Digest
Back Issues
November 27, 2006 - SSTI Weekly Digest

In the November 27, 2006 Issue:

Copyright State Science & Technology Institute 2006. Redistribution to all others interested in tech-based economic development is strongly encouraged — please cite the State Science & Technology Institute whenever portions are reproduced or redirected.

Subscription to the SSTI Weekly Digest is free. If you are reading a forwarded copy of this issue and would like to receive your own copy each week directly, please subscribe at http://www.ssti.org/Digest/digform.htm. Requests to unsubscribe also may be completed at http://www.ssti.org/Digest/digform_unsubscribe.htm.

 Science Foundation Arizona Releases Investment Strategy
Science Foundation Arizona (SFAz) has released its strategic investment plan for fiscal year 2006-07, which includes grants to support university research, new high-tech businesses, and K-12 STEM education. The investment strategy will guide SFAz’s grant award decisions during its first year of operations and represents a starting point for the organization, which hopes to develop the plan into a long-term strategy for economic development.
 
The state’s 21st Century Fund, an initiative established by the governor and state legislature during the last session, provides public funding for SFAz’s grant programs. An initial allocation of $35 million will support SFAz’s five cornerstone programs, including:
  • $18 million for Strategic Research Groups, which seed partnerships between research institutions and the private sector;
  • $5 million for Competitive Advantage Awards between $100,000 to $400,000 to support in-state R&D;
  • $4 million for Graduate Student Fellowships of up to $50,000 for as many as 80 science, math and engineering graduate students;
  • $3.5 million for K-12 Student and Teacher Discovery research internships; and,
  • $2 million for Small Business Catalytic (SBC) seed funding to commercialize new technologies.

An additional $2.5 million will support other related strategic initiatives and management of the programs. All grant awards will be based on open competition, and decisions will be made based on external peer review. Several of the programs will begin accepting proposals next month.
 
SFAz was established earlier this year by three Arizona chief executive officer (CEO) groups: Flagstaff 40, Greater Phoenix Leadership and the Southern Arizona Leadership Council. The nonprofit public-private partnership uses public and philanthropic funds to invest in education and strategic research opportunities that strengthen Arizona’s knowledge-based economy. SFAz President and CEO Dr. William Harris believes the organization’s first-year strategy is the first step in diversifying and expanding Arizona’s high-tech industries.
 
More details are available at http://www.sfaz.org.

return to the top of the page

Texas Council Will Address State Competitiveness
Governor Urges Pension Fund to Invest in Emerging Tech Companies
Starting in January, a new advisory council within the Texas Governor’s Office will begin work on a long-term strategy to bolster the state’s economic competitiveness. The Competitiveness Council will be charged with designing an overall framework for cooperation between public and private organizations involved in economic development. Gov. Rick Perry will appoint the group’s members by the end of the year.
 
The governor made the announcement during his keynote address at the Texas Lyceum’s 2006 Public Conference in San Antonio earlier this month. Gov. Perry told the audience of state economic development leaders that the new state strategy devised by the council would be a logical extension of other recent Texas TBED initiatives, such as the Texas Enterprise Fund and the Emerging Technology Fund.
 
In another keynote address at the Lyceum Conference, Dr. Michael Porter of Harvard Business School highlighted the need for a comprehensive competitiveness strategy to address the challenges faced by the Texas economy. Despite the high number of patents generated by its institutions of higher education and the success of some clusters, such as the oil industry in Houston, Texas has been underperforming in areas such as patents per employee and average wage. Porter recommended targeting specific clusters for development in Texas’s metro areas and provided examples of advisory bodies in other states, such as South Carolina and Massachusetts, which have been formed to oversee cluster-based competitiveness strategies and initiatives.
 
Though the size and specific membership has not been announced, the council is expected to include industry leaders, university faculty and administration, state regulatory officials, economic development leaders, and experts on K-12 education. The group's strategy is expected sometime next year.
 
Texas also is considering expanding its public venture capital investments. According to the Austin-American Statesman, Gov. Perry is asking the state’s Teacher Retirement System (TRS) pension fund to invest up to $600 million in companies that receive money from the Emerging Technology Fund (ETF). The $200 million ETF invests exclusively in in-state companies that commercialize new technologies in emerging industries. If TRS agrees to reserve a portion of its investments for ETF awardees, Gov. Perry plans to make similar requests of other state investments funds.
 
