In This Week's Issue
SSTI News and Analysis
SSTI Conference Room Block Ends Monday
Going to SSTI's 14th Annual Conference in Pittsburgh, September 14-16, 2010? Our hotel block at the Omni William Penn is filling up quickly. Reserve your room by August 23 to receive our special rate. To make a reservation call 1-800-THE-OMNI.
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Strategy & Alliance Building
Missouri Group Working on Plan to Transform
State's Economy
With input from industry leaders in life sciences and tech-based
organizations, a group convened by Gov. Jay Nixon is tasked with
identifying a vision and mission to transform the
state's economy within five years targeting
high-growth industries. By the end of the year, the group hopes to
identify six to eight key initiatives most likely to impact the
economy. Tech-based components will be critical to the plan, with
details forthcoming.
The Missouri
Strategic Initiative for Economic Growth enlists the leadership
of a 40-member task force that includes representatives from
business, labor, higher education, and economic development
agencies. Representatives from the life sciences sector include
Kelly Gillespie, Executive Director of Missouri Biotechnology
Association, Don Rubin, Executive Director of the Coaliton for
Plant and Life Sciences, and Daniel Getman, President of Kansas
City Area Life Sciences Institute. Over the next six months, the
group will gather and analyze data and provide input and
recommendations on proposed strategies and tactical action
plans.
The plan comes during a time when the state is struggling to
fund life science initiatives. During his
State of the State Address earlier this year, Gov. Nixon
introduced a proposal to create a funding source aimed at
attracting top scientists, commercializing research, recruiting and
building science infrastructure, and creating capital programs for
early stage technology companies (see the Jan. 6,
2010 issue of the Digest). Under the Missouri Science
and Reinvestment Act (MOSIRA), which failed to garner full
legislative support, an annual portion of new tax revenues
generated by biotechnology companies would be dedicated to a
newly-created state fund. The funding then would be reinvested into
a wide-range of technology-based economic development programs.
Adding to the state's woes, lawmakers
included no new funding this year for the Missouri Life Sciences
Research Trust Fund, which was established in 2003 to support life
science research, commercialization, and technology transfer using
a portion of the state's tobacco settlement
funds. In 2007, the General Assembly approved a one-time
appropriation of $13.4 million for the fund, followed with a $21
million allocation in FY09 (see the May 21,
2007 and May 14,
2008 issues of the Digest). Last year, lawmakers
appropriated $13.3 million for the fund; however, the funds later were
restricted due to the budget shortfall and, therefore, no funds
were granted.
Learn More About Alternative Models and Sustainability for
Financing TBED at SSTI Conference
Most states are struggling in the aftermath of the Great
Recession. Mid-year rescissions, furloughs and the uncertainty of
annual appropriations is no way to develop a long-term economic
recovery strategy. There are alternatives to annual appropriation
battles — and an increasing number of states and
communities are implementing some more creative ways to support and
sustain their TBED portfolios. In this session, we'll profile SSTI
research on the broad range of options being used across the
country, before focusing on one of the more lucrative, long-term
models for financing TBED: securing voter approval for bonds, sale
taxes and other referenda. Learn more about the session ...
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Learn More about the Administration's
Vision and Opportunities at SSTI's
Conference
The Obama administration's vision for the
future of innovation and economic growth includes a commitment to
the green energy sector. At the SSTI Annual Conference, held
September 14-16 in Pittsburgh, you will be able to talk with officials from
federal agencies and other experts who will provide insight into the
administration's vision and enable you to
capitalize on the increasing federal opportunities. This is an
invaluable opportunity to strengthen your understanding of federal
opportunities and forge closer relationships with key federal
agencies for supporting state and local TBED initiative. To learn
more about strengthening your relationship with federal agencies
visit: http://www.ssticonference.org/
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Federal
Green Manufacturing Sector Gets a Boost from DOE
The Department of Energy will be accepting applications for
projects that manufacture commercial renewable energy systems and
components (e.g., energy storage systems, wind turbine systems,
blades or solar photovoltaic components) through a new $750 million
loan guarantee program. Energy Secretary Steven Chu believes the
Commercial Technology Manufacturing Systems and Components
solicitation will help to increase employment in the green
manufacturing sector and keep U.S. green manufactures competitive
in the global market. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act
through Section 1705 of the Loan Guarantee Program will support
this solicitation. Read
more about the program ...
