SSTI Digest

Colorado leaders want to encourage more college students to go into science and teaching and two recent proposals, coming from Governor Bill Owens and the state's Commission on Higher Education, are designed to do just that.

In Owens' proposed FY 2002 budget for education, announced on Dec. 6, $51.3 million will be allotted in teacher pay incentives to allow principals to reward outstanding teaching, to offer recruitment bonuses to encourage Colorado's best teachers to serve in schools with unsatisfactory academic performance, and to offer recruitment and retention bonuses in hard-to-recruit subjects including math, science and special education.

Funding totaling $18 million is available during FY2001 through the U.S. Department of Agriculture to assist in economic development projects in rural areas. The Rural Economic Development Grants program has $3 million available, while the Rural Economic Development Loans program has $15 million.

Funds must flow through Rural Utilities Service-financed telephone and electric utilities, but they can be used for a broad variety of economic development projects, including incubators, revolving loan funds, project feasibility studies and technical assistance, and projects to provide education and training to rural residents to facilitate economic development.

The Department of Education has announced its FY 2001 Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program solicitation topics. The Phase I solicitation release date is Jan. 26, 2001 with a closing date of April 19, 2001. The agency also will be increasing Phase I award levels this year to $60,000.

The Phase I topics can be reviewed at: http://www.ed.gov/offices/OERI/SBIR/news.html

Interested parties can be placed on the mailing list for hardcopy by calling the Department's RFP Information Line at (202) 708-6498 and requesting "SBIR RFP Number ED-01-Q-003".

After discovering that only 10 percent of the venture capital raised in New Jersey is invested in New Jersey companies, a new venture fund has been established combining private, state, and federal resources. The seed investment fund will be used to assist New Jersey start-up technology businesses get off the ground.



Led by the nonprofit New Jersey Technology Council, NJTC Venture Fund partners include private investors and the New Jersey Economic Development Authority. The Authority is providing a 1:3 match for each private dollar raised, up to $10 million. Local newspapers report $22 million in private investment has been raised to date toward the goal of $30 million. The Small Business Investment Corporation (SBIC) program of the Small Business Administration may be used to further leverage the fund.

What can policymakers and practitioners do if the statistics and other metrics indicate a state, region or locality is not well positioned for the technology-based economy, but the elected leaders and economic development professionals are plodding along with traditional approaches to job creation and development? Or, on the other hand, what if there are several fragmented or isolated technology-related activities and success stories occuring that could benefit from a little political exposure and synergy?

Following on the Summit on Minnesota’s Economy, a 21-member group appointed by the president of the University of Minnesota has unveiled its recommendations to strengthen the state’s economy. The recommendations in Report to the People of Minnesota: Building a Knowledge Economy for Minnesota’s 21st Century are divided among five strategies:



Recommendations in the new report are divided among five strategies:

Western Virginia’s economy is stagnant due to a variety of factors and must get in line with the “New Economy” according to a report commissioned by the Center for Innovative Leadership in Roanoke. A second study by the Center revealed the area's residents appear willing to support activities designed to bring new business and employment to the region.



The report concluded that despite a favorable quality of life in the “New Century Region," as Western Virginia calls itself, the area's economy has been concentrated heavily on declining manufacturing industries and must find ways to attract high technology business.

Despite small improvements, Northeast and Midwest regions lag behind the South and West in terms of dollars returned to states from taxes sent to Washington, according to a report issued by the Northeast-Midwest Institute.

The Northeast-Midwest region’s return on every tax dollar was $0.88, while the South received an estimated $1.18 in federal spending for every dollar sent to Washington and the West had a return of $1.01, according to Flow of Federal Funds to the States: Fiscal 1999.



Other highlights include:

The U.S. Department of Agrciulture and the National Institutes of Health released information on 24 inventions that are available for license. Descriptions and contact information for each invention/patent are presented on the accompanying SSTI webpage