In This Week's Issue
SSTI News and Analysis
Commerce's EDA Launches New Website to
Accelerate Regional Innovation
Speaking at the U.S. Economic Development
Administration's (EDA) Southwest Region
Conference on Innovation and Entrepreneurship in Albuquerque, N.M.,
U.S. Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Economic Development John
Fernandez today unveiled a new website to connect Venture
Development Organizations (VDO) in America's
regions and accelerate economic development efforts that promote
growth and job creation. The Regional Innovation Acceleration
Network (RIAN) will bring VDOs together to share best practices and
leverage resources that will strengthen regional economic
ecosystems.
Developed in partnership with the State Science & Technology
Institute, the new website — www.regionalinnovation.org —
highlights how VDOs are helping entrepreneurs turn their
innovations into businesses by providing direct funding and
increasing access to capital.
"The Regional Innovation Acceleration Network
builds on President Obama's national innovation
agenda by bringing Venture Development Organizations within
America's regions together to help increase
business development and competitiveness," Fernandez
said. "Across the nation, these
organizations are helping to grow local economies and create jobs,
and this new network will enhance their impact and
efficiency."
RIAN offers an interactive map designed to help economic
development practitioners identify their regional innovation
colleagues, where they operate, and connect with them. To
facilitate the growth of existing innovation networks, the website
provides technical assistance; and for those regions where networks
have yet to develop, it provides the means for peer-to-peer sharing
of information between existing and emerging VDOs.
VDO's are nonprofit, business-driven
partnership organizations that include government, community
foundations, universities and civic organizations that work
together to promote technology and innovation-based
development. They provide a multifaceted portfolio of
services tailored to address the specific needs of the regional
economy, helping to create 21st century jobs.
To visit the Regional Innovation Acceleration Network, click
here.
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FL Legislature Creates New Department of Economic
Opportunity
Florida lawmakers approved legislation to reorganize economic
development efforts by establishing a new government-run agency to
coordinate programs and adding divisions to the public-private
partnership, Enterprise Florida. Within the newly created
Department of Economic Opportunity, lawmakers established a trust
fund and approved $125 million for strategic investments.
The Department of Economic Opportunity will coordinate services
and programs related to economic development, workforce
development, community planning, and affordable housing. Gov. Rick
Scott proposed an economic development overhaul in his State of the
State address to consolidate and streamline services related to job
creation. Enterprise Florida will remain the
state's primary organization for economic
development and continue to lead efforts to recruit and expand
businesses, according to Florida Trend. The Black Business
Investment Board and the Florida Sports Foundation will become
divisions within Enterprise Florida and Space Florida and Visit
Florida will contract with Enterprise Florida, but remain
independent, the article states.
HB 7205 creates the State Economic Enhancement and Development
Trust Fund (SEED) within the new Department of Economic
Opportunity, and beginning in July 2012, the bill redirects $75
million from documentary stamp tax revenues currently dedicated to
affordable housing and $50 million currently dedicated to the state
Transportation Fund into the SEED trust fund. Revenues are expected
to grow to $75 million over the next three years.
Florida's space industry will receive more
than $43 million in funding and tax credits for business
recruitment, infrastructure and R&D in the coming year
following budget approval. Space Florida is slated to receive $10
million for efforts aimed at job creation and business recruitment.
Another $16 million in infrastructure funding was approved for
launch support facilities within the Transportation Trust Fund.
Lawmakers passed
HB 143 this session providing $10 million in tax credits to
attract space-related businesses. The measure also allocates $7.1
million for R&D tax credits.
Funding for biomedical research was reduced by half under the
budget agreement. A total $25 million will be transferred to
the Biomedical Research Trust Fund within the Department of Health
with $5 million each appropriated to the following programs: the
James and Esther King Biomedical Research Program, the William
Bankhead and David Coley Cancer Research Program, the Mofitt Cancer
Center and Research Institute, Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer
Center, and University of Florida Shands Cancer Center.
A full list of FY12 appropriations acts and conference committee
reports is available at:
http://www.flsenate.gov/Session/Appropriations/2011/Senate/ConfCommRprts.
