SSTI Digest

Homeland security R&D, high-end computing, the National Nanotechnology Initiative, and the President's Hydrogen Fuel Initiative are among the interagency R&D priorities that will receive a special focus in agency budget requests, according to a memorandum outlining the Administration's R&D budget priorities for 2007.

Released earlier this month, the memo from John Marburger, director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy and Joshua Bolten, director of the Office of Management and Budget, provides general guidance for setting priorities among R&D programs and an overview of R&D investment criteria for agencies.

SSTI is proud to announce the addition of two new staff members to its team. Sheri Stickely will join SSTI on Aug. 15 as a Vice President. Sheri is leaving the Oklahoma Center for the Advancement of Technology (OCAST) to join SSTI. She has served most recently as Interim Executive Director and has been with OCAST since its inception in 1987.

Sheri has established a track record as one of the nation's most creative and effective leaders in the tech-based economic development community. We're excited that she'll be joining the team. Sheri's experience, respect from her peers, energy, and creativity will allow SSTI to broaden and deepen the services which will have an impact across the country.

While some state legislatures debate banning public funds for some or all stem cell research, others are using whatever funding tools they have available to advance the controversial science. Some states use tobacco settlement money, others use revenue bonds, and still others use direct appropriations. Some states use voter referenda while most stay within the traditional state legislative process. The newest twist comes from Illinois, where Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich is using an executive order to commit $10 million toward stem cell research.

Announcing the initiative in concert with Illinois Comptroller Dan Hynes, Gov. Blagojevich says the new Illinois Regenerative Medicine Institute (IRMI) will award grants to medical research facilities for the development of treatments and cures. The program will be administered by the Illinois Department of Public Health and is expected to be operational by the end of the year.

The Oregon Legislature overwhelmingly passed S.B. 853 last week, creating venture development funds to facilitate technology commercialization for students and faculty at the state's seven public universities.

Under the legislation, revenue for the newly created funds will come from donors who, in turn, receive credit on their state income tax returns. The development funds will use capital raised through university foundations to bridge the gap between an idea and the point where private investors become interested.

For many practitioners, the quickest summary of a recent 16-page analysis from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York might be "something has to change." Looking at job creation since the recovery began three years ago, Richard Freeman and William Rogers III state in The Weak Jobs Recovery: Whatever Happened to "The Great American Jobs Machine"? that this is the worst recovery in all post-World War II recoveries.

The analysis states 17 months of job growth since August 2003 has barely kept pace with increases in population. As a result, "It would take employment growth of some 300,000 per month over the next year and a half to bring the employment-population rate to the 64.4 level it held during 2000." The monthly average since August 2003 has been less than half that at 146,000. And that figure is even underwhelming in that other research, the authors point out, indicates as much of 30 percent of all job growth since 2001 has been temporary-help services.

The quality of the economic performance assessment of federal programs has improved, but gaps still remain in the application of the measures used, according to the latest report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO).

Released this week, the GAO report highlights the findings and recommendations of a panel it convened in December 2004 to discuss economic performance measures. The panel of government and academe participants sought to discuss the use of economic analysis, such as benefit cost or cost effectiveness, for helping to assess federal programs' performance. Participants were selected based on various qualifications related to the subject matter. Their findings, as expressed in the report, include:

A new resource published by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) argues that indices claiming to measure the same thing - namely, the capacity or potential for economic growth - often vary widely in their results and are not effective yardsticks of economic potential.

In Grading Places, the nonprofit research institute EPI critiques five major business ranking indices, examining their methodology and validity. EPI observes that the rankings used in each index are based on each organization's own version of an index. Such indices are designed to show which states or cities have the best business climate, for example, yet share only one thing in common -- the agreement that places with lower taxes and fewer government regulations are better.

Rebecca Bagley is the new Deputy Secretary for Technology Investment in the PA Dept. of Community and Economic Development.

Former University of Washington President Lee Huntsman is the first director of Washington's Life Sciences Discovery Fund.

John Shields, president of the Alabama Technology Network since 1996, stepped down June 30. Mike Bailey is the new president.

Rebecca Bagley is the new Deputy Secretary for Technology Investment in the PA Dept. of Community and Economic Development.

Former University of Washington President Lee Huntsman is the first director of Washington's Life Sciences Discovery Fund.

John Shields, president of the Alabama Technology Network since 1996, stepped down June 30. Mike Bailey is the new president.