SSTI Digest

SSTI has an effective new learning tool for TBED policymakers and practitioners seeking guidance in approaches to building and sustaining tech-based economies. Through exclusive interviews with Excellence in TBED Award recipients, find out first-hand how these award winning initiatives successfully responded to a critical need by applying innovative approaches to generate substantial economic gains for their region.

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Recent interviews include:

With the America COMPETES Act up for reauthorization, there is an opportunity for Congress to inject some innovation into the nation's innovation policies, writes Rob Atkinson, in a recent paper from the Information Technology & Innovation Foundation. Atkinson outlines eight specific recommendations to improve the Act — many closely tied to the goals and current investment strategies of state and regional tech-based economic development organizations — including direct funding support for TBED. The proposals include:

• Create a $110 million SCNR program (Spurring Commercialization of Our Nation's Research) under NIST to support university, state and federal laboratory technology commercialization initiatives.
• Fund joint government-industry STEM Ph.D. fellowships.
• Allow foreign students receiving STEM Ph.D.s from U.S. universities to automatically qualify for green cards.
• Create a university-industry collaborative R&D tax credit.
• Fund industry-university-government manufacturing research and deployment centers.

A bill recently introduced in the U.S. Senate would allow immigrant entrepreneurs to obtain a two-year visa if they have secured the support of a qualified U.S. investor. Supporters, including bill sponsors Senators John Kerry and Richard Lugar, argue that the measure would help ensure American competitiveness by drawing on global entrepreneurial talent. The bill would also help create new investment opportunities for U.S. venture capitalists.

Minister of Finance Jim Flaherty last week presented a budget plan for the upcoming year that includes $19 billion in new federal stimulus funds as part of Canada's two-year, $62 billion Economic Action Plan. The 2010 budget directs $1.9 billion, or 10 percent of the stimulus funds, for post-secondary education infrastructure, research, technology innovation and environmental protection.  A recent article in The Chronicle of Higher Education points to conflicting reactions to the proposed investments, however.

Although the 2010 budget would increase funding for the nation's three research granting councils by $32 million per year, the councils were cut nearly $150 million last year, which was never restored, the article states. When inflation is taken into account, this leaves the councils in worse shape than they were previously, said James Turk, executive director of the Canadian Association of University Teachers, in the article.

In a meeting of the Government Commission on High Technology and Innovation last week, Russian Prime Minister Vladmir Putin made several announcements in support of new technology and innovation investments. Putin said $37.3 billion, or more than 10 percent of the federal budget, is appropriated for fundamental and applied science, higher education, high-tech medicine, space exploration, aviation, and the nuclear industry in 2010. The Finance Ministry and Economic Development Industry also will consider introducing tax incentives for innovation and providing innovative companies priority access to government purchases. Putin also announced the establishment of the Department of Science, High Technology and Education within the Government Executive Office to identify ways of removing administrative barriers for innovative businesses and to craft policies to attract capital for research and high-tech projects. Read the transcript: http://www.government.gov.ru/eng/gov/priorities/docs/9605/

Lawmakers approved last week the 2010-11 biennial budget, dedicating more than $76 million for energy research projects funded by the state's share of federal Abandoned Mine Land (AML) funds. The University of Wyoming School of Energy Resources will receive $45 million for development of a subcommerical scale CO2 sequestration research demonstration project, $14 million for clean coal technology research, and $17.4 million for operation of the school. Three bills regulating the wind energy industry also were signed into law by Gov. Dave Freudenthal last week.

The wind industry bills signed by the governor mandate a $1 per-megawatt-hour tax on wind energy generated in the state beginning in 2012 (HB 101), set minimum state standards for wind projects (HB 72), and suspend the power of wind companies to use eminent domain for one year (HB 79).