In This Week's Issue
SSTI News and Analysis
Tech Talkin' Govs, Part II
The second installment of SSTI’s Tech Talkin’
Govs’ series includes excerpts from speeches delivered in
Colorado, Virginia and West Virginia. Our first installment was in
the Jan 13
Digest.
Colorado
Gov. Bill Ritter,
State of the State Address, Jan. 14, 2010
“Colorado voters were the first in the country to pass a
renewable energy standard. … So, this session let’s
think bigger, creating even larger markets for solar, wind,
biomass, hydro and geothermal. Let’s increase our standard to
30 percent.
“This will trigger the creation of tens of thousands of new
jobs, draw new capital investments and new companies to our state,
and keep Colorado at the epicenter of America’s energy
revolution. …
“… On higher education, we will continue to protect
Colorado’s colleges and universities. … And you will
all be happy to know that my last blue-ribbon panel will spend this
year crafting a long-term strategic plan for the future of
higher-ed in Colorado.”
Virginia
Gov. Bob McDonnell,
State of the Commonwealth Address, Jan. 18, 2010
“… (W)e must have the vision and the foresight
to invest in our future. Our Jobs and Opportunity agenda consists
of policies that make those investments.
“First, I will ask you to significantly increase the amount
of money in our successful job-creating Governor’s
Opportunity Fund. … Growing the tax base through business
development is the key to Virginia’s economic recovery.
Let’s start now by doubling the amount of the Fund for Fiscal
Year 2011. …
“… We will also target new Opportunity Fund dollars
to the bio-tech industry. … Delegate Sam Nixon of
Chesterfield is teaming up with Senator Mark Herring from Loudoun
County to push my commitment to grant an income tax exemption for
qualified investments by technology and science startup
businesses.
“And I will seek an important change in how the money in
the Opportunity Fund is utilized. Currently funding is available to
companies based on job creation and capital investment. We should
broaden the use of the Fund for companies that significantly
increase local and state tax revenue – allowing for even more
investment in education, workforce development and job creation.
…
“… Governor Kaine committed to invest $1.3 million
in the Virginia Spaceport. We can make Wallops Island the top
commercial Spaceport in America, and I ask you to keep that money
in place so that we can aggressively recruit aerospace companies
and promote space tourism initiatives. …
“… Another industry with tremendous growth potential
is energy. … We have the opportunity to be the first state on
the Eastern Seaboard to sell the leasing rights to explore and
drill offshore for oil and natural gas in 2011. ...
“… And we must continue to prepare for the reality
of offshore production this session by mandating that 20% of the
new tax revenues we generate, and any future royalties we receive,
will be invested in renewable energy projects…
“… To further make Virginia a welcome home for
alternative energy, I ask you to pass legislation making the entire
Commonwealth a “Green Jobs Zone.” Any business in the
state that creates a green energy job over the next 5 years will
receive an income tax credit of $500 per position.…
“… We must make college more affordable and
accessible. We will do this by committing the Commonwealth to
awarding 100,000 more degrees over the next 15 years in our
community colleges and four-year universities. It is an
audacious goal, but an important one for our future
competiveness.”
West Virginia
Gov. Joe Manchin, State of the State
Address, Jan. 13, 2010
“Learning additional skills beyond high school is more
critical than ever for West Virginians. That is why I am asking all
of our technical and four-year colleges and universities to freeze
their tuition rates for the coming school year.”
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EDA Offers $37 Million for Trade Adjusted Communities
The Economic Development Administration invites proposals to
distribute $37 million through the Community Trade Adjustment
Assistance Program. Funds are available for communities that
have experienced, or are threatened by, job loss resulting from
international trade impacts. Communities must be certified as
eligible for trade adjusted assistance. Funding can be used for
planning, technical or infrastructure projects that could involve
innovation and entrepreneurship. Proposals are due April 20. Funds
will be disbursed through EDA’s six regional offices. More
information regarding Community Trade Adjustment Assistance is
available at:
http://www.eda.gov/xp/EDAPublic/PDF/CommunityTAAFFOFINAL2.pdf.
