SSTI Digest

The Indiana Proteomics Consortium has changed its name to Inproteo.

New York Ecomm has changes its name to The Executive Council of New York to better reflect the organization's broader membership and program offerings.

David Quam is the new director of state-federal relations for the National Governors Association.

Phillip Z. Sobocinski has accepted a new position as Assistant Director of the new Office of Corporate Relations in the Office of the Chancellor, University of Wisconsin-Madison. The new initiative will be led by Charles Hoslet.

Spokane Economic Development Council president Mark Turner has announced his resignation.

Jeff Wadsworth has been named the next director of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Wadsworth was a former deputy director of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.

Larry Willard, president of the University of New Mexico Board of Regents, is leaving the position to become chairman of the New Mexico Economic Development Corp.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) could have more money to spend on science and tech initiatives in fiscal year (FY) 2004, thanks to a 63.1 percent increase in R&D funding approved Tuesday by the U.S. House of Representatives. Approximately $900.4 million – or $348.4 million more than the previous year – will go toward DHS's Science and Technology (S&T) budget in FY04. The Bush Administration had requested $803.4 million for the department's S&T budget.

In an accompanying report to the FY04 DHS Appropriations Bill, the House appropriations committee states DHS should work to develop new technologies and capabilities that protect U.S. soil. Excerpts of the committee's testimony on four R&D program areas are provided below:

South Carolina's three major research universities were awarded a total of $30 million this week to establish the state's first six centers of excellence, according to The State, a Columbia, S.C.-based newspaper.

Created by the state General Assembly during the 2002 legislative session, the Centers of Excellence program annually will endow professorships in research areas that will eventually lead to enhanced economic opportunities for the state. The program is to serve as an incentive for Clemson University, the University of South Carolina (USC) and the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) to raise capital from the private sector to support the recruitment and maintenance of leading scientists and engineers whose work will ultimately promote the growth and expansion of knowledge-based industries and the creation of more and better paying employment opportunities for the people of South Carolina.

As many states are striving to increase their academic research capacity in areas that will strengthen long-term economic competitiveness, the governor of the Lone Star State is pursuing an alternate course that closely resembles traditional business recruitment and retention models.

Using his line-item veto power, Texas Governor Rick Perry signed on June 22 a state budget that eliminates $54.5 million for programs designed to encourage university research. Texas' state budget now is void of the $22.5 million that was appropriated for each of the Texas Excellence Fund (TEF) and University Research Fund (URF) and the $9.5 million allocated for the state's Advanced Research Program (ARP).

The Maryland Technology Development Corporation (TEDCO) has issued a new study showing Maryland continues to underperform in some key areas of innovation while leading competitor states in other areas.

The Maryland Innovation and Technology Index 2003 is a detailed assessment of the state's technology assets and the degree to which they are reflected in economic performance. Building on its earlier editions in 1999 and 2001, the Index considers Maryland's competitiveness in three broad categories of innovation:

The St. Louis BioBelt announced this week it is well along in launching four new initiatives designed to position the region as a "location of choice" for start-up and evolving plant and life science companies.

Two research and commercialization projects are in the planning and development stages, one located in a 1,000-acre area of midtown-St. Louis called Technopolis and the other located in the City of Creve Coeur in St. Louis County. When finished, these two areas will provide multi-tenant wet lab and related life sciences infrastructure.