SSTI Digest

Gov. Ruth Minner launched over the summer the final component of her New Economy Initiative to provide a network of support and services to technology-based start-up companies.

The Emerging Technology Center will partner with private firms, regional organizations and universities to identify gaps in available services and provide access to technology development resources and laboratory facilities for product development, according to the governor's press office. The mission of the center is to seek individuals who have the capacity and desire to become tech-based entrepreneurs. Primarily, the state is interested in identifying those who have recently retired from technology-based corporations, individuals separated from their jobs due to business changes, new residents, professors, and graduate students.

A concentrated effort to support the Sacramento region's many green tech entrepreneurs could lead to Silicon Valley-style success in clean energy technology (CET), says a new report from the McClellan Technology Incubator and the Sacramento Area Regional Technology Alliance (SARTA).

California is already a leader in clean energy, according to the report. For example, a study conducted for the California Air Resources Board revealed that the state supports 180,000 jobs in environmental businesses -- 22,000 of which are in clean and renewable energy. Clean energy also is a growing sector with total worldwide market sales projected to grow by $85 billion over 10 years, and investment in global clean energy has doubled in the past four years, the report indicates.

Conference Only seven days remain until the opening of SSTI's 9th Annual Conference in Atlanta. More than 330 of the nation's top thinkers and practitioners for the TBED community will convene at the InterContinental Hotel seeking guidance from their peers.

On Monday, Oct. 31, the Southern Growth Policies Board, the Southern Technology Council, Georgia Institute of Technology, the Council on Competitiveness and the Georgia Research Alliance will host a one-day Southern Technology Innovation Summit at the Georgia Tech Hotel and Conference Center in Atlanta. The meeting will review the findings from the Council on Competitiveness’ recently released National Innovation Initiative report and launch a new Southern Innovation Initiative.

RTI International, an independent, nonprofit research organization based in Research Triangle Park, N.C., is seeking someone for the position of economic development analyst. Activities include designing, managing and supporting technology-based economic development research and implementation projects; preparing strategic, economic, evaluation and policy analyses; collecting data and information from secondary sources; preparing literature reviews; and constructing protocols, complete interviews, site visits and case studies. Candidates should have a master’s degree in planning, public administration, policy or business administration, or related field, with 3-5 years of experience in technology-based economic development. For more information on this position, visit SSTI's online Job Corner at http://www.ssti.org/posting.htm.

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.