SSTI Digest

Virginia Gov.-elect Tim Kaine named Aneesh Chopra as his administration's secretary of technology.

To develop and promote higher education research facilities and faculty in Virginia, Gov. Mark Warner proposed $218.8 million in his fiscal year 2006-08 biennial budget proposal for investment in university R&D. In response, state institutions of higher education have pledged to match the governor's proposal with a $299 million commitment. The funding allows for the hiring of top researchers in the fields of biomedical science, biomaterials engineering, nanotechnology, and modeling and simulation, whose presence will attract more grant-funded research to the Commonwealth, according to the governor's office. In addition to having economic benefits, the initiative also invests in the search for cures for cancer, diabetes, tuberculosis, Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases, the governor said. Included in the initiative is funding to increase state support for the Institute of Applied Learning in Danville, aimed at stimulating economic development by creating research-based jobs, attracting new businesses, and conducting applied research for existing businesses. Examples of projects to be funded under the…

One of the most critical federal partners involved either directly or indirectly in determining the success of most state tech-based economic development strategies seeks input from the science and engineering (S&E) community in the development of its next five-year plan. The National Science Foundation (NSF) is one of the federal government's most important resources for encouraging scientific inquiry, technological advancement, innovation and discovery, providing approximately 20 percent of all federal support for basic research conducted by America's colleges and universities. The independent agency also has been responsible for the design and development of programs integral to most state and local tech-based economic development efforts, programs such as EPSCoR, SBIR/STTR, Partnerships for Innovation, and the Engineering Research Centers, to note a few. NSF is the major federal source for funding for fields such as mathematics, computer science and the social sciences. NSF also is the source for some of the most relevant statistical data TBED practitioners and policymakers use…

Kathie Olsen, nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate, is the new deputy director of the National Science Foundation.

The average budgets for local and regional economic development organizations fell nearly 3 percent between 2004 and 2005, according to the second annual survey by ACCRA. The vast majority of the 750 respondents are involved in economic/community development research and traditional economic development activities, including facility and site development marketing, infrastructure development and planning, and community marketing. As economic development organizations (EDOs) continue to broaden the definition of their role in supporting a variety of economic development activities, they will need to develop a greater revenue base and more diverse lines of financial resources. EDOs continue to focus on their core competencies of marketing communities and facilities to businesses. However, data suggests that small organizations do not have adequate resources to implement these efforts effectively. The survey revealed that substantial change is occurring in the profession as economic developers are limited in their access to resources, encouraged to collaborate, and pressured to adopt…

University R&D is considered a fundamental element of innovation and technological competitiveness. If R&D spending equates to more R&D, then the 10 percent increase between 2002 and 2003 as reported by the nation's academic community to the National Science Foundation (NSF) would be a rosy sign for America's future. Aggregate academic R&D expenditures in 2003 totalled $40.077 billion, up from $36.37 billion in 2002. The burden of funding for academic research continues its shift toward government and away from the nation's industrial community. Reaching a level not seen since 1985, the federal total of $24.734 billion represents 61.7 percent of the 2003 total, up from 60.1 percent in 2002. State government-supported R&D rose 5.9 percent between 2002 and 2003, but only represents 6.6 percent of the total. While total state support has increased over the years, the states' share of total academic R&D has continued a generally downward trend since 1950, when it contributed 15.1 percent. Total industrial support…

Increasing and modernizing university research capacity is a priority for many states. Contrary to programmatic or operational appropriations being required annually, funding for such construction projects can be phased over decades as part of a state's larger capital budget/bond programs. Recent research from the National Science Foundation (NSF) documents the results of the increased importance placed in university research building programs. During fiscal years 2001-03, research-performing colleges and universities increased their research space by 11 percent, a substantially higher rate than any previous two-year period since 1988, a new NSF InfoBrief states. NSF obtained data from a census of 465 science and engineering degree-granting universities that expended at least $1 million in R&D funds during FY 2002. The survey collected information on traditional bricks and mortar research space in addition to computing and networking infrastructure, which is playing an increasingly important role in the conduct of scientific research, the InfoBrief states.…

As most practitioners know, measuring progress for tech-based economic development efforts can be difficult given the long lead time necessary for most research investments to yield results. Consequently, many programs rely on interim measures to evaluate a policy or program's impact. Still others use input measures such as amount of money distributed through a particular program, the number of grants made, the number of companies involved, or the amount of money leveraged by the state's investment. Unfortunately, none of those measures provide much insight on a program's true impact. A new assessment of the National Science Foundation's efforts to attract underrepresented population groups into science, technology and math (STEM) fields provides an example of the difficulty programs have assessing interim progress. Broader inclusion in S&T is an important issue for future U.S. competitiveness given the varied growth rates among population groups and flattening immigration rates. A more diverse and scientifically more…

While some regional assessments attempt to benchmark economic indicators of smaller regions to those of notable accomplishment such as Silicon Valley or Research Triangle Park, a new study from the Center for Regional Strategies at Virginia Tech compares regions with similar economic and demographic characteristics, a potentially more useful model for other metro areas. Researchers at Virginia Tech's Center for Regional Strategies identified six regions similar to the New Century Region (NCR), which encompasses 12 counties and the cities of Roanoke, Covington, Radford and Salem, and tracked various economic indicators from 1990 to 2000. Benchmark regions for comparison included Colorado Springs and Ft. Collins, Colo.; Athens, Ga.; Asheville, N.C.; Knoxville, Tenn.; and Lexington, Ky. Eleven fundamental categories of regional life with which to compare to NCR were identified as employment, income, housing, education, health, environment, public safety, arts and culture, infrastructure, and social capital. According to the study, four of the most troubling gaps found in NCR are…

The National Science Foundation (NSF) has released Graduate Students and Postdoctorates in Science and Engineering: Fall 2002, a collection of 54 statistical tables presenting the distribution of graduate students in science and engineering (S&E) across population segments, fields of science or engineering, and by college and state. Overall long-term trends for S&E graduate students from 1975 to 2002 and short-term trends from 1995 to 2002 by detailed fields are presented as well. Using this report and NSF data regarding 2002 federal R&D obligations to academic institutions, SSTI has prepared a table presenting the average federal R&D obligation by state standardized by S&E graduate student. While federal R&D obligations to colleges and universities are not a function of the number of students enrolled at the institutions, the measure of federal R&D obligations per student seems potentially more relevant for comparison among states than a measure of federal R&D obligations to academic institutions based on population or "per capita." A case could be argued that S…

The National Science Foundation has released its report on Federal Science and Engineering (S&E) Support to Universities, Colleges and Nonprofit Institutions for Fiscal Year 2002, revealing the government distributed nearly $24.4 billion to the nation's research institutions during the year. The figure is 8.5 percent higher higher than the FY 2001 total of $22.5 billion. Federal S&E obligations include six categories of spending: research and development; R&D plant; facilities for instruction in S&E; fellowships, traineeships and training grants; general support for S&E; and, other S&E activities. The distribution of spending for each category varies greatly by state. Among the statistics included in the new NSF report are tables presenting the geographic distribution of funds by institution, state, activity and agency. More information is available at: http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/nsf05309/htmstart.htm SSTI has prepared a table presenting total federal S&E obligations by state for the five-year period between 1998 and 2002. During that time, federal S&E…

On Friday, President Bush announced his intention to nominate Michael D. Griffin, of Virginia, to be administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Dr. Griffin currently serves as Space Department Head at Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory. Prior to that, he was president and chief operating officer of In-Q-Tel, Inc.