SSTI Digest

The U.S. Department of Energy and the National Science Foundation recently announced that the U.S. had completed its contribution to the international Large Hadron Collider (LHC) Project on budget and ahead of schedule. By the end of the year, the LHC at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) laboratory near Geneva will generate its first particle collisions and research output. Total U.S. contribution to the project is about $531 million of the $5.89 billion cost of the project. Although the U.S. is not a CERN member state, U.S. scientists will comprise the largest contingent from any single nation.

Cynics will tell you politicians rarely let facts get in the way of their policy positions and one doesn’t have to look terribly hard to find anecdotal evidence to support that conclusion. One hopes – expects, even – in most cases, however, that elected officials have people more grounded in reality working for them in the trenches of the state or federal executive branch. Some will be civil servants who have dedicated their careers toward addressing specific public policy issues; others will be politically appointed individuals serving for a portion or all of the term of office for the elected leader. How well facts influence these two groups of public employees varies greatly across individuals and office.
 

On Monday, President Bush signed the $161.8 billion supplemental appropriations bill for the current fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30, 2008. Though the appropriation primarily provides funding for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the bill also includes almost $3.6 billion in non-war funding. Of this, $400 million was approved for U.S. science programs. The new funding will support programs that were originally authorized by the America COMPETES Act and will help several energy-related national laboratories avoid layoffs anticipated due to previous budget cuts.

Coming together for a special one-day session last week, the South Carolina Legislature voted to override a line-item veto issued by Gov. Mark Sanford concerning the funding of the state’s Endowed Chairs program, now called the S.C. Centers for Economic Excellence. The override raises the budget allocation for the program from $20 million to $30 million, which surpasses the original multi-year cap of $200 million set for the Endowed Chairs/Centers of Economic Excellence program, when enacted in 2002. The program uses lottery proceeds to fund strategic faculty positions at the state’s three public research universities: Clemson University, the Medical University of South Carolina, and the University of South Carolina.
 
In a message to the General Assembly dated June 11, Gov. Sanford outlined the following reasons for his office’s concern with the legislation:

Arizona legislators approved the fiscal year 2009 budget last week, providing funds for proposals aimed at stimulating the state’s economy through investments in higher education infrastructure and increasing R&D activity.
 
Proceeds from an expansion of the state’s lottery will finance $1 billion in bonding for construction projects across the state’s three universities, including $470 million for completion of the Phoenix biomedical campus and upgrades to several buildings.

The Louisiana State Legislature recently approved several bills as part of a comprehensive package designed to revamp the state’s workforce development programs to focus on job training in emerging industries to ensure these fields have a highly qualified labor pool in the coming years.
 
The workforce reform package is centered on the creation of the Louisiana Workforce Commission, which will replace the state’s Department of Labor. The new commission will oversee the entire workforce development system and is charged with integrating workforce development initiatives through educational and training programs, with the purpose of developing a highly skilled workforce. A Workforce Investment Council also will be established to set workforce training priorities based on input from business leaders.
 

Our German isn't what it should be and online translators weren't as helpful as we'd expected, but we wanted to make readers aware of the size of the investment Berlin is making over the next four years to recruit star faculty to its four research universities and the four local, private research institutions of Fraunhofer Gesellschaft, Helmholtzgemeinschaft, Leibniz Community, and the Max Planck Society. Termed the Berlin International Forum for Excellence, the initiative is intended to strengthen the competitiveness of the region's scientific assets in promising fields of research.

To help put the size of the investment into perspective, Berlin had a population of 3.4 million in 2006.

Science covered the announcement briefly at: http://sciencenow.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/2008/610/1

The annual convention for the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) provides an opportunity each year for many attendees to announce new initiatives and reports in the field of life science research and bio-related TBED – sometimes blockbuster initiatives trying to create the most buzz during and after the event. For example, at this year’s recently concluded event in San Diego, with more than 20,000 attendees representing 48 states and 70 countries, Maryland and Massachusetts announced biotech initiatives topping the $1 billion mark (see the June 18, 2008 issue of the Digest).
 
Not all of the announcements were attached to expensive price tags. Some involved increased collaboration and cooperation to promote the research strengths of the collective members or to market the geographic area. Examples include:
 

With the recent news that initial public offerings and mergers and acquisitions for venture-back companies are becoming scarce, many are anticipating a national venture capital crisis. A lack of exit opportunities could lead angel and venture investors to become more hesitant to invest at any stage of venture development as they seek opportunities that produce a return in the foreseeable future.

In this sort of environment, it may be appropriate to examine how recent trends have effected early-stage investment around the country and which states have been successfully cultivating early-stage capital in a time when risk-averse investors increasingly have turned toward later-stage investments for short-term returns.

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

CTC Tampa Bay is seeking a venture lab manager to establish and build its Venture Lab program. This postion involves bridging relationships with government, private sector, and university entities in order to support the growth of selected early-stage technology-based companies. The selected companies must offer innovative products and services that can potentially generate significant revenues from the defense/homeland security market and other dual-use markets. A BA/BS degree in science, engineering or business, plus at least 10 years of directly related experience (or an MA/MS degree, plus at least eight years of directly related experience), are required.

Summer camps focusing on science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields are typically designed to spark youth interest and introduce students to career options in these critical areas. However, a vital component of these programs is exposure to scientific challenges that many classroom settings cannot provide. Recognizing this exposure as beneficial to both teachers and students, several programs are targeting educators with the goal of enhancing instructional methods in the classroom in order to increase student achievement in the STEM fields. The following are examples of professional development programs for science teachers from across the country offered over the summer months.
 
Kansas