In the September 12, 2007 Issue:

Copyright State Science & Technology Institute 2007. 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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Seven States Share $92M from National Math and Science Initiative
Nonprofit entities in Alabama, Arkansas, Connecticut, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Virginia, and Washington will receive $13.2 million over six years for training and incentive programs for Advanced Placement (AP) and Pre-Advanced Placement Programs. The grants will be used for extensive training of teachers, identification of lead teachers, additional "time on task" for students, and financial incentives based on academic results.

The funding is coming from the National Math and Science Initiative (NMSI), which was launched in March 2007 in response to the National Academies Rising Above the Gathering Storm report that calls for improving American students' performance in math and science to increase global competitiveness.

In addition to the AP grants, NMSI is expected to award funds to up to 10 universities for UTeach programs, which encourage math and science majors to pursue teaching credentials during their undergraduate course study.

Among NMSI's funders are Exxon Mobil Corporation, with a $125 million contribution, and the Michael and Susan Dell Foundation and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

More information on NMSI is available at: http://www.nationalmathandscience.org

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Colorado Project Assembles Suite of Space-Tech Business Services
While dozens of states have instituted clean-tech strategies in order to cash in on the high-tech wave of the future, some are looking even further ahead. In several western states, private space travel and companies are drawing the attention of political leaders, researchers and investors eager to pioneer an industry that may still be many years away from creating dividends. California has long been involved in promoting space technology companies through the California Space Authority, which offers workforce training and business support opportunities. In New Mexico, Virgin Galactic plans to begin construction on Spaceport America next year with $67 million in state funds once the project is approved by the Federal Aviation Administration (see the Dec. 19, 2005 issue of the Digest).
 
Colorado also has entered the arena with the launch of the Eighth Continent Project, hosted at the Colorado School of Mines Center for Space Resources. The project has assembled an array of services, including a trade association, a planned incubator and venture fund, and a collaborative research program for private space enterprises. Project Director Burke Forke believes the program will help position Colorado as a leader in 'Space 2.0' in which the industry will be dominated by venture-backed entrepreneurs instead of large government projects.
 
The Eighth Continent Project differs from other state and university initiatives because of its focus on the private space flight industry and its commercialization services. The nation's 52 space grant consortia, based at universities around the country and administered by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, promote space research and education, but few of these offer services tailored to the needs of space entrepreneurs. The project will offer workshops and conferences for researchers and entrepreneurs and will launch a venture fund next year, along with its space-tech incubator and a workforce development program.
 
Partners in the program include Colorado's CTEK, the Governor's Office of Economic Development, the Colorado School of Mines, the University of Colorado Leeds School of Business Deming Center, the Keirestu Forum, and several existing space businesses.

Find out more about the Eighth Continent Project at: http://www.8cproject.com

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Collection of National Laboratories Sign Intellectual Property Bundling Agreement
One of the many challenges for tech-based economic development organizations and private firms is to access and take advantage of the wealth of knowledge produced throughout the nation’s federal laboratory system. With the hope of making their intellectual property more accessible for commercialization, four research facilities within the Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) recently signed a cooperative agreement to pool together their patents.
 
The Innovation Bundling Initiative aligns the intellectual property of Los Alamos National Laboratory, Sandia National Laboratory, the Nevada Test Site, and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Under the initiative, patents originating from these facilities will be sorted into groups by subject matter and similarity of technologies, which can then be marketed in this organized manner to the private sector. Additionally, the bundling will enable collaborators to negotiate with a single entity for patent access, as opposed to dealing with the individual facilities that own each particular patent.
 
The initiative was jointly developed by the Technology Ventures Corporation, which, since 2002, has been under contract with NNSA to assist with the commercialization of technology. It serves as an example of recent strides to improve the transfer of intellectual property of national laboratories. A press release further explaining the advantages of the bundling agreement can be found at: http://www.techventures.org/news/index.php?releaseID=078
 
Learn More About State & Local Partnerships with Federal Laboratories . . .
TBED Success through Partnership with Federal Laboratories will be one of the timely breakout sessions at SSTI’s 11th Annual Conference in Baltimore, Oct. 18-19. During this session, we’ll discuss state-led models encouraging collaboration between research universities, businesses and national laboratories. Participants will learn how these initiatives are yielding strong regional economic benefits by leveraging indigenous technical clusters of innovation.
 
The discussions will include contributions by:

More information on the conference is available at: http://www.ssticonference.org/

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Baltimore: Shifting from an Industrial Region to a Creative Region
What factors will enable regions with a historical strong industrial heritage to become attractive to creative individuals? According to Richard Florida in his 2002 book, The Rise of the Creative Class, creative people are most drawn to places that have an abundance of existing creative talent, a tolerance for diversity, and the ability to produce technology. Florida uses various measures to quantify a region’s talent, tolerance and technology - also known as the 3Ts - and combines them to produce a creativity index that allows comparison between locations.
 
