In the July 12, 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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Governor Establishes Alabama Research Alliance by Executive Order
Last week, Governor Don Siegelman signed Executive Order Number 71, which establishes the Alabama Research Alliance, a partnership among Alabama’s research universities, the business community and state government. The mission of the research alliance is to foster economic development in Alabama by investing in existing and new research initiatives at Alabama’s research universities.

The research alliance will focus on investing in and promoting research in areas including, but not limited to: space, science, technology and defense; automotive manufacturing and production design; agriculture; biomedicine and cancer research; and aviation computer electronics.

The new Executive Order amends a 1999 Executive Order by Gov. Seigelman by changing the name from the Alabama Research Institute (ARI) to the Alabama Research Alliance and by expanding the Board of Directors.

The board will consist of 13 members, including the governor, who will serve as chairman, the chancellor of the University of Alabama System, the presidents of Auburn University, the University of South Alabama, Alabama A&M and Tuskegee University, and seven business leaders, who soon will be appointed by the governor to serve six-year staggered terms.

The ARI endowment will become the research alliance endowment, effective October 1, 2002. Interest income from the endowment will be used to support research and development activities of the research alliance, including the funding of research grants to the participating universities. Also, the research alliance will be designated as a state agency to accept federal funds appropriated or allocated by Congress to the state for scientific research and development. The newly expanded board will work to generate not only such federal funding, but also state legislative appropriations and private sector funding.

The June 27 USA Today reported the Governor suggested setting aside 10 percent of a $3.5 billion award the state received from a jury as punitive damages and disputed royalties in a trial against Exxon Mobil to endow the Alabama Research Alliance. The state has not yet received any of the funds.

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GRA Expands VentureLab To Georgia’s Research Universities
The Georgia Research Alliance (GRA) is facilitating the expansion of VentureLab at the state’s research universities. Piloted at the Georgia Institute of Technology, VentureLab is a strategy for enhancing and accelerating the process of spinning new technology-based enterprises out of university research.

GRA President C. Michael Cassidy defined the goals of VentureLab as providing earlier and increased awareness by the business and investment community of university commercialization opportunities and providing an easier and more efficient process for turning these technologies into new companies or new markets for established companies.

“Through VentureLab, we will be able to combine a number of existing programs with new strategies that streamline the commercialization process. The ultimate goal is to maximize the return on the state’s investment in university research,” Cassidy said.

In the pilot program, consultants and Venture Fellows worked with 75 faculty, identifying 20 projects with commercial potential. From the 20, five startup opportunities are being developed. The Advanced Technology Development Center (ATDC), the state’s technology enterprise incubator, managed the successful pilot and will help local management apply the best practices experience ATDC gained in the pilot program.

For faculty members, VentureLab serves as a one-stop center for technology commercialization, providing a clear pathway from laboratory innovation to the commercial marketplace. It offers assistance throughout the process, helping evaluate the market potential of an innovation, advising faculty on the most appropriate commercialization path, providing educational outreach programs and, for innovations that will be the basis for start-up companies, involving seasoned entrepreneurs with experience in forming new companies.

VentureLab has four specific components:

More information on VentureLab is available at: http://www.venturelab.gatech.edu/index.cfm

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Idaho Partnership Creates Regional S&T Office
Governor Dirk Kempthorne has announced the creation of TechConnect East, a regional science and technology office to be located at the Idaho State University Incubation Center in Pocatello, Idaho.

Funded with $30,000 from Bechtel, an engineering-construction firm, $25,000 from the Eastern Idaho Economic Development Council (EIEDC), and $15,000 from the state, TechConnect East will support job creation and high-tech business development in southeastern Idaho. Additional office and administrative support will be provided by Idaho State University and the Bannock Development Corporation, an economic development organization in Pocatello.

Dr. Bill Shipp, President and General Manager of Bechtel's Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory (INEEL) office in Idaho Falls, says TechConnect East will help the area expand a wide array of emerging industries, ranging from biotechnology and improving agriculture to software and systems development. INEEL is a science-based, applied engineering national laboratory.

Shipp, who also serves as the Governor's Science & Technology Advisor, believes the office should focus on specific areas of expertise in eastern Idaho, including information security, subsurface technology, environmental remediation, integrated circuit design, radiation sciences, particle acceleration and more.

