive
Westerville, OH  43081
Phone: (614) 901-1690
Fax: (614) 901-1696
Email: ssti@ssti.org

© 2002 State Science and Technology Institute. All rights reserved.