SSTI Digest

Gov. Jim Doyle signed the 2009-11 biennial budget last month, providing funding for university-based research and enhancing tax credits for angel and venture investors supporting high-tech R&D.

Several of the governor's priorities outlined earlier this year in the Digest as part of the state's stimulus plan were funded this session, including the following provisions to enhance the Angel Investment and Venture Capital Tax Credit programs, known as Act 255:

While maintaining a $1 billion reserve over the next biennium, the 2009-11 budget signed into law by Gov. Mitch Daniels reduces by half funding for the state's 21st Century Research and Technology Fund and appropriates only a fraction of the requested $70 million for the Indiana Innovation Alliance, an initiative to grow the state's life science industries.

Indiana's 21st Century Research and Technology Fund administered by the Indiana Economic Development Corporation (IEDC) will receive $35 million over the next two years - half the amount appropriated last biennium. Supporting numerous entrepreneurial ventures over the last 10 years, IEDC uses the fund to offer loans and grants to companies bringing new technologies to market, to match SBIR grants, and to create University Centers of Excellence. Additionally, no funding was included for IEDC's High Growth Business Incentive Fund, which received $3 million last biennium.

The Technology Development Grant Program, which supports the creation and expansion of technology parks, will receive $3.8 million over the biennium, $400,000 less than last biennium.

As one of several states working to recruit and retain companies that create green jobs, Minnesota lawmakers passed a measure to create a multiagency authority to promote, market and coordinate state agency collaboration on green enterprise and green economy projects. At the same time, legislators rejected Gov. Tim Pawlenty's Green JOBZ proposal, creating a tax-free program for renewable and clean energy businesses modeled after the original JOBZ program and part of the governor's Jobs and Recovery Act (see the Feb. 4, 2009 issue of the Digest).

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) last week published the final version of its guidelines regarding human stem cell research, in part determining which human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) are eligible for research with NIH funding. The final guidelines contain adjustments from the draft version of the guidelines released on April 23 for public comment, from which the NIH received approximately 49,000 statements from advocacy groups, scientists, medical organizations, religious groups, members of Congress, and private citizens.

After condensing and responding to these public comments, the recent NIH publication outlined the final guidelines text include:

The lazy days of summer may be the most challenging time to keep students and teachers motivated and engaged in academics. Fortunately, several programs across the country have risen to the challenge. And, with the Obama Administration's pledge to make math and science education a national priority, now may be an opportune time for collaboration among federal and state agencies, private foundations, and industry to reverse the U.S. decline in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields.

Three metropolitan areas dominate the U.S. venture capital landscape: San Francisco, Boston and New York. These cities are home to about half of all U.S. venture firms and about half of all U.S. venture-backed companies. Though venture firms have sprung up around the country over the past 25 years, the three cities have maintained, and even expanded, their share of national firms and investment. The continuing dominance of these cities may be frustrating to policymakers, industry leaders and entrepreneurs in other parts of the country, but a recent paper argues that there is a logic behind the clustering of firms in a few cities and that this distribution may be optimal for both the venture industry and the high-tech economy.

SSTI has prepared a table displaying the amount companies spent on R&D in each state from 2003 to 2007, the state's rank in 2007, the percent change over this five-year period, and the rank of that percent change. For the U.S. as a whole, industry-funded R&D was $204 billion in 2003 and rose to $269.3 billion in 2007 - a five-year jump of 32 percent. Note, the amounts in the chart are not indexed to a single year, but reflect values from when the data was released.

California led the country with $64.2 billion in R&D funding from industry in 2007, almost one-quarter of the nation's total. This was followed by Massachusetts ($19.5 billion), New Jersey ($17.9 billion), Michigan ($15.7 billion), and Texas ($13.9 billion). These top five states represented 49 percent of the country's industrial R&D funding in 2007. Washington, Illinois, New York, Pennsylvania, and Connecticut rounded out the top ten states.

President Obama nominated Francis Collins, a physician and scientist who helped guide the Human Genome Project to completion, as the next director of the National Institutes of Health.

Stephen Fleming has been named vice provost of Georgia Tech's Enterprise Innovation Institute. Since 2005, Fleming has served as chief commercialization officer and led the Enterprise Innovation Institute's Commercialization Services Division. Fleming succeeds Wayne Hodges, who retired recently after a 40-year career at Georgia Tech.

Larry Irving will step down as co-chairman of the Internet Innovation Alliance in September. Irving will join Hewlett Packard, the world's leading technology company, as vice president of Global Government Affairs.

After near unanimous passing in both chambers of the state legislature, the "Tennessee Small Business Investment Company Credit Act" was sent this week to Gov. Phil Bredesen for his signature. The legislation, designed to create a pool of at least $84 million in capital, utilizes a competitive process to select several venture capital funds to make direct investments in small business headquartered in Tennessee. These venture capital funds can be for-profit or non-profit partnerships, corporations, trusts, or limited liability companies.

Gov. John Baldacci signed two major bills this session supporting renewable energy R&D and creating a path for building private sector jobs in clean energy businesses. Lawmakers also passed a $150 million bond package, which includes funding for ocean and wind energy demonstration projects and support for Maine technology entrepreneurs. Voters will have the final say on the bond package in three separate ballot measures presented over the next two years.

Using $62.5 million earmarked from the state energy program federal grant provided under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, Tennessee will create a solar institute, a solar farm five-megawatt power generation demonstration project, and implement additional renewable energy activities as part of the Volunteer State Solar Initiative approved last month by lawmakers.

Mark your calendar for Oct. 21-23 to attend SSTI's 13th annual conference Seize The Moment in Overland Park, Kansas! Past attendees know SSTI's conference is the premiere professional development event for the TBED community. And 2009 will be no exception. Back by popular demand, we will be offering an array of pre-conference workshops on Oct. 21.

The challenges facing the economy reveal the need has never been greater for universities, companies, and government working together to spark innovation and seize the opportunities presented by the current economy.