TechConnect East staff will report to a regional advisory board of personnel from the EIEDC, Bannock Development Corporation, the Regional Development Alliance, Idaho State University and INEEL.

In addition to TechConnect East, economic development officials hope to create regional offices in other parts of the state.

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Recent Reports

Calfornia Analyzes R&D Activity on County Level
The California Technology, Trade and Commerce Agency (TTCA) has released A County Level Analysis of California's R&D Activity 1993-1999, which, for the first time, offers California state and regional policymakers a county-by-county, instead of statewide or national, analysis of research and development trends.

The Analysis identifies $50.24 billion that California institutions secured in federal research support between the years 1993-99 (the latest data available). The Analysis includes unclassified research funding from 17 federal agencies on a county-by-county basis and details who performs the research including individual business, public and private educational institutions, federal government, nonprofit institutions, and state or local government.

Several interesting characteristics of the R&D landscape of California in the 1990s were identified and where the landscape may head into the future. Fifty-eight percent of the federally funded research in California was conducted by individual businesses, and 41 percent was conducted by universities and independent research institutes. Eight counties received 94 percent of the federal funding, with Los Angeles County having the largest share. San Diego County ranked second, followed by Santa Clara, Orange County, Alameda, San Francisco, San Mateo, and Santa Barbara.

California ranks first in both university and industrial R&D. Forty-four billion dollars worth of research is conducted annually in the state, which is 20 percent of the national total. This total is triple the amount spent in second-place New York. California is home to nearly 700 research centers in the physical sciences, several of which are one-of-a-kind facilities. The state has 87,000 doctoral scientists and engineers and awards more than 3,300 science and engineering doctorates each year. California residents also receive one of every five patents awarded by the U.S. Patent Office.

The report, funded by TTCA's Division of Science, Technology and Innovation (DSTI) and the San Diego Regional Technology Alliance, is available through: http://www.Tech4ca.com

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Cyberstates 2002 Finds IT Employment Grew 1 Percent Nationally
The AEA's sixth annual survey of employment in the electronics and information technology sectors revealed 20 states experienced more IT job losses than creations in 2001. Texas led the way with more than 3,000 job losses while South Dakota experienced the greatest percentage loss of its IT workforce at 14 percent.

Nationally, only 80,000 jobs were added in the year, compared with 440,000 in 2000.

On the positive side, California, Kansas, Virginia, Oregon and New Jersey added the greatest number of technology jobs during 2001.

Cyberstates 2002: A State-by-State Overview of the High-Technology Industry is available for $195 through http://www.aeanet.org. Press releases on the individual findings for many states are available for free download on the site.

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MCG Report Reveals Increase in Number of Small Businesses in Arizona
Of Arizona's 664,454 businesses, 98 percent qualify as small businesses with fewer than 100 employees, according to a study released by the Arizona Department of Commerce and the Arizona State University's Center for the Advancement of Small Business. The study was conducted by the Masters Consulting Group (MCG), an MBA student organization at ASU's College of Business.

The number of Arizona's small businesses, estimated at 651,317 by the MCG report, includes 281,022 home-based businesses. For comparison, Arizona had 329,031 small firms in 1997, the last year for available U.S. Census data. The 1997 total, however, does not include limited liability partnerships, limited liability companies, not-for-profit corporations, and C corporations.

Number of Businesses in Arizona is organized into six sections and includes a statistical breakdown of businesses by the state's 15 counties. The study is available at: http://www.azcommerce.com/publications/current_release.asp?sID=139

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Virginia's CIT Examines State's Telecom Industry
Virginia is one of the most connected states in the country with 5.19 million access lines, 2.76 million wireless telephone subscribers and 218,808 high-speed lines, according to a report issued by Virginia’s Center for Innovative Technology (CIT). State of the Telecommunications Industry in Virginia analyzes the state of the national and local telecom industry and identifies the key drivers of Virginia’s success in attracting telecommunications companies, focusing on the industry during the latter part of 2001 and the first half of 2002.

The report states that, with the national telecommunications industry in turmoil, further consolidation is inevitable. Between March 2000 and February 2002, more than $1 trillion in market value in the telecom industry was lost, and more than 300,000 people in the industry lost their jobs. In addition, the telecom industry recovery will lag the rest of the economy by 18-24 months.