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Lawmakers Extend CO Bioscience Program, Approve New Funding
Source
Lawmakers added another five years to the life of a bioscience
program established in 2008 to encourage bioscience research and
speed technology commercialization (see the May 14,
2008 issue of the Digest). Gov. John Hickenlooper this
week signed into law
HB 1283 extending the state's Bioscience
Discovery Evaluation Grant program through July 2018. The enacted
budget includes $5.5 million in FY12 from gambling tax revenues for
the program to distribute proof-of-concept grants and provide
support for early stage bioscience companies and
infrastructure.
Another bill passed during the session will set up seed funding
for bioscience companies using the growth of future income tax
withholdings from the biotech and clean-tech industries.
SB 47 takes 50 percent of the future growth of income tax
withholdings from the clean-tech and bioscience industries and puts
them in funds to be used as seed money for startup companies and
inventions, reports the Denver Business Journal. It is
expected to generate about $2 million per year for each industry.
The measure awaits action from Gov. Hickenlooper.
The appropriations bill for FY12 signed into law by the governor
also includes level funding of $2.7 million for Colorado First
Customized Job Training and $764,397 for the Council on Creative
Industries. This new division merged several agencies last year to
establish an office for driving economic growth in
Colorado's creative industry sectors.
SB 11-209 (the FY12 long bill) is available at: http://www.leg.state.co.us/.
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NSF Emphasizes Impact and Metrics in Five-Year Plan
The National Science Foundation (NSF) has released a five-year
strategic plan for the agency, focused on education and research
impact. Under the goals set in the report, NSF would weigh
intellectual merit and the broader impacts of research more heavily
when evaluating research proposals. The agency also would increase
its use of resources, such as the STAR METRICS project, which
provide a clearer assessment of the impact of science investments.
Read the plan...
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Companies Focus on Incremental Innovations to Fuel
Competitiveness, Ernst & Young Reports
Over the last three years, 87 percent of companies have grown
their product portfolio through incremental innovations, according
to an Ernst & Young report — Competing
for Growth Approximately 75 percent of new products developed
are intended for consumers in the established markets of the
developed world. Respondents, however, envision the new global
shifting its focus away from these established markets towards the
emerging markets. Seventy percent of respondents indicated that
their companies are becoming more global due to the recession.
The diversification of product portfolios is fueled by the
necessity to enter into these emerging markets in Asia, Africa, the
Middle East and the Americas. The report shows that companies are
increasing R&D budgets to support product development intended
for these emerging markets due to increased consumer demand. China
(44 percent of respondents) and India (47 percent) remain the two
most sought after markets by international companies due to their
rapidly increasing standards of living and their enormous
populations. Other countries of interest include Brazil, Russia,
Poland, Mexico and Argentina. U.S. companies in-large prefer China
over India. In contrast, European and the advanced economies of
Asia-Pacific prefer India.
Respondents (72 percent) also reported dramatic increase in the
speed of developing goods and services over the last three years.
Respondents point to market volatility as the driving force behind
rapid product development. The authors contend that places pressure
on the supply chain to accommodate the rapid changes in consumer
preferences. These rapid incremental innovations allow countries to
enter new emerging markets and tap into the increased consumer
demand. Read the
report...
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Economic Trends Raise Concerns about the Future of U.S.
Competitiveness, According to Brief
"Productivity growth is below the average rate
of growth that has historically been recorded 39 months after a
business cycle started," according to Growing
Concerns About Future U.S. Competitiveness —
a policy brief by the Center for American Progress. In this report,
researchers examined several short-term economic trends (e.g.,
business investments and innovation) that help to stimulate
long-term competitiveness. The brief contends that sagging
productivity growth partly can be attributed to business investment
that is at its lowest level in four decades and barely is keeping
pace with the rates of depreciation on existing capital. Though, according to data, businesses have sufficient funds to
finance more investment. The report also found that the U.S.
innovation is lagging behind foreign innovation. According to
utility patent data, the share patents granted to U.S. entities
(49.1 percent) by the U.S. Patent Office is at an all time low.
This continues a 15-year-long slide. Read the
brief...
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Useful Stats
Average Venture Capital Deal Size by State, 2005-2010
U.S. average venture capital deal size rose by 6.7 percent in
2010, after having fallen to its lowest point in a decade in 2009.
