In This Week's Issue
SSTI News and Analysis
Additional Higher Ed Funding to Support Research, STEM
Efforts in Virginia
To help meet the goals of Virginia's Top
Jobs Act enacted earlier this year, Gov. Bob McDonnell proposed
$200 million in additional higher education funding over the next
two years. A large portion of the new funds would support cancer
and high-tech research, competitive research grant awards, and
efforts to graduate more science, technology, engineering,
mathematics and healthcare (STEM-H) majors.
The Top Jobs Act outlines a plan for achieving an additional
100,000 undergraduate degrees over the next 15 years through a new
higher education funding policy, targeted economic and innovation
incentives, and the creation of a STEM public-private partnership.
In accordance with the legislation, the state's
colleges and universities completed six-year plans identifying
initiatives to help meet those objectives. Gov.
McDonnell's proposed funding for the 2012-14
biennium would support some of the efforts proposed by the
universities, including:
- $20.4 million per year to help universities graduate more
students, especially if those students are STEM-H majors and
graduate in less time than normal;
- $12.4 million per year to support cancer and high-tech research
at higher education institutions and funding for competitive
research grant awards;
- $8.2 million per year to support other STEM-H related
initiatives at entities that support higher education; and,
- $5.1 million per year to support institution specific STEM-H,
graduation and retention, and economic development initiatives
consistent with the goals of the Top Jobs
legislation.
The increased funds proposed by the governor also would provide
additional support for base operating costs, enrollment growth and
student financial aid.
Gov. McDonnell's budget removes a $10 million
per year planned reduction to higher education. However, colleges and
universities must set aside the equivalent of 3 percent of their
general fund support for educational and general operations in FY13
and 5 percent in FY14 to reallocate toward the goals of the Top
Jobs legislation. Funding would be released to the schools once a
plan is approved by the Secretary of Education.
Within the Office of Commerce and Trade, the governor proposed
$10 million over two years to fund a research consortium comprised
of higher education institutions that would contract with private
entities, foundations and other government sources to capture and
perform research in the biosciences.
The 2012-14 budget proposal is available at:
http://www.governor.virginia.gov/utility/docs/2012-2014BiennialBudget_all.pdf.
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Congress Approves Six-Year SBIR Reauthorization
After 14 short-term continuing resolutions and years of
negotiations, the federal Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR)
and Small Business Technology Tranfer (STTR) programs have been
reauthorized through 2017. The legislation changes a number of
features of SBIR/STTR, including making it possible for companies
that are majority-owned by venture capital firms to receive awards.
President Obama is expected to sign the bill in the near future.
Last week, the House of Representatives passed the National
Defense Authorization (HR 1540) conference report, which had
incorporated the SBIR reauthorization. The six-year term of the
conference agreement was a compromise between the three-year
reauthorization approved by the House in April and the eight-year
term passed by the Senate earlier this month. Funding for awards
will increase gradually over the six-year period. Federal science
agency set-asides for SBIR will increase from 2.5 percent of their
budget in the first year to 3.2 percent by 2017. STTR set-asides
will grow from 0.3 percent to 0.45 percent.
The increase in agency set-asides will contribute to a
significant boost in the size of awards. Phase I SBIR and STTR
awards will increase from $100,000 to $150,000. Phase II will
increase from $750,000 to $1 million. Up to 25 percent of the
awards made by the National Institutes of Health, the Department of
Energy and the National Science Foundation can be invested in
companies that are majority-owned by venture capital firms,
including hedge funds or other private equity firms. Other agencies
can make up to 15 percent of their awards in venture
firm-controlled companies.
A new pilot program will allow agencies to use three percent of
SBIR funds for administration, oversight and outreach. This program
helps carry out required data collection on awards and
investigate abuses. It also will be used to encourage
participation of companies in states that receive few awards.
Once signed by the President, the Small Business Administration
will have 180 days to implement the revised rules, during which
time the public will have a change to offer comments and
recommendations.
Read HR 1540 and check its status at: http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d112:h.r.01540:.
