In the January 4, 2002 Issue:

Copyright State Science & Technology Institute 2003. 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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Science & Math Ed Funding Slashed for 2002
Science and math education funding recently took the equivalent of a roller coaster ride, winding up on the bottom end, according to the Dec. 28 issues of FYI: The Bulletin of Science Policy News of the American Institute of Physics (AIP).

On Dec. 18, Congress — fresh off approving $450 million for the newly-established Math & Science Partnerships Program under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) on Dec. 13 — approved only $12.5 million for the Partnerships Program in its FY 2002 Labor-HHS-Education appropriations report.

Although the ESEA bill reformed, consolidated and streamlined many Education Department programs and created the Partnerships Program, it did not provide the full $450 million recommended in ESEA, the AIP bulletin states.

Instead, the Partnerships Program replaced the Eisenhower Professional Development Program as the Education Department's only program with funding specifically meant for science and math.

The conference report for Labor-HHS-Education observes that although $250 million was approved in Eisenhower funding in FY 2001, "$375 million was actually expended on math and science education through the Eisenhower program in FY 2001."

The $12.5 million level approved for the Partnerships Program in FY 2002 represents a 95 percent cut from the approved level for the Eisenhower program the previous year. Activities traditionally supported through the Eisenhower program now fall under the State Teacher Quality Improvement Grant Program, which was created with ESEA passage and received $2.85 billion from appropriators.

The AIP bulletin says, "It can be hoped that the states will utilize the $2.85 billion in teacher quality money available to them this year to continue placing a high priority on (math and science)."

The AIP bulletin does note that the National Science Foundation received $160 million this year for math and science education. For more information on 2002 math & science education funding and to subscribe to AIP's electronic FYI, visit: http://www.aip.org/enews/fyi/

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Maryland's TEDCO Launches Tech Transfer Fund
The Maryland Technology Development Corporation (TEDCO) kicked off the new year with a new $330,000 program to support Maryland companies wishing to develop technology-based products and/or services in collaboration with Johns Hopkins University (JHU), Morgan State University (MSU) or federal laboratories in Maryland. The Maryland Technology Transfer Fund (MTTF) will award non-equity investments of up to $50,000 per project.

The program supports company technology development projects that transfer technology from JHU, MSU or a federal laboratory in Maryland to the commercial sector and the development of technology-based products and/or services for future government uses. The Fund, made possible by a grant from the Maryland Department of Business and Economic Development (DBED), is also providing $100,000 to JHU and MSU to develop innovative ways to partner with industry.

Program designers believe MTTF may serve as a feeder for other existing DBED programs, such as the Challenge Investment and Enterprise Fund programs, which provide up to $500,000 in equity.

Applications will be accepted continually and reviewed monthly by TEDCO and DBED staff. Funding recommendations will then be forwarded to a technical advisory committee for final consideration.

MTTF funds may be requested for salaries, equipment and other direct costs of technology development activities. No repayment is required unless and until the company achieves significant sales. Repayment is a multiple of the award amount that increases in time to three times the original award.

For more information, visit http://www.MarylandTEDCO.org.

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Northwest's Tri-Cities Has Strong Tech Presence in U.S.
The Tri-Cities (Richland-Kennewick-Pasco) ranks near the top 10 percent nationwide in technology industry growth and offers significant quality-of-life advantages over comparable communities, according to a recent report on local technology business.

Released in November 2001, Tri-Cities Innovation & Technology Index provides the first analysis of the Tri-Cities' ability to meet the needs of technology companies and how the community's business and quality-of-life attributes compare with other Northwest cities and national averages.

The Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory prepared the report in support of DOE's regional economic diversification efforts.

According to the report, the Tri-Cities fares well against its competition in five key areas — innovation, competitiveness, growth, financial capacity and quality of life. In the area of innovation, the Tri-Cities boasts a high percentage of high-tech output and employment and an even higher percentage of technology occupations than the Seattle area.

Statewide, the Tri-Cities is slightly ahead in terms of post-secondary educational attainment and, per capita, has more scientists and engineers. The community attracts approximately $1.7 billion in government funding, the majority of which is directed toward science and technology-based research and development.