“The telecommunications industry will continue to have a big impact on Virginia’s economy, which is the reason CIT focuses on advanced telecommunications as a key vertical market and the reason we thought this study would provide valuable perspective on the changes that have taken place in the last few years,” said Louis McDonald, CIT’s industry director for information technology and telecommunications.

The State of the Telecommunications Industry in Virginia is available at: http://www.cit.org/telecommunications.asp

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State & Local Tech-based ED RoundUp

Arizona
The Governor's Strategic Partnership for Economic Development (GSPED) has formally recognized the state's 12th industry cluster, E-Learning. The implementing organization for the cluster is the Globalized E-Learning Association, which grew from earlier efforts by the Arizona Telecommunications and Information Council, the telecommunications infrastructure foundation under GSPED. E-Learning is the 12th Arizona cluster recognized by GSPED since its inception in 1992.

Florida
Moving forward with his initiative to build research-based Centers of Excellence with the state's university system, Governor Jeb Bush announced Tuesday five industry-member appointments to the nine-member Emerging Technology Commission. The remaining industry members were appointed by the Speaker of the House and Senate President. As a next step, the Commission will receive proposals from universities and their partnerships that will result in 2-5 plans presented to the Florida Board of Education by February 1, 2003. The Commission will hold its first meeting in August.

Indianapolis
Mayor Bart Peterson recently announced the city will devote $1 million of funds resulting from a negotiated settlement involving United Airlines' Indianapolis Maintenance Center to the Central Indiana Life Sciences Initiative. Half of the $1 million will go to Indiana University's Advanced Research & Technology Institute, which is developing an "emerging technologies incubator" that will help develop research and technology in commercialized products and produce new jobs and businesses. The other half will go toward workforce programs specifically designed to meet the needs of life sciences employees and companies in central Indiana. In addition, $750,000 from a settlement with Sallie Mae will help fund the life sciences initiative.

North Carolina
Triad entrepreneurs have a new resource available to them, thanks to a joint initiative by The University of North Carolina at Greensboro and N.C. A&T State University. The Tech Transfer Outreach Initiative is being funded at $165,000 annually for each of the next three years by Action Greensboro, a nonprofit dedicated to encouraging economic growth. The two universities will operate an Office of Technology Transfer and Commercialization at the Nussbaum Center for Entrepreneurship in Greensboro. From that office, they will provide support services for entrepreneurship, small business development, technology transfer and women and minority outreach.

Oregon
The Oregon Science and Technology Park, launched in December 2001 with a $200,000 state grant, will benefit from newly appointed board members, according to The Oregonian. The new board will explore different niches for the park, a research center for biotechnology, semiconductor, information technology and other knowledge-based disciplines. Among the board's goals is raising up to $500,000 a year for the next three years from large businesses wishing to support the park financially.

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Digest Survey Eyes More Responses
SSTI extends a friendly reminder there is still time for readers to complete the 2002 SSTI Weekly Digest survey. As mentioned in a separate e-mail earlier this week, the survey results help us determine the editorial direction and content of future Digest issues.

We recognize demands on your time exceed availability, so the 2002 Digest survey asks only 11 critical questions. Completing the online survey forms should take only a few minutes. Most are multiple choice for further simplification, although your personal comments are very helpful, too.

Every SSTI staff member involved in preparing the SSTI Weekly Digest and Funding Supplements will read every comment or suggestion, and a summary of the results will be submitted to the Economic Development Administration, the source that allows the Digest to be a free publication.

We thank those of you who have already responded to the 2002 survey. It is available at: http://www.ssti.org/digestsurvey02.htm [expired]

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SBA Seeks Tibbetts Nominations
Nominations are being accepted currently for the 2002 Tibbetts Awards to recognize those small firms, projects, organizations and individuals judged to exemplify the very best in Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) achievement.

Named for Roland Tibbetts – acknowledged as the father of the SBIR program – the Tibbetts Award Program is administered by the Small Business Administration (SBA).

All nominations must be received by August 12, 2002, and announcements of awards will be made late August or early September. The national ceremony to recognize recipients of Tibbetts Awards will be held in Washington, D.C. on October 2, 2002. The event will include a specially arranged program of high-level briefings addressing issues of consequence to technology firms and the SBIR community and a luncheon featuring a keynote speaker.

All nominations must be submitted electronically through the Tibbetts website. To view details, past awardees, or submission information, go to "Tibbetts Awards" at http://www.sbirsttr.net/tibbetts.

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