In This Week's Issue
SSTI News and Analysis
Wyoming Governor Details Proposed Use of AML Funds for Research over Next Biennium
Outlining his budget recommendations for the 2011-12 biennium last week, Gov. Dave Freudenthal asked lawmakers to continue support for research projects funded by the state’s share of federal Abandoned Mine Land (AML) funds. Using $116.1 million available for appropriation in the coming year, the governor recommends $45 million for continuation of carbon sequestration research, $17.4 million to continue operating the University of Wyoming School of Energy Resources, and $14 million for the Clean Coal Technology matching grant program.
Gov. Freudenthal also recommends a reserve account in the auditor’s office of $17.5 million in general fund monies to allow continuing operation of the UW School of Energy Resources if AML funding is lost, budget documents note. Other recommendations in the UW budget include:
- $985,000 for a mass spectrometer to be used for advanced energy
research and related studies at the university; and,
- $660,000 to continue work at the Wyoming Reclamation and
Restoration Center.
For the Wyoming Business Council, Gov. Freudenthal recommends $101 million over the next two years, down from $123.6 million last biennium. This includes $27 million for the Wyoming Business Council Division, down $705,563 from last biennium.
Last week, the Wyoming Business Council announced approval of a $20 million contract with the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research to help build the NCAR-Wyoming Supercomputing Center. The center will house one of the world’s most powerful supercomputers dedicated to improving scientific understanding of climate, severe weather, air quality, and other atmospheric and geosciences topics such as carbon dioxide sequestration, according to a press release. The legislature appropriated $20 million to provide partial funding for construction of the facility in 2007.
The governor’s 2011-2012 budget recommendations are
available at:
http://ai.state.wy.us/budget/pdf/11-12BudgetRequest/2011-12StateBudget.pdf.
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U.S. Broadband Availability Will Hit 95%
in Five Years, But Adoption Will Lag
Though broadband services will be available to
almost 95 percent of U.S. households by 2014, many homes will still
lack access to low-cost, high-speed options, according to a recent
report commissioned by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).
Despite the projected increase in availability, the study finds
that the rate of adoption and the availability of truly high-speed
Internet services will be much lower. While upgrades to cable
broadband networks and new wireless technologies will help provide
new options, government involvement may be the only way to keep
U.S. adoption rates competitive with other global markets.
The Columbia Institute of Tele-Information, which
prepared the report, estimates the current broadband availability
rate at 91 percent. Broadband in America: Where It Is and
Where It Is Going (According the Broadband Service
Providers) provides a listing of all publicly-announced
broadband plans and a comparison of the progress of these plans to
their original scope and timeline. These plans are sorted by
company and the nature of the broadband technology. Using this
data, the authors estimate the state of U.S. broadband in
three-to-five years, including the availability of both wired and
wireless services. The forecast does not take into consideration
the effect of the federal broadband stimulus effort or any other
government broadband initiative that could increase adoption and
accessibility.
By 2014, 95 percent of U.S. homes will have access
to at least low-speed broadband services, according to the report.
Of the homes that receive broadband services, however, up to nine
percent only will have access inferior options with slower speeds.
These options include satellite broadband and low-speed wired and
wireless services. Satellite-based services tend to be slower and
depend on unimpeded line-of-sight to the position of broadband
satellites. The lack of convenient, lower-cost, high-speed Internet
access will continue to depress broadband adoption over the next
few years.
Currently, 63 percent of U.S. homes subscribe to a
wired broadband service. The report estimates that this figure will
grow to 69 percent in 2014. Adoption rates have slowed over the
past few years as the market has approached saturation and consumer
spending has slowed. Meanwhile, subscriptions to wireless providers
are on the rise. The wireless broadband adoption rate is expected
to pass 50 percent in 2013, up from the current level of 31
percent.
Government support for wired infrastructure
build-out or for new wireless technologies, such as Long Term
Evolution (LTE) and WiMAX, could boost the availability of
high-speed options across the country. The 2009 Recovery Act
included funds for broadband mapping initiatives to reveal the
extent of state broadband gaps in access and speed. The National
Telecommunications and Information Administration has awarded
Broadband Technology Opportunity Grants to 19 states and the
District of Columbia.
Read Broadband in America: Where It Is and Where It Is Going
(According the Broadband Service Providers) at: http://www.broadband.gov/docs/Broadband_in_America.pdf.