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NIST Creates Office for the Advanced Manufacturing
Partnership
This week, the National Institute of Standards and Technology
(NIST) established a new office to coordinate the Advanced
Manufacturing Partnership (AMP), an initiative created by the White
House in June 2011 to facilitate advanced manufacturing
collaborations among industry, academia and government partners.
The National Program Office for AMP involves all federal agencies
related to manufacturing, including the new Office of Manufacturing
Policy of the National Economic Council. Read the details...
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RIAN Launches Webinar Series
RIAN, the Regional Innovation Acceleration Network, is launching a webinar series beginning in January. These webinars will be presented by experts and practitioners in the field on a range of topics that will help to connect the Venture Development Organization community and exchange best practices and new ideas. The January schedule includes presentations on integrity, accelerators, and the EB-5 program. See the RIAN Events page or the News page for more information.
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Ownership of IP is a Key Strategy of
Innovative Firms, According to WIPO
Ownership of intellectual property (IP) rights has become
central to the strategies of innovating firms worldwide, according
to The Changing Face of Innovation, a new report from
the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO).
Researchers contend that rapidly growing global investments in
innovation and the globalization of economic activities are
key drivers of this trend. Between
1980 and 2009, global patents rose from 800,000 applications to
1.8 million. During this time, international royalty and licensing fee
revenue increased from $2.8 billion in 1970 to $27 billion in 1990,
and to approximately $180 billion in 2009 outpacing global gross
domestic product (GDP). These results have led to the
emergence of new market intermediates (e.g., IP clearinghouses and
brokerages). The researchers also contend that this trend will move
IP policy to the forefront of innovation policy.
Evidence indicates that knowledge markets
enable firms to specialize, allowing them to be more innovative and
efficient at the same time, according to the report. However, globalization of the knowledge
market also places a greater emphasis on innovative firms
to decide which knowledge to control and safeguard from domestic
and international competitors and which to share for the purpose of
increasing the general knowledge base. Rapid innovation in select
sectors (e.g., telecommunications, software and audiovisual
technology) has led to significant increases in the number of patent
applications of complex technologies —
technologies consisting of many separately patentable inventions
where patent ownership is often widespread.
To keep up with this growing trend, well-functioning patent
institutions have become a cornerstone of successful innovation
systems. They must perform several tasks including ensuring the quality of patents granted and providing
balanced dispute resolution. However, they are facing increasing
pressure due to the significant number of applications they receive
each year. This has lead to a significant number of national patent
offices facing severe backlogs. In 2010, the number of unprocessed
applications worldwide stood at 5.2 million.
The report highlights several different national policies to
harness public research for innovation, including polices to
incentivize patenting and commercialization of products by
university and public research organizations (PROs). These programs
have seen significant results over the past several decades.
University and PRO filings under the WIPO's
Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) have grown from almost zero in
the 1980s to more than 15,000 in 2010 with most of the growth
coming from advanced economies (e.g., Germany, France, Japan
and the U.S.). The report concludes that policy reforms aimed at
promoting patent-based university technology transfer have
multifaceted effects on research institutions, firms, the science
system and national economies.
Highlights from the rest of the report's finding include:
- Global R&D expenditures almost doubled in real terms from
1993 to 2009;
- Clear evidence that innovation is increasingly international
with increases in the share of peer-reviewed articles with
international co-authorship and a rising share of patents from
international collaborators;
- Evidence to support the idea that innovation has become
more collaborative and open; and,
- Evidence showing that society usually benefits from research
collaboration due to enahanced efficiency and effectiveness of the
innovation process.
WIPO also released its World Intellectual Property
Indicators 2011, a report that contains
detailed statistical information on national and international IP
filing data. IP filings worldwide
rebounded strongly in 2010 after a considerable decline in 2009, according to the report.
During that period, the recovery in IP filings was stronger than
the overall economic recovery. While global GDP grew by 5.1 percent,
patent filings grew by 7.2 percent in 2010. Data shows that China and the
U.S. accounted for nearly four-fifths of worldwide growth
in patent filings. After two years of near zero growth, the U.S.
patent office saw 7.5 percent growth in 2010 and received the largest
total number of applications worldwide (490,226). Mirroring wider
economic trends, the patent office of China (391,177 filings)
overtook the office of Japan (344,598 filings) to become the second
largest recipient of patent applications.