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Universities
State University of New York system attempts to become
"the Engine of New York's
Economic Revitalization"
Nancy L. Zimpher, the Chancellor of the State University of New
York (SUNY), believes that SUNY campuses statewide can become
"the engine of New York's
economic revitalization."Chancellor
Zimpher's vision of economic development fueled
by higher education is supported by a recent report from the
Rockefeller institute of Government. The report describes a new
paradigm of economic development in which university-driven
economic development will replace the traditional mix of business
attraction and retention incentives. The report lists five
essential elements that must be leveraged for universities to
become engines of economic revitalization. New
"Technology Transfer" hubs at SUNY's
five campuses are among SUNY's efforts.
"Trends [in higher education] suggest a new
paradigm for economic development programs — one
that puts higher education at the center of
states' efforts to succeed in the knowledge
economy" according to the Rockefeller report. The authors
found these common trends among universities across the country:
- Putting their research power to work by developing new ideas
that will strengthen the country's competitive
edge in the new economy — and then by helping to
deploy those innovations into commercial use;
- Providing a wide range of knowledge-focused services to
businesses and other employers, including customized job-training
programs, hands-on counseling, technical help, and management
assistance;
- Embracing a role in the cultural, social, and educational
revitalization of their home communities; and,
- Educating people to succeed in the
innovation age.
After looking at successful university-driven economic development models
nationwide, the authors believe they have indentified the five
essential elements for universities nationwide to fulfill their
potential as the engines of economic revitalization:
- Leadership
- Flexibility
- Culture
- Resources
- A New Paradigm
Under the new paradigm, knowledge — research,
technology transfer, management assistance, and/or worker training
provided by universities — is the lead incentive
that states offer businesses they want to attract or grow. Read the
report.
SUNY, the Research Foundation of SUNY and SUNY campuses
statewide launched five regional "Technology
Transfer" hubs. The hubs will be located at the
University at Albany, Binghamton University, and University at
Buffalo, the College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering and Stony
Brook University. Leveraging over $1 billion in research
expenditures, these hubs will serve as regional service providers
to turn innovations, inventions and ideas into products and
materials.
Read the
press release.
Learn How to Leverage your Regions Higher Education at
SSTI's 2010 Conference.
Our research-intensive and regional universities and community
colleges must play bigger roles in maintaining and sustaining U.S.
competitiveness. The successful leveraging of higher education
assets has spurred economic growth across the country! Has your
region benefited from your universities and community colleges?
SSTI's 2010 conference will help you take the
steps necessary to build a strong regional economic development,
which places universities at the front of innovation and
entrepreneurship. To learn more about conference sessions that will
provide you the knowledge to develop your regions economic
development plan and how to incorporate institutions of higher
education visit: http://www.ssticonference.org/
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Free NIST TIP-MEP Regional Meeting at SSTI Annual Conference
on Sept. 14
"Tapping the Technology Innovation Program and the Manufacturing
Extension Partnership"
On September 14th from 9:00 A.M.-12:00 P.M.,
SSTI is co-hosting a regional meeting with officials from the
Technology Innovation Program (TIP) and the Manufacturing Extension
Partnership (MEP) that we encourage you or one of your colleagues
to attend. TIP and MEP are two of the most market-driven programs
offered by the federal government. The meeting will give you a
chance to learn directly from officials with the two programs
about:
- New federal funding opportunities;
- New resources to support early stage research;
- New products and services to expand manufacturing;
- New tools to help foster growth and innovation in companies you
work with;
- New models to accelerate technology commercialization and
translation; and,
- New ideas about ways to integrate state, local, and federal
investments.
Who should attend?
- Company officials responsible for R&D or new product
development;
- Local and regional economic developers interested in
innovation;
- University technology transfer officials;
- Managers from nonprofits interested in commercialization of
new technologies; and
- State technology-based economic development program
managers.
Attendance for the regional meeting is free, but registration is
required. To register for the meeting, please go to: http://www.ssti.org/tipreg/tipreg.htm.
You can also sign up when you register for the
conference.
The meeting will be held at the Omni William Penn Hotel in
downtown Pittsburgh, and will immediately precede SSTI's 14th
Annual Conference (separate registration required.) For more
information regarding SSTI's conference, Accelerating Regional
Innovation: The Road Ahead for Technology-based Economic
Development, please visit: http://ssticonference.org/.
For those participants coming into town the night before the
MEP/TIP Regional Meeting, a small room block is being held at the
Omni William Penn at the rate of $189/night plus tax. Rooms must be
booked by August 23. Call the hotel at 1-800-THE-OMNI to book your
room; ask for the State Science & Technology Institute meeting
block.
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Entrepreneurship & Commercialization
Delays and Costs Still Vex U.S. Patent
System
President Barack Obama has authorized the U.S.
Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) to spend an additional $129
million of the fees it will collect this year to improve operations
and hire new patent examiners. The newly authorized funds represent
fee collections that exceed earlier projections for the year, due
to an improving economy and a streamlined review process. Despite
that bump in productivity, a recent survey of the U.S. patent
system found that entrepreneurs believe that the system is merely
"muddling through" and does little to
encourage innovation. The survey identifies the cost and delays
associated with patenting as the primary reason entrepreneurs
choose not to patent new technologies.
Though the $129 million additional authorization
for the patent office is encouraging for those interested in
speeding up the patent review process, it is not unusual. The USPTO
is fully funded through the fees paid by patent registrants. Each
year, the agency's budget appropriation is set
using projections of the year's fee revenues. In
years when those revenues exceed projections, the office has
petitioned Congress and the White House for an increased spending
authorization.
Since 1992, however, a portion of these fees
have been redirected for other uses by Congress. Last year, a
spending bill provision that would have allowed the agency to spend
up to $100 million in additional funds without Congressional
approval was dropped at the last minute. This
year's agency budget was originally set at
$1.887 billion based on anticipated fees, though USPTO now expects
to collect an additional $200 million. The new authorization will
still fall short of the full fee revenue. Meanwhile, budget
constraints within the USPTO have led to a growing backlog of
applications that could take another five years to eliminate,
according to a
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel report.
Read the USPTO announcement at:
http://www.uspto.gov/news/pr/2010/10_36.jsp.
Delays in the patent review process can increase
the costs associated with patent registration, and can hurt
companies that rely on patents to attract investors. A white paper
from the Department of Commerce, released in April, suggests that
delays in the granting of patents have substantial costs for
startups and can discourage venture investors. The paper recommends
that Congress pass the long-debated patent reform bill, which would
allow the USPTO to set its own fees. This would mitigate the degree
to which the agency relies on maintenance fees from patents that
have already been granted to subsidize the front-end review
process. It also recommends an enhanced post-grant review process
to reduce the number of legal challenges, saving money for both
patent holders and the agency.
Read Patent Reform: Unleashing Innovation,
Promoting Economic Growth & Producing High-Paying Jobs at:
http://2001-2009.commerce.gov/s/groups/public/@doc/@os/@opa/documents/content/prod01_009147.pdf.
The 2008 Berkeley Patent Survey, the first in an
anticipated series of comprehensive surveys of patenting and
entrepreneurship in the U.S., revealed a bit of ambiguity on the
part of entrepreneurs regarding the patent system. The survey
collected responses from more than 1,332 executives from early
stage technology companies founded since 1998. Startup executives
reported that patents offer relatively weak incentives to
innovation, though opinions vary greatly by industry.
Biotechnology, medical device and IT hardware
firms see patents as much more important than their counterparts in
the software and Internet industries. Among executives in the
patent-friendly industries, most saw patents as playing an
important role in preventing copying, improving the
company's odds of securing investments, imcreasing the odds and quality of a liquidity event and enhancing the company's reputation. Patenting
was seen as important to securing startup financing in every
industry.
The most commonly cited reason for not pursuing
a patent was the cost. Cost considerations, in this case, include
the cost of filing a application, maintaining a patent and
prosecuting patent infringers. The cost of filing an application
was more of a deterrent for smaller firms than for larger firms.
Software and Internet companies were the most likely firms to be
dissuaded by the cost. Biotechnology companies cited a reluctance
to disclose information as their primary reason for not pursuing
patents.
The authors conclude that the U.S. patent system
is working neither well, nor poorly. Entrepreneurs were more likely
to believe that the patent system was working well for their
company, than to believe that the system was good for their
industry as a whole. Patenting still plays an important role in
securing capital for new businesses, but the costs associated with
filing and protecting a patent appear to be a significant drain on
capital over time. Also, delays in the granting of patents can
discourage investors providing timely injections of capital.
Read High Technology Entrepreneurs and the
Patent System: Results of the 2008 Berkeley Patent Survey at:
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1429049.
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Interact with Federal Officials Discussing
Universities' Roles in Innovation at SSTI
Conference
SSTI's popular plenary format with instant
audience polling allows you to take part in the most pressing
issues facing the TBED community by providing input, asking
questions, and contributing data from your state or region. Through
a request for information on commercializing university technology
and a series of regional meetings, Obama administration officials
have been seeking input on what universities'
economic development roles have been, haven't
been, should be, and what the federal government should do about
it.
In this engaging, highly interactive session, Ginger Lew, a
senior Obama administration official and Tom Peterson from the
National Science Foundation will provide an overview of what has
been learned from these efforts and the
administration's thinking on the topic of
university technology commercialization. The session will be
moderated by Mike Cassidy, President of the Georgia Research
Alliance. Read
more ...
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Broadband Adoption Slows in
2010
Years of double digit growth in broadband adoption have come to a
halt, according to a report from the Pew Internet and
American Life Project. Two-thirds of Americans currently use a
high-speed Internet connection at home, about the same as in 2009.
