In the March 19, 2004 Issue:

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Competing ED Proposals in New York Share Same Goal
Although their courses of action may differ, competing proposals sponsored by the New York State Senate and Assembly would seem to have the same goal — create jobs, support small businesses, and transform the state's manufacturing sector.

Representing one side is Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno (R-Raymond), whose proposal would create the Excell-NY initiative. Bruno established the NexGen task force in December 2003 to provide recommendations for sustained job creation and economic growth, and Excell-NY resulted. The success of previous economic development programs such as JOBS 2000, Gen*NY*sis and NYSTAR led to the new initiative.

Excell-NY would cost the state $7 million in its current fiscal year and $50 million over the plan's proposed 10-year lifetime. At the core of the initiative are five regional nonprofit centers for innovation that would provide businesses with innovation capital and venture capital as well as business and technical expertise. Other components include:

Meanwhile, NY@Work - a competing proposal sponsored by Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver (D-Manhattan) - concludes that New York has trailed the nation in job growth over the last nine years. The initiative calls for $280 million in new capital investments, $250 million of which would come from the $99.8 billion Gov. George Pataki included in his 2004-05 budget proposal for other programs. Also included is $60 million in tax credits beginning in 2005-06 for supporting venture capital investment to encourage high tech business formation.

NY@Work proposes the following:

An economic policy coordination board also would be created under the New York State Assembly’s plan to improve the accountability and efficiency of the state’s economic development efforts.

More information on both proposals can be viewed at: http://www.senate.state.ny.us/ and http://www.assembly.state.ny.us.

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Kentucky, NASA Partnership Will Support Moon-Mars Initiative
Kentucky Governor Ernie Fletcher joined National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) officials earlier this month to announce a partnership in support of the Moon-Mars initiative. The agreement pairs the Kentucky Science and Technology Corp. (KSTC) with the nation's principal agency for space exploration.

The joint effort between KSTC and NASA will involve research in living systems, information systems, automation, nanotech and celestial mining. To facilitate their work, KSTC will open and manage an office at the NASA Ames Research Center in Mountain View, Calif. The office, to be funded and managed by KSTC, is intended to expand access to new talent, venture capital firms, innovative companies and universities. Kentucky's own companies, faculty and students will have access to the office.

Kentucky and NASA already participate in several joint projects through the University of Kentucky, the University of Louisville, the Remote Sensing Center at Murray State University, the NASA Space Grant Consortium and NASA EPSCoR (Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research) efforts at Western Kentucky University and the new Space Science Center at Morehead State University.

KSTC is a private, nonprofit organization dedicated to advancing science, technology and economic development in Kentucky. More information on the partnership with NASA is available at: http://www.kstc.com/?442

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NGA Guide Offers Tools to Enhance Entrepreneurial Capacity
States must develop a supportive environment for entrepreneurs to prosper in an increasingly competitive global economy, according to A Governor’s Guide to Strengthening State Entrepreneurship and Policy, a recent report from the National Governors Association’s (NGA) Center for Best Practices.

Instead of developing competitive cluster-based models, the report observes, most state economic development efforts continue to be organized around traditional business retention and incentive-based industry recruitment programs. This approach leaves entrepreneurs to “fall between the cracks” of programs designed to support less agile business models, NGA says.

More harm can be done, however, if states attempt to be the exclusive providers of support services. In order to meet the needs of entrepreneurs, NGA argues, states should instead serve as brokers for a variety of private and nonprofit services.

Five critical factors that state governments can influence are diversity in sources of capital, an enabling culture, strong local networks, supportive infrastructure and entrepreneur-friendly government. The NGA guide offers strategies and practices to help governors influence these factors. The guide also recommends that governors and state leaders:

The Governor’s Guide to Strengthening State Entrepreneurship Policy can be viewed at: http://www.nga.org/center/divisions/1,1188,T_CEN_ESS%5EC_ISSUE_BRIEF%5ED_6493,00.html

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Useful Stats I: 2001 Firm Births, Deaths by State
The latest data from the U.S. Census Bureau, partially funded by the Small Business Administration's Office of Advocacy, shows firm births, deaths, and the net change for 2001, at the national and state level. Often called business "churning," the figures reflect one measure of entrepreneurial activity within a state.

The greatest positive net change as a percentage of all establishments within the state was California's 2.5 percent increase; on the other end of the spectrum was West Virginia's 1.4 percent decrease. Nationally, there was a 0.8 percent increase in the number of establishments between 2000 and 2001.

The tables also present change in employment by firm size and state for 1999, 2000 and 2001.

A PDF version of the tables showing establishment changes by firm size and state is located at: http://www.sba.gov/advo/stats/data.html

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Lambert Review Suggests Ways for Businesses, Universities to Boost UK Economy
Although much collaborative work is underway in the United Kingdom, there is more to be done on the parts of universities, government and businesses, according to the Lambert Review of Business-University Collaboration. The conclusions and recommendations of the report span the Atlantic, offering advice of potential value for American university-industry relations.