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Indiana University Launches $10 Million Venture Fund
Indiana University is launching a $10 million
venture capital fund to invest in technology companies coming out of
the university. Half of the fund will be dedicated to seed- and
early-stage companies, while the other $5 million will support
later-stage firms. Last month the university dedicated a new $10
million Innovation Center, which will work with the fund to support
university-affiliated companies.
Read more at: http://newsinfo.iu.edu/news/page/normal/12745.html.
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Energy Alliance of Southwestern Pennsylvania Launched in
Pittsburgh
The recent creation of the Energy Alliance of Southwestern
Pennsylvania is intended to advance the energy-related economy of
the Pittsburgh region by funding companies, coordinating projects,
devising policies, and marketing the region's assets. While staff
for the Energy Alliance will come primarily from the Allegheny
Conference and Innovation Works, other partners of the effort
include the University of Pittsburgh, Carnegie Mellon, and various
energy-related firms in the region. Specific sectors within both
the traditional and alternative energy fields have been targeted by
the Alliance, including the advancement of natural gas extraction,
in part due to Pittsburgh's proximity to the Marcellus Shale
– one of the largest natural gas reserves in the world. Read
the full press release from the Allegheny Conference..
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Arizona Tech Council to House Trio of STEM Programs
Shortly after President Obama announced that the
federal government would seek out new partnerships with private
companies to improve science and technology education in the U.S.,
the Arizona Technology Council unveiled three new offerings for
Arizona students. The group will collaborate with tech companies
and nonprofits to hold a statewide science fair, to develop a
four-year engineering curriculum for high school students and to
create an online directory of STEM opportunities.
Read more at: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20091207006079/en.
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Useful Stats
State R&D Expenditures, Intensity per State: FY 2006
& 2007
In FY2007, the states in aggregate expended $1.23 billion in
funds for research and development, according to recent data
released by the National Science Foundation. This is the second
year consecutive annual data from the NSF's State Agency
Research and Development Expenditures series has been produced.
SSTI has prepared a table that shows for both FY07 and FY06 each
state's expenditures for R&D from the state government, the
state's GDP, and the spending intensity as measured by R&D expenditures
per million dollars of GDP.
While New York led the country with $128.4 million
in state R&D expenditures in FY07, it spent $116.41 on R&D
funding for every million dollars of its GDP. The only other two
states to have more than $100 million in R&D state spending in FY07
were Ohio and Pennsylvania.
Wyoming led the U.S. in state R&D funding intensity,
expending $618.77 in R&D for every million dollars of its GDP.
The next four states leading in R&D per GDP were Maine, West
Virginia, Hawaii, followed by North Dakota. These top five states
are all EPSCoR states.
It should be noted that there are many challenges to measuring
state R&D expenditures, several of which NSF explains in the
data notes for the report. For instance, eight states reported
increases of more than 100 percent from FY06 to FY07. However, in
FY07, four of these states – Florida, Indiana, New
Jersey, and Rhode Island – reported large R&D
expenditures for agencies that were not involved in the FY06
survey. In all, 251 agencies nationwide reported conducting or
funding state R&D in FY07.
In an attempt to avoid overlap and inconsistencies in reporting,
NSF excludes in this report state funds to colleges and
universities, which are surveyed in another annual NSF instrument,
Survey of R&D Expenditures at Colleges and
Universities. Also excluded were state R&D expenditures
that did not flow through state agency budgets, which, for some
states can be substantial.
The SSTI table is available at: http://www.ssti.org/Digest/Tables/120909t.htm.
Additional information on the NSF's State Agency Research and
Development Expenditures series is available at: http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/staterd/.
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Research Park RoundUp
AURP and NRC Testify on Research Park
Bill
A bill being debated in Congress would provide federal support
for the development of research parks, a major contributor to
scientific discovery, technology commercialization and new company
formation. S. 583, entitled the Building A
Stronger America Act and introduced earlier this year, would
make available grants and loan guarantees for the development and
construction of science parks to promote the clustering of
innovation through high technology activities. The Senate Committee
on Commerce, Science and Transportation will hear testimony today
in support of the legislation from Brian Darmody, President of the
Association of University Research Parks and Charles Wessner of the
National Research Council. Over the past few months, several
announcements for development of new research parks have been made
from around the world. Following is an overview of select
announcements.
Florida Institute of Technology and Melbourne International
Airport last week announced plans to build a technology research
park on 100 acres of land located within the Airport Industrial
Park. The goal for the
Florida Tech Research Park is to link university research with
companies involved in cutting-edge technologies, particularly in
life sciences, engineering and aeronautic fields, reports
Florida Today.
