SSTI Digest

President Bush has nominated Dr. William Jeffrey as director of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). The nomination is subject to Senate confirmation.

Bob Shriver recently resigned as director of the Nevada Commission on Economic Development. Tim Rubald, the commission's director of business development, has been named interim director.

Yesterday proved a big day for supporters of stem cell research as measures advanced in both Connecticut and Massachusetts. The Massachusetts law described in the May 16 issue of the Digest became law immediately after the state Senate voted 35-2 and the House voted 112-42 to override Gov. Mitt Romney's veto. In Connecticut, the House voted 113-27 to pass Senate Bill 934, leaving the measure to Gov Jodi Rell for her signature.

While the Massachusetts battle was fairly partisan between the Republican governor and the Democratic controlled legislature, the story in neighboring Connecticut suggests the conflict over embryonic stem cell research is more ideological than partisan.

The Administration's proposal to replace 18 federal programs targeting different elements of community and economic development with a single, smaller program called the Strengthening America's Communities Initiative (SACI) received another blow last week (see the Feb. 14 issue of the Digest for more information on SACI). The House Appropriations subcommittee markup of the appropriations bill for Science, Departments of State, Justice, and Commerce, and related Agencies excluded the President's request of $3.7 billion for SACI from the Commerce section of the bill.

New York's lead agency for promoting tech-based economic development (TBED) in the state soon will have a new name, if not a complete makeover. Under enacted budget legislation, the New York Office of Science, Technology and Academic Research (NYSTAR) will become the New York State Foundation for Science, Technology and Innovation by Jan. 1, 2006.

Assembly Bill 6843, the state's 2006 budget, provides $250 million for the new public authority "to fulfill the public purposes of furthering job creation and economic growth and advances in the fields of science, technology and innovation and to facilitate the commercialization of scientific and other innovations in New York State." A 13-member board comprised of public and private representatives will oversee the foundation, directing all existing NYSTAR programs, a new regional partnership program, and two new funds.

Louisiana State University's Business and Technology Center (LBTC) recently received the National Business Incubation Association's (NBIA) 2005 Randall M. Whaley Incubator of the Year award, recognizing overall excellence in business incubation programs. The award is NBIA's most prestigious honor, presented as a tribute to NBIA's first chairman.

As a measure of LBTC's success, an economic analysis released this month by the Louisiana Technology Park reveals steady progress in the local economy and start-up companies in the Baton Rouge area. LBTC is the innovating hub for the Louisiana Technology Park, which will help create an additional 443 new jobs in 2005. The total is up from 272 jobs projected in 2004, according to the analysis.

The U.S. is currently the global leader in nanotechnology R&D, number of nanotechnology start-up companies, and research output as measured by patents and publications. However, that role is under increasing competitive pressure from other nations, according to an assessment of the multi-agency National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI), which organizes federal nanotechnology research.

The NNI report defines nanotech as "encompassing the science, engineering, and technology related to the understanding and control of matter at the length scale of approximately 1 to 100 nanometeres." Nanotech touches upon a broad array of disciplines including chemistry, biology, physics, computational science and engineering and holds tremendous potential for stimulating innovation, the report adds.

Recognizing the benefits of a skilled workforce to match the new manufacturing and high-tech jobs of the 21st Century, states are turning to worker training and retraining programs in order to remain economically competitive. During the past month, Tennessee, Nebraska and Connecticut committed a combined total of $37 million for worker training initiatives.

The Tennessee legislature approved Gov. Phil Bredesen's 2005 jobs package, which includes $20 million to expand job training across the state and develop a statewide broadband strategy. House Bill 2287 establishes the FastTrack infrastructure development and job training assistance fund within the Department of Economic and Community Development. Funds will be used for infrastructure development and job training assistance grants and loans.

While many regions, states and countries are lamenting a drain of talent from their area, the Pakistan Higher Education Commission is taking an opposite strategy to strengthen the nation's science and research capacity: sending up to 15,000 of its brightest students to study selected disciplines abroad through its Foreign Ph.D. Scholarship Program.

Students may choose from selected programs in science, engineering and technology at universities in Austria, China, France, Germany, Netherlands or Sweden. In return, scholarship recipients must commit to serve in Pakistan for a minimum of five years after completion of study, preferably in an institution of higher education.

In the opening ceremony of the 2005 FORTUNE Global Forum, held in Beijing on May 16, Chinese President Hu Jintao broadly outlined the course his country is taking to reach a goal of quadrupling its 2000 Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by the year 2020. Science, technology and innovation figure prominently in the strategy.

President Hu discussed the recent historical rise in the nation's economic performance, saying, "In a short span of 26 years from 1978 to 2004, China's GDP increased from $147.3 billion to $1.6494 trillion with an average annual growth rate of 9.4 percent. Its foreign trade rose from $20.6 billion to $1.1548 trillion, averaging an annual growth rate of over 16 percent. China's foreign exchange reserve increased from 167m to 609.9bn." (Note: All amounts are in U.S. Dollars.)

Washington Gov. Christine Gregoire last week signed a bill creating the Life Sciences Discovery Fund (see the Feb. 7 issue of the Digest). The fund will support life sciences research using $350 million in strategic "bonus" payments Washington will receive beginning in 2008 for its leadership role in the tobacco settlement. The state will receive the funds over a 10-year period. By leveraging funds from private and federal sources, the fund's total impact is expected to exceed $1 billion and is anticipated to drive important health care innovations, new company formation and job creation across the state.

One starts up. Another bites the dust. The Certified Capital Company (CAPCO) Program, a complicated and controversial tool used by some states to encourage venture capital investments, finds its beginnings in one region while seeing its demise in yet another.

The D.C. CAPCO program, officially launched today after being enacted in 2004 by the D.C. Council, will afford insurance companies with a tax credit against their premium taxes in exchange for making $50 million in equity investments over 10 years. The program's three fund managers - Wilshire D.C. Partners, Advantage Capital Partners and Enhanced Capital Partners - will look to invest in small and emerging businesses, including manufacturing centers and technology companies, through three initial funds.