SSTI Digest
At Year 5: Ohio's Third Frontier Investments Yielding 10:1 Leverage, 41,000 jobs
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.
APRA-E Seeks Recommendations for Transformational Energy Projects
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.
Early Registration Ends Sept. 29 for SSTI's Annual Conference: Seize the Moment!
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
Argentina, Iran Push TBED Strategies
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:
Army Joins the Federal Hunt for Innovative 'Apps'
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.
TBED People and Organizations
President Obama has named Ron Bloom as the administration's senior counselor for manufacturing policy. Since, February, Bloom has been a senior adviser to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, and he sits on the president's automotive industry task force.
Detroit Renaissance and the Michigan Business Leadership Council are uniting to form a new organization called Business Leaders for Michigan. The new organization supports the Michigan Turnaround Plan.
The U.S. Senate confirmed John Fernandez as assistant secretary of commerce for economic development. A former Mayor of Bloomington, IN, Fernadez will oversee the Economic Development Administration.
Cities Register Dire Effects of National Economic Downturn
Often overshadowed in the media by state budget deficit reporting, city fiscal conditions are rapidly declining and expected to worsen through 2010 and beyond, finds the National League of Cities (NLC) annual survey. Additionally, pessimism about the ability to meet city fiscal needs is at its highest level in the history of NLC's 24-year survey on city fiscal conditions.
Because of a typical time lag of 18 months to several years before economic shifts have an impact on city conditions, many cities just now are registering the effects of the national economic downturn, according to the report. It is expected that the deeper effects of the recession likely will be experienced and reported by cities beyond 2009, with the leanest years likely to be 2010 and 2011.
City finance officers responding to the survey reported a cumulative 2009 budget gap of 2.9 percent mostly due to decline of income and sales tax collections and the rising costs of providing services. Some of the key findings of the survey include:
Funding Local and Regional TBED Activities in Down Years
The current fiscal pressures on regional technology-based economic development initiatives have been never greater than they are now. And, as the article above points out, things are going to get worse over 2010 and 2011 before they get better.
Additionally, since local communities became proactive partners with their universities, businesses, tech councils, civic organizations, and states to support economic growth through innovation, the need for local TBED never has been greater. Economists and policy wonks agree: the next economy is being built on innovation and technology.
So how will you sustain or jumpstart your regional TBED initiatives as traditional sources of funding contract?
SSTI is dedicating several sessions at our upcoming Annual Conference specifically to help answer that question for local, nonprofit, university and state TBED programs. Here are some highlights:
Time to Seize the Moment? Will States and Regions Lead U.S. into Next Economy?
This week's Digest covers two new independent reports that separately assess two critical aspects to how well nations are prepared for the economic recovery: competitiveness and educational attainment. The news, obvious in our choice of headlines, may suggest the past year - actually several years - has not been kind to the United States relative to other nations. Reading the articles one will see, however, that it isn't time that is working against the U.S. but rather our progress on several indicators of preparedness for a future based on innovation, technology and entrepreneurship. The reports show other nations are succeeding in laying a more solid foundation for their future than the U.S. is preparing for itself.
At this moment, every aspect of the U.S. economy is in a period of transformation. And nearly every aspect of getting out of the current mess is related to one or more of the fundamental principles of tech- based economic development (TBED).
U.S. Higher Ed Graduation Rate Slides to 14th among OECD Nations
In the nation with the greatest difference in lifetime incomes between those people with college degrees and those without, it may be surprising to learn the U.S. ranking for college graduation rates has fallen from 1st in 1995 to 14th in 2007. The finding is included in Education at a Glance 2009, an indicator report looking at countries who belong to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).
U.S. graduation rates have not fallen as a percentage of those students attending American colleges and universities for degrees above an associate's degree - growing from 33 percent in 1995 to 37 percent in 2007 - but rather relative to the graduation rates attained by the other 25 OECD countries included in the study. Nevertheless, the finding should be troubling for policymakers and TBED practitioners in an increasingly knowledge-based and competitive global economy.
U.S. Slips from First Place in Global Competitiveness Rankings
The United States fell from its position as the most competitive national economy according to the World Economic Forum's (WEF) recently released annual Global Competitiveness Report. Switzerland took the top spot as the U.S. fell to a close second place in the weighted ranking system. The report attributed the switch in positions to a number of growing weaknesses that have plagued the U.S. over the past year, while the Swiss economy remained relatively stable. Though the U.S. continues to perform well in measures of innovation, the country declined in indices of its institutional effectiveness and macroeconomic stability. The U.S.'s persistent fiscal deficits and trade imbalances were noted as a particular threat to the nation's mid- and long-term competitiveness.
The Global Competitiveness Report ranks 133 countries based on the institutions, policies and factors that, according to WEF, determine the level of national productivity and prosperity. The indices and data compiled in the report are organized into 12 'pillars' of competitiveness. These pillars are weighted and used to determine a country's final ranking.
Incubator Numbers Grow with Interest in Tech Entrepreneurship as Recession Cure
As economists and policymakers debate the details of how and when the nation will recover from the recession, the topic of entrepreneurship and the role it will play in shaping the new economy continually arises. In the coming years, some analysts predict a rise in entrepreneurship both as a result of massive layoffs and an aging workforce not yet ready or able to retire. Highlighting the correlation between joblessness and the uptick in entrepreneurship, several recent news articles have featured stories of the unemployed forgoing disappointing job searches and the corporate environment to pursue business ownership.