Through research and various case studies, the review compiles the following broad recommendations for each individual sector:

Two developing trends reshaping the way companies undertake research could have positive implications for universities, the authors note. First, companies are moving away from a system in which research and development (R&D) is done in their own laboratories. Instead, they are seeking to collaborate with others in a new form of open innovation. Second, business R&D investments are being sought globally.

Identified as the greatest challenge for business-university collaboration is the need to raise the overall level of demand by businesses for research from all sources. R&D intensity within the Unitied Kingdom tops the international average in the areas of pharmaceuticals/biotechnology and aerospace/defense; however, it falls below average in all other important sectors. Building new networks among research-intensive businesses, supporting existing knowledge transfer partnerships, and directing a higher proportion of government support for business R&D to small and medium enterprises are offered as recommendations for boosting this demand.

Intellectual property (IP) and technology transfer are other areas of concern presented. The review takes specific issue with a perceived lack of clarity over the ownership of IP in research collaborations and makes the charge that universities may be setting too high a price on their IP. It is recognized that the rewards from research collaborations should reflect the relative contributions of the parties to the partnership, the authors assert. Therefore, companies should have secure rights to the IP they intend to commercialize. However, they should not constrain the university from publishing results in a timely fashion, or from doing further research in the same area.

Regarding technology transfer, the authors contend the quality of university efforts presents a barrier to commercializing university IP. The review recommends that government should use third-stream funding to encourage the development of shared services in technology transfer on a regional basis.

In the area of funding university research, the review considers the strengths and weaknesses of the current dual support system. Although it has helped raise quality and productivity of research, it has at the same time homogenized the research efforts of the entire system by driving all universities to aspire to the same benchmarks. From a business perspective, this system provides disincentives to business-university collaboration. Several options are suggested, such as getting development agencies to finance the departments that can demonstrate strong demand from business for their research activities.

The Lambert Review of Business-University Collaboration is available at: http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/consultations_and_legislation/lambert/consult_lambert_index.cfm

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DOT Plan Addresses Need for Continuing Technology, Innovation Deployment
A new report released by the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) suggests research and innovation will be key to the department’s success in fiscal year 2005.

In Fiscal Year 2004/2005 Performance Plan, DOT’s Office of Research Development and Technology (RD&T) sets forth numerous challenges and commitments, detailing 82 research initiatives for its infrastructure and safety program areas. RD&T also outlines 35 ongoing projects for its operations division. Anticipated goal impacts and target completion dates are established for all initiatives.

Within the RD&T plan are four basic challenges:

The DOT report cites the recent reworking of the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) mission statement to reflect its contribution to enhancing mobility. The statement underscores the agency’s commitment to organizationally “raise the bar” on technology and innovation deployment.

To expand effectiveness and efficiency and to create a new role for itself, FHWA also developed an agency-wide plan for research and technology. The agency’s plan outlines a strategy for investing in and conducting cooperative research with partners and stakeholders and includes 26 agency commitments through a performance report.

The Performance Plan is available at: http://www.tfhrc.gov/about/03085/index.htm

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Useful Stats II: TA Releases 50-State S&T Indicators
The Technology Administration (TA) has released the fourth edition of its guide of state science and technology (S&T) indicators. The Dynamics of Technology-based Economic Development provides an updated collection of data on the technology infrastructure of states, such as high school and advanced degree graduation levels, R&D investment and the numbers of patents issued. All 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico are included in the report.

For the first time, Dynamics contains a new section showing data changes for periods up to 10 years, which TA hopes will help state and regional efforts to track trends in state performance and the impact of policy decisions. Thirty-eight metrics are included; 25 measure inputs and 13 measure outputs or performance.

The PDF version of Dynamics of Technology-based Economic Development is available at: http://www.technology.gov/p_Reports.htm

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Useful Stats III: DHS SBIR Phase I Awards, Proposals by State
On Feb. 12, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced the first round of Phase I awards under the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program competition. Administered by the Homeland Security Advanced Research Project Agency (HSARPA), the DHS SBIR 2004.1 solicitation selection process took only three months — quick by most SBIR standards. HSARPA selected 66 winning projects across 23 states from 368 proposals. Each awardee will receive a maximum of $100,000 to complete a six-month feasibility or proof-of-concept study.

Jonetta Fantroy, a management analyst with HSARPA, provided SSTI statistics for the distribution by state for the proposals received and awards made. The table is available at: http://www.ssti.org/Digest/Tables/031904t.htm

A list of DHS's first class of SBIR Phase I recipients, including their proposal titles, is available at:  http://www.dhs.gov/interweb/assetlibrary/HSARPA_SBIR_Firms_Selected_Negotiation_021104.pdf

The DHS HSARPA SBIR 2004.2 solicitation is anticipated for release on or about May 1, 2004. More information will be available at: http://www.hsarpasbir.com/

The report is available at: http://www.senate.state.ny.us

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Digest Makes Change
For just over eight years, the SSTI Weekly Digest has come to you every Friday...first it was by fax, then by e-mail.  Starting with this issue, the Digest makes a change and will be distributed each Monday.  We believe this change will help you get your week started right...and will give the SSTI staff something to do on the weekend.

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