In the March 28, 2003 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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Ontario Launches $30M Biotech Cluster Initiative
The Ontario Ministry of Enterprise, Opportunity and Innovation has launched a two-phase, $30 million program intended to accelerate the development of Ontario's biotechnology cluster. The Biotechnology Cluster Innovation Program (BCIP) will support biotechnology infrastructure projects that will help create new companies.

BCIP is expected to support projects such as commercialization centers, research parks and other regional initiatives that demonstrate entrepreneurship and innovation. The program also will fund projects that integrate biotechnology into knowledge-based and traditional industry sectors such as photonics, information technology, automotive, chemicals, agriculture, and forestry.

"(The Ontario) government's biotechnology strategy will make Ontario one of the most competitive jurisdictions in North America," Minister of Enterprise, Opportunity and Innovation Jim Flaherty said in a press statement. "Merging biotechnology with traditional industry sectors could provide a significant contribution to the economic growth of the province."

The first phase of BCIP is $2 million directed to regional biotech partnerships to develop strategic plans for enhancing Ontario's biotechnology capacity.  The second $28 million phase focuses on implementing the plans.

Regionally based partnerships are invited to participate in the first phase of the BCIP, which will provide individual awards of up to $200,000. Partnerships may be comprised of industry, entrepreneurs, municipalities, universities and other research institutions, researchers, colleges, venture capital firms and investors, federal government agencies and school boards. The program materials say at a minimum consortia should consist of the following organizations: universities and other R&D institutions, municipalities, industry/farm associations, entrepreneurs, investors and all levels of government. Involvement of at least one post-secondary institution is mandatory.

BCIP is part of the province's $51 million biotech strategy launched last summer (see the June 14, 2002 issue of the SSTI Weekly Digest for details). Ontario is Canada's most populous province with 11.4 million residents in 2001, which would make it the seventh largest U.S. state by comparison.

More information on the BCIP is available at: http://www.ontariocanada.com/ontcan/en/rts/rts_bcip.jsp

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Boston's Blessing: A Cluster of University-based Research Activity
Most practitioners who have been in the tech-based economic development field long enough know the presence of a strong research university can make the job much easier. New innovations and technologies to commercialize through licensing and spinoff companies, research facilities and experts to partner with local companies, and a constant supply of fresh graduates for the workforce are just a few of the benefits a research institution can offer the local and regional economy.

Imagine, then, the benefits – and challenges – of having a cluster of research universities conducting more than $1.5 billion worth of research annually in one area, approximately 97 percent of which is funded by federal and other non-local sources. The infusion of so much scientific and engineering activity should help any community weather the current economic crisis and be positioned for the next boom. The challenge for public policy makers and local tech-based economic development programs would be to minimize the export of so much opportunity.

A new report reveals the eight largest academic research institutions in Greater Boston – Boston College, Boston University, Brandeis University, Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Northeastern University, Tufts University and University of Massachusetts Boston – could play a key role in the region's economic recovery by continuing to expand knowledge and technology that creates new industries and jobs.

Engines of Economic Growth details the universities' economic and social impact in 2000 and 2002. In 2000 alone, the study finds research conducted at the one public and seven private universities resulted in 264 patents, 280 commercial licenses of technology, and 41 start-up companies. While more than $1.5 billion on research was conducted at the selected schools in 2000, research performed at affiliated hospitals and institutes pushed the total over $2.5 billion.

Research and technological developments at the universities contribute to creating and growing local industries such as computing, information technology, medical devices, biotechnology and genetics, the report states.

International companies such as Amgen, Cisco, Merck, Novartis, Pfizer and Sun Microsystems, the report notes, are locating major facilities in the area to gain access to the scientific talent associated with the research universities and their affiliated hospital and research institutions concentrated in the Boston area.

In addition, the study identifies the schools' much broader economic and social impact: a $7.4 billion boost to the regional economy; work for 48,750 university employees and 37,000 other workers in the region; a talent pool of more than 31,900 graduates, many of whom stay in Boston; continuing education for 25,000 non-degree students; and, numerous programs to help local K-12 schools and individual students.

To make greater contributions to the Boston area economy, the researchers say the eight universities and the region at large must meet several key challenges. They need to secure a long-term commitment at the federal level to fund basic and applied research, amidst competing fiscal pressures, and they must acquire more space for research and educational activities. In addition, support for entrepreneurial activity and the region's young learners must be continued. Effective collaboration among Boston-area universities, officials and communities also is necessary, the report concludes.

