SSTI Digest

Gov. Charlie Crist signed the fiscal year 2008-09 budget into law last week, allocating nearly $79 million for energy-related projects to increase research and stimulate development and commercialization of alternative and renewable energy sources throughout Florida.
 
The Energy Diversity Package approved by lawmakers is significantly different from the $200 million proposal outlined by Gov. Crist earlier this year, with only a few of the original proposals left intact (see the Feb. 6, 2008 issue of the Digest). However, the appropriation is welcome news for the state’s technology-based economic development strategy, as Florida is one of many states facing a decline in revenue. Last week, Gov. Crist ordered all state agencies to reduce spending by 4 percent in the coming fiscal year.
 
Lawmakers appropriated funding for the following projects under the Energy Diversity Package:

Last week, Premier Ed Stelmach of Alberta introduced a $170 million suite of initiatives to support high-tech economic development in the province. The government hopes that by providing support for commercialization from research to market it can attract high-tech entrepreneurs from other areas. Most of the province's investment will support the creation of the $100 million Alberta Enterprise Corporation to encourage venture capital investment. A press release accompanying the announcement states that the investment will improve access to both seed-stage and venture capital. The corporation is expected to begin activities this winter.
 
Though venture capital investment in Canada increased by 21 percent in 2007 over 2006, investment in Alberta grew by only 3 percent. As in the U.S., the Canadian venture capital activity is largely centered in a few provinces, namely Ontario, Quebec, and to a lesser extent British Columbia. Private capital resources are harder to find in the more rural provinces like Alberta.
 

An initiative in Iowa to disperse tax credits worth 20 percent of equity investments into pre-qualified businesses or seed capital funds has reached its $10 million cap and will not be continued in the next fiscal year. The Iowa Venture Capital Credit – Qualified Business or Seed Capital Fund was started in 2002 with a cap of $10 million, and as monitored by the Iowa Department of Revenue, all credits have been issued.
 
Efforts in the most recent Iowa legislative session to increase the monetary cap of the program under House Bill 2484 by an additional $3 million did not succeed. The discontinuance of the initiative comes as the practice of utilizing tax credits in Iowa for various activities has grown dramatically over the last several years. However, the scrutiny of the tax credit programs has grown, as well.
 

As annual appropriations for the National Institutes of Health (NIH) flattened – at the same time more and more states and universities are increasing their investments in academic bioscience research capacity – competition for NIH grants has heightened. Reports indicate investigators in the early stages of their careers and transformative research have been the victims of the squeeze.
 
The peer review process employed by NIH to select winners in competitive solicitation cycles, lauded for its impartiality for years, has been indicted by many recently as adding to the problem. During the first weeks of June, NIH announced plans to address some of the criticism, including a commitment of  $1 billion over the next five years for investigator-initiated, high-risk/high-impact transformative research.
 

New York City officials recently announced the launch of a $2 million seed fund to boost entrepreneurship and the local venture capital market. NYC Seed will provide up to $200,000 for seed-stage New York-based businesses and will offer mentoring and other support for client companies. The initiative is a partnership between several city and state organizations, including the Industrial Technology Assistance Corporation (ITAC), the New York City Investment Fund, the New York State Foundation for Science, Technology and Innovation (NYSTAR), the New York City Economic Development Corporation, and PolyTechnic University.
 

The Kansas Technology Enterprise Corporation (KTEC) has announced the launch of a statewide trade association to provide support to Kansas' software and information technology industry. The nonprofit has been registered with the state as the Software and Information Technology Association of Kansas (SITAKS) and is designed to support Kansas software, information technology and telecommunications companies.

Susan Strommer announced she will step down as president and CEO for the National Association of Seed and Venture Funds (NASVF) to explore a new opportunity.

Additional job opportunities are available at http://www.ssti.org/posting.htm.

The National Association of Seed and Venture Funds (NASVF) seeks an energetic chief executive officer (CEO) with strong organizational, interpersonal, communication, and fundraising skills to lead the association as it grows its membership and expands its reach. NASVF is the association for "innovation capitalists" - seed and early-stage investors who champion and invest in local entrepreneurs. NASVF has 120 member organizations and a network of more than 8,000 individuals. For the position of CEO, a graduate degree with five years of experience in entrepreneurial ventures, capital formation, venture capital or a related industry is required. To view the job description, go to: http://www.nasvf.org/web/allpress.nsf/pages/18166

The creation of a single organization to consolidate federal innovation investments, called for by the Brookings Institution and the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF) (see the April 23, 2008 issue of the Digest), moved a small step closer to reality with the introduction of authorizing legislation in the U.S. Senate.
 
S. 3078, the National Innovation and Job Creation Act of 2008, was introduced on June 3, 2008, by Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) and cosponsored by Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY). The bill calls for the creation of a National Innovation Council within the Executive Office of the President and several new grant programs to support state-directed technology-based economic development initiatives.
 
One of the missions of the National Innovation Foundation proposed by ITIF and Brookings was to consolidate federal programs involved with innovation into a single organizing office. As drafted, S. 3078 would move the following programs to the proposed council:

On June 5, 2008, the government of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg announced plans for a $200 million five-year molecular medicine initiative that draws on a strategic partnership involving three Luxembourg Public Research Centers (CRPs), the University of Luxembourg and three U.S. research institutes prominent in the field.
 
The U.S. research institutions include:

• Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen) in Phoenix, led by Dr. Jeffrey Trent;
• Institute for Systems Biology (ISB) in Seattle, led by Dr. Leroy Hood; and,
• Partnership for Personalized Medicine (PPM) led by Dr. Leland Hartwell, 2001 Nobel Laureate in Physiology or Medicine, and president of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center also in Seattle.

Three interrelated projects are involved in the plans: a biobank, a center for systems biology and Project Lung Cancer.
 

New establishments are responsible for one-third of annual employment creation in the U.S. and have higher measures of productivity when compared to mature surviving establishments, according to a report released last week by the Kaufmann Foundation. Turmoil and Growth: Young Business, Economic Churning, and Productivity Gains, written by Steven Davis of the University of Chicago, John Haltiwanger of the University of Maryland, and Ron Jarmin of the U.S. Census Bureau, sheds light on recent research examining the "churning" process - the continual entry and exit of companies in the national economy.

Looking at U.S. employment rates from 1977 to 2005, the average annual increase in new jobs was almost 18 percent, while the annual decrease in jobs was about 15 percent. In both job creation and destruction, business churning was responsible for roughly one-third of employment change, the rest coming from expansion or contraction within existing locations.

The Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) recently published its estimate on the real gross domestic product (GDP) growth of each state for 2007, revising previously released figures for 2003-2006.
 
SSTI has prepared a table showing real GDP per capita for every state and the District of Columbia from 2003 to 2007. The table includes:

• Ranking for 2007 state GDP per capita;
• Comparison of 2007 GDP per capita to the national average;
• Five-year percent change in state GDP per capita; and,
• Ranking of five-year percent change.

It's no wonder SSTI's Annual Conference presents such a broad range of perspectives and approaches to TBED each year, when our organization draws in active membership from organizations from all across the continent! For example, with the involvement of the Alaska Manufacturing Extension Partnership, SSTI now has active members in 47 states, the District of Columbia, and Canada.

Membership allows access to the most comprehensive information about tech-based economic development activities across the nation. Our members tell us that one of the greatest benefits of membership is the ability to turn to SSTI when seeking answers to questions or advice on programs. Having answers to our member’s questions and finding the information they need is our top priority. Additional information regarding membership benefits is available at http://www.ssti.org/benefits.htm.