Using this framework, Zoltan Acs from George Mason University and Monika Megyesi from the University of Baltimore compare the metro Baltimore region to seven other similar regions with a strong industrial heritage. In Creativity and Industrial Cities: A Case Study of Baltimore, the authors rank the Baltimore metropolitan statistical area first among Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit, Milwaukee, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and St. Louis in an overall creativity index. Of all metropolitan areas in the U.S. with populations greater than one million, Baltimore placed 17th with its creative index score, and the authors claim Baltimore is “the first industrial city to begin a turnaround.”
 
Further comparing these industrial peer regions, Baltimore was found to have the highest value on an index measuring the talent or the perceived creative component of the workforce. This was calculated by using data on demographic, educational, and occupational characteristics. Baltimore was found to be second highest among these peers, behind Chicago, in a tolerance index based on measures of a region’s openness to diversity and the extent a region stimulates the development of artists, musicians and other performers. Finally, Baltimore was ranked fifth among the eight regions in an index based on technology development.
 
Each of the component “Ts” that feed into their creativity index is integral to attracting people, none of which the authors claim are sufficient to produce economic growth by itself. They contend the interdependence of these factors explain why other places in the country are not growing despite having a skilled workforce and world-class universities. If a region is not tolerant enough, they will not be able to attract and retain creative talent.
 
While Baltimore performs well using these indices when compared to the selected peer regions, its strength and potential may come from its proximity to Washington, D.C. Using larger geographical boundaries to represent mega-regions, the authors find the combined Washington-Baltimore area outranks the New York-New Jersey-Long Island, the Los Angeles-Riverside-Orange County, and the Chicago-Gary-Kenosha areas (the country’s three most populous) in their overall creativity index.
 
Creativity and Industrial Cities: A Case Study of Baltimore is available at:
http://ideas.repec.org/p/jrp/jrpwrp/2007-024.html
 
Baltimore will be the site of SSTI’s upcoming annual conference, Transforming Regional Economies, set to take place in the Inner Harbor Oct. 18-19. Filled with charming neighborhoods and exciting things to experience, Baltimore is Maryland’s largest city and its cultural capital. Maryland is home to the nationally ranked research universities, Johns Hopkins University and the University of Maryland, the nation’s highest cluster of federal R&D laboratories, and a thriving private technology sector of both IT and bioscience companies.
 
Maryland also is home to a complex network of successful state, academic and regional TBED organizations, many of which will be profiled during SSTI’s annual conference. More information is available at: http://www.ssticonference.org/

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Canada Considers Privatizing Management of Some Federal Labs
Canada’s Treasury Board recently announced the creation of an independent panel of experts to provide advice on transferring management of federal non-regulatory laboratories into private or other non-government hands. The four individuals comprising the panel, each with extensive experience and leadership in Canada's science and technology community, will consider different management options for the Canadian systems of federal research labs.

Many of the largest nonregulatory and non-life science-related federal laboratories in the U.S. are managed by private companies through competitive selection processes. Others are co-located and run by academic institutions. The panel may consider privatization or quasi-privatization of life science-related labs that, in the case of the National Institutes of Health and U.S. Department of Agriculture, remain government-operated.

The Canadian panel will focus on four key objectives:

On a short timeline, the panel will report back to the president of the Treasury Board in a few months, including recommendations identifying up to five federal nonregulatory laboratories that could be considered candidates for early transfer.

More information is available at: http://www.tbs-sct.gc.ca/media/nr-cp/2007/0813_e.asp

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Research Park RoundUp
Over the past few months, several new research park announcements have been made, including a $2.5 billion public-private investment in Kentucky. Gov. Ernie Fletcher last month announced plans for the expansion of the Louisville Health Sciences Campus. The project will encompass the 30-block radius that houses the Louisville health sciences campus. A current U of L parking lot, known as the Haymarket property, will be converted into a 700,000-square-foot state-of-the-art laboratory and office space.
 
The project is being financed through a proposed tax increment finance (TIF) in which a portion of the tax revenue generated by the 20-year capital investment – about $300 million – is captured for reinvestment in the development. The TIF increment is expected to be enough to complete construction of the research park and many components of the U of L Health Sciences Master Plan, according to the governor’s office. Officials hope to begin initial investment and construction soon after the anticipated approval by the state’s TIF Commission.
 
New Mexico State University’s (NMSU) Arrowhead Center recently struck a deal with a private company to begin construction on the research park announced in January. Development on the first 11 acres of land will be completed in two phases with up to seven buildings and 120,000-square-feet of office and laboratory space for businesses that partner with NMSU. The research park is a public-private partnership, and the development company has agreed to donate 5 percent of the net proceeds of the development of the NMSU College of Business for an entrepreneurship program.
 
The Purdue Research Foundation announced the creation of a new technology park to help high-tech entrepreneurs create new businesses and promote the expansion of existing companies. The new Purdue Accelerator Park is the fourth technology park owned and operated by the Purdue Research Foundation and will accommodate up to 75 businesses and create 1,500 jobs with an average annual salary of $54,000, according to Purdue University. The accelerator park will include a 100,000-square-foot industrial flex building and a 50,000-square-foot multi-story office building.
 