Engines of Economic Growth is available at: http://www.masscolleges.org/Economic/default.asp

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NCSC Offers Guide for Getting Online
The National Center for Small Communities (NCSC) is offering a new toolkit to help small communities establish more competitive positions in the knowledge economy through aggressive information technology adoption strategies. Following in the footsteps of NCSC's first (1999) Internet guide, Getting Online 2.0: a small-town guide to creating 21st-century communities moves small communities further along the information-technology path by providing updated and more in-depth information and resources.

The guide helps small community leaders to:

Included in the 74-page book's appendices is a summary of the CSPP Readiness Guide, a self-assessment tool that helps communities determine their telecommunications readiness status and provides ideas for reaching higher levels of connectivity.

Getting Online 2.0 was developed with support from the AOL Time Warner Foundation.  The new guidebook is available in single copies ($14.95/NCSC members; $19.95/non-members) and in discounted, bulk quantities for use at conferences, training seminars and meetings. The minimum bulk discount order is 80 books, for $120 total ($1.50 per guidebook).

For additional information and ordering instructions, visit the NCSC website at http://www.natat.org/ncsc/NewResources.htm.

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National Academies Report Charts New Course for Agricultural Research
Factors such as globalization, trade liberalization and consumer preferences have changed the way agricultural research is conducted, and advances in biotechnology and genomics, ecosystem science and social science have altered the overall agricultural landscape. However, the United States' leading agricultural research service is not quite ready to adapt to this changing environment with its traditional organizational structure, states a new report published by the National Academies.

Frontiers in Agricultural Research, conducted for the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), is the result of the National Academies' efforts to review USDA's Research, Education, and Economics (REE) mission area and offer suggestions for the future of agriculture in the U.S. The report positions REE as the nation's principal driver of publicly funded agricultural research – one which oversees nearly $2 billion in federal research each year – that executes its mission through four member agencies.

To continue the gains put forth by agriculture over the last century, a National Academies committee contends that "REE must be more anticipatory and strategic in its use of limited resources and must guide and champion new directions in research." Such gains are encapsulated by a new and different role in which agriculture has delivered nutritional, pharmaceutical and bio-based products and supported rural communities. Still, high-level leadership is needed to make further advances, the authors say.

It is the committee's view that REE's existing operational structure is not adequately prepared to respond to new pressures and interests "in an increasingly volatile, complex environment." Half of REE's resources, or two of five strategic research goals, presently are dedicated to traditional agricultural productivity. The rest is evenly distributed among human health, the environment and communities.

To maximize the impact of REE's resources, the National Academies committee suggests REE undertake clearer priority-setting mechanisms and adopt more flexibility in funding and research agendas, including increased multidiscliplinary research and collaboration. The committee also suggests making agricultural research more accountable to stakeholders. For example, REE could hold a national conference every 2-3 years to bring together its component agencies and stakeholders for agency planning. Seventeen specific research opportunities are highlighted as well.

Frontiers in Agricultural Research is available at: http://www7.nationalacademies.org/banr/BANR_Recently_Released_Reports.html

More information on REE is available at: http://www.reeusda.gov/

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Brain Drain Update: States Look to Avoid Losing Their Minds
A technically-skilled workforce is one of the elements required for a tech-based economy, so the issue of stopping the brain drain is of critical importance to some regions and states.  The choice for some states, it has been observed, is to turn into retirement homes or to retain their college graduates; in short, to avoid losing their minds.  Maine, Ohio, and Pennsylvania are just a few of the states that have been looking at the issue.

A recent study of Maine graduates in 1998, Where They Go and Why: Finding Maine’s Future Workforce, reveals that while half of the Maine's high school graduates leave the state to attend college, many transfer back to Maine colleges and universities to complete their degrees. Additionally, more than half of Maine's best and brightest college graduates in 1998 chose to stay in-state or return to Maine to earn their degree. The study defines the "best and brightest" as those students who earned A's or B's in high school and whose mothers have earned at least a bachelor's degree.

Three out of every four of Maine's best and brightest students, however, ultimately choose to live and work outside of Maine, according to the data. Most of these students decided to "live and work outside Maine because of greater perceived career opportunities outside Maine, which were more important to them than social and family considerations." Where Maine's residents who have earned a college degree choose to live and work depends largely on whether family and social ties or career opportunities are more important to them, the study suggests.

Ohio finds similar statistics among its college graduates. A study of the state's colleges and universities, prepared by the Ohio Board of Regents, shows 75 percent of graduates "were known to be either employed in Ohio or continuing their schooling in Ohio the year after graduation." However, only 61 percent of those earning a bachelor's degree in engineering fields were working in-state following graduation, and even fewer chemistry and physics majors, 46 percent, did the same.

