In the April 5, 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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Pennsylvania Governor Announces $100 Million to Seed Biotech Initiatives
On Wednesday, Pennsylvania Governor Mark Schweiker officially launched Pennsylvania's Life Sciences Greenhouse, an historic initiative to be spread among three regions of the state — Southeast, Southwest and Central Pennsylvania.

The Governor announced $100 million will seed the program, including $33.8 million for the Southeast region, $33.3 million for the Southwest region, and $32.8 million for Central Pennsylvania. The state's financial support, which will come from surplus tobacco settlement funds, is the largest single technology-related, economic development investment in Pennsylvania history, according to a press release issued by the Governor's office.

Pennsylvania's Life Sciences Greenhouse is designed to build on the biotechnology research at Pennsylvania's top universities. The initiative is expected to create 4,400 new jobs, attract or create 100 new biotechnology companies, and leverage more than $150 million in private capital over the next five years.

Renal Solutions Inc. (RSI), an integrated medical device and health-care service company based in Indiana, is the first company to partner with the initiative. RSI will relocate its headquarters to the Thorn Hill Industrial Park in Warrendale, Penn.

The Pennsylvania Life Sciences Greenhouse seeks to replicate the success of the Pittsburgh Digital Greenhouse, launched by former Gov. Tom Ridge in 1999.

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SSTI Analysis
Tech Councils Adapt with Economic Times
[Note: SSTI defines a technology council as a regional entity that is membership-based and independently funded with science and technology-based economic development as one of its primary goals. National trade associations and government-created technology councils which serve in an advisory or policy role are excluded from this discussion.]

The economic climate of the past year has created financial challenges for several regional technology councils and local industry associations. While a few of the 200+ councils around the country have received partial funding from state or local governments, most are dependent on membership dues and fees for a significant portion of their revenue base. For many small businesses, outlays for membership dues, conference fees, and subscriptions are reduced as revenues decline.

The dot-com crash, with the resulting bankruptcies, closures, mergers and consolidations of IT companies, shrank the market of potential council participants in several localities. Particularly hard hit, obviously, are the IT-related technology councils. For example, California's Computer & Electronics Media Association is gone. The three-year-old Ann Arbor IT Zone is laying off its four part-time staff and subletting its office space this month and becoming an all volunteer organization. The New York New Media Association has seen its membership decline from 8,200 to 6,300, according to a recent New York Times article. The article also says efforts over the past four years to brand a New York City district as Silicon Alley are dead.

Consolidation is the key to survival for some technology councils. The Miami Internet Alliance, founded in 1999, and the Technology Forum of South Florida, established in 1997, are merging to become the South Florida Technology Alliance. The Western Massachusetts Software Association went through two iterations before merging with the IT/Communications Cluster of the Regional Technology Alliance to become the broader Technology Entrepreneurship Council.

To cut costs, the Northeast Ohio Software Association (NEOSA) is spinning off its angel network activities. Supported originally by a $150,000 grant from the state, funding for the angel network and its two full-time staff would have become the responsibility of NEOSA, an IT trade association.

All news is not bad on the tech council front. Regional technology councils and the role these non-governmental organizations serve in tech-based economic development continues to flourish across the country, and new technology councils have been established recently, including an information technology council in Greensboro, North Carolina, and the East Central Technology Council in North Dakota. The 150-member East Tennessee Technology Council is on stronger financial footing since it secured its first corporate sponsor last week, with an undisclosed contribution from Compaq.

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SSTI Editorial
Embracing Change: Analysis of Maine's Laptop Victory
One of the biggest obstacles many communities and states face to building tech-based economies is convincing traditional businesses, institutions and the general population to embrace change, technological advance, and innovation. A common element of many strategic plans is at least one recommendation or even an entire report dedicated to changing perceptions of the community or state toward being a technology mecca — or at least getting people to think about and recognize the importance of science and technology investments. [See the 6/23/00 issue of the SSTI Weekly Digest for an article on a related report from the Oklahoma Center for the Advancement of Science & Technology.]