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Commerce Taking Up Need to Commercialize More Federal
R&D
Describing the nation’s innovation system as broken, U.S.
Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke yesterday said the Department of
Commerce will be “working hard to find solutions” that
move more federally funded R&D into the commercial market.
“Even in areas where we are allocating enough funding for
R&D, we’re not doing a good enough job getting these
ideas into the marketplace, particularly through
entrepreneurs.
“For much of the last century, the way we moved federal
R&D out of our labs and into the marketplace worked well
enough… It wasn't a terribly efficient system, but for a
time, it didn't really matter, because the United States was the
unquestioned leader in innovation…
“But those days are over – and today, too many of
our research ideas never make it out of the lab, and if they do,
they get lost in the “valley of death,” where a
high-risk idea doesn't have the resources or the funding to make it
to market.
“The United States has not adjusted to a new global
marketplace where foreign countries and foreign companies have the
ability to outpace their American counterparts.
“It’s not tenable for the United States to continue with
the status quo. In a world where innovation is critical to U.S.
competitiveness, we must do everything in our power to optimize
commercialization that stems from our nation’s vast research
investments.”
While his remarks talk broadly for all federal R&D, it
appears Sec. Locke’s attention at first will be on federal
research conducted at universities. He will host an invitation-only
forum on Feb 24 to “discuss potential collaborative steps
that the Commerce Department and administration can take working
with universities and industry to increase and accelerate
commercialization of federal R&D in universities.”
Sec. Locke’s comments are available at: http://www.commerce.gov/NewsRoom/SecretarySpeeches/prod01_008812.
His related Jan 7 speech to the President’s Council of
Advisors on Science and Technology is available at: http://www.commerce.gov/NewsRoom/SecretarySpeeches/PROD01_008778.
Questions regarding the forum should be directed to entrepreneurship@doc.gov. The
press release is available at:
http://www.commerce.gov/NewsRoom/PressReleases_FactSheets/PROD01_008813.
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University-based Research Initiatives Slated for Reduction in
Georgia Budget
Gov. Sonny Perdue last week outlined an $18.2 billion budget for
FY11 that reduces spending across several state agencies, including
a $9.6 million reduction for R&D activities through the
Research Consortium. The governor’s budget also would
eliminate two science, technology, engineering and mathematics
(STEM) programs within the Department of Education.
The Research Consortium, which supports R&D and tech-based
economic development activities at Georgia’s research
universities, would receive $16.7 million in FY11, down from $26.3
million approved last year. Executive recommendations include
eliminating funding for the Traditional Industries Program ($1.6
million) and the Bio-Refinery program ($200,000).
The governor’s budget also would reduce by approximately
$5 million certain investments made by the Georgia Research
Alliance in core research labs and centers of excellence and
eliminate its Next Generation Vaccine Collaboration Planning
Grants Initiative. Launched in 2007, the initiative leverages the
talent and infrastructure strengths of Georgia’s major
research universities to promote new investment in vaccine and drug
development.
For the Advanced Technology Development Center (ATDC)/Economic
Development Institute, the governor recommends $21.4 million, down
from $24.8 million in FY10. This includes a reduction of $2.5
million for the seed capital fund.
Two STEM programs within the Department of Education again are
on the chopping block after lawmakers restored funding for the
programs last year. The governor’s budget would eliminate
$250,000 for the Georgia Youth Science and Technology program,
which offers educational programming that increases student and
teacher interest in STEM fields, and $500,000 from the National
Science Center and Foundation. This program promotes student
interest in math and science by offering education programs and
developing and helping schools implement educational technology.
Gov. Sonny Perdue’s FY11 budget is available at: http://www.opb.state.ga.us/.
