SSTI Digest

Due to SSTI's annual conference being held in Atlanta next week, the next issues of the Digest and Funding Supplement are slated for Nov. 7, 2005.

Keeping with most years in recent memory, the new federal fiscal year began Oct. 1 without Congress approving a budget for nearly all of the national government. With Hurricane Katrina relief and aftermath putting unprecedented demands on the Treasury and Congress, legislators quickly passed a Continuing Resolution last Thursday and Friday to keep the government open through Nov. 18.

Only the legislative and Interior-Environment budgets have been enacted and the Homeland Security appropriations bill has moved out of conference. The Continuing Resolution, H.J. Res. 68, will fund programs covered by the bill at the lowest of three levels: fiscal year 2005 funding, the fiscal year 2006 level approved by the House, or the FY 2006 level approved by the Senate.  Media reports state exceptions will be granted for certain agencies and programs, including NASA, the State Department, Medicare, and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

To support innovation and technology with increased accessibility for small-and medium-sized firms, Canada's Minister of Industry, David Emerson, announced a new program that will replace Technology Partnerships Canada (TPC).

Minister Emerson said in a press release that the new program will be accessible to more industries, tightly focused on transformative technologies, and more transparent to taxpayers. The goal of TPC is to ensure leading-edge industrial research continues in Canada and that Canadian firms remain competitive in the global economy.

Designed to ease the transaction burden on university technology transfer offices and encourage more open and efficient access to research, the Kauffman Foundation recently unveiled iBridge, a web-based platform under the Kauffman Innovation Network.

The flexible nature of the iBridge platform allows universities to adapt it to best complement their existing processes for collaboration and technology transfer, according to a press release from the Kauffman Foundation. The application may be used by universities to license and distribute a variety of information including software, research tools, databases, teaching materials, surveys, and reference materials. To safeguard a university's interest in its intellectual property, posting a discovery on the website formally discloses that discovery and starts a record-keeping file.

Representing a substantial federal commitment, the number of tax credits, deductions and exemptions - collectively referred to as "tax expenditures" - has more than doubled since 1974 and needs to be re-examined to evaluate efficiency, effectiveness, and equitability, according to the Government Accountability Office (GAO).

A recent GAO report describes how tax expenditures have changed over the past three decades and the amount of progress made since the 1994 recommendations to improve scrutiny of tax expenditures. Measurements include change in number, size, and in comparison to federal revenue, spending, and the economy.

Drawing expertise from 53 speakers and panelists from 19 states, SSTI's 9th annual conference - to be held Oct. 19-21 in Atlanta - promises to provide its attendees unparalleled opportunity to learn about the latest and best thinking to encourage state and regional growth through tech-based economic development. Want proof? SSTI has published brief speaker bios on our conference website: http://www.ssti.org/Conf05/bios.htm

Linda Fettig was named director of the Nebraska Rural Development Commission.

Kathie Olsen, nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate, is the new deputy director of the National Science Foundation.

The San Antonio Technology Accelerator Initiative (SATAI) announced that James Poage is SATAI's new president and CEO. Poage replaces Randy Goldsmith, who continues as a director.

Linda Fettig was named director of the Nebraska Rural Development Commission.

Kathie Olsen, nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate, is the new deputy director of the National Science Foundation.

The San Antonio Technology Accelerator Initiative (SATAI) announced that James Poage is SATAI's new president and CEO. Poage replaces Randy Goldsmith, who continues as a director.

Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle today unveiled the plan that will guide his Administration's legislative agenda for the next 12 months. Grow Wisconsin: The 2005 Agenda focuses on three areas: investing in business, investing in people, and fostering a competitive business climate.

While the largest single funding element in the plan calls for changing the structure of the state's $500 million affordable housing program, tech-based economic development initiatives are prevalent. Highlights include:

Information, telecommunications and electricity provide the basic building blocks for all tech-based economic development - regardless of industry sector, research field or location. In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, the technology infrastructure for many of the state's emerging tech-firms has been dismantled. How do you restore efforts to build a tech-based economy when the fundamentals are destroyed overnight?

Mississippi Technology Alliance (MTA), the leading tech-based economic development organization for the state, quickly responded to the Hurricane's wrath by launching a TechFix Mississippi Program to help small Mississippi companies rebuild.