In the November 22, 2004 Issue:

Copyright State Science & Technology Institute 2004. 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.

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Congress Gives MEP $109M for FY 2005
The omnibus appropriations bill approved by Congress over the weekend provides $109 million in fiscal year 2005 funds to the Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) program, according to the American Small Manufacturers Coalition (ASMC). Of the total, $3 million is directed to help small and rural states advance outreach to manufacturers, ASMC states in its most recent legislative update.

MEP, a state-federal partnership under the Commerce Department's National Institute of Standards and Technology, provides technical assistance, support services, engineering services, and business advice to small manufacturers. The legislation also renames the initiative the Hollings Manufacturing Extension Partnership Program in honor of Senator Fritz Hollings, the South Carolina legislator who first sponsored MEP and is retiring after 38 years. The more than 300 centers in the MEP network also are renamed the Hollings Manufacturing Extension Centers.

In addition, the conference report for the bill also prohibits the Secretary of Commerce from recompeting any center prior to 2007, ASMC says. After an across-the-board 0.83 percent cut, MEP’s actual receipts for FY 2005 will be $108,095,300. The omnibus appropriations bill still awaits the House’s final approval of a minor tax provision, which is expected to happen soon.

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Wisconsin Responds to California Stem Cell Commitment
Just as SSTI and other post-election analysts predicted, California’s recent passage of a $3 billion commitment to stem cell research is triggering responses from across the country. Wisconsin is the first to outline a specific, strategic reaction to the California referendum in an effort to retain or regain momentum in the race to encourage bio-based economic growth.

Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle announced last week his plans to invest nearly $750 million in state funds to support biotechnology, health sciences and stem cell research. According to Gov. Doyle, the two states are not in competition; rather, he suspects there will be a synergy between them.

"Wisconsin can’t match California dollar for dollar, but California can’t match what Wisconsin already has - including the best scientists in the world and first class research institutions," Gov. Doyle said.

The Wisconsin strategy re-emphasizes several elements of the “Grow Wisconsin” plan (see the Sept. 19, 2003 issue of the Digest) and legislation passed last year to increase venture capital investments. Key, new elements include:

In addition, Gov. Doyle is directing the state Department of Commerce to draw upon legislation signed earlier this year leveraging more than $250 million in venture capital to be made available to companies emerging from new research efforts, including those made at the state's Institute of Discovery. The Commerce Department also will be asked to qualify the emerging companies for angel tax credit and seed-stage VC tax credits.

More information regarding the initiative is available from the governor’s office website: http://www.wisgov.state.wi.us/index.asp

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West Virginia Accelerates Health Sciences Research Plan
West Virginia University’s plan to develop strong research capabilities in a number of focused areas, creating hundreds of new jobs, may be completed in half the time originally anticipated. Gov. Bob Wise announced last week a $24.4 million funding package to jump-start the implementation of new research facilities and laboratories on the WVU campus.

In addition to building new research infrastructure, funds will allow the university to attract and recruit top researchers, leading to increased federal and private sector funding, said Robert D’Alessandri, vice president of health sciences.

The plan includes a new laboratory at the Mary Babb Randolph Cancer Center, new neuroscience laboratories, and research space at the new Health Sciences Library. Originally scheduled for completion in 12 years, officials are now hoping the up-front financing will enable them to complete most of the facilities within the next 6-8 years. Specialized research will be focused in the areas of health and biosciences, including neurosciences, cancer and heart disease.

According to the governor’s office, up to 850 new research-related jobs could result from the expansion plan. Another 500 jobs are anticipated in the north central region of West Virginia, due to indirect effects on the economy.

The Infrastructure and Jobs Development Council and the Economic Development Authority both contributed $9 million to the funding package; the West Virginia Housing Development Fund contributed $6 million. According to the governor’s office, up to $3 million of the Infrastructure’s allocation will be forgiven if WVU meets its minimum job creation target of 600 new positions by the end of the decade.

An overview of WVU’s health sciences research objectives is available at: http://www.hsc.wvu.edu/som/resoff/grants_research/grants_research_main.asp

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Report Could Have Implications for Connecticut Job Growth, Education
Gov. Jodi Rell recently announced the results of a study of the strengths and weaknesses of Connecticut’s infrastructure for innovation, technology transfer and development of new businesses. A report prepared for the Connecticut Technology Transfer and Commercialization Advisory Board of the governor's Competitiveness Council presents the results.

