SSTI Digest

Ruth Lange, with the USDA's SBIR Program Office and one of the most helpful federal employees for state and local SBIR outreach efforts, is taking a new position as Peer Review Director for USDA CREES.

Barbara Schilberg and Gary Kurtzman have been named co-managing directors of the Biotechnology Greenhouse Corp. in Philadelphia. The organization is one of three "greenhouses" established as part of Pennsylvania's $100 million biotech initiative.

Jacque Shaia, director of the Economic Development Partnership of Alabama, is leaving to pursue a doctorate degree at the University of Alabama.

Louis Soares, project manager for workforce development at the Rhode Island Technology Council (RITEC), is leaving to accept a fellowship at the JFK School of Government at Harvard University.

Gary Stark has resigned his position as executive director of the Indiana Information Technology Association Foundation to relocate to Connecticut. Stark raised $1 million during the past year to start an endowment for the foundation, which plans to award grants from the interest earned to combat the Digital Divide in the state.

Plans for a joint five-year $320-$403 million program to accelerate the development of next generation lithography were announced Thursday by International SEMATECH (ISMT) and The University at Albany-SUNY (UAlbany).

ISMT and UAlbany have signed a letter of intent to begin negotiations on the formation of a strategic alliance, to be known as International SEMATECH North (ISMTN), to conduct research and development in the area of advanced lithography infrastructure for extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography. As currently envisioned, the alliance will initiate a program in EUV infrastructure, to be managed by International SEMATECH and housed in UAlbany's state-of-the-art 300mm wafer cleanroom complex, part of the university's Albany NanoTech center.

This week's Senate Appropriations Committee markup of the FY 2003 appropriations for the Department of Commerce includes $185.4 million is for the Advanced Technology Program (ATP) and $106.6 million for the Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP). While ATP has taken the heat in past budget cycles, MEP was in the spotlight this year: MEP was slated to receive only $12.9 million in the President's budget request for FY 2003.

Administered by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), MEP is a nationwide network of not-for-profit centers in over 400 locations nationwide, whose sole purpose is to provide small and medium-sized manufacturers with the technical assistance needed to succeed in a global economy. The program is jointly funded by state, industrial and federal sources.

The Rural Business-Cooperative Service (RBS) of the U.S. Department of Agriculture will hold a meeting July 31 to get public input for the design and implementation of the new Agricultural Innovation Center Demonstration Program.

Created with the recent passage of the Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002, the Agriculture Innovation Center Demonstration Program will provide farmers with sound technical, financial, and business advice as they consider new value-added enterprises. No more than five centers will be established in the first year of the program, and no more than 10 in the second year.

RBS is particularly interested in receiving comments on the following specific issues as they relate to agriculture innovation centers:

A massive state budget deficit, partisan squabbles, and a longstanding need to restructure the state's tax code almost derailed Indiana's largest commitment toward building a technology-based economy. An eleventh-hour compromise in the Indiana General Assembly saved the 21st Century Research and Technology Fund from being eliminated, doubled the state's research and development tax credit to 10 percent, repealed an unpopular apportionment formula in the R&D tax credit, and added a venture capital investment tax credit to the state's portfolio as well.

All is not rosy, however. The 21st Century Fund, which supports large-scale research projects at universities and private industry, did take a deep 40 percent cut and will receive only $15 million each year over the biennium. The program also had $50 million in unspent funding rescinded last fiscal year to help balance the state's $1.3 billion budget deficit.