SSTI Digest

Each year, Southern Growth Policies Board honors Southern initiatives that are improving economic opportunities and quality of life in the region. The 2010 Innovator Awards will be chosen from creative initiatives in the region that aim to help communities recover from the recession. Innovator Awards are presented annually to one organization in each of Southern Growth's 13 member states, and winners are recognized at Southern Growth's Annual Conference. The deadline for nominations is Nov 6. To learn more about the criteria for this year's Innovator Awards and to fill out a nomination form, visit: http://www.southern.org/innovators/innovators.shtml

The number of U.S. patents per employee decreased in 43 states from 2003 to 2007, as patents per employee for the U.S. as a whole declined by 10.3 percent over the same five-year period. To track this metric, SSTI has prepared a table calculating the number of patents issued by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) per 100,000 employees for each state. The table also displays the relative ranking of each state from 2003 to 2007, as well as each state's five-year percent change.

For the U.S. in 2007, there were 69.2 patents issued per 100,000 employees. Idaho led the nation in 2007 with 210.1 patents per 100,000 employees. Finishing out the top five were Vermont (179.9), California (144.5), Washington (133.1), and Oregon (132.1). On the other end of the spectrum, Alaska recorded the lowest number of patents per employees, at 7.7 patents per 100,000 workers, followed by the District of Columbia, Hawaii, Arkansas, and Louisiana.

Complete descriptions of these opportunities are available at: http://www.ssti.org/posting.htm.

The U.S. Department of Energy - National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) Office of Research and Development (ORD) has posted two positions: Technology Transfer Analyst and Technology Transfer and Outreach Specialist. The NETL Office of Research and Development conducts first-class research and development in clean energy systems that are of critical importance to the nation.

What TBED Approaches are Successful in the Current Economy?

We're confronting almost unprecedented problems on the national, state and local levels. Technology-based economic development (TBED) can provide the leadership and long-term solutions that states, universities and communities need to ensure our future is one of prosperity rather than problems.

What TBED Approaches are Successful in the Current Economy?

We're confronting almost unprecedented problems on the national, state and local levels. Technology-based economic development (TBED) can provide the leadership and long-term solutions that states, universities and communities need to ensure our future is one of prosperity rather than problems.

On Oct 21-23, the 300+ participants from more than 40 states that may attend SSTI's annual conference will debate and identify smart approaches for promoting regional growth through science and innovation that can provide leadership into the next economy.  The proof is packed into this year's conference agenda: more than a dozen real life examples that are TBED's cutting edge survivors of a truly hard knock economy. For example:

The U.S. will not be able to achieve its goals for human space flight unless substantial changes are made to NASA's plans for the next decade, according to a report from the U.S. Human Space Flight Plans Committee. The report's conclusions and recommendations, if they are adopted by the Obama Administration, would have significant impacts on those state and local TBED initiatives focused on NASA installations, space science, and the aerospace industry.

The committee finds the FY2010 budget for NASA does not provide sufficient support to maintain a viable space exploration program. If the space shuttle program ends next year, as scheduled, the U.S. will lack the ability to launch astronauts into space for at least seven years. This seven-year gap would include the entire scheduled five-year operational period of the International Space Station (ISS). The report concludes that the U.S. should adjust its timing for the decommission of the shuttle program and ISS, draw on global and private resources for continuing human space flight and re-examine its goals in space.

This year as states were wrestling with significant deficits, several proposals to consolidate TBED initiatives with other units of government emerged. The most recently decided was in Connecticut, where the General Assembly did not move forward with a plan to merge the state's two primary financing agencies, Connecticut Innovations and the Connecticut Development Authority to form a new Connecticut Economic Innovations Authority. Gov. Jodi Rell had proposed the consolidation.

Governors in New York, Kansas, and Hawaii also outlined similar restructuring plans for the New York State Foundation for Science, Technology, and Innovation, the Kansas Technology Enterprise Corporation, and Hawaii's High Technology Development Corporation, respectively. As in Connecticut, none of the proposals were approved by the states' legislatures. In New York and Kansas, the stand-alone lead TBED organizations were proposed to be consolidated into the states' conventional economic development departments. In Hawaii, HTDC was to become part of the University of Hawaii system.

Halfway through its money and its first decade, Ohio's Third Frontier Initiative has helped generate a $6.6 billion impact for the state, according to an independent assessment released by the Ohio Department of Development (ODOD) on Tuesday. The report also credits the initiative's investments for creating 41,300 jobs within Ohio over the past five years.

Making an Impact: Assessing the Benefits of Ohio's Investment in Technology-Based Economic Development Programsprovides a supporting backdrop as Gov. Ted Strickland and the state legislature consider whether or not to place a possible extension of the Third Frontier Initiative on the May 2010 ballot. A large component of the Third Frontier's funding comes from a $500 million bond package Ohio voters passed four years ago.

The Advanced Research Projects Agency - Energy (ARPA-E), housed at the U.S. Department of Energy, has released a Request for Information (RFI) to assist the development of its future funding opportunities and initiatives. Public and stakeholder ideas are needed in two categories:

• Identifying the novel and cutting-edge scientific discoveries, as well as their potential applications, to push advancement in transformative energy applications; and,
• Suggesting certain technologies that can overcome barriers, or "choke points", in the path of developing solutions to energy problems.

The RFI is looking for concepts that currently are not supported in topic or scale by other applied-energy technology initiatives associated with the Department of Energy. Future ARPA-E funding initiatives will not target exploratory basic research or large-scale demonstrations, but will concentrate on developing scientific breakthroughs on new energy technologies.

Once again, SSTI's annual conference continues to be the most affordable professional development event of the year for the state, local, and university-based TBED community. Early registration discounts, which knock off $100 from the lowest prices already in the field, will expire Sept 29. Make the smart investment for your TBED program and your career by registering today. More information, including a registration form, is available at: http://www.ssticonference.org

Earlier this month, the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) approved $750 million in financing over the next five years to Argentina's federal government for the country's Technology Innovation Program.

Argentina's R&D intensity as gauged by the ratio of R&D expenditures to GDP has increased in recent years, from 0.4 in 2003 to 0.51 in 2007. However, compared to a R&D intensity of 2.3 percent of GDP for OCED countries, Argentina lags considerably behind.

The Technological Innovation Program, an initiative of Argentina's Ministry of Science, Technology and Productive Innovation is designed to change that, primarily through three main components:

The United States Army has unveiled a new competition to foster the development of software and services that will be of use to the military. Apps for the Army would help speed the development process for Defense IT projects by providing an incentive for the military community to participate in creating innovative applications. Officials say that the program will help tap into the work already being done by military personnel to design software that is tailored to the demands of the battlefield. The pilot program is expected to launch by the end of the month and, if successful, would eventually be replicated within other Department of Defense (DoD) agencies.