Growth of high-tech employment and income in the Tri-Cities also has been solid, the report says, and the growth of small, start-up firms is well ahead of the national average, as evidenced by the more than 60 new technology-oriented companies launched in the Tri-Cities area in the last five years.

Lack of local sources for venture capital dollars, limits in infrastructure supporting Internet data flow, and the inability to locally bankroll new and innovative businesses are identified as significant weaknesses within the financial capacity area.

Entrepreneurs must show considerable ingenuity and persistence to attract capital investment, say the report's authors. However, statewide data from Northwest Venture Associates indicate that 80 percent of statewide venture capital already is targeted toward computer, communications and health/medical industries, while local technical strengths are mostly in other areas, such as materials science and
chemical engineering.

The report, which was modeled after a similar report for the state produced by the Washington Technology Center <http://www.watechcenter.org/techindex/index.html>, is available at: http://www.pnl.gov/edo/innovationtechindex.pdf.

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International S&T Partnerships Crucial, NSB Asserts
Several warnings have been issued in recent years about U.S. dominance in the world's scientific and technological communities slipping: the number of science and engineering (S&E) doctorates awarded per capita; the dearth of women and minorities entering technical fields; the facility in which knowledge, companies and people can be transferred globally; scores on standardized math and science tests; and indicators for global entrepreneurship, to name a few.

The latest alert, a draft report released in December by the National Science Board (NSB), urges the National Science Foundation (NSF) to take a more active, even strategic, role in fostering and participating in international S&E partnerships and collaborations.

Entitled Toward a More Effective NSF Role in International Science and Engineering, the brief report acknowledges the increasing payoff of recent international investments in S&E.

"Our participation in international S&E collaborations and partnerships is increasingly important as a means of keeping abreast of important new insights and discoveries in science and engineering," the report says.

The draft draws upon its origins when, in February 1999, NSB created a Task Force on International Issues in Science and Engineering — a group meant to offer recommendations for "strengthening the Federal institutional framework of policies and agency relations that support S&E in an international setting and with defining an effective leadership role for NSF in international science and engineering in
the 21st century."

Nine actions for NSF are recommended in the NSB draft, including the following:

Toward a More Effective NSF Role in International Science and Engineering is available in its entirety at: http://www.nsf.gov/cgi-bin/getpub?nsb00217

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Resources Focus on Innovative Practices at Rural Community Colleges
Regional Technology Strategies, Inc. (RTS), a national nonprofit workforce and economic development group based in Carrboro, N.C., has published Cultivating Successful Rural Economies: Benchmark Practices at Community Colleges.

Through a grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Fund for Rural America, RTS identified by a competitive process 43 dynamic and effective programs at rural community colleges in the U.S. and abroad that are helping rural businesses adapt to current economic trends.

RTS' publication profiles several benchmark practices that encompass effective responses to the regional economic conditions, from a fiber arts program at Northern Mexico Community College to a hospitality-industry training program in Northern Ireland.

The profiles, which are meant to help guide community colleges and communities looking for ideas and programs to emulate, are available in searchable format at: http://www.rtsinc.org/benchmark.

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Useful Stats: 2000 Academic R&D Expenditures by State
Annual R&D expenditures at America's academic institutions topped $30 billion for the first time, according to the early release tables from the National Science Foundation's Survey of Research and Development Expenditures at Universities and Colleges, Fiscal Year 2000. The final results of the latest annual survey reveals a nine percent increase over 1999 expenditures.

Despite growing by more than $1.4 billion during 2000, the federal government's share of total support for academic R&D, at 58.19 percent, fell to its lowest percentage since 1959. State and local government share dropped to 7.33 percent, the lowest level since the survey began in 1953. Institutional funds, on the other hand, accounted for 19.71 percent of academic R&D expenditures in 2000, the highest level ever for this source of funding.

Industrial support of academic R&D, as a percent of the total academic R&D expenditures, was its greatest in the 1950s at more than eight percent. Since falling to its lowest level of 2.45 percent in 1966, the surveys have reported a slow growth in industrial-financed R&D to the 1999 level of 7.4 percent. The 2000 survey finds industrial R&D support slipping slightly to 7.25 percent of the total support for
academic R&D, while growing to $2.176 billion.

