In the May 30, 2005 Issue:

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Connecticut Commits $100M for Stem Cells
Massachusetts Overrides Gov's Stem Cell Veto

Yesterday proved a big day for supporters of stem cell research as measures advanced in both Connecticut and Massachusetts. The Massachusetts law described in the May 16 issue of the Digest became law immediately after the state Senate voted 35-2 and the House voted 112-42 to override Gov. Mitt Romney's veto. In Connecticut, the House voted 113-27 to pass Senate Bill 934, leaving the measure to Gov Jodi Rell for her signature.

While the Massachusetts battle was fairly partisan between the Republican governor and the Democratic controlled legislature, the story in neighboring Connecticut suggests the conflict over embryonic stem cell research is more ideological than partisan.

Connecticut Gov Rell, a Republican, included a request of $20 million over two years for stem cell research in her 2006 budget request. The state Senate, controlled by Democrats, agreed with the proposal but extended the commitment to $10 million per year for ten years. The $100 million proposal endorses and funds embryonic and adult stem cell research. A new advisory board and peer review council would administer the grants.

Gov. Rell's endorsement and support of Democratic leadership in both legislative chambers for the proposal throughout this legislative session may have been the critical difference needed for passage. A similar bill passed the Senate overwhelmingly last year but failed in the House by four votes.

More information on S.B. 934 is available at: http://www.cga.ct.gov/

For more information on Massachusetts Senate Bill 2039, visit: http://www.mass.gov/legis/bills/senate/st02/st02039.htm

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SACI Misses First Cut on House Budget
The Administration's proposal to replace 18 federal programs targeting different elements of community and economic development with a single, smaller program called the Strengthening America's Communities Initiative (SACI) received another blow last week (see the Feb. 14 issue of the Digest for more information on SACI). The House Appropriations subcommittee markup of the appropriations bill for Science, Departments of State, Justice, and Commerce, and related Agencies excluded the President's request of $3.7 billion for SACI from the Commerce section of the bill.

The highlights of the markup released by the House Appropriations Committee on the topic could be interpreted many ways: summarily squashing the issue for the budget year, merely a matter of procedure, or cryptically open-ended. "The [Administration's] budget request assumed enactment of a legislative proposal transferring several economic development programs to the Department of Commerce. The relevant authorizing committees have taken no action to date on this proposal."

The SACI Secretarial Advisory Committee will hold its third and final public hearing on the SACI concept this Thursday in Clearwater, Fla. One hour of the four-hour hearing will be available for public comments; the balance will be dedicated to special presentations and discussion of preliminary recommendations and findings. According to a May 31 announcement, the advisory committee will use the deliberations from the meeting "to produce a report of recommendations and advice for the Secretary of Commerce on the implementation of the President’s Strengthening America’s Communities Initiative later this year."

Opposition to SACI was quite strong at Congressional hearings in March (see the March 21 issue of the Digest), but the hearing announcement states, "Support among economic and community development thought leaders and practitioners and public officials continues to grow as more is learned about the problems with the current federal system and about the direction of the Initiative to solve these problems and help America’s communities transition to a 21st century economy."

SSTI will report on the proposed direction of the Initiative as it becomes publicly available. Advisory Committee meeting agendas, transcripts and presentations, and background information on the initiative are available at http://www.doc.gov/SACI.

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NY S&T Office to Become Public Foundation
New York's lead agency for promoting tech-based economic development (TBED) in the state soon will have a new name, if not a complete makeover. Under enacted budget legislation, the New York Office of Science, Technology and Academic Research (NYSTAR) will become the New York State Foundation for Science, Technology and Innovation by Jan. 1, 2006.

Assembly Bill 6843, the state's 2006 budget, provides $250 million for the new public authority "to fulfill the public purposes of furthering job creation and economic growth and advances in the fields of science, technology and innovation and to facilitate the commercialization of scientific and other innovations in New York State." A 13-member board comprised of public and private representatives will oversee the foundation, directing all existing NYSTAR programs, a new regional partnership program, and two new funds.

An additional $90 million in capital appropriations is included in the budget for the regional partnership program. The foundation will be responsible for selecting 10 partnerships - one for each of New York's 10 regions - through an application process. Participants will be required to submit a strategic plan within 90 days of certification, which will run for five years, beginning March 31, 2006.

Both of the new funds to be managed by the foundation will provide grants, loans and equity investments through the partnership program. Eligible fund uses for the Capital Investments Innovation Fund include infrastructure, site acquisition, building demolition, construction and equipment purchases. The Foundation Fund includes a portfolio of programs to provide financial assistance to technology companies for commercialization activities, advanced telecommunications services, energy efficiency or pollution prevention projects, and other purposes.

