SSTI Digest

The Indiana Health Industry Forum announced James "Mike" Brooks accepted the position of president and CEO effective July 11.

Randy Goldsmith resigned his position as president and CEO of the San Antonio Technology Accelerator Initiative (SATAI) Network to become assistant vice president of tech transfer and economic development at the University of Texas at San Antonio. SATAI is currently accepting applications to fill the vacancy (see item below).

Jeff Moseley will replace Jim Kollaer as president and CEO of the Greater Houston Partnership.

Purdue University professor Jerry Woodall was chosen to lead the university's Burton D. Morgan Center for Entrepreneurship.

The San Antonio Technology Accelerator Initiative (SATAI) Network, a nonprofit organization, is accepting applications from qualified candidates to fill the position of President and CEO. The SATAI Network seeks someone with strong leadership and team-building skills, as well as experience in linking venture capital to venture creation and cultivating an environment and resources for start-up enterprises. A bachelor's degree and at least five years of experience in business/economic development within a private or public sector technology-based industry or organization are required. An MBA is desired. Applicants are due July 11, 2005. A complete job description is available through the SSTI Job Corner at http://www.ssti.org/posting.htm.

SSTI's annual conference is already considered by many to be the nation's premier educational and networking experience for the tech-based economic development community. However, the ninth annual conference to be held October 20-21, 2005 - keeping with years past - gives certified economic development professionals even more reason to attend. Investing in a Brighter Future: Building Tech-based Economies will be recognized by the International Economic Development Council (IEDC) as a professional development event that counts as one credit toward recertification of Certified Economic Developers (CEcD).

In addition, this year for the first time certified economic developers can earn a second recertification credit by participating in SSTI's preconference workshop examining the success of the renowned Technology Square complex at Georgia Tech.

After being struck down by the Iowa Supreme Court in 2004, the state legislature recently passed legislation re-creating a $500 million version of its Grow Iowa Values Fund. The bills commit $500 million over 10 years to support tech-based economic development and other economic development initiatives. Gov. Tom Vilsack signed the measures on June 10.

The Texas Legislature recently approved $100 million of the original $300 million requested by Gov. Rick Perry for the Emerging Technologies Fund (ETF). Another $100 million is expected to be available from the state's rainy day fund if revenues exceed forecasts.

The ETF aims to foster emerging technologies, enhance university-industry collaboration, and promote technology commercialization (see the Dec. 20, 2004 issue of the Digest). Much of the fund activity will be distributed through regional economic development efforts.

Catering to high-tech companies built on innovation, the nonprofit regional collaboration dubbed SPARK, hopes to transform Ann Arbor, Mich., into more of an entrepreneurial hub and triple the number of technology jobs within five years.

University, business, government and community leaders are partnering to provide services to new and emerging high-tech businesses and organizations within biotechnology, information technology, energy, advanced manufacturing, and security. Five primary services to be offered include business acceleration, business outreach, talent development, early-stage funding, and regional marketing and events.

While the U.S. wrests its way to remain the global leader in nanotechnology (see the May 30 issue of the Digest), some states and regions are wasting no time to secure their own world-class cluster in the field. Officials in Maryland, Virginia and the District of Columbia agreed earlier this month to form the Chesapeake Nanotechnology Initiative (CNI), a collaborative effort to strengthen the region’s capabilities in nanotech research, development and commercialization.

California leads the world in biotech research today and likely will continue to dominate in the years to come according to The Dynamics of California's Biotechnology Industry, a new report from the Public Policy Institute of California. The report concludes that California retains a sharp biotech edge, despite reports of firms leaving the state or establishing plants elsewhere.

Authors Junfu Zhang and Nikesh Patel note that the state generates more than half of U.S. biotech revenues and accounts for nearly half of national R&D spending. California biotech garnered 46 percent of the venture capital invested in biotech between 1992 and 2001 and accounts for 40 percent of the nation’s biotech jobs, according to the authors.

A study suggests policies enacted in 1999 to encourage cooperative research, establish tech transfer structures and provide venture capital contributed to a dramatic shift in the biotech topography in France. In “Start-ups, firm growth and the consolidation of the French biotech industry,” authors Eric Avenel, Frederic Corolleur, Caroline Gauthier, and Carole Rieu compiled an original dataset on biotech firms to test several growth models on the French landscape.

The study from the Grenoble Applied Economics Laboratory examines the biotech landscape from three location types: administrative regions, science genopoles, and clusters with more than 10 biotech firms within 20 kilometers. Administrative regions are comparable to states, while genopoles would be comparable to Metropolitan Statistical Areas in the U.S. with government established science parks.