SSTI Digest

A new plan to grow North Carolina's biotech industry to 48,000 jobs by 2013 and 125,000 by 2023 was released earlier this month by the North Carolina Biotechnology Center, a state-supported nonprofit organization. If implemented, the 108-page plan would cost up to $650 million over five years. That figure does not include the "to be determined" cost for 15 of the plan's 54 recommendations.

The 54 action steps span a variety of objectives:

Robert Geolas, director of the Centennial Campus at North Carolina State, is resigning to become director of the new International Center for Automotive Research at the Clemson University.

Despite a sluggish national economy, North Carolina held its own over the last three years, according to a measure of 25 broad indicators of innovation, technology and economic growth released earlier this week. In all, Tracking Innovation: North Carolina Innovation Index 2003 considers more than 50 performance measures across five general categories, highlighting the state’s strengths and weaknesses.

North Carolina’s performance on each measure is compared to that of the U.S. as a whole and that of six selected states — Georgia, Massachusetts, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Texas and Virginia. The 76-page index, sponsored biennially by the North Carolina Board of Science and Technology (BST), argues that the state’s technology-intensive economy, fueled by high and increasing levels of inputs, is strong at its core.

Dr. Catherine Renault is the new program manager for the Center for Technology Applications at RTI International, Inc.

Carol Ann Dykes is the new president of the National Association of Management and Technical Assistance Centers.

Coupling manufacturing's sharp employment drop with the perennial struggles of a rural economy and the current economic downturn can cause massive struggles for many of the country's sparsely populated areas. The closure or significant downsizing of one manufacturing plant can be terminal for a small, rural town.

To revise that prognosis, North Carolina's Rural Economic Development Center launched the Institute for Rural Entrepreneurship in late October, along with several other new initiatives.

At a time when North Carolina is experiencing record-setting layoffs, the dot-com bubble has burst, and traditional industries are undergoing critical changes, North Carolina needs a cohesive, bipartisan economic development strategy that embraces the dynamics underlying the new economy, according to a new report issued by the Institute for Emerging Issues.

Jump Starting Innovation: 10 Principles to Guide North Carolina’s New Economy, is being sent to 5,000 policy makers, business leaders and university officials around the state and the nation. The report aims to help these leaders develop new ways of thinking about innovation, technology and creativity and the role they play in the state’s economy.

Developed out of the 2003 Emerging Issues Forum, key points of the report include:

The President wants $87 billion for the war in Iraq. Congress is looking at a month-long continuing resolution for the budget since final approval on most appropriation bills is at least that far in the future. Meanwhile, the persistence of the recession, the restructuring of U.S. manufacturing due in part to globalization, and the continued hemorrhaging of tax revenues has led several governors, state legislatures and community leaders to begin rethinking their economic development strategies. The past few months have seen a spate of state and local news on summits, plans and new groups for reorganizing, revamping, recreating or re-energizing public-private economic development efforts.  Below are examples of some of the approaches.

Scott Doron has been promoted to director for the Southern Technology Council, the advisory council on innovation and technology policy issues for the Southern Growth Policies Board.

Robert McMahan has been named North Carolina's Science Advisor. In addition to advising the Governor on science and technology matters, McMahan will oversee the support staff for the North Carolina Board of Science and Technology. The advisor position will report to the secretary of the Department of Commerce.

Gwyn Riddick recently was named director of the new Piedmont Triad office of the North Carolina Biotechnology Center.

North Carolina took another step toward improving technology-based economic opportunity for its citizens when Gov. Michael Easley signed into law House Bill 1194 earlier this month. The bill creates the e-NC Authority, which will continue the work of the existing Rural Internet Access Authority for three more years, beginning January 2004.

Since 2001, the current authority has led efforts to connect North Carolina, especially rural areas, to the Internet. The Rural Internet Access Authority estimates 2002 – a year when the authority helped drive a 20 percent increase in computer ownership – marked the biggest deployment year the state has ever had. High-speed Internet access was available to 75 percent of North Carolina households by the end of 2002, the authority states.