SSTI Digest

• Jerald Coughter, industry director for biotechnology and medical applications for Virginia’s Center for Innovative Technology (CIT), has been named executive director of Governor Mark R. Warner’s Advisory Board for the Virginia Biotechnology Initiative.
• Ray Gilley, president of Metro Orlando Economic Development Commission, has been appointed chairman of Workforce Florida.
• Caroline Young has been named executive director of the Tennessee Biotechnology Association and director of the Tennessee Technology Development Corporation's life science initiative.
  

Jerald Coughter, industry director for biotechnology and medical applications for Virginia’s Center for Innovative Technology (CIT), has been named executive director of Governor Mark R. Warner’s Advisory Board for the Virginia Biotechnology Initiative.

Ray Gilley, president of Metro Orlando Economic Development Commission, has been appointed chairman of Workforce Florida.

Caroline Young has been named executive director of the Tennessee Biotechnology Association and director of the Tennessee Technology Development Corporation's life science initiative.

Golden LEAF, the statewide foundation established in 1999 to use one-half of the state's tobacco settlement for the long-term economic advancement of North Carolina, has announced an $85.4 million economic stimulus package it believes will significantly improve North Carolina's economy and make the state a leader in the biosciences industry. Foundation officials anticipate the public investment stimulating at least $350 million in new private and federal funding biotech activity in the state.

The centerpiece of the package is a commitment to invest $42 million in bioscience/biotechnology companies developing or manufacturing their products in North Carolina. If those investments are successful, the Golden LEAF Board anticipates making additional investments of $108 million over the next six years, bringing its total investments in the bioscience sector to $150 million.

Other elements of the package include:

Cities predict a stressful future for their budgets, which have been hurt by the economic downturn and the surge in local homeland security spending, according to the annual survey of city finance officers conducted by the National League of Cities (NLC).

For the first time since 1993, a majority (55 percent) of the surveyed finance officers said that their cities are less able to meet their city’s financial needs compared to the previous year (2001). The increased pessimism is based on slower-than-expected growth in revenue from sales, income, and tourist-related taxes combined with new responsibilities on homeland security, rising healthcare costs, and increased spending on infrastructure. Also, state budget woes — the National Conference of State Legislatures projects a $57.8 billion gap in revenues for the states — have exacerbated cities’ fiscal plight as states reduce funding to municipalities.

Washington Governor Gary Locke announced the formation of the Northwest Energy Technology Collaborative (NWETC) at a signing ceremony on Wednesday attended by the founding members. The Collaborative is a joint, voluntary effort of business, government, nonprofit, industry and educational institutions in the Pacific Northwest — Avista Corporation, Bonneville Power Administration, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Spokane Intercollegiate Research and Technology Institute, and Washington Technology Center — who share the common goal to position the region as a recognized leader for innovative research, education and product development for energy technology markets around the world.

Greater Philadelphia First (GPF) and the Science Center, a consortium of 34 regional academic and scientific institutions, have established a major new joint initiative designed to make it easier for science and technology entrepreneurs to start, grow and expand their businesses. Modeled on UCSD CONNECT in San Diego, CONNECT Greater Philadelphia will assist entrepreneurs by linking them with needed business, academic and other resources.

GPF, the region's business and civic leadership organization, is an association of chief executives of Philadelphia-area companies and nonprofit organizations. The new initiative will be housed within the Science Center.

With heightened public interest in the state of the economy, the National Commission on Entrepreneurship (NCOE) has released Entrepreneurship: A Candidate’s Guide — Creating Good Jobs in Your Community, a first-of-its-kind publication on how policymakers can help stimulate the creation and growth of new businesses in their local areas.

Fast-growth new companies can have a profound effect on local economies. The NCOE guide offers a prescription for developing successful entrepreneurial-friendly environments to foster new companies and fuel jobs.

Whether it's oil, gas, mining, lumber, fishing or farming, economies dominated by natural resource exploitation are subject to periods of boom and bust. In order for the four provinces of Canada's Atlantic region to shield themselves from such market swings and scarcity problems, it is necessary to build R&D partnerships and to collaborate more than ever, concludes a report released by Dr. Alan Cornford of GPT Management Ltd., Marin Consultants, Inc. and Gardner Pinfold Consultants Ltd.

Innovation and Commercialization in Atlantic Canada, released in March, aims to assist the Atlantic Provinces in identifying ways to improve the area's economy through R&D, innovation and  commercialization programs. The key for the region, the authors say, is to encourage more private R&D investment and activity.

Most technology-based economic development programs recognize the need to have more people in their states or communities who have received bachelor degrees or higher. Bringing low-income populations into a knowledge-based economy is particularly difficult because of the two significant obstacles low-income students face for college access: insufficient financial aid and inadequate academic preparation.

According to a report released last week by the Lumina Foundation for Education, the Twenty-first Century Scholars Program, Indiana's state financial assistance initiative, helps low-income Indiana residents overcome those obstacles. The program also may help address "brain drain" concerns when a state experiences a net outmigration of college graduates.

Do personal income tax cuts encourage entrepreneurship? Conventional wisdom and many politicians may suggest that if people have more cash on hand, they may be inclined to launch or start their own businesses. A working paper released earlier this month by the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) concludes just the opposite: lowering personal tax rates in most cases appears to discourage entrepreneurial activity.