SSTI Digest

This week, the SSTI Weekly Digest continues its series on governors' State of the State addresses, highlighting those portions concerning programs, policies and issues immediately affecting the tech-based economic development community. Delaware Ruth Ann Minner, State of the State, January 17, 2002 http://www.state.de.us/governor/speeches/2002/011702StOfState.htm Requested the Economic Development Office to make biotechnology a prime focus of the state's Strategic Fund investments. Iowa Thomas J. Vilsack, Condition of the State, January 15, 2002 http://www.state.ia.us/governor/agenda/Condition_of_the_State_2002.htm Proposed a tax credit against college graduates' income that will help offset all or part of their college tuition. Proposed creating a set of incentives to help fuel national venture capital investment in Iowa, encourage Iowa's angel investors to make substantial investments in Iowa startups, and enable those who can invest only a small amount to do so. Kansas Bill Graves…

Activities to address the digital divide and the S&T workforce shortage have increased recently. The following are a sampling of efforts underway to understand and address the growing inequalities in technology access and assimilation. Washington Governor Gary Locke has proposed a legislative package that would speed the placement of advanced telecommunications services in rural areas by streamlining regulation, promoting infrastructure investment, and encouraging competition. The five-part package would: Authorize public utility districts and rural port districts to provide wholesale telecommunications services in their districts; Link the state's 68 library districts to the K-20 Internet network; Establish alternative forms of regulation for local telephone companies; Streamline local governments' regulations to speed infrastructure deployment; and, Revamp universal service funding so rural areas can continue to receive affordable phone service in a competitive environment.  For more information, contact Governor Locke’s communications office at 360-902-…

AT&T has made a $1 million grant to support the development of technological expertise in 13 institutions of higher education in Virginia, North Carolina, Delaware, Maryland and West Virginia. The grant was made to the Virtual Institute for Technology Advancement in Education and Historically Black Colleges and Universities (VITAE- HBCU). The VITAE-HBCU program is a partnership to foster collaboration between Virginia Tech and the HBCUs. Specifically, the grant will be used to improve teaching and learning through the effective use of technology. The initiative will be funded for three years and will support faculty training for the use of information technology and the development of technology-based curricula. It will also support outreach activities by VITAE-HBCU to communities with limited technological resources. More information on VITAE-HBCU can be found on its website: http://www.vitae.vt.edu/hbcu

Delaware increased its commitment to technology businesses recently with two new initiatives: the creation of the Delaware Biotechnology Institute and the passage of a state research and development tax credit. Delaware Biotechnology Institute Governor Thomas R. Carper requested $10 million in his Fiscal Year 2000 budget for the new Delaware Biotechnology Institute. The effort is described as a virtual partnership of the Delaware Economic Development Office, Delaware State University, the University of Delaware, the Delaware Technical & Community College, and the private sector. The Biotechnology Institute builds off of industry/academia collaboration fostered through the state's Advanced Technology Center program, which first funded the Center for Agricultural Biotechnology at the University of Delaware in 1996. R&D Tax Credit The new Delaware Research and Development Tax Credit permits companies to claim credits against either a business' corporate income tax or, where applicable, against…

In what could be the beginning of a new trend in state economic development incentive/inducements, bills receiving bi-partisan support in the Michigan and Delaware state legislatures would address businesses= needs for more technically skilled workers by having the states pick up the students' tab for community college tuition and technical training. Governors in at least 14 other states have proposed establishing, increasing or expanding scholarship programs this year, according to SSTI's latest Issue Brief Science & Technology in the States: Excerpts from the 1999 Governors' Addresses (see related article in this Digest). Michigan A bill introduced in the Michigan Senate last week would provide a $300 state tax credit to cover the balance of a student's Michigan community college tuition that is not covered by the federal Hope Scholarship tax credit. The state tax credit would be available to all students from two-parent households with incomes under $100,000 and single-parent families with less than $50,000 in annual income. The bill's sponsor estimates 90 percent of…

Sue Rhoades, formerly of Delaware, has taken a new position with Pennsylvania's Ben Franklin Partnership as State Coordinator. She will be working with the four regional Ben Franklin Technology Centers on a variety of statewide collaborative and strategic initiatives. The Delaware Economic Development Office (DEDO) is seeking a Manager of Technology Programs to fill Sue’s position. The DEDO is the state agency responsible for economic development in Delaware. The duties of this position include managing the state's Advanced Technology Centers program and acting as liaison to state-supported manufacturing extension, entrepreneurial development, and related technology-based economic development efforts. The position is based in Wilmington, DE. Interested applicants should send a resume to Harold Stafford, Administrative Director, DEDO,   99 Kings Highway, Dover, DE 19901-7305.

NGA Leadership --- At its 1998 Annual Meeting in Milwaukee,  the National Governor’s Association (NGA) named its new leadership to steer the initiatives and agenda for the association.Delaware Governor THOMAS R. CARPER was named NGA’s chairman, and Utah Governor MICHAEL O. LEAVITT vice chairman. The positions are for a term of one year. At the meeting, the nation’s governors focused primarily on initiatives for the new millennium, and resolved to continue trying to fortify the federal-state partnership. The centerpiece of the August meeting was state innovations in technology which included 30 state technology exhibits. ASME/USIP FELLOW -- Susan Ipri Brown began her term as the United States Innovation Partnership (USIP) Fellow in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) on September 1. The fellowship is funded by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. Ms. Brown most recently served as Science Research Analyst in the Michigan Legislative Science Bureau. In her new capacity as USIP Fellow in OSTP's Technology Division, Brown will support USIP activities aimed at…

The Delaware Economic Development Office recently announced the selection of two new Advanced Technology Centers (ATC). The Centers will focus on semiconductors and advanced optics. The Centers are public/private partnerships designed to bolster Delaware's technology base and to create and retain quality high-tech jobs. The State of Delaware is investing $4 million over three years in these two Centers through grants from the 21st Century Fund. The Center for Nanomachined Surfaces (CNS) will focus on developing and commercializing leading-edge nanomachining applications important to the semiconductor industry. The primary technical goal of the Center is to achieve the world's highest-precision polished, or nanomachined, photomask surfaces, ultimately affecting every integrated circuit made. For more information on CNS, visit their website at http://nanosurf.ece.udel.edu. The Applied Optics Center of Delaware, Inc. will focus on developing new applications for laser technology. Initially, the Center will concentrate on laser spectroscopy technology and laser diode-based…

Ohio Governor George V. Voinovich, began his term as the National Governors' Association (NGA) Chairman at the association's annual meeting in Las Vegas this week. He succeeded Nevada Governor Bill Miller. Governor Tom Carper, a Democrat from Delaware, has been chosen as the Association's Vice-Chairman. Governor Carper will become Chairman of NGA next summer when Governor Voinovich's term expires.

The State of Delaware has selected its first three Advanced Technology Centers (ATCs), public/private partnerships designed to bolster the state's technology base and to create and retain quality high-tech jobs. The centers will receive $2.31 million from the state's 21st Century Fund for their first year of operation and are eligible for two more years of state funding given satisfactory performance. The centers selected are: Advanced Technology Center for Medical Devices will catalyze partnerships between companies and universities, resulting in the development and commercialization of medical diagnostic screening tools based on analytical instruments coupled with sophisticated software. The center will receive $560,000 in state funding. Fraunhofer Resource Center-Delaware will create an advanced materials and near-net-shape manufacturing technology development and deployment capability, based on the Fraunhofer model from Germany. The center will assist manufacturing companies with the solution to technical challenges in the area of near-net-shape manufacturing by performing confidential…