The report also analyzes the numbers of filings by resident
applicants. During this time, Chinese residents overtook Japanese residents by 2,985 applications to
become the most active patent filers in 2010. Residents of Japan
(172,945 applications) and the U.S. (178,355 applications) filed
the largest number of patent applications outside their own
country. Residents of Canada, Israel, the Netherlands
and Switzerland filed more than 80 percent of their total applications
abroad. Read the report...
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Report Finds Innovation and Manufacturing Fueled 2011's Best Performing
Cities
A new
report from the Milken Institute, Best-Performing Cities 2011, finds cities that saw significant
improvements to their economic performance between 2010 and 2011
were able to:
- Attract high-tech firms — Fort Collins, CO
jumped 47 positions to the third best large metro in 2011 due in
part to its ability to attract a significant number of high-tech
firms;
- Build effective industry clusters —
Charleston, S.C. continued a steady climb among large metros to
11th this year from 30th in 2009 on the shoulders of its aerospace
and data-processing services clusters;
- Capitalize on diversified tech-based economies
— Salt Lake City jumped from 49th in 2010 to the
sixth best large metro in 2011 due to a diverse mix of high-tech
industries including pharmaceuticals, medical devices,
transportation equipment, computer design and data-processing
services;
- Cultivate strong manufacturing cores —
Logan, UT jumped from 19 to the number one small city fueled by its
manufacturing sectors; and,
- Experience export-driven growth — Los
Angeles rose four spots to sixth among the 10 largest
metros driven by the resurgence of international trade,
especially in the allied product-manufacturing sector.
The Best-Performing Cities index includes measures of job wage,
and technology performance to rank the nation's 200 large
metropolitan areas.
The report also contends that the unheralded
story of this recovery has been the resurgence in
business investment in equipment, especially information technology
and software. Several of the best-performing, high tech cities
benefited from these investments due to increased international
demand for these products, especially from Asia. Diversified
tech-based metro economies also saw an increased demand for
professional and scientific services.
Export-driven and manufacturing-based metro economies also
performed significantly better than their counterparts due to
strong foreign and domestic demand for heavy manufacturing
equipment and the aforementioned export of IT and software related
products.
Read the report...
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Incubator RoundUp
Finding new and creative ways for high-tech companies to succeed
is an important component in business incubation. A recent study
examining best practices for supporting new company formation finds
it is the synergy among multiple practices, policies and services
that produces optimal outcomes. At the same time, collecting
standardized measures, reporting on progress annually, conducting
external independent evaluations, tracking programs, and continuing
to enhance practices are singled out as important policy implications.
Over the past few months, several new incubator models have
emerged — including a concept for a
hybrid-accelerator and a startup incubator that floats. Select
announcements are included below.
Baltimore's Emerging Technology Center (ETC),
an established incubator for high-tech firms, will launch its own
accelerator program, called Accelerate
Baltimore, with seed funding from the Abell Foundation. Funding
will support five companies with physical space and counsel from an
advisory team assembled to help companies through product
development and launch. In return, ETC and Abell will take an 8
percent equity stake and a royalty of 2.5 percent, capped at
$150,000.
Dubbed
Peoria Incucelerator for its part incubator, part accelerator
design, the new center will house up to six medical and health-care
related startups on the Plaza Del Rio campus in Peoria, AZ.
BioAccel, a nonprofit organization, has agreed to provide support,
funding and technical assistance for participating companies. A
March 2012 opening is anticipated.
Johnson & Johnson is refurbishing part of its San Diego
pharmaceutical R&D facility to create a business incubation
center for biotech and health IT companies.
Janssen Labs at San Diego will occupy about 35,000 square-feet
and house up to 20 life science startups. The center is expected to
open in early 2012.
Two Baltimore entrepreneurs are teaming up to launch what they
are calling a "hybrid accelerator,"
reports
The Baltimore Sun. Under the model, an operating company
would run the physical location slated to open early next year.
