SSTI Digest

The National Science Foundation (NSF) has issued the detailed statistical tables for Science & Engineering Doctorate awards for 2003. As was done for 2002, 2001 and 2000, SSTI has compiled a 50-state table presenting the number of degrees and rank for each major field of science & engineering. In addition, SSTI has used population in the form of "S&E doctorates awarded per 100,000 residents" to standardize the data to facilitate comparisons across states.

The 2003 table is available at: http://www.ssti.org/Digest/Tables/011005t.htm

Since identifying trends in numbers is often more valuable than the raw figures themselves, here are links for past tables:

That is the question facing researchers who have innovative ideas that become marketable products. Researchers who file patents to protect intellectual property rights may diminish the value of the research to potential developers due to "knowledge leakage" to competing developers. Instead, a researcher might approach a developer directly to negotiate an exclusive contract in which a researcher receives some immediate compensation and a stake in the licensed, developed product.

Sudipto Bhattacharya of London School of Economics and Sergei Guriev of the New Economic School of Moscow address these two situations in their paper Knowledge Disclosure, Patents, and Optimal Organization of Research and Development. Based on Bhattacharya and Guriev's theories, researchers with venture capital partners may produce deals that result in greater amounts of knowledge development leading to marketable products than those that go it alone.

Just what makes firms productive? Economists continue to refine their thinking on the interactions that enhance productivity. Knowledge capital and knowledge relatedness play an active role in increasing firm competitiveness, especially in large, high-tech manufacturing sectors, according to a study presented at a recent conference of the Groupe de Recherche en Economie.

In Knowledge and Productivity in the World's Largest Manufacturing Corporations, Lionel Nesta of the University of Sussex studies the productivity and technology relatedness of the world's top manufacturing companies. Nesta correlates patent and financial data from international sources for more than 150 multinational companies. He then refines and tests these data using different econometric models. Since Nesta's study uses data related mostly to the most research-intensive sectors, the findings relate mostly to large, technologically advanced firms.

The Georgia Biomedical Partnership named Charles Craig as its new president.

E. Dana Dickens announced he will step down from the Suffolk City Council (Va.) to become president of the Hampton Roads Partnership, a group promoting economic development in the region.

Ohio Department of Development Director Bruce Johnson has been sworn in as the state's lieutenant governor. Johnson is expected to serve both positions for the balance of Gov. Bob Taft's term.

Jafar Karim is the new director of the Governor's Office of Economic Development in South Dakota.

The Georgia Biomedical Partnership named Charles Craig as its new president.

E. Dana Dickens announced he will step down from the Suffolk City Council (Va.) to become president of the Hampton Roads Partnership, a group promoting economic development in the region.

Ohio Department of Development Director Bruce Johnson has been sworn in as the state's lieutenant governor. Johnson is expected to serve both positions for the balance of Gov. Bob Taft's term.

Jafar Karim is the new director of the Governor's Office of Economic Development in South Dakota.

David Harmer, executive director of the Utah Department of Community and Economic Development (DCED), announced his retirement. Chris Roybal, senior advisor to Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. for economic development, will take on many of Harmer's responsibilities.

It is an unfortunate and annoying consequence of politics that sometimes, with the change of gubernatorial administrations even within parties, excellent people with enviable records of delivering results for tech-based economic development programs lose their positions. SSTI has learned that Rod Linton and Michael Keene were among 33 "at-will" economic development staff at the Utah DCED fired en masse last Thursday. Gov. Huntsman, who began his term of office on Jan. 3, plans to run most economic development's activities from within the governor's office and to dismantle DCED. We wish Rod and Mike every success in their future endeavors.

Gov. Rick Perry is asking the Texas Legislature to appropriate $300 million for a new program designed to foster emerging technologies, enhance university-industry collaboration, and promote technology commercialization. If approved, the multi-faceted effort would be the most aggressive tech-based economic development initiative in the state's history.

"Texas must now take the next step of investing more in emerging fields of technology in order to remain competitive in the evolving world economy," said Gov. Perry.

The proposed Texas Emerging Technology Fund, if funded, would focus on research and job creation in high-tech industries such as semiconductor manufacturing, biotechnology, nanotechnology, environmental sciences and advanced energy. Most of the funds would benefit Texas colleges and universities and would be divided into three components, which include:

Money is following the jobs and excitement that represents China's economy these days according to an annual survey of equity investments in China mainland businesses. Compiled by Chinese venture capital (VC) research and consulting firm Zero2IPO, the fourth annual survey found 60 firms made 253 investments totalling $1.269 billion (US) in China mainland or mainland-related enterprises in 2004.

The rapid growth in the world's fascination with all things Chinese also is evident by the number of deals increasing more than 43 percent over last year. The survey results mark the first time the total has surpassed $1 billion, with total funds increasing by 28 percent over the prior year.