For more information about Gov. Perry’s TBED initiatives, visit http://www.governor.state.tx.us.

return to the top of the page

Number of Science and Engineering Doctorates at All-Time High
The number of doctorates awarded in the U.S. within science and engineering (S&E) fields reached an all-time high in 2005, according to a recent National Science Foundation (NSF) issue brief. After the previous high of 27,273 S&E doctorates awarded in 1998, the number decreased for four years until 2002, and has steadily increased the past three years to the 2005 number of 27,974 Ph.D. graduates.
 
NSF’s Division of Science Resources Statistics reports that several groups, including women and non-U.S. citizens, also received a record number of S&E doctorates in 2005. In fact, from 2001 to 2005, S&E doctorates awarded to non-citizens increased by 25 percent, which accounted for almost all of the recent growth in the number of total doctorates awarded. The issue brief indicates there is little evidence of a decline of non-citizen S&E doctorate attainment since the terrorist attacks in September 2001.
 
Specific academic disciplines also recorded all-time highs for doctorates awarded in 2005, including the biological sciences, engineering, mathematics and computer science. The percentage of Ph.D.s awarded to women increased from 1996 to 2005 in the fields of computer science (15 percent to 20 percent), engineering (12 percent to 18 percent) and physics (13 percent to 15 percent). The fields with the highest concentration of women Ph.D. awardees are psychology (68 percent), biological sciences (49 percent), and social sciences (45 percent). The percentage of Ph.D. degrees awarded to women in science and engineering as a whole increased from 32 percent in 1996 to 38 percent in 2005.
 
The NSF issue brief is available at: http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/infbrief/nsf07301/

return to the top of the page

Study Finds Immigrant Entrepreneurs Drive U.S. New Business Formation
One out of four public, venture-backed companies started since 1990 were founded by entrepreneurs who immigrated to the U.S. before starting their company, according to a recent study commissioned by the National Venture Capital Association. Immigrant-founded companies are even more common within high-tech industries, where 40 percent of all new publicly traded firms in the past 16 years have had immigrant founders, including widely-acclaimed IT success stories like Google, Yahoo! and eBay. The aggregate market capitalization of new immigrant-founded tech companies since 1990 exceeds $500 billion.
 
The authors of American Made: The Impact of Immigrant Entrepreneurs and Professionals on US Competitiveness conclude that immigrant entrepreneurs play a vital role in U.S. economic prosperity and that continued growth may depend on maintaining an open system of immigration that encourages entrepreneurs and skilled professionals to relocate to the U.S.. Few immigrant entrepreneurs came to the U.S. to start company. Most arrived as children, students or workers in their early- to mid-20s hired on H-1B visas for workers with specialized knowledge.
 
The current immigration law, and especially the unavailability of H-1B visas, is cutting the U.S. off from this source of new business opportunities, the authors argue. In a survey of 342 immigrant founders of private venture-backed companies, a third claimed that the cap on H-1B visas has caused them to place personnel overseas rather than in the U.S. Two-thirds of these entrepreneurs believe current U.S. immigration policy has made it more difficult to start a business in the U.S. than in the past, and almost that many said current U.S. immigration laws on skilled professionals harm American competitiveness.
 
Despite restrictions, the U.S. continues to benefit from foreign-born entrepreneurs. More than 95 percent of survey respondents reported that they would still start their companies in the U.S. if given the choice today, and a third have already started or intend to start additional companies in the U.S. California is the greatest beneficiary of immigration, with 62 percent of public company headquarters and 56 percent of private company headquarters. In both cases, India was the most common country of origin for the founder, followed by Israel and Taiwan for publicly traded companies and the United Kingdom, China, Iran and France for private companies.
 
The study also includes profiles of select immigrant entrepreneurs and immigrant-founded companies from across the U.S.
 
Access American Made: The Impact of Immigrant Entrepreneurs and Professionals on US Competitiveness at: http://www.nvca.org/pdf/AmericanMade_study.pdf

return to the top of the page

Georgia and Iowa Gauge Impact of Their Universities
Describing the impact of universities can be a vexing issue for both the higher education and TBED communities. Two recent reports, one by the Atlanta Regional Council for Higher Education (ARCHE) and the other by the Iowa Board of Regents, utilize different approaches to help communicate the importance of higher education institutions to a local economy.
 
