SSTI Digest

The Piedmont Triad Research Park laid off Bill Dean, director of the park, and Nancy Johnson, marketing director. Park officials said that the park's project manager and executive assistant also were laid off.

Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter announced that he has tapped Don Elliman, director of the Colorado Office of Economic Development, to serve as the state government's first chief operating officer.

J. Mike Books is leaving his post with the Indiana Health Industry Forum to become the first economic development director for the city of Columbia, Missouri. He also will serve as president of the Regional Economic Development Inc. Brooks will assume his new responsibilities on July 15.

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced the appointment of Judith Canales as Administrator for Rural Business and Cooperative programs in USDA's Rural Development agency.

Donald Cardon, who has been serving as director of the Arizona Department of Housing since March, was named director of the Arizona Department of Commerce.

For nearly every budget issue SSTI has prepared during the first decade of the 21st century, our opening paragraphs read like obituaries. The previous administration was ideologically opposed to the government taking an active role to support economic development, even tech-based economic development, beyond increases for university and federally based research. Spending for federal programs that support regional community and economic growth were slashed repeatedly. The memories are fresh of having to fight for every dollar in Congress, and, watching appropriation levels slide. Earmarks grew as programs were forced to fend for themselves. Unless you've been in the TBED field for nearly a decade, those may be your only perceptions of the federal role for innovation.

W. Steven Burke is the new president of Biofuels Center of North Carolina.

Bill Gimson has been named executive director of the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas. Gimson recently retired as the chief operating officer of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Jeremy Hill has been named the director of the Center for Economic Development and Business Research at Wichita State University. Hill replaces Janet Harrah, who left the post for Northern Kentucky University.

Seize the opportunity for recognition of outstanding achievement in tech-based economic development.

SSTI is pleased to invite applications for the 2009 awards cycle, a program recognizing exceptional achievements in approaches to improving state and regional economies through science, technology and innovation.

The purpose of the awards program is to showcase best practices across a broad spectrum of categories encompassing several elements that have been found in successful technology-based economies. The categories are:

The following overview is a synopsis of select recent announcements from research parks across the nation, including groundbreakings and development plans to support vibrant regional economies based on science, technology and innovation. 

Kentucky Highlands Investment Corporation has named Jim Carroll as director of its Center for Entrepreneurial Growth.

Catapult Bio, a nonprofit organization designed to help transform emerging research discoveries into business opportunities, accelerating the commercialization of life sciences in Arizona, announced its official launch with a grant of up to $14 million from Abraxis Bioscience.

Tech entrepreneurs in Kansas would lose a long-time independent friend and ally in their efforts to expand the state's economy if the FY10 budget proposed by Gov. Kathleen Sebelius passed the state legislature. The governor has proposed many of the functions of KTEC, a program spanning more than two decades as a quasi-public agency developing Kansas' technology-based economic development efforts, would be cut substantially and absorbed by the state Department of Commerce (DOC).