The bill changes the existing Commonwealth Technology Research Fund to the Commonwealth Research Fund to better focus on key areas of R&D, emphasize the importance of commercialization of R&D through matching funds programs, and to provide a loan program for the construction of facilities used in commercializing research. The Innovative Technology Authority would continue to administer the fund and establish and maintain specific guidelines for awarding funds.

Specifically, the bill:

• Establishes the Bioscience Investment Tax Credit, limiting the existing qualified equity and subordinated debt investment tax credit, known as the Angel Investor Tax Credit, to bioscience and other advanced technology startups, and reserves up to 50 percent of the available credit for tech-transfer spin-outs from universities;
• Makes changes to Virginia’s Technology Research Fund to authorize new programs such as matching grants for National Institutes of Health-funded Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) awards. Eligible applicants must employ less than 12 full-time employees and submit a commercialization plan; and,
• Provides funding for research facilities by establishing a construction loan program for institutions of higher education and political subdivisions of the Commonwealth for facilities used in commercializing qualified research, such as wet laboratories in research parks or university campuses.

Advocates of the bill included key national, state and local organizations supporting tech-based economic development. The Virginia Biotechnology Association both led the effort to establish the subcommittee and campaigned for the legislation along with the Biotechnology Industry Organization and the Northern Virginia Technology Council.

Language inserted into the bill prohibits funding to organizations and businesses that perform research on stem cells obtained from human embryos. The General Assembly will reconvene on April 8 to consider Gov. Kaine’s amendments and vetoes.

SB 1338 is available at: http://leg1.state.va.us/cgi-bin/legp504.exe?091+ful+SB1338ER.

The Vermont Economic Development Authority (VEDA) would house most of the new and expanded programs covered in the SmartVermont plan. A new Technology Loan program at VEDA would use a $1 million investment from the ARRA funds to secure up to $6 million in loans and attract an additional $4 million in private capital for high-tech companies. These loans would target strategic industries and expansion projects to further the state’s economic development goals.

A new VEDA seed capital fund would help seed and startup stage companies obtain early-stage capital. The plan calls for $4 million in state funding over the next two years for direct equity investments in new firms. The governor’s office estimates that this would attract another $8 million in private investment in FY09 and FY10.

In addition to direct financial support, the SmartVermont plan would fund incubation facilities and high-tech training. The Vermont Center for Emerging Technology, a high-tech incubator in Burlington, would receive $500,000 over the next two years to provide early-stage support for its clients. The Vermont Training Program, which contracts with companies to provide on-the-job training, classroom learning and lean-manufacturing programs to workers, would receive an additional $500,000.

The SmartVermont plan also includes more ambitious goals for the state’s universal broadband initiative. In 2007, Vermont began a campaign to become the first state with border-to-border cellular and wireless broadband access for all its residents (see the May 14, 2007 issue). Gov. Douglas now plans to expand that goal to achieve 100 percent broadband penetration for all residents who do not choose to live off-the-grid. The governor argues that universal high-speed penetration is vital to implementing successful smart grid, health IT and e-education initiatives. ARRA funding would be available to help implement individual broadband access projects.

Details of the governor’s plan are available at: http://governor.vermont.gov/tools/index.php?topic=GovPressReleases&id=3391&v=Article

Approximately $15 million in first-year funding is allocated for R&D projects in manufacturing that would enable better, more cost-effective use of advanced materials in innovative products. The competition is limited to the three classes of materials considered most critical to potential growth areas for manufacturing: technologies for nanomaterials; composites and superalloys, alloys; and smart materials. TIP is seeking proposals for new technologies for predictive modeling to enable improved material properties and better process design tools, for improved methods to up-scale advanced materials production from laboratory processes and to integrate advanced materials into products.

For civil infrastructure research, approximately $10 million is available for first-year funding to address two specific needs. The first is a continuing need for innovative, cost-effective sensor and sensor-network technologies for non-destructive testing and monitoring of the structural health of major infrastructure components. This competition emphasizes technologies to detect corrosion, cracking, delamination and other structural damage in water resources systems such as water and wastewater pipelines, dams, levees and waterway locks, as well as bridges and roadways. The second focus is the need for new technologies for repair and retrofit and deals with how to do a better job repairing and upgrading existing structures. The emphasis is on practical technologies -- including both novel materials and cost-effective methods for installing them -- that would provide enhanced performance or longer service life than existing repair and retrofit materials and practices.