The legislation also creates a program to support development of specialized curricula for New York's SUNY and CUNY community colleges. The program is meant to help the two colleges keep pace with high tech industry clusters in the region and other academic research institutions.

The foundation's first annual report is due Feb. 1, 2006. To view the full text of A. 6843 and other budget backgrounders, visit: http://www.budget.state.ny.us/pubs/enacted/enacted.html

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Louisiana Business & Technology Center Awarded for Sustained Success
Louisiana State University's Business and Technology Center (LBTC) recently received the National Business Incubation Association's (NBIA) 2005 Randall M. Whaley Incubator of the Year award, recognizing overall excellence in business incubation programs. The award is NBIA's most prestigious honor, presented as a tribute to NBIA's first chairman.

As a measure of LBTC's success, an economic analysis released this month by the Louisiana Technology Park reveals steady progress in the local economy and start-up companies in the Baton Rouge area. LBTC is the innovating hub for the Louisiana Technology Park, which will help create an additional 443 new jobs in 2005. The total is up from 272 jobs projected in 2004, according to the analysis.

LSU Economics Professor James Richardson, who conducted the analysis, said the jump in numbers is directly related to the nearly 50 percent increase in incubator tenants at LBTC. The park's comprehensive business accelerator grows early-stage companies in the Internet and high-tech sectors. Services include low rent for tenants, access to high-volume data storage, shared office services and utilities, access to venture capital, direct Internet connectivity, and access to mentors within various professions.

In addition, LBTC counsels approximately 350 outreach clients from the Baton Rouge area and operates the Louisiana Technology Transfer Office to foster business relationships with federal laboratories. LBTC-assisted businesses created nearly 9,000 jobs in the state since 1988 and, in 2004 alone, the incubator's 25 client companies had a combined payroll of more than $3 million and combined sales of over $6 million, according to LSU.

More information on LBTC is available at: http://www.bus.lsu.edu/lbtc/. The economic analysis, Louisiana Technology Park 3 Year Review, is available at: http://www.latechpark.com/

To view the full list of NBIA's 2005 and past award winners, visit: http://www.nbia.org/awards_showcase/index.php

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U.S. Leads World in Nanotech - For Now
The U.S. is currently the global leader in nanotechnology R&D, number of nanotechnology start-up companies, and research output as measured by patents and publications. However, that role is under increasing competitive pressure from other nations, according to an assessment of the multi-agency National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI), which organizes federal nanotechnology research.

The NNI report defines nanotech as "encompassing the science, engineering, and technology related to the understanding and control of matter at the length scale of approximately 1 to 100 nanometeres." Nanotech touches upon a broad array of disciplines including chemistry, biology, physics, computational science and engineering and holds tremendous potential for stimulating innovation, the report adds.

Under the 21st Century Nanotechnology Research and Development Act of 2003, President Bush designated the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) as the National Nanotechnology Advisory Panel (NNAP). The panel is charged with assessing the NNI every two years and making recommendations to improve the program. As the first of these assessments, the report focuses on the question of U.S. competitiveness, specifically comparing the U.S. to the European Union, Japan and a broad group of countries identified as "others."

NNAP identified four questions it believes are the primary concerns of the President, Congress and the public:

Findings indicate that the approximately $1 billion the federal government will spend on nanotechnology R&D this fiscal year is roughly one-quarter of the current global investment by all nations. Total U.S. R&D spending including federal, state and private investments stands at about $3 billion, the report indicates, or one-third of the estimated $9 billion in total worldwide spending by public and private sectors combined.

However, the report also warns that investments in nanotechnology funding from other nations has sharply increased since 2000, while the U.S. federal budget for R&D has begun to level. In fact, President Bush's fiscal year 2006 request for the NNI decreased by 2 percent (see the Feb. 14 issue of the Digest).

Recommendations to improve the program and remain the global leader include further facilitating technology transfer through increased federal-state coordination and improving knowledge management and access to NNI assets. The report also stresses that a knowledgeable workforce is essential to realizing the benefits of nanotechnology. To improve and develop education and training systems, NNAP recommends establishing relationships with the Departments of Education and Labor.

The report is based on input from a technical advisory group consisting of nanotechnology experts within government, industry and academia. PCAST also convened panels of experts and met with members of the Nanoscale Science Engineering and Technology Subcommittee of the National Science and Technology Council to discuss NNI R&D programs.