Perhaps the "paradigm problem" reaches its most daunting levels in economies that have traditionally been agricultural- and natural resource-based. Often with low percentages of residents holding bachelors degrees or higher and with many people earning less than the national average, less populated areas face myriad challenges toward building tech-based futures.

Key ingredients to turning the corner or making progress — keys that have application or opportunity for replication in every state and community — were demonstrated vividly in the March 25-31 issue of mainescience.org, the exceptional e-newsletter of the Maine Science & Technology Foundation [Archive and free subscription information is available at: http://www.mainescience.org]

Among the week's top S&T stories in a recent issue of the newsletter was a clipping from the Lewiston Sun Journal reporting that the state legislature had approved $25 million in funding over the next two years to provide laptop computers for each of 19,000 seventh and eighth graders in Maine. More telling of the state's commitment to the New Economy is Maine was facing a $250 million deficit when the legislature began its work on the FY 2003 budget.

One of the keys for a successful tech-based economic development strategy is strong leadership, and Maine is a prime example. A large part of what is helping turn Maine into a stronger, more economically diversified state is the leadership and vision of its Governor, Angus King. Gov. King first called for the state to purchase computers for every single 7th and 8th grader in 2000. The intent, as well as improving the quality of their education, was to help the students embrace the importance of technology in their futures. An underlying goal was to change the mindset of the students and their parents, when the students took the computers home to do homework and research.

Some skepticism and opposition led to a two-year delay and some watering-down of the original idea, but the Governor's conviction and the statewide discussion that ensued after his first unveiling of the initiative have helped push Maine into a better position to face a knowledge-based future.

Of course, there are no guarantees that the initiative will work; in this field, there never are. The key is Maine's willingness to take the risk and embrace change — to address the paradigm problem head-on.

But are the lessons of Maine's laptop victory transferable to other states?

At least 20 states, including Maine, will have new governors as a result of the elections this fall. An additional 18 governors are running for re-election, some in tight races. Throughout the last five decades of state efforts in tech-based economic development, top-level leadership have been the driving force for innovation in policy and practice. Success doesn't follow from any specific political persuasion or geographic alignment, but from the contagious enthusiasm or zeal of a strong leader to embrace the change required to keep pace with and participate fully in an economy driven by scientific advancement and technological progress.

SSTI asks the tech-based economic development community — state and local programs, the universities, the businesses, the organizations, the associations, the tech councils, and individuals — in the 38 states with gubernatorial elections: are you doing what needs to be done to ensure your next leader possesses the vision and conviction to welcome and embrace change?

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Next Worker Shortage in Biotech?
The urgent need for workers skilled in information technology and the widely proclaimed IT worker shortfall of the late 1990s led Congress to change the H1-B visa program, easing entry for international workers skilled in the field. Last year's dot-com crash and current recession dampened the pitch and fervor as thousands of IT workers were laid off. Will the country's current focus on health and life sciences result in a similar shortage in biotech workers? Two contrasting pictures were presented on March 24 in newspapers on opposite sides of the country.

The 358-member Massachusetts Biotechnology Council projects 1,000 new biotech manufacturing jobs would be created in the state this year, according to a Boston Globe article. To help prepare a workforce of biomanufacturing technicians, the council began supporting the Biomedical Science Careers Project in 1997. The project is a not for profit organization aimed at providing minority students with support and guidance in their pursuit of careers in biomedical science. This year, using a $500,000 workforce training grant, the Council collaborating with several other organizations, will create a biomanufacturing certification program at two community colleges to prepare entry-level technicians for the field.

A similar worker training program in at the Spokane Community College in Spokane, Washington, was the subject of an article in the Spokesman-Review entitled "Trained, but now what? Uncertain job prospects leave students in biotech program feeling anxious." With funding from the INTEC, a nonprofit agency dedicated to biomedical and technology workforce issues, the program offered free 3-month biotech training to students with the expectation that as many as 200 new jobs would be created over the next three years in the region. According to the article, the first eight students are graduating from the program, and two more courses will have 15-20 more students, but the number of job openings has been reduced dramatically. On a more positive note, article points out the local biotech job market is expected to grow sharply with construction of one company's new facilities in the Pacific Northwest Technology Park.