While California leads in average deal size, Iowa has run a close
second over the past five years. Iowa, Minnesota and Nevada are all
among the middle ranks of states in terms of overall venture
activity, but rank near the top in average deal size. These states
depend on larger deals to sustain their competitiveness in capital
access. Illinois, Colorado and Pennsylvania all ranked in the top
10 for venture activity in 2010, but have lower than average deal
sizes. This indicates that activity in these states is driven by a
high volume of smaller deals. SSTI has prepared a table of average venture capital deal size
by state, 2005-2010. View the table...
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Research Park RoundUp
Research Park RoundUp
Included below are recent development plans and groundbreaking
news for research parks announced by officials in Connecticut,
Colorado, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Nebraska, North Carolina, Rhode
Island and Wisconsin.
Lawmakers last week advanced a
bill to provide $25 million for a new research park at the
University of Nebraska-Lincoln as part of the Innovation Campus.
The Innovation Campus includes a life sciences research center and
a U.S. Department of Agriculture Research facility, reports
Bloomberg.
University of
Connecticut officials announced a plan to build an $18 million
tech park financed with state bonds. The tech park will house
large, flexible-use laboratories with specialized equipment for
research and will provide space for business incubators and
individual companies. The plan also includes $2.5 million in state
funds to create the Innovation Partners Eminent Faculty program
designed to attract top scientists.
The
Colorado Association for Manufacturing and Technology (CAMT)
and private sector companies will develop a research park focused
on aerospace and clean energy research in Colorado following the
Space Act Agreement signed in December between NASA and CAMT. Plans
include housing for up to 100 aerospace and clean energy companies
on a 200-acre campus.
Commissioners approved in March development plans for a 640-acre
energy park in Colorado near the border of Wyoming called
Niobrara Energy Park. The plan is for the park to integrate
different energy sources such as natural gas, wind and solar,
reports the Wyoming Tribune Eagle. Additionally, the park
may have a natural gas processing plant, data center, energy
research center and a 200-acre solar farm.
With funding from a privately funded nonprofit organization, The
University of Rhode Island will complete a feasibility study to
gauge the economic viability of developing a research and
technology park to enhance the university's
research agenda, reports Boston.com.
After being delayed for two years, construction has begun on a
life sciences research park in Louisville and is expected to be
completed in 2012, reports The Courier-Journal. The
park is expected to house new businesses created by University of
Louisville researchers.
The University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth will break ground
later this year on a $23 million biotech manufacturing
demonstration center, according to The Boston Globe. It is
intended to be a facility where fledgling companies coming out of
laboratories in Cambridge and Boston can do pilot or small-scale
production of biologic products, the article states.
Construction on a second research park at the University of
Wisconsin-Madison is slated for 2012. The 270-acre site will be
developed using a New Urbanist design with smaller lots, buildings
that are closer together and walkable neighborhoods, according to a
Wisconsin State-Journal article. Planning for
the park began in 2002.
Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina announced earlier this
year an investment of $16 million to renovate warehouse space
within the Piedmont Triad Research Park, reports The Business
Journal. The old tobacco warehouses will be converted into a
medical laboratory and research facility.
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Staff Picks
Report Says Federal Spending for Science Pays Off
A 23-year study used an economic modeling approach to measure
the direct impact on the national economy from the genome project
and follow-on federal research investments. Findings indicate huge
annual economic gains for the U.S. from its investment.
Read more ...
WSJ: CA Economy Gets a Jolt from Tech Hiring
Tech-focused jobs are on the rise in California where the state
added 90,600 jobs in the first quarter, more than the increase of
82,600 for all of 2010.
Read more ...
WI Jobs Act Would Provide $400M In Early Stage
Capital
Wisconsin legislators have introduced a bill that would create a
new statewide venture capital authority to oversee $400 million to
support early stage investment. The funds would be split between
tax credits to insurance companies for investments and a $200
million fund-of-funds.
Read more ...
GA Two-Year Colleges to Offer Bachelor Degrees
Aiming to meet workforce needs, four of the
state's two-year colleges will offer a limited
number of bachelor degrees in health care, science and technology.
Read more ...
Utah State Workers Return to Five-Day Workweek
Legislators overrode Gov. Gary Herbert's veto
eliminating the state's four-day workweek in
place since 2008 as a means to conserve energy. Department heads
will decide which offices should re-open on Fridays.
Read more ...
Report offers Policy Recommendations for Renewable
Energy
A special report on
renewable energy sources says 80 percent of the world's energy
supply could be met by renewable energy.
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