SSTI Digest

Peter Bianco has been named executive director of University Enterprise Laboratories, a nonprofit entity created by the University of Minnesota that provides incubator laboratory space for bioscience start-up companies.

The presentations from last week's conference, Knowledge Clusters and Entrepreneurship in Regional Economic Development, now available online, provide a good introduction to many of the topics and issues to be discussed at SSTI's annual conference, Building Tech-based Economies: Preparing for Tomorrow's Challenges, in Philadelphia, Oct. 13-15.

Organized by the Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota, the Clusters conference included case studies on U.S. and Irish clusters and entrepreneurship as well as:

Cleveland Fed: "Innovation, Growth, and Economic Policy in an Environment of Change,"

At a time when manufacturing jobs are relenting to the pressures of an expanded service sector, foreign competition and productivity growth, the idea of economic prosperity has a renewed urgency with innovation as the greatest strength and flexibility the greatest asset, argues a new report from the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland.

In the 20-page essay portion of its 2003 annual report, Growth and Economic Policy in an Environment of Change, the fourth federal reserve bank district sets forth to answer, “What is the source of economic prosperity?” The report examines innovation's role in economic development, reviewing the theories that have shaped the nation's economic history with an eye on current and future challenges.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) recently selected Texas A&M University and the University of Minnesota to lead the second and third Homeland Security Centers of Excellence (HS-Centers). The department anticipates providing Texas A&M University, the University of Minnesota and their partners with a total of $33 million over the course of the next three years to address security in two key agricultural sectors -- foreign animal diseases and food security.

The selections were made from 23 proposals submitted in response to a December 2003 broad agency announcement by DHS' Science and Technology Directorate. Site visits were conducted for  seven finalists before selecting the two new HS-Centers.

Innovations in public and private institutions could be the key to aligning governance with opportunity, according to the Center for the Study of Rural America's latest annual report.

Previous focus for the center has been on how rural regions can build new economic engines, which the report's authors contend is well understood by public and private leaders. What is less understood, they explain, is the need to effectively change how regions reach economic decisions, a process they call rural governance.

New governance, suggests Innovations in Rural Governance, will define how decisions will be made within a region and how key institutions of federal, state and local government, higher education and the private sector will work together.

The need for tax cuts, reduced and simplified regulations, a well-trained workforce, lower employee health care costs, and a state-sponsored industry advocate are among the top concerns shared by a core group of Minnesota manufacturers.

Those concerns and others are summarized in Positively Minnesota Manufacturing: Making It Great, a report released earlier this year by the state's Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED). The report is a synopsis of feedback obtained during a series of roundtable meetings convened by Gov. Tim Pawlenty in October 2003. To help manufacturers, DEED identified several key areas that could warrant further consideration:

With Randall Olson's resignation, Pat Dillon has become the executive director for Minnesota Project Innovation.

The University of Minnesota Duluth Center for Economic Development has named Elaine Hansen as its new permanent director.

Minnesota Technology Inc. has hired Wayne Pletcher as its new president.

Jacques Koppel, president of Minnesota Technology, Inc. since 1991, announced his resignation on July 28. Under Mr. Koppel's leadership, MTI worked with more than 5,600 manufacturing and technology companies around Minnesota, helping the state's economy realize gains of more than $700 million in the process. MTI's Board of Directors has appointed Frank Starke interim President to lead the organization during its transition from a quasi-state corporation to a private nonprofit corporation.

Sandy Layman was named commissioner of the Iron Range Resources and Rehabilitation Agency (IRRRA) earlier this month. IRRRA promotes economic development in Northeastern Minnesota.

Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty recently announced the formation of a Biodiesel Task Force to accelerate development of the state's biodiesel industry. The nine-member group will advise the Minnesota Department of Agriculture (MDA) on methods to increase production and use of biodiesel in Minnesota.

Legislation passed by the 2002 Minnesota Legislature requires that 2 percent of Minnesota’s diesel fuel be replaced with biodiesel by June 2005. This requirement will take effect on the condition that the state has developed by that time an annual biodiesel production capacity of at least 8 million gallons. To help reach that production capacity and ensure a smooth introduction of biodiesel into the marketplace, the new task force will help promote and educate possible biodiesel developers, marketers, consumers and manufacturers.