The Ohio Board of Regents performance report only tracks employment outcomes within the first six months of graduation for recent spring graduates, but the findings help affirm what a Cleveland Plain Dealer study revealed over the course of 11 years — that graduates earning the highest degrees are least likely to remain in Ohio. The Plain Dealer reports that master's degree graduates are almost 30 percent more like likely to leave than bachelor's degree graduates, and those earning doctoral degrees "are more than twice as likely to go." The newspaper's analysis considered data for 490,000 alumni of 23 public and private institutions.

Countering the Trend
In the case of Maine and Ohio, the studies point to various factors affecting graduates' decisions to leave the state where they received their degree following graduation. Some choose to return home to live with parents, in part, to get a head start paying off loans. Others go where the best career opportunity leads them. Still, others leave for their own reasons, be it tax advantages of living elsewhere or a more appealing quality of life.

In Pennsylvania, a state considered the second-oldest due to the percentage of its population that is elderly, the outlook is little different. One study reports the state lost 20,000 college graduates of 20- and 29-years-old from 1995-1997. Using U.S. Census data, the study shows the number of Pennsylvanians 20- to 34-year-olds fell 17 percent between 1990 and 2000.

The Keystone State has at least one program in place that is working to reverse the trend, however. Stay Invent the Future, a 2-year-old initiative to retain the state's young people, aims to connect students with Pennsylvania employers through an internship plan and online activities at www.StayInventPA.com. The program also has an interagency team to examine how existing agency programs and activities can support the retention of young Pennsylvanians.

One of the initiative's key components is the Stay Invent the Future Challenge Grant Program, which awards seed money for local and regional efforts to provide strategies and projects to attract and retain young people. A primary consideration to funding is how the project supports and complements the region's strategy. In the first round of grants, 92 projects totaling more than $6.1 million were awarded across 10 regions.

Youthful Planning
Where They Go and Why – intended to provide guidance in the development of Maine's future workforce and create strategies to improve marketing of Maine's colleges and universities – does offer some policy recommendations that may provide direction for states looking to reverse any "brain drain" within their borders. The study suggests the following:

Conducted jointly by the Finance Authority of Maine (FAME) and the University of Southern Maine’s Center for Education Policy, Applied Research, and Evaluation (CEPARE), Where They Go and Why is available at: http://usm.maine.edu/cepare//

The Ohio Board of Regents performance report is available at: http://www.regents.state.oh.us/perfrpt/
The Pennsylvania study, Pennsylvania's Brain Drain Migration in the Mid-1990s is available for purchase from Penn State University at: http://pasdc.hbg.psu.edu/pasdc/Products_and_Services/Publications/Issue_Papers/

Another valuable resource for strategies to retain young talent is Plugging the Brain Drain, a report released by Carnegie Mellon University's Center for Economic Development in November 2001. The report is available at: http://www.smartpolicy.org/publications.shtml

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Study Outlines Positive Impacts of Centers and Institutes In Florida
A recent study by the Council for Education Policy, Research and Improvement finds that State University System Centers and Institutes (C&Is) in Florida are cost-effective and creative settings for scientific discovery, technological innovation, policy development, teaching and instruction and public outreach activities. Public Postsecondary Centers and Institutes, a 175-page comprehensive review of C&Is in the state of Florida, also finds that the economic benefits of C&Is extend broadly throughout Florida affecting job creation, gross regional product, personal income, state taxes, and other direct financial benefits. According to the report, approximately 50 percent of all time spent by C&Is in FY 2000-01 was spent on research activities, 30 percent on instructional activities and 20 percent was devoted to service to the community and professional organizations.

By utilizing expenditure data and transforming this information into an input-output table, the council uses the REMI model to conduct an economic impact analysis of C&Is in the state of Florida. The REMI model is a dynamic, integrated input-output and econometric model used to perform economic impact studies. Specific areas of impact concern were gross regional or state product, number of jobs created, and personal income.

The results of the economic analysis indicate that C&Is contribute extensively to the economy of Florida. Some of the major findings concerning the economic impact are:

The full report, Public Postsecondary Centers and Institutes, can be downloaded at: http://www.cepri.state.fl.us/pdf/CI%20studyrevised.pdf

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People
Correction: In last week's People column, Tom Walker's new title was incorrect. Mr Walker is executive vice president and chief operating officer of the Oklahoma Technology Commercialization Center.

Richard Greene, director of the Arlington Technology Incubator and former mayor of Arlington Texas, has been appointed regional administrator of the U.S. EPA.

Doris Freedman has announced she is leaving the National Commission on Entrepreneurship effective March 31.

Colorado Governor Bill Owens has appointed Paul Ray as the state's first director of biosciences.

Peter Slate will preside as chief executive officer over the Arizona Technology Enterprises, the newly created limited liability company formed by spinning off Arizona State University's technology transfer office.

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