SSTI Digest

Just as bread won't rise without yeast, the key knowledge-building ingredients for many state tech-based economic development strategies - increasing investments in university-based research, emphasizing workforce development and science and math education, and identifying clusters of co-located firms in related industry sectors - won't lead to the spillovers of knowledge critical to sustaining growth without an active reagent. The new discussion paper from the London-based Centre for Economic Policy Research, Growth & Entrepreneurship: An Empirical Assessment, by authors Zoltan Acs, David Audretsch, Pontus Braunerhjelm and Bo Carlsson concludes that technology-based entrepreneurship serves as that reagent.

Using statistics from the National Science Foundation’s report Science & Engineering Indicators 2006, SSTI has prepared a table presenting 2003 state rankings for industrial R&D intensity - the ratio of industry R&D to gross state product (GSP).

The national average in industrial R&D intensity for 2003 was 1.81 percent. Among the fourteen states that placed above the national average, Michigan held the highest rank at 4.24 percent followed by Washington (3.76 percent), Massachusetts (3.73 percent), Connecticut (3.35 percent) and California (3.28 percent).

Conversely, Alaska ranked the lowest in the nation at 0.11 percent, with South Dakota (0.27 percent), Montana (0.25 percent), Louisiana (0.20 percent), and Wyoming (0.17 percent) rounding off the final five.

Innovation Philadelphia, a nonprofit public-private partnership dedicated to growing the wealth and the workforce of the Greater Philadelphia Region, is seeking a full-time manager of marketing and communications to start immediately. Some of the responsibilities include coordinating a multi-faceted marketing department, publishing a weekly electronic newsletter, vendor management for all marketing programs, marketing management of internal departments programs, and website management. Among other skills, the successful candidate will have an undergraduate degree from an accredited university, at least three or more years of experience in a marketing-related field, and an understanding of the Greater Philadelphia Region. A more complete description of this position opening is available through the SSTI Job Corner: http://www.ssti.org/posting.htm