Separately, the two owners would raise funds from investors who
would be designated as limited partners. The group would make
investments ranging from $25,000 to $50,000 in exchange for equity
stakes in the companies, according to the article.
An idea for a floating incubator to bypass U.S. immigration
restrictions recently was reported by The
New York Times. Blueseed, which aims to create a visa-free
incubator for international entrepreneurs off the California coast,
is currently seeking investors for its
"Googleplex of the Sea."
The
Michigan Economic Development Corp this week awarded $6 million
to 12 organizations throughout the state to support incubators.
Applicants submitted comprehensive business plans for delivering
entrepreneurial services to startup businesses and were required to
develop a dashboard of indicators to measure the effectiveness of
the business incubator and accelerator programs that also ties to
the state's strategic goals.
The University of Montana (UM) will manage the Montana
Technology Enterprise Center (MonTEC) following the dissolution of
Missoula Area Economic Development Corp. earlier this year. The
future of the business incubator, which was formed in 2001, was
uncertain until UM agreed to step in, reports
The Missoulian. UM plans to downsize the facility and work
to set it up as an independent nonprofit organization.
The University of Texas at Dallas recently opened a business
incubator to help commercialize university technology and launch
student-run startup companies, reports
The Dallas Morning News. Student entrepreneurs will receive
help with business plans, product development and market research.
The university also is planning to add a graduate and undergraduate
course in 2013 to help students start a business by providing
incubator space, mentoring and seed funding.
Pooling resources of local colleges, universities and business
incubators, Accelerate518
hopes to provide better mentoring and a solid infrastructure for
emerging startups throughout New York's Tech
Valley Corridor. The collaboration provides students and
early-stage entrepreneurs with access to space and equipment that
may not be available at their own institution. Two newly formed
seed funds also will work with Accelerate518 to identify potential
investments.
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TBED People and Job Opportunities
Job Corner
TechColumbus is searching for a nationally recognized
leader in technology commercialization and economic development to
become CEO.
TechColumbus is an integrated model (incubation services, venture
development, investment funds management, and membership) focused
on innovation in advanced materials, bioscience and IT. The ideal
candidate has experience commercializing technologies and knowledge
of investments in early stage companies, startup company
experience, and a track record of advancing companies and
successful exits.
Read more job postings
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Staff Picks
Annual Global R&D Funding Expected to Increase in
2012
R&D funding growth will largely be driven by Asian economies
— a number projected to increase by nearly 9
percent in 2012. U.S. funding is expected to remain flat with a
decrease in federal spending.
Read more ...
China's Growing Share of Solar Market
Comes at a Price
This Washington Post article looks not just at the market
share that China manufacturers have, but also at reduced prices
that are benefiting installers.
Read more ...
USPTO Innovation Challenge Offers $50k Prize for Aiding
Patent Examination
The challenge seeks algorithms for patent examiners to reduce
page flipping, improve readability, and allow for annotation of the
documents.
Read more ...
Cornell Selected to Build NYC Science Campus
Cornell University and an Israel-based partner were selected
among seven competitors to build the $2 billion facility. Although
students will begin enrolling next year and studying at the
pre-existing space, the massive project won't be completed until
2043.
Read more ...
Stony Brook Using $150M Donation for Research
The largest-ever gift donated to a State University of New York
school will be used to help build a Medical and Research Translational Center,
increase faculty hires through new endowed professorships and
support top-level graduate students.
Read more ...
Global Report Identifies Three Reasons Why Women Start Fewer
Businesses than Men
Survey results indicate it's partly because of
opportunity costs associated with the private sector in developed
nations, including a steady paycheck, reliable hours and health
insurance.
Read more ...
UK Announces Two Capital Initiatives for Angel
Investment
This includes a 50 percent tax break for investment in early
stage businesses and the launch of a new €50M ($65.4M
USD) Business Angel Co-Investment Fund.
Read more ...
New EU Fundraising Rules Outlined
Increased financial support from the EU budget and European
Investment bank alongside a "single rule book"
for governing the marketing of funds is included in a new plan to
increase venture capital and access to credit for SMEs in Europe.
Read more ...
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