SSTI Digest

The Idaho communities of Greenleaf, Homedale, Grand View, Marsing, Melba, Parma and Wilder have formed the Western Alliance for Economic Development.

The North Carolina Biotechnology Center selected Rick Williams to lead its Business Acceleration and Technology Out-licensing Network, a new technology transfer program.

Only a dozen seats remain available for new registrations to attend SSTI's 11th Annual Conference, which will be held Oct. 18-19 in Baltimore's fun-packed Inner Harbor. That's 12 seats, not a baker's dozen of 13. Given the two-week lead time before the event, SSTI strongly anticipates we will not be able to accommodate walk-in registrations the day of the conference. We encourage those of you making arrangements or planning to attend to register as soon as possible. Registrations can be taken over the phone (614.901.1690) or on our secure webpage: https://www.ssti.org/Conf07/registration.htm We're called crazy when we do it, but SSTI firmly believes that it is in the best interest of our conference participants to limit the size of the audience. It stimulates better discussion during the 19 dialogue-intensive breakout sessions. It makes it much easier to start and continue conversations during the 30-minute networking breaks, breakfasts, lunch and two receptions. Overall, it is meant to convey SSTI's commitment to a quality event. Our attendees are participants in the TBED community's premier professional development event of the year, not merely…

Just a few short months ago, many states were wrapping up their 2007 legislative sessions and preparing for the start of a new fiscal year. Laying the groundwork for a successful 2008 session, two governors recently announced major TBED initiatives that will be presented to lawmakers in the coming months.

Socially-responsible entrepreneurs at the University of Maryland now have a new financial resource available to help them get new businesses off the ground. The university's Impact Pre-Seed Fund program will offer grants to students with business plans that could offer potential benefits to global society. Students participating in the university's Hinman CEOs program and the Hillman Entrepreneurs program will be eligible for two kinds of grants: Seed Fund grants of $2,000 to $5,000 will be awarded to students with complete, well researched business plans, and Opportunity Assessment grants of $500 to $1,000 will be available to fund promising ideas that require additional research. Each grantee will be assigned a mentor to help guide the new business and to monitor the use of the award. Warren Citrin, co-founder of the Solypsis Corporation (now Raytheon Solypsis), donated $250,000 to launch the fund. Citrin hopes it will provide students with the financial support they need to exert a positive influence on the world around them. "The weakest link for student entrepreneurs has always been the funding," says Citrin in a press release announcing the new…

Earlier this year, Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano and the Arizona State Legislature committed $100 million over four years to support Science Foundation Arizona, a nonprofit public-private partnership to coordinate the state’s R&D investments in science and technology. The catch? The law required a dollar-to-dollar match of non-government funding of the annual $25 million allotment before the state could release its funding to Science Foundation Arizona.   The initial $35 million appropriation for 2007 did not come with the restriction. Science Foundation Arizona allocated $30 million of that funding to 55 recipients for projects ranging from improving science and math education to commercializing new research discoveries.   The first funds to be affected by the tight purse strings are for fiscal year 2008, which potentially created a sizable hurdle for developing and sustaining a long-term S&T investment strategy for the organization and state.   In steps the Stardust Charitable Fund with a $25 million check to cover the FY 2008 obligation. The Stardust Charitable Fund, a foundation…

At some point, most start-up businesses require an infusion of outside capital to grow into a profitable enterprise. This infusion often comes in the form of venture capital (VC) investment, which provides capital and some degree of managerial guidance in exchange for an equity stake in the company. Venture investment can be a blessing for entrepreneurs looking to survive the risk-filled early stage of firm development and to professionalize their business, but it also reduces the entrepreneur's incentive to create a highly profitable company. The entrepreneur loses some of the freedom to govern the company as he sees fit, and once the company makes a successful exit, the venture investors will claim their share of the profits.   Despite the visibility of the VC industry, only 10 percent of start-ups receive VC support. The remaining 90 percent turn elsewhere for outside funding, often from commercial banks. Bank loans do not come with the same strings attached as venture investment, but borrowers do not have access to the managerial and industry guidance that may be available through venture firms. Entrepreneurs are forced to make it on their own…

