In the October 2, 2008 Issue:

• 12 Days Left to Register for SSTI Annual Conference
• Grim Fiscal Outlook for Cities Expected Through 2010
• Incubator RoundUp: Encouraging Entrepreneurship and Supporting Tech Commercialization
• 10,000 New Life Sciences Jobs Expected in Massachusetts by 2014
• Recent Research: How are Immigrant and Ethnic Workers Changing the Face of US Innovation?
• Useful Stats: Five-year Change in GDP by U.S. Metro Area 
• TBED People
• SSTI Job Corner
  

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12 Days Left to Register for SSTI Annual Conference

Only 12 days remain for you to register before Encouraging Regional Innovation kicks off on October 14 in Cleveland with four pre-conference sessions. With the economy seemingly changing every hour, there's never been a more important time to join your colleagues at the nation's premier conference on tech-based economic development. This year's conference, we think, has a great mix of sessions to help you plan for what the future may hold: thought-provoking policy sessions with an underlying theme of "where do we go from here?," best practice sessions to give you new ideas, and sessions to give you tools to operate your programs more effectively.

• Secrets for Successful Biocommercialization Support This intensive full-day workshop developed in partnership with Cleveland Clinic Innovations will focus specifically on how best public-private initiatives can  assist bio-based businesses. We'll approach the topic from several perspectives, but all with the end in mind of how we make state and local bio-innovation support initiatives more effective.
• Introduction to Tech-based Economic Development This interactive workshop is tailored to those professionals new to tech-based economic development. Attendance is always limited to a small group to ensure each participant benefits from the personalized session - walking away with a firm foundation for SSTI's full conference and for their TBED responsibilities back home.

• Creating and Strengthening Relationships with Federal Laboratories The nation's federal laboratories have emerged as a tremendous resource for states and regions looking to build their tech-based economies. In fact, 42 of the top 100 innovations identified by R&D Magazine in 2006 were commercialized in partnership with one or more of our 700 federal laboratories. This session is tailored to those organizations looking to get in on the action, to get their foot in the door of the federal laboratories, and to strengthen existing ties in particular fields of research and commercialization. The brightest brains from the leadership of the federal laboratory system and state TBED organizations with successful fed lab experience will be at the session to provide specialized help for those in attendance.
• Effective Entrepreneurship Assistance: Advice from the Experts Initiatives that have demonstrated a history of success are beginning to attract global attention for their achievements. Now, rather than traveling the country to learn firsthand about the programs, we've gathered some of the nation's most respected leaders to share their experience and lessons learned. This session will provide a behind-the-scenes look at some of the country's most effective entrepreneurship programs and the strategies that have helped them succeed. Presenters from Innovation Works, i2E, and JumpStart  will provide insight into building an entrepreneurial culture, identifying potential entrepreneurs, connecting new business owners to the resources they need and helping to build high-growth firms.

Grim Fiscal Outlook for Cities Expected Through 2010
Anticipated declines in property tax, local sales tax and local income taxes combined with increased expenditures for energy and fuel, infrastructure, and employee-related costs have city finance officers anticipating worsening fiscal conditions over the next two years.

Released this month by the National League of Cities (NLC), the City Fiscal Conditions in 2008 survey finds that in 2008, nearly two in three city finance officers reported that their cities are less able to meet fiscal needs compared to last year, particularly those cities that rely heavily upon property taxes. Moreover, nearly 80 percent of fiscal officers forecast even more troubling times ahead for 2009.

Findings of the survey reveal that the fall out in the housing market, the weakening of consumer spending, and declines in jobs and income are negatively impacting city fiscal conditions. Additionally, the survey finds:

• At the close of 2008, finance officers predict that revenues and spending will decline in inflation-adjusted terms, with revenues decreasing by 4.3 percent and spending decreasing by 1.5 percent;
• Property tax revenues increased by 6.3 percent in 2007, but are expected to decline by 3.6 percent by the close of 2008;
• 74 percent of finance officers in the West reported their cities are worse off in 2008, compared to 64 percent in the Midwest, 61 percent in the Northeast, and 53 percent in the South; and
• Together, city finance officers’ projections for 2008 revenue and spending point to a budget gap of 2.8 percent in constant dollars.

Because cities often lag in feeling the effects of a national economic downturn, they are likely to remain burdened with the negative impact well into future years, the survey states. When asked about specific revenue and spending actions taken in 2008, finance officers reported increasing the level of fees for services as the most common action to boost city revenue.

In coming years, city officials are likely to tap into ending balance levels, which are currently at historically high levels, according to NLC. Further cuts in services, increased taxes and workforce reductions are often unfavorable but viable options to offset the declining fiscal conditions.