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Governor’s Budget Includes $5.9M for KTEC
Gov. Mark Parkinson last week unveiled his FY11 budget proposal,
which includes $5.9 million from the Economic Development
Initiatives Fund (EDIF) for the Kansas Technology Enterprise
Corporation (KTEC), down $1.8 million from the FY10
governor’s estimate of $7.75 million. Many of the
governor’s budget recommendations, including funding for KTEC
and university research initiatives, may hinge on a tax increase
proposal, however.
Proposed KTEC reductions include $600,000 in funding that the
agency allocated for the Product Development Financing program to
make investments in early-stage companies through KTEC Holdings,
Inc., a wholly-owned subsidy of KTEC and $143,000 from the
Commercialization program used to support the Entrepreneurship
Centers and PIPELINE Mentoring program.
Gov. Parkinson is asking lawmakers to approve a 1 percent sales
tax increase for three years and an additional 55-cent tax on
cigarettes to help fill a projected $380 million budget gap.
Funding for KTEC and university research initiatives are among a
list slated for possible cuts or elimination if no revenue package is enacted. Last year, KTEC emerged a stand-alone entity
following a proposal by former Gov. Kathleen Sebelius to
consolidate the agency with the Department of Commerce (see the
Jan.
21, 2009 issue of the Digest).
The governor’s budget also includes the following
recommendations from the EDIF:
- $2.4 million for University and Technology Strategic Research,
five university-based research centers of excellence;
- $1 million for the Mid-America Manufacturing Technology Center
(MAMTC), which provides business assistance in improving
manufacturers’ technical capabilities; and,
- $346,904 for Kansas, Inc., which conducts economic development
planning, policy research and program evaluation.
Gov. Parkinson recommends $10 million from the EDIF for aviation
research, training and equipment through Wichita State University.
However, $5 million set aside for research also appears on the list of budget-cutting options.
The transfer to the Kansas Bioscience Authority (KBA) is capped
at $35 million in the governor’s budget, which would be
reduced to $30 million in absence of the tax increase.
The executive budget is available at: http://budget.ks.gov/gbr.htm.
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Florida 5-Year Plan Advocates STEM, Clusters & Tech
Commercialization
Enterprise Florida released its latest five-year strategic plan
for the state, calling for increased investment in STEM education,
university research, commercialization assistance and early-stage
capital access programs. Florida must diversify its economy and
strengthen its high-tech industries in order to reduce the
state’s reliance on population-based growth, according to the
report. Enterprise Florida also endorses a cluster-based strategy
to promote high-tech industries based on their relative levels of
development in the state.
The strategic plan identifies three categories of industries
that are vital to the state’s economic diversification.
- Florida’s foundational clusters, including
advanced manufacturing, agriculture, construction, marine, space
and tourism, are current areas of strength that can be leveraged to
help the state expand into newer, more cutting-edge
industries.
- Expanding clusters, such as aviation/aerospace, clean
energy, financial/professional services, homeland security/defense,
infotech and life sciences, represent opportunities for the state
to assert its national and global leadership. The report includes
projects and areas of research that could help the state
differentiate itself and thrive in these industry clusters.
- Emerging clusters are clusters that do not yet have
significant footholds in Florida, and will require the state to be
prepared for their emergence by building strong collaborative
networks and effective science and research policies.
Nanotechnology, global logistics and creative industries are
identified as potential state clusters. Enterprise Florida
recommends that the state establish a science and technology policy
advisory committee to help steer state funding for research and
commercialization in the future.
The report includes six pillars of economic development that are
important to building strong clusters in any category: talent,
innovation, growth leadership/infrastructure, business climate,
global connections and quality of life. Several of these pillars
include recommendations related to TBED.
In 2006, the state made a one-time investment in the
21st Century World Class Scholars program, a fund that
was used to attract 16 leading scientists to the state. Florida
should recapitalize that fund, as well as expand the state’s
university Centers of Excellence program and redouble efforts to
secure federal research funding, according to the plan. To increase
the volume and quality of corporate R&D, the report suggests
that the state should enact a state R&D tax credit and expand
the Florida Innovation Fund, which provides incentives to attract
corporate R&D facilities and nonprofit research institutes.