The report examines successful university-based technology transfer and commercialization initiatives in the U.S. and at the University of Cambridge in England. It notes five factors that could help states position their universities as centers of innovation and business growth: strong academic leadership and research capabilities, availability of early-stage capital, commitment to and support of entrepreneurship programs, and the existence of infrastructure such as innovation centers, incubators and research parks.

While Connecticut is home to renowned universities such as Yale University and the University of Connecticut and ranks high in patents generated, the report finds, the state has a relative lack of early-stage capital and incubation space and comparatively weak infrastructure, entrepreneurial activity and corporate involvement with universities.

Several steps are recommended for improving technology transfer and research efforts in Connecticut's major universities, increasing the level of start-ups and entrepreneurship in the state, and building the innovation infrastructure, including:

In response to the report, Gov. Rell has directed the advisory board to develop an action plan by Dec. 15 that will include legislative proposals to be considered in the upcoming legislative session. The governor’s Competitiveness Council, which oversees all cluster-based economic development efforts in Connecticut, created the advisory board in November 2003 to examine and evaluate technology transfer and commercialization processes.

The report is available at: http://www.youbelonginct.com/pupload/techtransreportweb.pdf

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Want more Entrepreneurship from the Ivory Towers? Try a Culture Change
Study Suggests Cultural Changes in Universities Could Be Key to Promoting Greater Tech Transfer

Despite legislation, policies and financial incentives, universities still struggle to motivate professors to participate in technology transfer. A few well placed individuals engaged in entrepreneurship could create a culture encouraging others to be involved in technology transfer activities, according to a new study by Janet Bercovitz of Duke University and Maryann Feldman of University of Toronto presented at the Minnesota Cluster-Entrepreneurship Conference in September 2004.

In Academic Entrepreneurs: Social Learning and Participation in University Technology Transfer, the authors review those factors influencing individual researchers in their decision to file invention disclosures – the first step in the commercialization process. The study draws its conclusions from qualitative interviews and quantitative analysis from departments within two university medical schools.

Bercovitz and Feldman found empirical support for the following organizational factors:

The authors also singled out researchers who only recently filed inventions to determine what influenced their change in behavior. They quantitatively determined leadership (activity of the department chair) and peer engagement are the main incentives for these individuals. However, the influences only impact individuals within a department leading to entrepreneurial pockets at the medical schools unrelated to departmental specialty.

The study does  not rule out that universities hired or new employees chose positions at departments with similar attitudes to technology transfer. In fact, Bercovitz and Feldman suggest both selection and social culture influence an individual’s choice to participate in technology transfer.

Although leadership played a key role, the authors find, it was not imperative that the department chairs engage in technology transfer to foster an entrepreneurial culture. Bercovitz and Feldman propose the placement of a few individuals might facilitate others to embrace entrepreneurial activities.

Academic Entrepreneurs: Social Learning and Participation in University Technology Transfer is available at:
http://www.hhh.umn.edu/centers/slp/clusters_entrepreneurship/bercovitz_academic_entrepreneurs.pdf

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Texas STEM Program Finds Improved S&E Attitudes, Perceptions
Many minority population groups are historically underrepresented in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields. This is particularly true of the country's Latino population, one of the fastest growing segments of the U.S workforce. As a result, several state and regional tech-based economic development programs are looking for ways to broaden participation in STEM fields. A recent evaluation of a Texas program finds encouraging results, perhaps suggesting a model for others to replicate.

Students who attend the Hispanic Engineering Science and Technology Week (HESTEC) have a greater interest in pursuing science and engineering careers, a better perception of the engineering field, and more positive attitudes about graduating high school and enrolling in college than those who do not attend, according to a study from the Center for Border Economic Studies (CBEST) at the University of Texas-Pan American.

To better understand the factors that shape students’ attitudes in science and engineering and to determine the impact of HESTEC, a three-part survey was conducted both before and after the event. CBEST researcher Suad Ghaddar collected responses from 322 students in a series of closed and open-ended questions. Respondents also reported their gender, grade level, enrollment in advanced placement (AP) courses, and parents’ education level.

Survey results reveal that students enrolled in AP courses had more favorable attitudes toward science and engineering, and those students who attended HESTEC in 2002 had more leisure and career interests in science than those who did not attend.