PDF and Excel versions of the survey results are available online for 69 different tables, several of which may be of value for state and local tech-based economic development practitioners. Data are presented by source of funds, field of science & engineering, geographic distribution, and by institution. Separate tables highlight expenditures within historically black colleges and universities and for R&D equipment expenditures. Many of the tables include data for the previous eight years (1993-2000).

Because of the important role academic R&D can play in encouraging state and local tech-based economic development, SSTI has prepared two tables for Digest readers standardizing the data for comparison across states. The first, available at: http://www.ssti.org/Digest/Tables/010402t.htm, presents figures and rankings for total and per capita academic R&D expenditures by state for 1993 and 2000. The table also shows the percentage change and rankings for the eight-year period. The manipulation reveals Maine — while only improving its overall ranking from 50th to 49th for total academic R&D expenditures — showed the greatest improvement on a per capita basis over the time period by capturing 114 percent more R&D funding in 2000. Top honors for 2000 academic R&D expenditures on a per capita basis go, in descending order, to the District of Columbia, Maryland, Massachusetts, Alaska and Iowa.

As many state and local tech-based ED programs strive to increase and strengthen university-industrial research partnerships, SSTI's second table examines only those academic R&D expenditures for 1993 and 2000 that were financed from industrial sources. The table is available at: http://www.ssti.org/Digest/Tables/010402t2.htm

The second table reveals that, during a eight-year span when industrial-financed R&D grew by more than 61 percent, it was declining in several states on both real dollar and per capita bases. On a more positive note, Hawaii's industrial R&D support grew from a 1993 level of $151,000 to $11.158 million in 2000. Alaska showed the second best performance by quadrupling industrial R&D funding levels.

The early release tables from the Survey of Research and Development Expenditures at Universities and Colleges, Fiscal Year 2000 are available here: http://www.nsf.gov/cgi-bin/getpub?srs02402

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State and Local Tech-based ED RoundUp

Chicago
Chicago CivicNet recently named 22 firms as finalists for an endeavor to build and operate a network connecting 1,600 public buildings in Chicago with fiber optic cable. CivicNet, an initiative of the City of Chicago and the Mayor's Council of Technology Advisors, saw more than 60 companies respond to the Request for Information issued by the City in November 2001. A finalist competing for CivicNet's Request for Proposals (issued in December) will win $25 million a year for the next 10 years to build the digital network that, being extended to private homes and businesses, would mean considerable additional revenue. A listing of the finalists, who must submit proposals by March 29, is available at:
http://www.chicagocivicnet.net/

New York
Numerous business and academic leaders recently joined Gov. George Pataki to announce up to $150 million in private sector support for a Center of Excellence in Bioinformatics in Buffalo. Plans for the center call for a 150,000-square-foot building to house drug design research space, computational and three dimensional visualization facilities, product commercialization space and workforce training facilities. Researchers will work side-by-side to identify key research areas and will translate their research into opportunities to attract high-tech and biotech firms to Western New York. A press release on the center is available at: http://www.nystar.state.ny.us/press/archives/press45.htm

Philadelphia
The Farber Family Foundation recently awarded a $10 million gift to Thomas Jefferson University <http://www.tju.edu> in Philadelphia to establish the Farber Institute for Neurosciences. Initially, the institute will focus its efforts on basic and clinical research in Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), and other neurodegenerative disorders. The institute's researchers will continue to build on already-established Jefferson strengths in many of these fields while establishing new and revitalized research programs in others. The institute also will help attract additional neurosciences faculty and postdoctoral fellows to TJU and will eventually be home to two endowed chairs for senior investigators in the neurosciences.

Pittsburgh
The Pittsburgh Technology Council recently announced the establishment of a network for entrepreneurs whose mission includes meeting the needs of its 1,800-company membership, which constitute start-up organizations with 50 employees or fewer. The Entrepreneurs Network will create a regional structure for informal peer-to-peer support among those who have started their own companies. The network will accomplish this by fostering the creation of a web of small subgroups, comprised entirely of entrepreneurs, who will meet on a regular basis to share best practices, identify common concerns and formulate methods to address growth issues. More information on the Pittsburgh Technology Council is available at: http://www.pghtech.org/

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