Last month, the Economic Development Administration awarded a $100,000 grant to the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs to fund the Research Park business plan. The grant will supply a portion of the funds needed to create a research park targeting and promoting new industries to meet the need for new jobs.
 
A new life science based campus is scheduled to open this month in Worcester, Mass. Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) and Worcester Business Development Corporation will open an 11-acre mixed use complex called Gateway Park to serve as a stimulus for economic development and a catalyst for life science cluster expansion in the region and throughout the state, according to WPI. Gateway Park will feature 750,000-square-feet of R&D and office space geared toward the life sciences.
 
Kent State University announced plans to develop a research park to house high-tech business accelerators. The Kent State Centennial Research Park is located in the former 10-acre bus garage on the Kent State Campus. The initial phase of the project is funded by a portion of the Ohio Third Frontier Commercialization Project for the Flexible Liquid Crystal Film Manufacturing Alliance. The alliance is supported by an additional $8 million in matching funds from the collaborators. 
 
The University of North Dakota (UND) Research Foundation broke ground last month on a $14 million Center of Excellence in Life Science and Advanced Technology facility at the new Research Enterprise and Commercialization Park. The 50,000-square-foot facility will house UND research ventures partnered with outside companies and corporations. Gov. John Hoeven presented a $3.5 million check to UND for the facility in December as part of the state’s Centers of Excellence program. Last month, the U.S. Department of Commerce Economic Development Administration boosted the effort, providing an additional $1.5 million for the facility.
 
A formal agreement was reached between the University of Arizona (UA) and builder, KB Home, on a land transaction that will swap 124 acres at the UA Science and Technology Park for about 65 acres that will serve as the future site of the Arizona Bioscience Park. Development for the Bioscience Park is expected to begin in 2008 and will consist of nearly 3 million sq. ft. of office, laboratory, educational and residential facilities. The Bioscience Park is designed to provide the facilities and infrastructure required by start-up and mature biotech companies, according to UA. 
 
Green County Industrial Development Agency, located in Coxsackie, N.Y., is partnering with Galesi Management Corporation and IDC Architects to develop a 60,000-square-foot mixed-use technology space at the Greene Business & Technology Park. The space will include all levels of clean room specifications for semiconductor and nanotechnology firms.
 
With a $70 million investment from the state and contributions from numerous public and private entities, South Carolina’s Innovista Research Park represents a $250 million total investment that is designed to raise the state’s per capita income level. Located at the University of South Carolina in Columbia, the first phase, Horizon Center and Discovery Plaza, will house university researchers and is expected to be completed in 2008. Horizon Center features 125,000 sq. ft. with dry and wet lab space. Discovery Plaza will consist of university wet lab research space with a privately developed building for private-partner companies.

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Early Bird Rates for SSTI's 11th Annual Conference Expire in 13 Days!
Register today to be sure you receive this special rate. On Wednesday, Sept. 26, registration fees will increase by $100. Hosted by the Maryland Department of Business and Economic Development, the Maryland Technology Development Corporation, and the University System of Maryland, the 2007 SSTI Annual Conference will be held at the Renaissance Baltimore Harborplace Hotel Oct. 18-19.

In a word, the SSTI Annual conference promises quality. With more than 20 carefully planned sessions, conference participants are ensured access to the latest thinking and best practices in tech-based economic development. Limited attendance further affords one the opportunity to engage in open, creative dialogue, and registration fees are kept reasonable so you can send your entire leadership team. All added up, SSTI's annual conference is the field's most stimulating and rewarding professional development investment of the year.

For many, the networking breaks are what the conference is all about. It's where the latest TBED thinking and technology come alive. You won't want to miss being a part of the this year's most dynamic and influential gathering of tech-based economic development professionals. As an attendee, you have the chance to meet personally with the decisionmakers responsible for crafting and implementing local and state-level policies and programs that directly contribute to the nation’s competitiveness.

More information, including the conference's 32-page brochure and an online registration form, is available at: http://www.ssticonference.org/

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SSTI Job Corner
Complete descriptions of these opportunities and others are available at http://www.ssti.org/posting.htm.

Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) seeks an additional senior member to join its technology transfer team as a senior commercialization manager or possibly as deputy director. This key individual is needed to identify, evaluate and commercialize technologies created at a major U.S. Department of Energy laboratory and to serve as liaison between some of the laboratory's most significant research divisions and the business community. He or she should have a high level of technical expertise in a physical science, as well as significant experience in sales or business development.

The University of Memphis (U of M) and the FedEx Institute of Technology (FIT) are seeking a director of tech transfer and research development to act as the Technology Transfer officer and clearinghouse for the university. This newly created position reports to the FIT executive director. The director will act as liaison between FIT, business and other research institutions to accelerate the transfer and commercialization of U of M technologies. He or she also will implement and execute formal process for faculty invention disclosure, review, evaluation, marketing and licensing. A bachelor’s degree in business, science or technology field is required; a J.D. or MBA degree is preferred. Three or more years of experience in technology transfer/commercialization with a university, laboratory or corporation also are required. Experience in lieu of academic credentials will be considered.

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