SSTI Digest

Dennis Yablonsky, who has been serving as CEO for both the Pittsburgh Digital Greenhouse and the Pittsburgh Life Sciences Greenhouse for most of the past year, has decided to focus exclusively on the biotech initiative. His replacement as president and CEO at the Pittsburgh Digital Greenhouse is David Ruppersberger.

A ballot proposal being put forth by Citizens for a Healthy Michigan would reduce funding for Michigan Life Sciences Corridor sponsored projects by nearly $50 million annually, estimates a report released by the Michigan Economic Development Corporation (MEDC).  The annual reduction includes both the cut in direct funding and required matching funds for Corridor funded projects. It also takes into account the loss in expected yields from the Corridor’s loans, equity stakes investments and direct investments in venture capital funds.

The Advanced Technology Program (ATP) has announced 40 awards potentially totaling $101.6 million in ATP funding matched by an industry cost-share of $92 million if carried through to completion. These awards were selected from proposals submitted to 2002 competition.

Managed by the National Institute of Standards and Technology, ATP provides cost-shared funding to industry-led teams which can include non-profits and universities to help advance particularly challenging, high-risk research and development projects that have the potential to spark important, broad-based economic or social benefits for the U.S. The program supports projects that industry cannot fully fund on its own because of significant technical risks.

The Small Business Administration (SBA) recently named 27 states winners of the second Federal and State Technology Partnership (FAST) awards. At $100,000 each, the awards totaled $2.7 million. Created in December 2000 legislation that reauthorized the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Program, FAST provides matching funds to enable states to augment or expand their tech business assistance and SBIR outreach efforts. The FY 2002 winners are:

Construction is underway for the Cool Springs Life Sciences Center (CSLSC), a $74 million biomedical research facility planned for Franklin, TN, 15 miles south of Nashville. When completed, the 10-acre center will be home to life sciences-focused R&D facilities for biotech, pharmaceutical and medical device companies.

A $464,218 Tennessee Industrial Infrastructure Program (TIIP) grant awarded to the City of Franklin earlier this year is helping to fund CSLSC. With the creation of an estimated 600 direct and indirect jobs at build-out, the center is expected to generate more than $15 million in spendable payroll and $1.2 million in annual local tax revenue for Williamson County and the City of Franklin.

The National Commission on Entrepreneurship (NCOE) has released the American Formula for Growth – Federal Policy and the Entrepreneurial Economy, 1958-1998, a report that provides an extensive review of the role of public policy during the “entrepreneurial revolution” of the past 40 years.

A two-year compilation of data and personal interviews with veteran venture capitalists, lawyers, accountants, educators and entrepreneurs, American Formula for Growth poses upcoming policy challenges that America must address to sustain continued innovation and prolong prosperity. The report recommends that policymakers execute an action plan to address specific issues that will expand and extend the entrepreneurial economy.

Along with the foundation of our constitutional and legal system, the report focuses on five key areas of public policy that contribute to the American formula for growth:

In the 1990s, the dialogue on information technology (IT) centered on dot.coms and e-commerce, and little focus was placed on the effect of IT on the labor market. Richard Freeman addresses this issue in The Labour Market in the New Information Economy, an NBER working paper released this month.

Freeman relates that employment in IT-producing industries has grown from 3.3 percent of total employment in 1992 to 4.3 percent in 2000. The earnings of these workers, he notes, have risen 1.65 times the earnings of workers throughout the economy in 1992 and 2.11 times the earnings of all workers in 2000. The use of computers and the Internet at work also has risen. In 1984, 25 percent of workers ages 18-65 used a computer at work, and in 2001 that percentage rose to 56 percent. Internet usage rose from 17 percent in 1997 to 41 percent in 2001.

A Massachusetts Institute of Technology faculty committee has suggested that the university provide off-campus facilities to help faculty perform classified public service or research involving the nation’s security. In the Public Interest, a report of the Ad Hoc Faculty Committee on Access To and Disclosure of Scientific Information of MIT, presents recommendations for the university in handling classified work in the wake of the September 11 attacks.

Appointed by Provost Robert A. Brown and Professor Stephen C. Graves, the panel stresses that MIT is firmly committed to it long-standing policy of the intellectual openness of the campus. The panel expresses concern that allowing classified research on university grounds would create two classes of individuals and would restrict faculty and student interaction on campus. It also states that students should not be required to have security clearance for thesis research.

The economic downturn and continuing state and local fiscal problems are not stopping most efforts to develop tech-based economies. Here are a few examples of recent groundbreakings from around the country.

NASA has selected 45 consortia in the National Space Grant College and Fellowship Program (Space Grant) to receive funding for aerospace workforce development. A total of $3.56 million is being awarded in response to the proposals submitted by the state organizations to NASA's Education Division in the Office of Human Resources and Education at Headquarters in Washington.

NASA received 51 proposals under competition for the Space Grant awards. The proposals were reviewed using criteria that included innovation, connections with NASA Centers, faculty and curriculum development, student research, and effective evaluation methods. The awards ranged from $20,000 to $100,000 and averaged approximately $78,000.

Peter Jobse has been named executive vice president and chief operating officer of Virginia's Center for Innovative Technology.

Patrick Jones, executive director of the Biotechnology Association of the Spokane Region, has been named executive director of Eastern Washington University's new Institute for Public Policy and Economic Analysis.

Dennis Lower of the Biomedical Research Foundation of Northwest Louisiana is the new leader of the Louisiana Economic Development Council.

Judy McKinney-Cherry is the new director of the Delaware Economic Development Office.

Peter Jobse has been named executive vice president and chief operating officer of Virginia's Center for Innovative Technology.