SSTI Digest

Science Foundation Arizona (SFAz) has released its strategic investment plan for fiscal year 2006-07, which includes grants to support university research, new high-tech businesses, and K-12 STEM education. The investment strategy will guide SFAz’s grant award decisions during its first year of operations and represents a starting point for the organization, which hopes to develop the plan into a long-term strategy for economic development.

 

The state’s 21st Century Fund, an initiative established by the governor and state legislature during the last session, provides public funding for SFAz’s grant programs. An initial allocation of $35 million will support SFAz’s five cornerstone programs, including:

• $18 million for Strategic Research Groups, which seed partnerships between research institutions and the private sector;
• $5 million for Competitive Advantage Awards between $100,000 to $400,000 to support in-state R&D;

Governor Urges Pension Fund to Invest in Emerging Tech Companies

Starting in January, a new advisory council within the Texas Governor’s Office will begin work on a long-term strategy to bolster the state’s economic competitiveness. The Competitiveness Council will be charged with designing an overall framework for cooperation between public and private organizations involved in economic development. Gov. Rick Perry will appoint the group’s members by the end of the year.

 

The governor made the announcement during his keynote address at the Texas Lyceum’s 2006 Public Conference in San Antonio earlier this month. Gov. Perry told the audience of state economic development leaders that the new state strategy devised by the council would be a logical extension of other recent Texas TBED initiatives, such as the Texas Enterprise Fund and the Emerging Technology Fund.

 

The number of doctorates awarded in the U.S. within science and engineering (S&E) fields reached an all-time high in 2005, according to a recent National Science Foundation (NSF) issue brief. After the previous high of 27,273 S&E doctorates awarded in 1998, the number decreased for four years until 2002, and has steadily increased the past three years to the 2005 number of 27,974 Ph.D. graduates.

 

NSF’s Division of Science Resources Statistics reports that several groups, including women and non-U.S. citizens, also received a record number of S&E doctorates in 2005. In fact, from 2001 to 2005, S&E doctorates awarded to non-citizens increased by 25 percent, which accounted for almost all of the recent growth in the number of total doctorates awarded. The issue brief indicates there is little evidence of a decline of non-citizen S&E doctorate attainment since the terrorist attacks in September 2001.

 

One out of four public, venture-backed companies started since 1990 were founded by entrepreneurs who immigrated to the U.S. before starting their company, according to a recent study commissioned by the National Venture Capital Association. Immigrant-founded companies are even more common within high-tech industries, where 40 percent of all new publicly traded firms in the past 16 years have had immigrant founders, including widely-acclaimed IT success stories like Google, Yahoo! and eBay. The aggregate market capitalization of new immigrant-founded tech companies since 1990 exceeds $500 billion.

 

Describing the impact of universities can be a vexing issue for both the higher education and TBED communities. Two recent reports, one by the Atlanta Regional Council for Higher Education (ARCHE) and the other by the Iowa Board of Regents, utilize different approaches to help communicate the importance of higher education institutions to a local economy.

 

The ARCHE report combines economic development statistics derived from input-output analysis with the personal stories of seven individuals who in some form are heavily influenced by the presence of the 49 degree-granting, accredited higher education institutions located in the Atlanta region. The report emphasizes the economic and social impact that the region’s universities have on hundreds of thousands of individuals and the state of Georgia. Some of the economic impacts of the region’s universities include:

According to the U.S. Census Bureau’s recently released 2005 educational attainment figures, 27.7 percent of adults age 25 years and older had received a bachelor's degree or higher; this is up from 26.7 percent in 2002. Across the states, the District of Columbia had the highest percentage of people 25 years and older with at least a bachelor’s degree (47 percent), followed by Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maryland and New Jersey.

 

SSTI has prepared a table presenting the 2002 and 2005 educational attainment percentages and rankings for all 50 states and the District of Columbia. When comparing the 2002 and 2005 reports, Idaho showed the largest percent increase in college graduates (23.9 percent) as well as a significant gain in rank, moving up 20 positions to 26th in 2005. Other states rounding off the top five for rank increases over the four-year period are: North Carolina (nine positions), Oklahoma (eight positions), Alaska (seven positions) and Hawaii (seven positions).