SSTI Digest

Pauli Jacobi, director of the Louisiana State University System Research and Technology Foundation, is resigning her position but will remain an LSU employee.

Darrell Kelley, CEO of Enterprise Florida for the past three years, will retire on Aug. 1.

Technology specialist David Levine, hired by Gov. Joe Manchin in March, is leaving the governor's office to become executive director of the Robert C. Byrd National Technology Transfer Center.

Ed Morrison, formerly with the Weatherhead School of Management in Cleveland, opened the Institute for Open Source Economic Development. He will continue to maintain the EDPro weblog.

Richard Overmoyer, deputy secretary for technology investment at the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development, is leaving to join the lobbying group, GSP Consulting.

The Puerto Rico Senate recently confirmed Jorge Silva-Puras as the new executive director of the Puerto Rico Industrial Development Company. He previously served as secretary of the Department of Economic Development and Commerce.

The Board of Directors of the EAST (Environmental And Spatial Technology) Initiative invites applications for the position of President/Chief Executive Officer. The EAST model, a result of a collaboration between business and education, is intended to provide K-16 students with access to resources not available in the traditional educational setting. The board seeks a proven leader whose vision and passion for education and technology is demonstrated by a successful track record of innovation, strong management and fiscal integrity. Someone with 10 years of executive management experience is desired. A full description is available through the SSTI Job Corner, http://www.ssti.org/posting.htm.

Your kids may not be bored of summer yet, but if you're an avid bird watcher, you know the season has already changed to fall as Yellow Warblers and several species of shorebirds begin their migrations south by July 4.

If you find that a little depressing, then SSTI has a perfect suggestion to make certain your summer lasts well into October: Make plans now to join us for our ninth annual conference Oct. 19-21 in Atlanta! The average Mid-October temperatures for the area are ideal for discovering why the Buckhead area of Atlanta is called the "Jewel of the South" or "Shopping Mecca of the Southeast." October weather in Atlanta also is usually perfect for playing a few of the more than 1,100 holes of golf available in the metro area.

As the House passed its version of the fiscal year 2006 defense appropriations bill last Monday, "Little R, Big D" once again may describe the country's R&D priorities for the largest component of the federal budget.

H.R. 2863 reduces overall funding for defense science and technology (spending categories 6.1, 6.2 and 6.3, respectively, referring to basic research, applied research and advanced technology development) to $13.04 billion -- 0.6 percent from the FY05 appropriations level but 23.9 percent higher than the Administration's request. Much of the $2.5 billion in restored funding, according to the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), is in the form of Congressional earmarks.

With hopes of creating a geographic concentration of academic and private bioscience research and commercialization, the Louisiana legislature ended its 2005 session with passage of a bill creating a new development authority. House Bill 742, the Greater New Orleans Biosciences Economic Development District Act, focuses on an area of several blocks in downtown New Orleans, but the bill grants the district's board the ability to redefine its boundaries by additional properties, including those outside the Orleans parish. The district may issue bonds to support acquisition of land and construction of buildings and other facilities.

Technology commercialization can be a slow and arduous process, often taking years to reap the benefits of the investment. Recognizing that defense technology innovations move too slowly from the lab to the field, Congress created three programs within the Department of Defense (DoD) to speed and enhance the transition.

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) recently reviewed the oversight of the programs and offered recommendations to DoD. The three technology transition programs target relatively small projects and have a budget consisting of a combined $64 million in 2005.

With SSTI's compilation of the FY 2003 Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) proposal and award statistics by state, tech-based economic development programs - specifically SBIR assistance and outreach efforts - now have the requisite data to evaluate conversion trends for most agencies during the four-year period 2001-2004.

The use of trends over a number of years, rather than single year "snapshots," can be useful for refining a state or local program's efforts, particularly if the program has held conferences, outreach, proposal assistance targeting specific federal agency solicitations or technologies. Trend data also helps to reveal how Phase I awards made within a state are tracking with the overall proposal, award and conversion rates for each agency and comparable states.