SSTI Digest

Blythewood, South Carolina  With an estimated population of 450, the community of Blythewood is soon to be home to the largest technology development project undertaken by the South Carolina Department of Commerce, according to an August 9 article in The State. The agency has identified 1,400 acres of land for creation of a research and technology park. Planners anticipate the community's proximity to Columbia, the University of South Carolina, and several large tech businesses will help attract new tech jobs to the area.  Camden, Arkansas  The Associated Press reports grants to Camden, totaling $3 million, from the Economic Development Administration and the Environmental Protection Agency are being used to clear and decontaminate a brownfield site to make way for a new business incubator and light industrial park. The incubator facility will be financed by a local sales tax approved by Camden voters to support economic development efforts. 

VentureEconomics, a division of Thomas Financial is now providing online summary information for their quarterly survey of venture capital activity. Until now, findings from the surveys, which are conducted in partnership with the National Venture Capital Association, has only been available by purchase. 

Natural gas, oil, and coal-based power production has driven and will continue to be integral to America's technological and economic success. To make fossil fuel power production more efficient and environmentally benign, future power plants will incorporate a host of advanced technologies, many of which are researched and funded through the National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL). Located in Pittsburgh and Morgantown, NETL is a multi-purpose laboratory, owned and operated by the Department of Energy (DOE). NETL conducts and implements science and technology development programs for DOE in energy and energy-related environmental systems. 

Early registration for SSTI's 5th Annual Conference, Creating Opportunity: Tools for Building Tech-based Economies ends on Wednesday, September 5. To lock in the discounted rate, submit your registration by the end of September 5 by fax to 614.901.1696 or online at https://www.ssti.org/registration01.htm Those paying by check are encouraged to submit their registration form by fax or online as well and post the check by regular mail.  Participation in the conference grows each year; for the 2001 event, we already have registrations for people from more than 40 states, 5 countries and 4 continents. Join us!   Return to the top of this page 

With the emphasis many state and local tech-based economic development organizations have placed on biotechnology over the past 12-18 months, few are far enough along in implementing their strategies to point to more than a handful of successes or new construction projects. The recent explosion in public investment of resources and policies toward developing local biotech capacity is largely based on the promise of anticipated economic gains in the near or not-so-near future.  Independent analysis of the long-term impact of specific state and local tech-based economic development policies are rare. Some programs launched in the 1980s that have commissioned outside impact studies, such as the Edison Technology Centers, the Ben Franklin Technology Partnership and Utah’s Centers of Excellence, have discovered strong returns for the public’s investment. (See the 12/20/96, 10/22/99, and 1/28/00 issues of SSTI’s Weekly Digest in our web archives for these stories.) 

While technological advancements occur every day, truly revolutionary technologies over the past three hundred years — those that promise so many diverse applications that they result in disruption and restructuring of several different industries — can be counted on one hand. The field of nanotechnology, with major implications for nearly every industrial sector, appears to be one of those once-in-a-lifetime breakthroughs.  At this point, only a few states are preparing on a large scale to capitalize on the research and resulting economic growth of this exciting field. A $350 million research institute taking shape in southern California at the universities of California at Los Angeles and Santa Barbara is one of the most aggressive investments to date. 

The President has nominated Arden Bement, Jr. to be Director of the National Institute of Standards and Technology at the Department of Commerce. Bement has been at Purdue University since 1993, where he is the head of the School of Nuclear Engineering. Bement is Chairman of the Advanced Technology Program's Advisory Committee, has served on the National Science Board, and was active with the Cleveland Advanced Manufacturing Program (CAMP), an Edison Technology Center.  From 1980 to 1993, he was with TRW, Inc., where he was Vice President for Technical Resources from 1980 to 1988 and then Vice President for Science and Technology from 1988 to 1993. A graduate of the Colorado School of Mines, Bement has received a Master's degree from the University of Idaho and a Ph.D. from the University of Michigan.  Return to the top of this page 

With the completion of the 2001 edition of the Maryland Innovation and Technology Index, the Maryland Technology Development Corporation (TEDCO) is able to show state policymakers and tech community leaders graphically and statistically the state’s progress since the first Index was prepared two years ago. 

The Air Force Dual Use Science & Technology (AF DUS&T) Program is part of a congressionally mandated, tri-service program to cost-share research projects with industry for the development of a technology that has both military utility and sufficient commercial potential to support a viable industrial base. A main objective of the AF DUS&T Program is to obtain for defense procurements the economies of scale, accelerated product improvements, and increased sustainability inherent in the commercial marketplace. 

What impact do state taxes have on entrepreneurship?  The Small Business Survival Committee (SBSC) has released its sixth annual rankings of the states according to their respective policy climates for small business and entrepreneurship. In the Small Business Survival Index 2001, the D.C.-based organization combines the following 17 factors to develop the overall rankings: personal income taxes, capital gains taxes, corporate income taxes, property taxes, sales taxes, estate taxes, unemployment taxes, health insurance taxes, electricity costs, workers' compensation costs, crime rates, right-to-work status, number of government employees, tax limitation status, Internet taxes, gas taxes, and state minimum wages. The rankings received a fair amount of attention in the media. 

As a national security laboratory operated for the U.S. Department of Energy by the Sandia Corporation, a Lockheed Martin company, Sandia’s science and technology competencies are leveraged to support several missions that are synergistic to its primary mission — to ensure the safety, security, and reliability of the nation’s nuclear weapons stockpile in the absence of underground testing, indefinitely. Indeed, Sandia designs all non-nuclear components for the nation’s nuclear weapons and works on assignments that respond to national security threats of both military and economic nature. Sandia's strengths are demonstrated in the following disciplines: 

The Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC), the Tennessee Valley Authority, and the National Business Incubation Association are sponsoring a conference Oct. 21–23 in Chattanooga, Tennessee, to focus on the importance of business incubation to rural economic development and to share best practices by successful incubators across the nation.  More than 75 business incubators in Appalachia are helping rural communities create new companies, find innovative ways to take products to new markets, and increase the odds for new business success. The conference will seek to encourage the creation of more business incubators in the Appalachian Region.