The product of a partnership between Fairleigh Dickinson
University and the Citi Foundation, the Pennval Road Green
Technology Park & Business Incubator is designed to promote
the startup and production of clean energy technologies,
sustainable energy sources, green R&D, and environmental
manufacturing and construction. The technology park also will
feature a green business incubator to foster new and emerging
companies with technology directly related to the environmental
sector, according to a press release. The project was launched with
$250,000 in federal funds, $15,000 from the Citi Foundation, and
additional state, local and private support.
The city of Portland, ME, will spend $660,000 to match a federal
Economic Development Administration grant for development of a
26-acre biotechnology business park to attract biotechnology,
pharmaceutical and nanotechnology companies, reports the
Portland Press Herald. The development concept for the
Portland Technology Park contains nine building pads along a
1,400-foot road. The federal grant will pay for road construction
and utility installation, the article notes.
Designed as a platform for Singapore-based companies to showcase
and deploy clean technology innovations, the Hangzhou-Singapore Eco
Park will be developed by a consortium of private sector firms and
Hangzhou’s municipal government following a signed Memorandum
of Understanding, reports the Business Times Singapore. The
development will be carried out in two phases and is expected to
cost up to $2 billion USD. In addition to clean technology-based
light industrial areas, the park will house commercial, retail and
residential segments, and service apartments.
The City of Kearney, NE,
will develop a technology park intended to attract data centers and
technology industries. A grant from the Nebraska Department of
Economic Development will assist in planning and marketing efforts,
according to a press release. The city is required to match the
funds received for each of the three planned phases of development,
reports KearnyHub.com. Construction is slated for July 2010
on what is now a 160-acre soybean field.
Plans for a £37 million ($60 million USD) Bioscience Campus in Stevenage,
Hertfordshire were announced in October by Business Secretary Lord
Mandelson. The
Bioscience Campus will serve as a hub for biotechnology
companies, housing up to 25 companies and creating up to 1,500
high-tech jobs. Funding for the project is provided by a
partnership of the overnment, GlaxoSmithKline, The Wellcome Trust,
Technology Strategy Board, and the East of England Development
Agency.
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TBED People and Job Opportunities
Job Corner
The Information Technology and
Innovation Foundation, a Washington, DC think tank, is
accepting applications for two positions described below:
- Communications Director: This is a permanent, full-time
position reporting to the president of ITIF. It is an exciting
opportunity for someone who would like to not only deepen their
policy expertise, but also influence the public debate on critical
innovation policy issues. Read more…
- Innovation Economist: This is a temporary opening (one
year) with the possibility of renewal for additional years for an
economist with a research interest in neo-Schumpeterian economics,
with a particular focus on the economics of global warming and the
role of innovation in addressing it. Read more…
Read more job postings
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TBED People
Robert Fritzinger has been named the director of the new
SUNY Fredonia Business
Technology Incubator.
Ioanna Morfessis, a consultant from Phoenix, was
unanimously appointed as the executive director of the Rhode Island Economic Development
Corporation by the board of directors. Morfessis is expected to
start work in January, and will serve as acting director until the
Senate confirms her appointment.
Alan Rebar, senior associate vice president for research
and executive director of Discovery Park, and Richard
Cosier, dean and Leeds Professor at the Krannert School of
Management, have been named to lead Purdue
University’s Burton D. Morgan Center for
Entrepreneurship.
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Staff Picks
President’s Speech on Job Creation and Economic
Growth
If you’re looking for President Obama’s exact remarks:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/remarks-president-job-creation-and-economic-growth.
ITIF Recommends Job Creation Policies
Includes $2B for state high-growth business initiatives and $1B for researcher sabbatical at universities, fed labs.
Read more...
David Brooks Joins the Innovation Bandwagon
While we’re used to seeing New York Times columnist Thomas
Friedman calling for the federal government to do more to support
innovation, this week David Brooks made similar points, referring to
“an unfairly neglected white paper” issued by the Obama
White House.
Read more...
U.S. Dept of Energy Announces Second Round of ARPA-E Funding
Available
$100M of stimulus funds to accelerate green tech innovation:
Read more...
Massachusetts Consolidates Green Economy Efforts into One
Center
Makes a single agency responsible for entire green strategy: R&D through to installation.
Read more...
NIH Expands Stem Cell Lines Available
First 13 of possibly more than 100 new human embryonic stem cell lines approved for use by federally financed researchers.
Read more...
West Virginia Highlights Bucks for Brains STEM
Initiative
Interest earned on state’s $50M Research Trust paying for two new STEM initiatives.
Read more...
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