Among African-Americans, however, usage continued to surge, jumping
from 46 percent in 2009 to 56 percent in 2010. A majority of
respondents said that increasing broadband adoption should not be a
priority of the federal government. On the same day the report was
released, President Barack Obama signed a
$26 billion jobs bill that will draw $302 million from the
funds appropriated for broadband expansion in the Recovery Act.
Read the report ...
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Join the Southern Advanced Materials in
Transportation Alliance (SAMTA)
Want to participate in a new concept in
innovation clusters? The Southern Advanced
Materials in Transportation Alliance (SAMTA) is a regional
innovation cluster that promotes the research, commercialization,
and production of new and specialized materials important to the
automotive and aerospace industries. Although traditional
clusters are based on geographic concentration, SAMTA will use
telecommunications networks to minimize geographic distance and
facilitate the industry network. The Economic Development
Administration has provided seed funding for this project. If you
are a researcher, businessperson, or advocate, working in, or with
facilities in the South and want to be on the mailing list, email
Scott Doron at sdoron@southern.org.
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Staff Picks
$25M Available for High-Speed Passenger Rail Research & Technology Demonstration
A pool of $25 million is available for research proposals aimed at fostering rapid development of high-speed and intercity passenger rail service technologies in the U.S.
Read more ...
i3 Grants for Education Reform Awarded; Matching Funds Required
Forty-nine school districts, nonprofit education organizations and institutions of higher education were selected to receive a total $650 million to support local efforts to start or expand research-based innovative programs that help close the achievement gap and improve outcomes for high-need students. The awards are part of the Investing in Innovation Program (i3) funded with federal stimulus dollars. Grantees must secure a 20 percent match from the private sector.
Read more ...
No Economic Crisis for Highly-Educated in U.S.?
In his recent post on education attainment, Matthew Yglesias says that among college graduates, there simply isn't an economic crisis in the U.S. He points to statistics from the U.S. Department of Labor on employment status for individuals 25 years and over by educational attainment, which stood at 4.5 percent in July for those with a Bachelor's degree and higher.
CQ Politics: Spending Panels Set for Membership Changes
Appropriations panels in both chambers are set for significant changes next year, according to this article from CQ Politics. Four of the six congressional incumbents who have lost to their party rivals in primary contests this year were longtime appropriators, and three GOP appropriators have lost their primary elections for other offices.
CA Officials Slam DOE for Stalling on Energy Grants
With more than 12,000 new, high-paying construction and manufacturing jobs on the line and the opportunity to replace a large portion of the state's fossil fuel-powered electric generation with nonpolluting energy, California state officials are pressing the Department of Energy to speed up the approval process for loan guarantees for projects valued at as much as $30 billion.
Read more ...
Value of Colorado New Energy Economy Initiative Questioned
Although Colorado added 6,500 clean-energy jobs since the 2007 push toward a "New Energy Economy," critics question the value of the state's investment in one particular industry, pointing to a loss of 7,100 jobs in June alone.
Read more ...
European Countries Have Powerful Incentives to Pursue Renewable Energy, Compared with U.S.
To catch up to countries like Portugal, the U.S. must overcome obstacles like a fragmented, outdated energy grid poorly suited to renewable energy; a historic reliance on plentiful and cheap supplies of fossil fuels, especially coal; powerful oil and coal industries that often oppose incentives for renewable development; and energy policy that is heavily influenced by individual states, energy experts say.
Read more ...
Tough Times in Ireland a Result of Massive Spending Cuts?
This article from the Los Angeles Times examines the aftermath of Ireland's austerity plan. The country, once viewed as a trailblazer for its massive spending cuts, is now faced with rising public debt, dwindling private investment and record numbers of people out of work.
Read more ...
Incubators Rise Again as High-Tech Job Creators
Business incubators, which took off in the early 1980s and stalled after the dot-com bubble burst, are back in record high numbers, according to the National Business Incubation Association. With the introduction of new federal legislation to fund operations and support services, policymakers hope to jump start job creation in high-growth industries.
Read more ...
Graphic Shows Innovation Bang for R&D Bucks
This infographic by accounting firm Grant Thornton purports to show how efficient 30 different countries are at innovation by showing the ratio between patents granted in a country, and the total R&D expenditures there.
Read more ...
Partnership Allows Georgia Students to Access Career-Enhancing Technology Resources
A new partnership between Georgia Gwinnett College and the Technology Association of Georgia (TAG) aims to enhance curriculum and marketability of students' degrees by allowing students seeking a technology-based career to access TAG resources and networking opportunities.
Read more ...
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