Three issues consistently are reported as major factors behind the under representation of minorities in this field, the study shows. Based on research investigating minority participation, the issues include:

The week-long event, now in its third year, is open to middle and high school students. More information about HESTEC is available at http://www.hestec.org.

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Florida Lands Seven of Top 15 Cities in Milken Index
Led by the Fort Myers-Cape Coral metro area, a burgeoning retirement and tourist destination on the state’s southwest coast, Florida landed seven of the top 15 metros in Milken Institute’s 2004 Best Performing Cities Index released last week. The others are West Palm Beach-Boca Raton (4th), Daytona Beach (5th), Sarasota-Bradenton (6th), Fort Lauderdale (9th), Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater (12th) and Naples (15th).

The Milken index ranks the 200 largest U.S. metropolitan areas based on their ability to create and sustain jobs. It includes four measurements of technology output growth and one- and five-year measurements of employment and salary growth (see "Useful Stats" story below).

In past years, technology-oriented metros dominated the top of the ranking. In 2003, however, after the decline of America’s high-tech sector, the top-ranked cities were those with low costs, growing elderly populations, and reliable and stable sectors such as health care and government. Florida's dominance of the top end of the results suggests this year’s also ranking reflects some of that. Other metros also benefited from these trends, the Index states, including Las Vegas (2nd) and Riverside-San Bernardino, Calif. (8th).

Another trend, the increase in defense spending since 9/11, benefited cities with significant defense industries and military bases. Metros such as Phoenix-Mesa, Ariz. (3rd), Portland, Maine (14th), and Tucson (17th) were among those that did well.

Others in the top 10 include Fayetteville-Springdale-Rogers, Ark. (7th) and Monmouth-Ocean, N.J. (10).

The Institute also ranks the 118 smallest metros separately. Missoula, Mont., Las Cruces, N.M., Santa Fe, N.M., Dover, Del., and Casper, Wyo., are the top five cities, respectively.

The Milken report is available for download at: http://www.milkeninstitute.org/pdf/best_performing_cities_2004.pdf

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Useful Stats: 2003 High Tech GDP Location Quotient
Using data from its 2004 Best Performing Cities Index, Milken has generated a comprehensive table ranking cities by one- and five-year measurements of job growth, wages and salaries, and relative high tech gross domestic product (GDP) growth, and other measurements.

SSTI would like to draw readers' attention to one of those other measurements, Milken's high-tech GDP location quotient (LQ), which may be of some value to the tech-based economic development community. LQ is defined as a measure of high-tech concentration, with the U.S. given a value of 1.0. For the Milken study, metro areas having an LQ higher than 1.0 are said to be more concentrated in high tech sectors than the U.S.

Based on 2003 data, 54 of Milken's 200 largest cities are at or above 1.0. At the heart of Silicon Valley, the San Jose, Calif., metro area continues to rank first with a value of 3.48, followed by Boulder-Longmont, Colo. (2nd), Albuquerque (3rd), Boise, Idaho (4th) and Portland-Vancouver (5th).

Each of the 10 measures presented in Milken's table, as well as overall rankings, are fully sortable for the 200 largest metro areas and 118 smallest ones. They are available at http://bestcities.milkeninstitute.org/.

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People
While federal law and our own moral ethics prevent us from putting her to work in the near future, SSTI is excited to welcome Madelynn Elizabeth Carr to the world as the newest member of the SSTI team. Ms. Carr was born to SSTI Executive Assistant Ruth Carr and her husband, Larry, on Wednesday, Nov. 17.

The National Technology Transfer Center named James Goulka as its new CEO. Goulka formerly was president and CEO of the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation in Scottsdale, AZ.

Ken Marcus is the new director of the University of Arizona Science and Technology Park.

John Nauseef has been appointed CEO of Dayton Development Coalition, filling the position to be vacated by Ron White when he resigns at the end of the year.

Montana Gov.-elect Brian Schweitzer tapped Tony Preite to serve as director of the state Department of Commerce. Priete is currently director of the office of commercialization and economic development outreach at the University of Montana and is a former regional director for the Colorado office of the Economic Development Administration.

Indiana Gov.-elect Mitch Daniels has named Chuck Schalliol as his budget director. Schalliol had been on loan from Eli Lilly and Co. since April to serve as president and CEO of Central Indiana's BioCrossroads.

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