Download a copy of City Fiscal Conditions in 2008 at: http://www.nlc.org/articles/articleItems/NCW91508/fiscalreport2008.aspx

Incubator RoundUp: Encouraging Entrepreneurship and Supporting Tech Commercialization
Technology-focused incubators are an important component to fostering entrepreneurial development in a region by nurturing businesses in the earliest stages of development and helping them grow into larger companies that employ high-wage workers and bring new technologies to the market. The following select announcements provide an overview of new incubators from across the nation, illustrating the vital role of entrepreneurial development in growing high-tech regional economies.

Ann Arbor Spark announced last month a new location for its proposed business incubator in downtown Ypsilanti, reports the Ann Arbor News. The 8,500-square-foot incubator, which is expected to open in December, will provide space for 10 start-up technology companies for two years, the article states.

Battle Creek Unlimited announced in August they are developing a virtual incubator as a Web 2.0 network to match high-tech start-up companies with universities and public entities. With partial funding from the Michigan Economic Development Corporation, the virtual incubator will offer services including quick access to resources, business progress monitoring, and the ability for existing area businesses, local economic development organizations and entrepreneurs to create and maintain their own profile, according to a Battle Creek Enquirer article.

Opening this month, the newly-renovated East Lansing Technology Innovation Center is a 7,000-square-foot facility that works to attract Michigan State University technology spinoffs, information technology entrepreneurs, and other technology-focused companies. Another 18,000 sq. ft. of anchor space is also available for larger technology companies.

The University of North Carolina (UNC) Board of Trustees approved in August a design for a new 85,000-square-foot Innovation Center at Carolina North. The goal of the Innovation Center is to streamline the development and to accelerate the commercialization of novel technologies. In addition to research and office space for emerging companies, the Innovation Center will also provide office space for UNC-Chapel Hill.

The Lawrence Regional Technology Center is in the planning phase for an $8 million incubator on Kansas University’s (KU) West Campus, reports the Journal-World. The center will manage and operate the incubator, located in close proximity to the Multidisciplinary Research Building on West Campus to serve technology spinoff companies from KU. Lawrence Regional Technology Center is soliciting $4 million from the Kansas Bioscience Authority toward the project, according to the article. The other half of the funding has been secured through approvals from Lawrence and Douglas County commissions and resources from KU and the Lawrence-Douglas County Biosciences Authority, the article states.

Last month, the Germantown Innovation Center opened on the campus of Montgomery College. The 32,000-square-foot facility offers 11 wet labs, two modular clean rooms and 45 offices. The center will accommodate 25 to 365 life sciences and technology companies.

Led by a group of life science veterans, investors, and academics, the North Shore Life Sciences Accelerator is a new biotech incubator located at the Cummings Center in Beverly, Massachusetts. The accelerator will nurture early-stage biotech or medical device firms with strong technologies and business plans, according to the North Shore Technology Council. The tech council has raised $10,000 in private contributions, but is seeking additional financing from the state’s new $1 billion life sciences initiative announced earlier this year (see the June 18, 2008 issue of the Digest), reports The Boston Globe.

Construction is expected to begin this fall to expand facilities at the San Jose Bio Center to accommodate growing biotechnology companies, reports the Silicon Valley/San Jose Business Journal. The 40,000-square-foot center will add another 40,000 sq. ft., giving early-stage companies second-stage space to move into as they grow, the article states.

Under an agreement between the South Carolina Research Authority (SCRA), the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC), and the City of Charleston, SCRA will lease and renovate a vacant building from the City of Charleston to be used as an incubator to attract and support start-up companies affiliated with researchers from MUSC. Last week, the preliminary building design was unveiled, which includes wet lab and equipment space.

The first ten incubator suites of a new 6,000-square-foot urban research park located near University of Wisconsin (UW)-Madison are slated for completion in early 2009. The urban research park is targeting high-tech entrepreneurs in information technology, engineering, medical devices and computer science. Located in proximity to student and faculty at UW-Madison, the incubator suites will have ready access to high-bandwidth fiber optic networks along the East Washington corridor and will be connected to the University Research Park Net connection to campus Internet.

Virginia Tech announced its VT KnowledgeWorks initiative has added a comprehensive mix of services to its support for growing businesses. The business acceleration center added a pre-launch segment of the program that helps market-worthy ventures organize, formulate strategy, and obtain outside investment, according to a Virginia Tech press release.

Learn more about encouraging entrepreneurship and commercialization strategies at SSTI’s 12^th Annual Conference

SSTI will explore creating an entrepreneurial culture and how TBED organizations can contribute to an environment that encourages and rewards new venture creation. Panelists will discuss how organizations can catalyze new business starts through networking and creative use of innovative spaces.

Join discussants Ernie Dianastasis, Managing Director, CAI and Chairman, First State Innovation and Tony Redpath, Vice President, Partner Programs, MaRS Discovery District for the breakout session: Fostering a Culture of Entrepreneurship on Wednesday, Oct. 15 at 2:00 PM. Rich Bendis, President & CEO, Bendis Investment Group, LLC will moderate this session, encouraging a lively discussion and sharing of experiences with audience members.

