SSTI Digest

Sean O'Kane, a hotel manager from Manchester, N.H., has been confirmed as the new commissioner of the New Hampshire Department of Resources and Economic Development.

Robin Siss, Vermont's first commissioner for the Department of Information and Innovation, has announced her resignation. Siss began the position in August. Denise Fehr will serve as acting commissioner.

Katherine Willis, the founding president of Cyber-state.org, has announced her retirement. Jeff Moore will serve as interim president.

In an attempt to attract more bioscience firms, Florida will invest up to $1 billion of its $102 billion employee pension fund into venture capital, the State Board of Administration recently announced. A forum was held last week by Enterprise Florida, the state's economic development agency, to outline the investment plan to more than 80 venture capitalists in attendance.

Leading the forum was Coleman Stipanovich, director of the State Board of Administration, Richard Lerner, president of the Scripps Research Institute and Gov. Jeb Bush. The pension fund is part of $5 billion the state puts into alternative funds to be used for higher risk investments, Stipanovich said. The first installment will be $350 million during the next 12 months.

Two legislative bills encompassing economic development priorities of Gov. Jim Doyle’s Grow Wisconsin initiative recently were signed to provide assistance for both entrepreneurs and manufacturers.

Senate Bill 261 creates two tax credit programs to spur investment in start-up companies and fosters a new measure to provide funding and technical assistance to entrepreneurs. To encourage investors to take a chance on new Wisconsin companies, SB 261 offers $65 million in tax credits over the next 10 years. When fully deployed, the credits will leverage more than $260 million of investments from the private sector, Gov. Doyle said. The second part of the act provides $2.6 million for technology commercialization grant and loan programs in order to create a network of assistance centers to support entrepreneurs.

The U.S. cannot take its position as a world leader of innovation and research for granted, suggest new initiatives sponsored by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the Task Force on the Future of American Innovation. A report released on April 21 by NSF states the U.S. must take action, pointing out that invention requires both ingenuity and a skilled workforce. The task force - a group of 14 organizations associated with business and academia - unveiled its own advocacy campaign a day earlier, calling upon the federal government to grow the budgets of several key research agencies.

Targeted for policymakers and the public, the task force's initiative is aimed at reversing a decline in federal investment in basic research in the physical sciences and engineering. The decline, the task force says, puts at risk the development of new technologies, new industries and high-value jobs.

Small firms, as much as large ones, may be key to the nation's ability to innovate, particularly in emerging fields, according to data published by the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA). A report released earlier this year by SBA's Office of Advocacy shows that large firms in the biotechnology, medical electronics, semiconductor, and telecommunications industries are citing patents by small firms in higher-than-expected numbers.

The report, Small Firms and Technology: Acquisitions, Inventor Movement, and Technology Transfer, examines small firms' contribution to the innovation process through acquisition by larger firms and the hiring of elite inventors. Also considered is large firms' dependence on small firm technology through patent citations. The report's conclusions are drawn from two 1,000-plus databases of company patent activity from 1996 to 2000 and from 1998 to 2002.

The National Science Foundation has released a new statistical report entitled Federal Funds for Research and Development: Fiscal Years 2001, 2002, and 2003. Included among the 112 tables are 10 presenting the 2001 data by geographic distribution, performer and federal agency.

Federal obligations for research and development in 2001 totaled $78.078 billion. One-fourth of the total was for intramural R&D -- research activities taking place within many federal labs, research centers and military installations. With $5.435 billion, Maryland captures the greatest share of federal intramural research. California, the District of Columbia and Virginia make up distant second, third and fourth place finishes, respectively.

Alexandria, La.

An Alexandria native is looking to give his city its first research park, according to the Daily Town Talk. Originally proposed in November 2002, developer Jeff Richardson's plan would combine city resources as well as those of Louisiana State University and Southern University. The plan's first phase would cost $1.1 million annually, employing 15 workers, as part of a U.S. Navy project. The second phase would average about $1.5 million annually and add 10-12 positions.

A minimum $500 million 10-year investment to encourage biotech and entrepreneurship may soon become a reality for Kansas. With Gov. Kathleen Sebelius' approval of the Kansas Economic Growth Act, Kansas will set in motion a variety of new programs to encourage research, innovation and technology commercialization.

Much of the state's multimillion-dollar initiative is carried by its biotech element. A newly-created Kansas Bioscience Authority will oversee and administer the investment, with the goal of recruiting 25 eminent and 35 rising star scholars at state universities. The independent public agency also will provide funds for developing lab space and equipment to conduct biosciences research.

SSTI looks at paper on research parks

Last week's issue of the SSTI Weekly Digest included a brief review of a report which, in our opinion, included the use of statistics to potentially advance the discussion of what comprises effective tech-based economic development (TBED). Perhaps econometricians and other academic researchers may take issue with particular elements of the Milken Institute's approach, data set, equations or conclusions, but the model makes sense logically even to those of us without advanced degrees in statistics.

With its economy already outpacing the average growth for the member states of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) for the past five years, the Czech Republic is injecting 348 million euros ($417.6 million US) into several tech-based economic development (TBED) initiatives.

CzechInvest will coordinate development of strategic components of the nation's business environment including: the development of science and technology parks, incubators and technology transfer centers; subsidies for applied research projects undertaken by companies of any size; and a wide range of support for small and medium enterprises.

Based on the Czech Republic's population of 10.2 million people in 2003, the country's commitment on a per capita basis would be the equivalent of the U.S. making an $11.8 billion investment in state and local TBED.