SSTI Digest

Southerners voiced that focusing on innovation and technology-based business operations, supporting entrepreneurship, identifying community asset, developing skilled workforce and increasing community involvement in economic development strategies are vital for the South to recover from the current economic downtown according to a recent report — The Road to Recovery is Named Main Street — from the Southern Growth Policies Board. The report was assembled using comments of over 2,300 citizens from communities across the south. During community gatherings and via online surveys, Southerners discussed not only the challenges and concerns caused by the Great Recession, but also the priorities and potential to build stronger regional economies. Participants provide states, regional economic development organizations and local governments with five key themes: look beyond industrial recruitment, reduce regulation, identify and build on community assets, revamp workforce training and facilitate partnerships.

Angel investors continue to move their focus from seed stage startups to later stage deals, according to recent analysis by the University of New Hampshire's Center for Venture Research. During the first half of 2010, 26 percent of angel capital was invested in seed and startup stage companies, down from 35 percent in 2009 and 45 percent in 2008. Meanwhile, overall angel funding fell to $8.5 billion, a 6.5 percent decrease from the first half of 2009. Though angel investors are conducting a greater number of smaller deals than they were in the last few years, this has not translated into investment in younger companies.

Jeffrey Sohl, director of the Center for Venture Research, hypothesizes that the migration away from seed and startup deals reflects a need to invest in portfolio companies to help them survive the recession and eventually reach a profitable exit. If the trend toward later stage investment continues, however, the lack of capital availability for young startups could result in a crisis for new venture creation.

U.S. jobs in solar energy could increase by 26 percent by this time next year, according to the first nationwide solar census from The Solar Foundation. The census estimates that there are currently 93, 000 solar workers in the U.S., and 50 percent of solar firms plan to add jobs in the next 12 months. Solar workers are defined as employees who spend more than 50 percent of their time supporting solar activities. Read the census at: http://www.thesolarfoundation.org.

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has released the list of projects approved for Qualifying Therapeutic Discover Project grants and credits. Introduced in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act passed earlier this year, the program supports projects that show a reasonable potential to create new therapies, lower health care costs or advance the cause of curing cancer within the next 30 years. The credit or grant covers up to 50 percent of the cost of qualifying biomedical research at firms with no more than 250 employees. Grants also were made available in lieu of credits, and, in the end, outnumbered credits 50:1.

The Tennessee Biotechnology Association has changed their name to Life Science Tennessee.

Ann Arbor SPARK recently added Bill Mayer as director of their business accelerator team.

Fred Mondragón, New Mexico's economic development secretary announced that he is retiring. Gov. Bill Richardson has appointed Allan Oliver, the deputy secretary of economic development, to replace Mondragón during the final weeks of the administration.

Robert Rosenbaum has been appointed president and executive director of the Maryland Technology Development Corporation. John Wasilisin has been serving as acting president and executive director since Renée Winsky stepped down in July 2009 to become CEO of the Tech Council of Maryland. Wasilisin will now shift to a role as executive vice president and chief operating officer.

This week 37 states held gubernatorial elections. In many states, technology-based economic development took on a central role in the campaign as candidates put forth their ideas on how to create jobs in a difficult economy. SSTI has collected some highlights from proposals put forth by new governors-elect that address topics related to TBED.California

Voters disapproved of several tax-cutting measures appearing on statewide ballots across the nation — a good sign for states facing huge budget deficits. A proposal to roll back the sales tax from 6.25 percent to 3 percent failed to garner support in Massachusetts, saving the state's projected deficit from doubling in the next year, according to Stateline.org. Colorado voters also rejected tax-cutting measures, including an amendment to prohibit the state from borrowing.

Measures to generate revenue and shore up budgets didn't fare well either, however. Washingtonians voted against a proposed income tax on high earners while voters in Arizona overwhelmingly decided against raiding two funds to help fill the budget deficit, leaving the state with a $450 million budget gap.

Often credited with contributing significant revenue to states' economies, research parks also house facilities for workforce training and provide resources for tech-based industries, which is especially important as the nation's employment begins to pick up steam. In West Virginia, officials are building a $15 million advanced technology-training center at the state-owned research and technology park, and in Utah, officials recently broke ground on a building that will house engineers and analysts working on the nation's Intercontinental Ballistic Missile program.

The Board of Directors of the Oklahoma Manufacturing Alliance is seeking a new president who will play a leading role in developing strategy for modernizing Oklahoma's industrial base. The successful candidate will possess strong leadership skills, demonstrated administrative ability, entrepreneurial management skills, organizational awareness, political sensitivity, and the ability to establish rapport with numerous constituencies. The position requires executive experience in managing budgets, contracts, and operations for a major company or organization.

Mobile app development is emerging as a bright spot in the U.S. innovation economy, according to a report commissioned by CTIA-The Wireless Association and the Application Developers Alliance. The groups estimate that more than 500,000 jobs have been created in the U.S. based on app development since the launch of the original iPhone in 2007. This count includes IT-related jobs in service of app development, non-IT jobs at app companies and jobs in the local economy supported by app developers. As the app economy becomes more important in the U.S., states are beginning to create their own strategies for luring developers and spurring local innovation.

As the private company SpaceX sends its first cargo delivery to the International Space Station, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) announced close to $500,000 in matching grants in three areas to assist with space transportation infrastructure. This includes $250,000 to the Hawaii Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism, $24,000 to the East Kern Airport District at the Mojave Spaceport in California, and a $200,000 grant for a feasibility study to the Front Range Airport Authority, east of the Denver airport.

Six teams were selected as winners of the i6 Challenge, a new innovation competition led by the U.S. Department of Commerce's Economic Development Administration (EDA), in partnership with the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the National Science Foundation (NSF). The i6 Challenge seeks to identify and support the nation's best ideas for technology commercialization and entrepreneurship in six different regions of the country. The winning team from each region will receive $1 million from EDA to support their project and may be eligible for additional awards from NIH and NSF. Projects include efforts to drive innovative technologies in the medical and bioscience industries to market more quickly by bringing experts in science and academia together with public and private sector businesses and entrepreneurs.