SSTI Digest

While Albany securing Sematech North has captured national attention in the TBED community for the past week, area leaders have been working for more than a year to forge a partnership toward regional technology-based economic development. That effort came to fruition in June when leaders of the Albany-Colonie Regional, Rensselaer County Regional and Schenectady County Chambers of Commerce announced the formation of the Tech Valley Chamber Coalition. Combined, the three chambers have nearly 5,000 members employing more than 174,000 individuals in the region.

The Coalition will focus its efforts in three areas: promotion of the region as Tech Valley; development of programs that will enhance the business climate for members of all three chambers; and advocacy on issues of importance to each organization, as well as the greater business community. Each of the chambers is taking the lead on one of the three focus areas.

Plans for a joint five-year $320-$403 million program to accelerate the development of next generation lithography were announced Thursday by International SEMATECH (ISMT) and The University at Albany-SUNY (UAlbany).

ISMT and UAlbany have signed a letter of intent to begin negotiations on the formation of a strategic alliance, to be known as International SEMATECH North (ISMTN), to conduct research and development in the area of advanced lithography infrastructure for extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography. As currently envisioned, the alliance will initiate a program in EUV infrastructure, to be managed by International SEMATECH and housed in UAlbany's state-of-the-art 300mm wafer cleanroom complex, part of the university's Albany NanoTech center.

Keith Servis has left his position as director of programs at the New York Office of Science, Technology, and the Advancement of Research to return to the New York Department of Health.

New York's initiatives to support technology-based economic development (TBED) will share more than $520 million in state appropriations during Fiscal Year 2003. The highlight: two originally competing budget proposals to support university-based centers of excellence survived with a combined $470 million in state funds (see the Jan. 5, 2001 issue of the SSTI Weekly Digest for background). Most of New York's other TBED initiatives also fared well in the new budget, running counter to the fiscal environment facing TBED in several other states.

Governor Pataki's Centers of Excellence proposal will receive $250 million to support major upgrades of research facilities and other high-technology and biotechnology capital projects, allowing colleges, universities and research institutions to secure research funding that will lead to new job creation.

Jeffrey Skolnick has been named executive director of the new Center of Excellence in Bioinformatics based at the University of Buffalo. In introducing Skolnick, Governor Pataki confirmed the new state budget includes $50 million for the center, according to the May 10 issue of the Buffalo News.

New York Governor George Pataki recently announced a multimillion plan to transform the aging 300-acre W. Averell Harriman State Office Building Campus in Albany, N.Y., into a world-class research and development technology park. 



"The transformation of the Harriman Campus will provide opportunities for researchers and entrepreneurs to work together right here in the Capital Region, attracting technology businesses and building new industries, to create high quality, high-tech jobs for 21st century," Gov. Pataki said in a press release. 



The plan paves the way for $304 million in combined public and private investment to help renovate aging facilities at the campus and to develop new office space. 

Small businesses bearing a critical role to the regional economies of upstate New York must overcome several barriers to growth if they are to enjoy future success, suggests a report by the Buffalo Branch of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.



Conducted in partnership with the Center for Governmental Research, a non-profit organization based in Rochester, N.Y., Small Business: Big Challenge — A Survey of Small Firms in Upstate New York identifies the chief barriers to growth of more than 4,000 small businesses in western and central New York State. The survey also spells out the ways new technologies have impacted the region's small firms, more than one-third of which were reported to have expanded in the last three years.

James Hayward, CEO of a biotech materials supply company, has been named the first chairman of the Long Island Life Sciences Initiative. Joseph Scaduto is serving part-time as the new executive director for the group.

Declaring September “Nonprofits & Technology Month,” the Foundation Center has launched a website presenting myriad financial and technical assistance resources to support the acquisition and use of information technology in nonprofit organizations. Included in the site are several categories including: Community Development Resources; Corporate Funders; Digital Divide Resources; Disability Resources; Federal Government Resources; Foundations; E-Philanthropy Resources; Other Funding Sources; Software/Hardware Resources; Technology Assistance and Training Resources; Technology News, Newsletters, and Online Forums; Telecommunications Resources; and Web Development Resources. The site is http://fdncenter.org/pnd/npotech/ 

With so much attention given to increasing private seed and venture capital activity as a means of growing tech-based economies, one might expect that encouraging and attracting community development venture capital (CDVC) – that is, equity investments and entrepreneurial assistance to meet both profit targets and community development goals – would be a common element of a state or local community’s portfolio of economic development tools.



Increasingly it is, according to the first in-depth research on the state of the CDVC industry, released recently by the Community Development Venture Capital Alliance (CDVCA).



In fact, the study, prepared by Harvard Ph.D candidate Julia Sass Rubin, found more than 50 CDVC providers actively investing or in formation at the beginning of 2000 – up from a mere handful only five years ago. The combined capitalization of these providers at the end of 1999 was $300 million.

With the 1994 School-to-Work Opportunities Act sunsetting this year and the increasing importance of developing a skilled workforce for a tech-based economy, many are asking if the initiatives launched or expanded by the Act have been successful. According to School-to-Work: Making A Difference in Education, a new report from the Institute on Education and the Economy at Columbia University, early results are encouraging, but there are areas for improvement given the opportunity presented by reauthorization. 



To prepare their findings the Institute reviewed the findings and conclusions of more than 130 local, state, regional, and national studies completed on School-to-Work programs. A complete bibliography is included at the end of the document. 



Accomplishments