Within economic development literature, many researchers believe the success of regional industry clusters is dependent on the strength and quantity of local “gatekeepers” – the organizations, firms and individuals that both draw knowledge from outside the region and distribute knowledge within the region. But what are the characteristics of these gatekeepers that may lead to a more productive exchange of knowledge?   In a recent paper, Gatekeepers in Regional Networks of Innovators, Holger Graf investigates the actions of these entities within four economically diverse regions of Germany. Graf gauged the relationships inside and outside of a region by analyzing information about the patents filed. He used the number of patents filed by an entity as a proxy for its size, and concluded size was not a major reason for being a gatekeeper. However, the number of distinct inventors that appear on an entity’s filed patents, known as the absorptive capacity, was found to be a very important predictor of being a gatekeeper.   Throughout the paper, the physical location of the collaborators for the filing of a patent was used to…

Complete descriptions of these opportunities and others are available at http://www.ssti.org/posting.htm. Following its corporate mission of "turning knowledge into practice," RTI International is launching an initiative aimed at eliminating underdevelopment and unlocking opportunity in economic growth centers throughout the U.S. and worldwide. For this initiative, RTI seeks to immediately fill two important positions: (1) a program manager for innovation-based economic development who will play a key role in leading this initiative with other professionals across RTI and (2) an economic development analyst who will design, manage, and support technology-based economic development research and implementation projects. Each position has its own set of responsibilities and qualifications.

Congress may be able to use a Continuing Resolution to keep most of the federal government open after the fiscal year ends Sept. 30, but the Technology Administration (TA) will be closing forever this Sunday.   TA was established by the Stevenson-Wydler Act of 1980 to “conduct technology policy analyses to improve United States industrial productivity, technology, and innovation, and cooperate with United States industry in the improvement of its productivity, technology, and ability to compete successfully in world markets.” Besides this duty, TA was also originally charged with assisting with the implementation of the Metric Conversion Act of 1975, monitoring Japanese scientific innovations, and overseeing the collection and translation of Japanese technical reports and documents, among others.   The budget for TA has fallen over the years, with $6 million allocated for fiscal year 2006 and $1.6 million in FY 2007. The budget request for the 2008 fiscal year, which begins on Oct. 1, 2007, includes marginal funding for personnel and other costs associated with terminating the agency. The policy activities for which TA is…

Fans of sound public policy may have celebrated last year’s complete elimination of congressional earmarks on the FY 2007 budget. With the rapid growth over the past decade in the percent of discretionary federal spending arriving with strings attached, the idea there would be no more multi-million-dollar bridges to nowhere, indoor rainforests on the great plains and other gems seemed too good to be true. And it was, apparently, as draft FY08 budget bills surfacing in both chambers reveal.   The plus side of earmarks, besides keeping a small army of lobbyists employed, is that sometimes they can provide funds to support research and TBED initiatives. For example, following is an overview of recent federal earmarks from across the nation that were included in the Transportation, Housing and Urban Development Appropriations bill. Whether or not the bill actually passes the full Congress before late winter or next spring remains to be seen.   Alabama Sen. Richard Selby (R-AL) announced funding for several projects included in the Safe, Accountable, Flexible and Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for…

With the first round of state funding not expected until April 2008, private foundations have stepped in to provide a jumpstart for the Life Sciences Discovery Fund (LSDF). Last week, six Washington-based research teams were awarded more than $4.5 million in private funding to support projects that improve health care quality and capitalize on economic development opportunities within the state.   Created in 2005, LSDF is a state agency that operates like a foundation, authorized to use $350 million in tobacco settlement funds over a 10-year period to support life science research (see the May 16, 2005 issue of the Digest). When leveraged with federal sources and private investment, the fund’s total impact is expected to exceed $1 billion.   Selected projects for the first round of funding will focus on innovative applications of technology to improve effectiveness of surgical procedures, to improve management for all patients, and to better diagnose and treat certain diseases. Major contributors include the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation, Microsoft, Amgen, Safeco, and Regence…