SSTI Digest

Phil Bond, Under Secretary for Technology in the U.S. Department of Commerce, announced his resignation, effective May 13. A strong supporter of NIST and tech-based economic development, Bond will be missed as he becomes Senior Vice President for Government Affairs at Monster Worldwide.

Diane Duff, former director of economic development and commerce for the National Governors Association, is the new executive director of the Southern Governors' Association.

Gov. Bill Richardson appointed William Enloe, CEO of Los Alamos National Bank, to serve as chairman of the New Mexico Economic Development Partnership.

Randa Hayes is the new director of the business development and trade division of the Missouri Department of Economic Development.

The new Vice President for Business Ventures at the Mississippi Technology Alliance is Jim Lowery.

TechNet named Lezlee Westine, White House Director of Public Liaison, to serve as its new director.

During the months of May and June, the SSTI Weekly Digest and Funding Supplement will be published every other week. SSTI staff over the next two months will be completing work on two major projects that require focused concentration. We look forward to resuming the Digest and Funding Supplement on a weekly basis in July. The next issue of the Digest will be May 16.

While the topic of embryonic stem cell research has been at the forefront of S&T policy since 2001, attention has shifted to the states in the last six months. Last fall, California voters overwhelmingly approved a $3 billion bond issue to support embryonic stem cell research over the next decade. This vote triggered action in a number of states concerned about the loss of researchers to California and increased activity on Capitol Hill to overturn the Presidential directive that limits the use of federal research funds to only those embryonic stem cell lines derived before Aug. 9, 2001.

Recognizing the economic benefits of engaging young people in science and technology, Ontario's McGuinty government recently launched the Youth Science and Technology Outreach Program. The new program links high school students with researchers to support in-depth mentorship experience and postsecondary career advice.

The Provincial government will provide $3 million over three years to fund projects that include speaking engagements, workshops and demonstration projects, short-term projects in a lab or field research site, student science competitions, expert-in-residence programs, and lab mentorships. According to the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade, the goals of the program are to:

The Research and Innovative Technology Administration (RITA) of the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) recently released Research Activities of the Department of Transportation: A Report to Congress, identifying DOT’s current and projected research, development and technology priorities.

A newly formed DOT agency as of November 2004, RITA will lead cross-departmental efforts to identify and implement research priorities, and ensure that those investments are effective and align with DOT’s objectives. In addition, RITA will manage the University Transportation Centers program, which invests in university-based centers of excellence to advance innovation, research, education, and technology transfer.

Glenwood Springs, Colo., is the nation’s most entrepreneurial region, according to a study recently released by the U.S. Small Business Administration's Office of Advocacy and the Edward Lowe Foundation. The region's ranking is based on the Regional Entrepreneurship Index, a measure intended to standardize assessment of entrepreneurship within and across regions.

The study, The Innovation-Entrepreneurship NEXUS, attempts to show that innovation without entrepreneurship yields minimal economic impact. The authors note, “Whether they are building new firms or reinventing existing ones, entrepreneurs, through the application of new ideas to products and services, capture locally the economic benefits of innovation.”

The Small Business Administration (SBA) is anticipated to release its latest summary statistics for Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) awards soon. Unfortunately, the data typically do not include proposal figures, a useful measure of the general effectiveness or need for SBIR technical assistance and outreach in any given state. For several years, the Useful Stats column of the SSTI Weekly Digest has attempted to rectify this omission and FY 2004 is no exception.

For FY04, SSTI has aggregated Phase I award, proposal and award-to-proposal conversion percentages for all 50 states and the District of Columbia for 10 of the 11 participating agencies. (The Commerce Department's National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration refused to provide proposal statistics.) The table is available at: http://www.ssti.org/Digest/Tables/042505t.htm