In order to increase the flow of technologies to the market, the
report calls for the continuation of the State University Research
Commercialization Assistance Grant program, a permanent version of
the state’s SBIR Phase 0 pilot program, and a new program to
provide equity investments in small technology businesses. The
report also recommends that existing capital programs, such as the
Florida Opportunity Fund and the Florida Growth Fund be directed to
focus more of their investments on early-stage companies.
Roadmap to Florida’s Future: 2010-2015 Strategic Plan
for Economic Development is available at: http://www.eflorida.com/Floridas_Future.aspx?id=8186.
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Useful Stats
“Eroding Dominance” Theme of S&E Indicators
2010
Current trends presented in the 2010 edition of the
National Science Board’s biennial Science &
Engineering Indicators suggest as early as the 2012 edition,
the U.S. will no longer leads the world for a key indicator: total R&D expenditures – unless corrective action
is taken.
The bump in U.S. spending from the 2009 ARRA/Stimulus may delay
the inevitable until 2014, however. Regardless, the
overall tone of the report suggests the previous decade of flat
spending and little coordinated national innovation policy has had
the anticipated negative impacts relative to other countries.
"The data begin to tell a worrisome story," said Kei Koizumi,
assistant director for federal R&D in the President's Office of
Science and Technology Policy. “U.S. dominance has eroded
significantly."
For instance:
- China has reached the U.S. level in terms of its number of
researchers. This number has spiked in the past decade making this
trend worrisome for those who are concerned about the United States
keeping its competitive edge in producing cutting-edge research
across the scientific disciplines.
- Large companies continue to shift R&D expenditures to Asia.
Overseas research spending by U.S. multinationals in Asia (excluding
Japan) has increased from 5% in 1995 to 14% in 2006.
- Over the past decade, R&D intensity--how much of a
country's economic activity or gross domestic product is expended
on R&D--has grown considerably in Asia, while remaining steady
in the U.S. Annual growth of R&D expenditures in the U.S.
averaged 5 to 6 percent while in Asia, it has skyrocketed. In some
Asian countries, R&D growth rate is two, three, even four,
times that of the U.S.
- In terms of R&D expenditures as a share of economic output,
while Japan has surpassed the U.S. for quite some time, South Korea
is now in the lead--ahead of the U.S. and Japan.
- While the U.S. continues to lead the world in research
publications, China has become the second most prolific
contributor. China's rapidly developing science base now produces
8 percent of the world's research publications, up from just 2
percent of the world's share in 1995, when it ranked 14th.
The report includes these and other key indicators, such as the
patents, globalization of capability; funding, performance and
portfolio of U.S. R&D trends; and the composition of the U.S.
S&E workforce.
Science and Engineering Indicators 2010 is available at:
http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/indicators.
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Staff Picks
Green Jobs and Energy Stimulus Funding Released
The Labor Department announced $190M in State Energy Sector
Partnership and Training Grants for 34
awards. An announcement was made last week for $150M to
38
projects also aimed at creating green jobs. This joins funding
announced earlier in January for Energy Training Partnership Grants
of $100M for 25
projects.
Meanwhile, the Department of Energy announced two recipients of
$77.8M for biofuels research and fueling infrastructure and $37M
for 17 awards
for solid-state lighting technologies.
NM Gov Richardson Signs Green Jobs Exec Order
Gov. Bill
Richardson issued an executive order to implement recommendations
of his Green Jobs Cabinet.
Read more...
Iowa Defines “Green Jobs”
Meanwhile, Iowa released its definition of “green
jobs.”
Read more...
Southern CA Edison Awards $1M for Green Jobs
Southern California Edison is providing $100,000 each to 10 community
colleges for green education and job training.
Read more...
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