A second breakout session, Innovative Approaches to Commercialization, will examine several commercialization strategies that have been successful in bringing together universities, federal laboratories, and private industry in a way that is responsive to the market and the technology needs of businesses.

This panel discussion takes place Thursday, Oct. 16 at 9:00 AM with presentations from Stephen Dahms, President and CEO, Alfred E. Mann Foundation for Biomedical Engineering and John Watson, Faculty Director, von Liebig Center for UC San Diego. Martha Connolly, Director, Maryland Industrial Partnerships, will moderate the session.

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

10,000 New Life Sciences Jobs Expected in Massachusetts by 2014
The demand for highly qualified talent in Massachusetts’ bioscience industry will add more than 10,000 life sciences workers to the state’s workforce by 2014, according to a recent report prepared by the University of Massachusetts Donahue Institute. As described in Growing Talent: Meeting the Evolving Needs of the Massachusetts Life Sciences Industry, 81 percent of these new life sciences jobs are expected to require at least a four-year degree. In preparation for this need, the report identifies the key challenges for increasing the quality and number of potential employees in the state, as well as policy recommendations for future growth.

Outlined are the expected top ten occupations for growth in the life science field, which illustrates just how varied the needs are within the industry. Medical scientists are projected to increase in number the most, with over 900 new hires, followed by systems software engineers, lawyers, computer systems analysts, and application-based software engineers. Not included in these projections are downstream jobs estimated by multiplier effects, nor are jobs associated with the state’s $1 billion Life Science Initiative (see the June 18, 2008 issue of the Digest), announced earlier this summer.

By surveying employers in the field, the authors found two areas – clinical research staff and legal and regulatory staff – were deemed very difficult or moderately difficult to staff by more than 80 percent of employers. Alternatively, the difficulty of finding computer specialists to employ was affirmed by less than 50 percent of surveyed employers.

Recommendations to improve the training and experiences of the state’s graduate, undergraduate, technical schools, and K-12 students include the following, among others:

• More universities should develop Professional Science Master’s (PSM) degree programs, which combine life sciences education with business and management training;
• New certificate programs should be offered in subjects such as clinical research, regulatory affairs, and quality control; and,
• Companies should partner with community colleges to develop targeted two-year training programs.

Growing Talent: Meeting the Evolving Needs of the Massachusetts Life Sciences Industry is available at: www.massbio.org/writable/files/LSTI_Report/report.pdf

Recent Research: How are Immigrant and Ethnic Workers Changing the Face of U.S. Innovation?
Foreign-born and ethnic workers continue to rapidly grow in their importance to the U.S. innovation economy, according to two recent studies that address this issue by examining the links between these groups and patenting activity.

In How Much Does Immigration Boost Innovation?, Jennifer Hunt uses state panel data from 1950 to 2000 to measure the extent of immigration’s impact on U.S. patenting, state innovation economies and the science and technology workforce. Foreign-born residents account for just over ten percent of the working population, but represent about 25 percent of the science and engineering workforce. The 2003 Survey of College Graduates found that immigrants patent at double the rate of native U.S. residents. That study found that the difference was attributable to disproportionate educational attainment in science and engineering.

Hunt finds that a 1.3 percent increase in the share of the population composed of immigrant college graduates can increase patenting per capita by between 10 and 26 percent. Post-college immigrants had an even larger positive impact. In addition, immigrant college graduates can have positive spillovers for the non-immigrant population. While there may be some short-term crowding out of the native population as immigrants arrive, in the long-term, there is evidence that post-college immigrants can increase the patenting activity of their native neighbors.

Overall, Hunt argues that an immigrant college graduate contributes at least twice as much to patenting as a native counterpart.

Purchase How Much Does Immigration Boost Innovation? from the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) at: http://www.nber.org/papers/w14312.pdf

Another article by William R. Kerr, The Agglomeration of U.S. Ethnic Inventors, finds that ethnic Chinese and Indian inventors play a much larger role in US patenting than they did a few decades ago. Though the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) does not ask for the ethnicity of inventors, Kerr employs a database of ethnic names used by direct-mail companies to estimate the share of U.S. patents. He finds that ethnic Chinese inventors have steadily increased their presence in U.S. patenting since 1975, overtaking European inventors as the most common ethnic contributor. In 2007, 8 percent of inventors were identified as having a Chinese surname.

Ethnic Indian inventors have also increased their U.S. patenting activity, though not to the extent of ethnic Chinese. Since 2000, Indian inventors have decreased their share of patents as a group.

