SSTI Digest

The early bird registration and hotel room block for Investing in a Brighter Future: Building Tech-based Economies, SSTI's Ninth Annual Conference, ends on Tuesday, September 20.  To register for the conference, which is October 20 and 21, you can visit the conference website at http://www.ssti.org/conference05.htm and select the registration form.

To book a room at the Intercontinental Buckhead-- Atlanta for the greatly reduced rate of $165 call the hotel today at 404.946.9000 and tell them you're part of the SSTI Conference. After Tuesday, we can't guarantee what the room rate will be at the hotel or room availability.

Two years ago, Kannapolis, N.C., was reeling from the announcement that Pillowtex Corp, a major textile manufacturer, was filing for bankruptcy. Pillowtex's failure resulted in more than 4,500 jobs lost in just two North Carolina counties and thousands more in the Southeast U.S.

The mood had to have been better last week with an announcement by billionaire David Murdock, owner of Dole Food Company, and Molly Corbett Broad, president of the University of North Carolina system, of plans to create the North Carolina Research Campus on 250 acres at the former Cannon Mills plant and 100 acres of downtown Kannapolis. Press reports put the total investment in the complex at a billion dollars with more than one million square feet of office and laboratory space.

Maryland has a new program to provide loans to early stage technology-oriented companies that are affiliated with the incubation network, Governor Robert Ehrlich announced earlier this month. The $500,000 Working Capital Loan Fund, administered by the Maryland Technology Development Corporation (TEDCO), will offer low-interest, flexible term loans of between $15,000 and $50,000 to companies in underserved parts of Maryland.

The U.S. Department of Commerce's Economic Development Administration (EDA) provided $325,000, which was matched by TEDCO, to capitalize the fund, provide technical assistance and support outreach efforts. The loans are specifically targeted toward incubation-affiliated businesses in Wenstern Maryland, the Lower and Mid Shore and Baltimore City. Loans can be used for working capital.

The growth rates of female sole proprietors in the numbers of businesses, gross receipts, and net income were more than double that of their male counterparts between 1985-2000. However, sole proprietorships were still male-dominated, with male sole proprietors having a larger share of the total number, receipts, and net income, according to a working paper from the Small Business Administration.

The study, U.S. Sole Proprietorships: A Gender Comparison, 1985-2000, uses U.S. sole proprietorship data tabulated by the Statistics of Income Division of the Internal Revenue Service to determine information about U.S. sole proprietorship by gender. Some of the categories measured include business size, owner's marital status, industry categories, net income, growth, and business receipts.

Nominations for the 2006 National Medal of Technology can be made up until September 30.  The President of the U.S. presents the prestigious National Medal of Technology to individuals, teams of individuals, or companies who have improved the American economy and quality of life by their outstanding contributions through technology. The Medal honors accomplishments in the innovation, development, commercialization and management of technology as evidenced by the establishment of new or significantly improved products, processes or services.

The Department of Commerce which administers the award is encouraging nominators to consider the high-impact contributions which colleagues, mentors or associates have made in areas such as:

If one of the keys to competing in a flat or flattening world is better integration of universities into the economic system, then one of the best ways to measure success is to examine industry's share of academic R&D expenditures. Based on the National Science Foundation's Academic Research and Development Expenditures: Fiscal Year 2003 (detailed tables available at: http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/nsf05320/htmstart.htm), SSTI has prepared a table showing industry's share of total academic R&D expenditures in 2003.

Whether you use Outlook, Palm, Day-Timer, Filofax, or Post-Its to keep track of the items on your "To Do" list, make sure these two items on your lists to be wrapped up by next Tuesday, Sept. 20:

While biotechnology focused on medical applications garners most of the attention, agricultural biotechnology is a high priority for a number of states. But ag biotech has generated significant concerns in some regions because of its emphasis on genetically modified organisms (GMOs). While three counties in California have banned the use of GMOs, three others rejected a ban in last November's elections; Sonoma County voters will decide whether to enact a moratorium in November.

Those concerns were sure to be heightened when the government of the United Kingdom confirmed earlier this week the existence of the first genetically modified (GM) superweed. The superweed is a result of GM oilseed rape crossbreeding with a common weed in a farm scale trial.

Over the past few years, annual surveys from the National League of Cities (NLC) have reported grim findings on the fiscal status of cities across the nation with little hope for turnaround in the near future.

The average budgets for local and regional economic development organizations fell nearly 3 percent between 2004 and 2005, according to the second annual survey by ACCRA. The vast majority of the 750 respondents are involved in economic/community development research and traditional economic development activities, including facility and site development marketing, infrastructure development and planning, and community marketing.

University R&D is considered a fundamental element of innovation and technological competitiveness. If R&D spending equates to more R&D, then the 10 percent increase between 2002 and 2003 as reported by the nation's academic community to the National Science Foundation (NSF) would be a rosy sign for America's future.

Aggregate academic R&D expenditures in 2003 totalled $40.077 billion, up from $36.37 billion in 2002. The burden of funding for academic research continues its shift toward government and away from the nation's industrial community.

Over the period 1998-2003, Oregon saw the largest percent change in its academic R&D expenditures funded by industry sources, according to the National Science Foundation's latest survey (see the above story). The northwest state, which had more than one-and-a-half times the amount of such expenditures funded by industry sources in 2003 as it had in 1998, was joined by only Maryland and South Carolina as states experiencing a greater than 100 percent increase over the period.