The full report, The National Nanotechnology Initiative at Five Years: Assessment and Recommendations of the National Nanotechnology Advisory Panel, is available from PCAST at: http://www.ostp.gov/PCAST/pcast.html

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States Commit to Worker Training Programs for Economic Growth
Recognizing the benefits of a skilled workforce to match the new manufacturing and high-tech jobs of the 21st Century, states are turning to worker training and retraining programs in order to remain economically competitive. During the past month, Tennessee, Nebraska and Connecticut committed a combined total of $37 million for worker training initiatives.

The Tennessee legislature approved Gov. Phil Bredesen's 2005 jobs package, which includes $20 million to expand job training across the state and develop a statewide broadband strategy. House Bill 2287 establishes the FastTrack infrastructure development and job training assistance fund within the Department of Economic and Community Development. Funds will be used for infrastructure development and job training assistance grants and loans.

Lawmakers in Nebraska agreed to authorize $15 million from the rainy day fund to provide job training under the Nebraska Customized Job Training Advantage. Gov. Dave Heineman referred to the initiative as a "vital recruitment tool" for broader job creation in the state. The initiative is meant to provide a flexible, discretionary custom job-training program to help ensure the workforce is prepared for advances in rapidly changing industries.

In a more technologically targeted initiative to strengthen Connecticut's aerospace and defense industry supplier base, Gov. Jodi Rell announced a $2 million, two-year program that will use "lean manufacturing," a process that analyzes the flow of information and materials to boost productivity and efficiency. The Department of Economic and Community Development will manage the initiative, which aims to help create jobs for the state's small- and medium-sized suppliers. Manufacturing accounts for 15 percent of the state's economic output and this investment can pay dividends for years to come, Gov. Rell said. State funding will partially reimburse the approximately 200 companies expected to participate for training expenses.

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Ship Out to Shape Up: Pakistan Sending 15,000 Students Abroad
While many regions, states and countries are lamenting a drain of talent from their area, the Pakistan Higher Education Commission is taking an opposite strategy to strengthen the nation's science and research capacity: sending up to 15,000 of its brightest students to study selected disciplines abroad through its Foreign Ph.D. Scholarship Program.

Students may choose from selected programs in science, engineering and technology at universities in Austria, China, France, Germany, Netherlands or Sweden. In return, scholarship recipients must commit to serve in Pakistan for a minimum of five years after completion of study, preferably in an institution of higher education.

To make the offer even more attractive for young scholars, the Pakistan national government increased spending on research, science and technology by 6,000 percent in recent years and now offers several research grant programs through the Higher Education Commission to support young researchers, new faculty and university-industry research.

More information on Pakistan's strategy to become a more competitive player in the knowledge economy is available at: http://www.hec.gov.pk

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China's Goal: Quadruple GDP by 2020
In the opening ceremony of the 2005 FORTUNE Global Forum, held in Beijing on May 16, Chinese President Hu Jintao broadly outlined the course his country is taking to reach a goal of quadrupling its 2000 Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by the year 2020. Science, technology and innovation figure prominently in the strategy.

President Hu discussed the recent historical rise in the nation's economic performance, saying, "In a short span of 26 years from 1978 to 2004, China's GDP increased from $147.3 billion to $1.6494 trillion with an average annual growth rate of 9.4 percent. Its foreign trade rose from $20.6 billion to $1.1548 trillion, averaging an annual growth rate of over 16 percent. China's foreign exchange reserve increased from 167m to 609.9bn." (Note: All amounts are in U.S. Dollars.)

Quadrupling China's GDP by 2020 would result in a per capita income level of only, $3,000 for its current 1.3 billion citizens. "We are deeply aware that China, for a considerably long period of time to come, will remain a developing country," President Hu said.

The sheer size of the Chinese market and availability of inexpensive labor have not gone unnoticed by the world's corporate leaders. President Hu states, "By the end of 2004, China had attracted a total of US$562.1 billion in foreign direct investment, approved the establishment in China of more than 500,000 foreign-funded enterprises and created a huge import market of some US$560 billion annually. At present, most countries and regions have had enterprises with investment in China, and over 400 firms out of the Fortune 500 have invested in China. The number of R&D centers set up by foreign investors in China has exceeded 700."

Can China reach its GDP goal before 2020? If it is any indication they will try, Yu Yongding, who heads the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences' Institute of World Economics and Politics, projects the nation will be able to maintain an annual growth rate exceeding 8 percent for the next decade without overheating.

President Hu's full speech is available at: http://china.org.cn/english/2005/May/128956.htm

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