A 1:1 match share is required.  Proposals are due June 23. A proposers' conference will be held April 8 in Gaithersburg, MD. More information regarding 2009-TIP-01 is available at: http://www.nist.gov/tip/comp_09/2009_ffo_final1.pdf.

On March 30, the National Institutes of Health announced a new funding opportunity to use up to $100 million of Recovery Act funds to enable academic institutions “to hire, provide appropriate start-up packages, and develop pilot research projects for newly independent investigators, with the goal of augmenting and expanding the institution’s community of multidisciplinary researchers focusing on areas of biomedical research relevant to NIH.” 

Sounds worthy enough, right? It is like an eminent scholar, endowed chair, or centers of excellence program at the national level. Just recently SSTI wrote about Canada having a $2.3 billion decade-long program that is supporting nearly 2,000 university research chairs in several disciplines (see Feb 25, 2009 Digest). At least 25 percent of the Canadian Research Chairs were recruited from the United States. A similar program dedicated to biomedical research should be good for the U.S., However…

Without the goal of recruiting faculty from outside the geographic area targeted for benefit means some areas of the United States could lose – not only be unsuccessful in the competition for this new pool of NIH funds, but may lose their resident emerging biomedical research talent as well. Just as “stealing” industrial manufacturing facilities from one community to get them to relocate to another is a zero-sum or even economic loss on the macro level, NIH’s new program could be seen as achieving the same results – or worse – for state and regional bio-based economic development efforts.

On the other hand, these are not the types of positions that can be equally effective or productive anywhere. The new funding pool could optimize the productivity, creativity and value of the individual researcher and the academic institution as well as speed biomedical research advancement. All boats rise if our nation’s biomedical investments yield beneficial results more quickly.

As it is designed, the NIH program is not targeting foreign superstar biomedical researchers and, given the Buy America provision of the Recovery Act, it cannot be. Instead it is targeting “newly independent” investigators that are not already in tenure track positions. The investigators can be recruited from any other institution, including those in the same state, region or country.

However, given the limited funding of individual awards, varying in size by participating NIH institute but ranging between $500,000 and $1 million per year for two years, retention and promotion of junior faculty is perhaps a more likely scenario. In that case, the NIH funding could provide a boost to the investments states have already made to support and nurture their academic research community.

More information regarding RFA-OD–09-005 “Recovery Act Limited Competition: Supporting New Faculty Recruitment to Enhance Research Resources through Biomedical Research Core Centers” is available at: http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/rfa-files/RFA-OD-09-005.html.  Letters of intent are due April 29.

HB 622 creates a green jobs fund from which higher education institutes will create green job training programs. The fund was initially designed to receive money from bonds issued by the New Mexico Finance Authority; however, that provision was eliminated and now the fund will receive appropriations from federal green jobs programs and any other allocations, according to an article in The New Mexico Independent.

Lawmakers also passed a measure designating a portion of state funds for training in the green energy sector. SB 318 requires a minimum of $1 million from the state’s Job Training Incentive program be used for this purpose.

During his state of the state address earlier this year, Gov. Richardson said the first point in his economic security plan is to continue to compete for, attract and create high paying green collar jobs (see the Jan. 21, 2009 issue of the Digest).  To this end, lawmakers passed SB 205, the New Mexico Research Applications Act. This legislation will establish a research center for moving technologies developed with federal funds at national laboratories and universities to the marketplace.

A few days after the governor’s speech, details of the newly created Green Jobs Cabinet were unveiled. By executive order, the governor charged the group with developing an aggressive clean energy strategy aligned with the state’s education and workforce system in order to create a highly skilled workforce that will attract green energy companies to the state. The Green Jobs Cabinet will provide an initial report to the governor by Aug. 15.

Building on the Renewable Energy and Job Creation Tax Act of 2008, lawmakers passed SB 257, which extends the state’s solar tax credit program, originally designed to fill a gap in a federal program. The bill allows a 10 percent state tax credit above the federal credit of 30 percent on the cost of solar installation up to $2,000, reports The New Mexico Independent.

Lawmakers also allocated funding for two major solar initiatives from new Severance Tax Bonding designated for capital outlay projects. Specifically, $6 million was approved for the Schott Solar Manufacturing Plant to accelerate development of solar power generation capacity and for the completion of a 200,000-square-foot solar equipment manufacturing plant. Another $3 million was approved for Project Sun Kachina for construction of a solar panel production facility in Belen, NM.