Kerr also finds that since ethnic groups tend to agglomerate in cities and are not evenly distributed throughout the country, some cities disproportionately benefit from the growth of the U.S. Chinese and Indian population. Also since ethnic Chinese and Indian inventors have their greatest impact in the computers, communication, electrical and electronics sectors, cities with a growing number of residents in these groups, like San Francisco, appear to have experienced patenting gains associated with their ethnic populations.

Download The Agglomeration of US Ethnic Inventors from the Social Science Research Network (SSRN) at: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1162226

Learn About the Future of State TBED Workforce Strategies at SSTI’s 12^th Annual Conference

SSTI will be hosting a discussion about what states are doing to keep high school and college graduates from leaving their borders and how they are attracting tech saavy-workers at this year's Annual Conference in Cleveland.

Jeff Kjenstad of the South Dakota Department of Labor will talk about the accomplishments of Dakota Roots, one of the country's most successful recruitment and retention programs. Marsha Schachtel, Senior Fellow at the Johns Hopkins Institute for Policy Studies will add a long-term, national perspective by examining the history of state TBED workforce programs, including those that have succeeded and those that have failed. 

We expect a lively conversation about how to stem braindrain, the proper role of state and regional government and what skilled workers are looking for when they make decisions about where to live and work.

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

Useful Stats 
Five-year Change in GDP by U.S. Metro Area 
According to figures released last week by the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA), 85 percent of the nation’s 363 metro areas experienced growth in real GDP from 2005 to 2006. For the U.S. metro areas as a whole, the aggregate GDP in current dollars was $11.79 trillion in 2006 – about 90 percent of the U.S. GDP.

Trends in GDP growth can be more informative than one-year changes that might be caused by sudden changes in a local economy (e.g., Hurricane Katrina). SSTI has prepared a table displaying changes in metro area GDP estimates for the five-year period 2002 to 2006. To facilitate comparison across metro areas, the data has been presented in chained 2001 dollars.

The GDP in 23 metro areas decreased over the five years, 2002 to 2006, some like New Orleans and Gulfport-Biloxi for reasons related to the natural disaster. The decline in other metro areas may be more systemic as the local economies continue to restructure away from declining industrial sectors.

Alternatively, 167 of the metro areas experienced gains at a rate larger than the U.S. metro total – calculated to be 12.8 percent.

The metro area centered around St. George, Utah experienced the largest increase at 48.7 percent. Rounding out the top ten metro areas were:

• Port St. Lucie, FL
• Corvallis, OR.
• Las Vegas-Paradise, NV
• Palm Coast, FL
• Ocala, FL
• Prescott, AZ
• Coeur d’Alene, ID
• Naples-Marco Island, FL
• Longview, TX

It should be noted the recent data may include revisions from the values released last year from the BEA. Depending on the definitions of each metro area by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), the specific geographical boundary of MSAs may also have changed over time.

SSTI's table is available at: http://www.ssti.org/Digest/Tables/100108t.htm

The BEA press release is available at: http://www.bea.gov/newsreleases/regional/gdp_metro/gdp_metro_newsrelease.htm

TBED People
John Hindman announced his resignation as secretary of the Kentucky Cabinet for Economic Development.

Governor Rick Perry recently announced Alan Kirchhoff of Austin has been promoted to director of Texas Emerging Technology Fund (TETF). Kirchhoff replaces longtime Perry advisor and former TETF director Mark Ellison, who left the Governor's Office to become associate vice chancellor of economic development for the Texas A&M University System beginning Oct. 1, 2008.

Governor Jim Doyle appointed Richard Leinenkugel of the Jacob Leinenkugel Brewing family as his Commerce secretary.

Thomas Peterson, dean of the College of Engineering at the University of Arizona, has been selected as the new assistant director of the National Science Foundation's Directorate for Engineering.

Elias Zerhouni, the director of the National Institutes of Health, announced his plans to step down at the end of October 2008.

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

The Michigan Economic Development Corporation is seeking candidates for a senior portfolio manager. This is an at-will position responsible for managing and overseeing investment and grant portfolios for the 21st Century Job Fund. Negotiates all investment contract and grant agreements, serves as a resource for portfolio companies seeking information about investment capital, and identifies opportunities to leverage investments for Michigan's competitive edge technology industries. Requires a Master's degree in Business, Finance, Accounting, or related field and a minimum of five to seven years business related experience in the area of life sciences and experience in business, finance and investments in the areas of position-specific technical business environment, public sector investing, capital markets, venture capital, private equity, portfolio management, and/or commercial lending.

The Illinois Technology Development Alliance (ITDA), a private, not-for-profit, professional services firm that is dedicated to creating the next generation of better, faster, smarter technology entrepreneurs is seeking someone to serve as the director of membership services. The selected candidate will manage and coordinate the organization’s membership programs and campaigns. This position will report directly to the President. Qualifications include excellent writing and communication skills, at least two years of membership experience or relevant experience and experience identifying program goals/challenges and developing strategic plans for improvement.

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