The ARCHE report combines economic development statistics derived from input-output analysis with the personal stories of seven individuals who in some form are heavily influenced by the presence of the 49 degree-granting, accredited higher education institutions located in the Atlanta region. The report emphasizes the economic and social impact that the region’s universities have on hundreds of thousands of individuals and the state of Georgia. Some of the economic impacts of the region’s universities include:

  • $10.8 billion in spending from institutions, employees, students, visitors and capital expenditures, the total of which is equal to 3.2 percent of the annual gross state product of Georgia;
  • 129,000 jobs are created in Georgia each year in a variety of industry sectors, which is about one in every 25 jobs in Georgia; and,
  • $2.4 billion in state and local taxes paid to Georgia by the alumni of ARCHE institutions.

Each year, the Iowa Board of Regents collects quantifiable information about the sources for external research support and the technology transfer production at the state’s three public universities. For the most recent fiscal year, the total sponsored funding for research at these universities was $442 million. During the same period, Iowa State University, the University of Iowa and Northern Iowa University were responsible for 235 patent applications, 80 new patents, $24.62 million in royalty and fee income, and $44.79 million in revenue from Iowa companies as a direct result of university technologies.

The executive director of the Board of Regents stated that Iowa is second in the nation, only behind the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, in the total number of patents applied for by students, staff and faculty. In addition, the board report states that 10,000 businesses and individuals representing the 99 Iowa counties received technical services and training through programs at these three universities.

The Atlanta Regional Council for Higher Education report is available at: http://www.atlantahighered.org/archereports/econimpact.asp
 
Further details about the funding sources and technology transfer production from the public universities in Iowa can be found at: http://www2.state.ia.us/regents/Meetings/DocketMemos/06Memos/nov06/1106_ITEM02a.pdf

return to the top of the page

Useful Stats
Educational Attainment State Rankings, 2002-2005
According to the U.S. Census Bureau’s recently released 2005 educational attainment figures, 27.7 percent of adults age 25 years and older had received a bachelor's degree or higher; this is up from 26.7 percent in 2002. Across the states, the District of Columbia had the highest percentage of people 25 years and older with at least a bachelor’s degree (47 percent), followed by Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maryland and New Jersey.
 
SSTI has prepared a table presenting the 2002 and 2005 educational attainment percentages and rankings for all 50 states and the District of Columbia. When comparing the 2002 and 2005 reports, Idaho showed the largest percent increase in college graduates (23.9 percent) as well as a significant gain in rank, moving up 20 positions to 26th in 2005. Other states rounding off the top five for rank increases over the four-year period are: North Carolina (nine positions), Oklahoma (eight positions), Alaska (seven positions) and Hawaii (seven positions).

Some states saw their ranks drop, even while their percentage of adults aged 25 years and older with a bachelor's degree or higher increased. Maine, Oregon, South Carolina, Tennessee and Wisconsin all saw their percentages remain steady or increase, but their positions drop in 2005 from 2002.
 
SSTI’s table is available at: http://www.ssti.org/Digest/Tables/112706t.htm

An earlier table SSTI prepared for 2000 and 2002 educational attainment is available at: http://www.ssti.org/Digest/Tables/042503t.htm
 
The U.S. Census survey data are available at: http://www.census.gov/population/www/socdemo/educ-attn.html

return to the top of the page

SSTI Job Corner
Complete descriptions of the position openings described below are available at http://www.ssti.org/posting.htm.

Griffin Analytical Technologies, LLC, a producer of premium chemical detection systems, is seeking a research specialist. Griffin serves U.S. Departments of Defense and Homeland Security applications, environmental health and safety monitoring, and research and teaching laboratories. The research specialist will assist the science team with R&D efforts related to Griffin's products and will be responsible for exploring new applications for Griffin's technology. A Master of Science degree is preferred; however, a Bachelor of Science degree accompanied by five or more years of experience will be considered. Applicants also should have two or more years of applicable experience in mass spectrometer operation and development.

The Penn State Industrial Research Office is seeking a senior technical specialist to facilitate long-term relationships with industry and government and enhance the university's potential for contract research and technology transfer. This person must maintain a thorough understanding of university expertise by interacting with faculty and center directors and supporting proposal development, negotiations and the marketing of licensable technology. The position requires a master's degree or the equivalent in a technical field, plus three years of progressive experience in industry in a marketing or sales environment.

return to the top of the page

State Science & Technology Institute
5015 Pine Creek Drive
Westerville, OH  43081
(614) 901-1690

© 2006 State Science and Technology Institute. All rights reserved.