Not all of the governor’s recommendations were met with approval by lawmakers this session. Executive proposals not funded in the capital outlay include $2 million for the Green Grid Initiative, $2.6 million for establishing gateways to the New Mexico Supercomputing Center at community colleges, and a recurring $4.25 million appropriation for supercomputer operations.

For a third year in a row, the legislature failed to pass a bill allowing embryonic stem cell research on cells discarded from fertility clinics. The measure, SB 77, permitting research and clinical applications involving embryonic stem cells, failed in the New Mexico House of Representatives.

Gov. Richardson has until April 10 to act on the bills passed by the legislature.

The committee report of the General Appropriations Act of 2009 is available at:  http://legis.state.nm.us/Sessions/09%20Regular/bills/house/HB0002FC1.pdf

Legislative leaders and key stakeholders need to know the valuable impact of TBED on local, state and regional economies. SSTI’s Excellence in TBED Awards showcase these accomplishments and tell the story of how successful TBED initiatives have responded to a critical need by applying innovative approaches to generate substantial economic gains for their region.

As an award winner, you:

• Gain positive exposure for your initiative;
• Enhance your organization’s public image by promoting awareness of critical TBED issues; and,
• Showcase your accomplishments during dedicated breakout sessions at SSTI’s annual conference.

For these reasons and so many more, mark your calendars now for the tentative schedule of the 2009 Excellence in TBED Awards:

Call for applications – April 21
Deadline for applications – June 16
Winners recognized – SSTI’s 13th Annual Conference, Oct. 22-23, 2009, in Overland Park, Kansas

Angel investors continue to be the primary source of seed and startup capital for entrepreneurs. In 2008, 45 percent of angel deals invested in companies at the seed and startup phase, up from 39 percent in 2007. A majority of angel capital recipients, 63 percent, are in their first sequence of fundraising, a number that has held steady for several years. Angel investors are becoming less interested in expansion-stage deals, which received only 14 percent of total angel dollars.

Healthcare/Medical Devices and Equipment took the lead as the most popular sector for angel investment, passing Software in 2008. Healthcare companies received 16 percent of all investment. Despite becoming the top sector, healthcare’s total share of investment actually declined by three points from 2007. Software saw its share of total investment fall even more, from 27 percent of investment to 13 percent. The Biotech and Industrial/Energy sectors held steady while both Retail and Media increased their share.

In 2008, only ten percent of companies that were reviewed by angel investors actually received angel dollars. This continues the decline in acceptance rates that has occurred since the industry’s peak acceptance in 2005, when 23 percent of companies were approved. CVR releases statistics on application and acceptance rates for women and minority entrepreneurs as well, and found that although their acceptance rates were in line with the total population of entrepreneurs, they are less likely to seek angel funding. Women-owned ventures accounted for 15.7 percent of firms seeking angel capital and minority-owned firms accounted for only 3.7 percent.

The full 2008 Angel Market Analysis is available at: http://wsbe.unh.edu/files/2008_Analysis_Report_Final.pdf

In the U.S., private companies supplied $2.67 billion in R&D expenditures to the nation’s universities and colleges in FY07. California led the country with $357 million from industry. This was followed by North Carolina at $256 million and Texas at $203 million. New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Massachusetts are the only other states with more than $100 million in FY07 from industry.

Over the five-year period from FY03 to FY07, Hawaii experienced the largest increase by percent, at 219 percent. This was followed by South Dakota (a 195% increase), West Virginia (139%), Ohio (134 %), Rhode Island (119%) and Oregon (111%). Even though the amount for seven states at least doubled over the five years, and contributions from industry increased by 23.6 percent in the U.S., 19 states experienced a decrease over this period.

Across the U.S., 5.4 percent of academic expenditures for R&D originated from industry. Fourteen of the states topped the U.S. average. North Carolina led, with 13.6 percent from industryfollowed by Indiana, Ohio, Hawaii and Pennsylvania.

Ohio was the only state to crack both the top ten states with the most funds from industry (ranked sixth) as well as the largest percent increases over the time period (ranked fourth). Additionally, Ohio was ranked third in terms of the percentage of academic R&D from industry.

The series Academic R&D Expenditures from the NSF is available at:

http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/pubseri.cfm?seri_id=19

Download SSTI's table at:http://www.ssti.org/Digest/Tables/040109t.htm