Two striking differences between worker shortages in the IT and biotech fields appear from these two articles and past coverage of the IT worker shortage: average annual pay and level of education required. Where most starting IT positions required extensive training and paid over $40,000, the jobs resulting from the biotech certification programs mentioned in both articles require little more than a high school degree and pay only $25,000-30,000. The Boston Globe article goes so far as to say that college graduates may be "undesirable" as technicians.

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TBED Tidbits

More Funding Sought For Pell Grants
An educated workforce is one of the most important elements of any tech-based economic development strategy. The Association of American Universities (AAU) has alerted its members to a Dear Colleague letter being circulated in the Senate to encourage the strengthening and improvement of the Pell Grant program. Cosigners are sought by Senator Russell Feingold (D-WI) to urge Senate appropriators to support a $500 increase in the maximum Pell Grant award for FY 2003 to $4,500 and to eliminate the current year's budget shortfall in the Pell Grant program. Pell Grants, which help to offset the financial burden of college for students from low and middle income families, have lost 20 percent of their value since 1975, because the award size has not kept pace with inflation. The AAU reports cosigners already include: Susan Collins (R-ME), Edward Kennedy (D-MA), Jack Reed (D-RI), and Gordon Smith (R-OR). More information is available from Tim Grace, in Senator Feingold's office, at 202-224-0398.

Basic Research = Technology Advances
Need anecdotal evidence of the technological, economic and social payoff of basic research? The Office on Public Understanding of Science within the National Academy of Sciences has relaunched its Beyond Discovery website to offer vivid examples for greater public understanding of the value of basic research. The office publishes articles, now indexed by subject, examining the crucial role played by basic research in the development of important technological and medical advances. The link is: http://www.beyonddiscovery.org/

Future on Hold in Indiana
To offset the $1.3 billion deficit not addressed by the state legislature before ending its session in mid-March, Indiana Governor Frank O'Bannon has rescinded the unexpended monies from the Build Indiana Fund. The cuts include $50 million from the 21st Century Research and Technology Fund, which will bar any new projects from beginning before new appropriations are secured in the next biennial budget cycle that begins in July 2003. Other tech-based ED cuts include $74 million in education technology acquisitions and $5 million from Purdue University's nanotechnology program.

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People

Formerly the marketing manager for a local software firm, Mary Bergeron recently was named the new executive director of the Baton Rouge Technology Council.

Virgil Carter has been named executive director of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers International, a not-for-profit organization actively supporting tech-based economic development across the country. ASME has more than 125,000 members worldwide. Carter, whose appointment is effective July 1, succeeds retiring David Belden.

John Glerum, former president and CEO of Ore-Ida Foods, has been named science and technology coordinator for the Idaho Department of Commerce. Glerum also will serve as director of the new Technology and Entrepreneurial Center, to be built on the campus of Boise State University West.

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Harvard Awards Program Seeks Innovators for 2002 Competition
The Institute for Government Innovation at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government recently announced open competition for its 2002 annual awards program.

The Innovations in American Government Awards focuses on the quality and responsiveness of U.S. government at all levels and promotes innovative approaches to meeting challenges. Begun in 1986, the program has recognized 295 innovative programs that have received $17.9 million in grants. Of these programs, 150 have been named winners and received $100,000 grants while 145 have been named finalists and received $20,000 grants.

Five initiatives were chosen among 15 finalists in the 2001 competition, including California’s Mathematics, Engineering, Science Achievement (MESA) program. MESA has built a network of support for disadvantaged students by teaming educators with corporate activists. The program's accomplishments are many:

Other tech-based education programs, such as the OK-First Program, also were among the 2001 finalists. The Oklahoma program uses state-of-the-art computer technology to provide local public safety workers in Oklahoma with up-to-the-minute information about severe weather.

The Innovations in American Government Awards are administered in partnership with the Council for Excellence in Government in Washington, D.C., a national, nonprofit and nonpartisan organization. More information, including the awards process, past award winners and application guidelines, is available at: http://www.innovations.harvard.edu/home.html

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