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SSTI Digest
No Science, No Surplus: by D. Allan Bromley
America is on a roll. We’re balancing the federal budget, reforming welfare and making retirement secure. Sound like a breakthrough in fiscal management? Not exactly. Our awesome economic success can be traced directly to our past investments in science. The problem is, this year’s federal budget for science is a disaster,
and it compromises our nation’s economic and social progress.
Here are the latest budget numbers: NASA science is slashed by $678 million; science at the Department of Energy is cut by $116 million; and the National Science Foundation ends up with $275 million less than the President requested. Clearly, Congress has lost sight of the critical role science plays in America.
Remarks on R&D Funding: by John Podesta
....This morning, I'd like to explain why we believe that continued federal investments in research and development are so important, and why we're so troubled by the Republican attack on our science and technology budgets. We should all be working toward bipartisan progress -- not playing politics with an issue so fundamentally crucial to our nation's future.
Investments in science and technology -- both public and private – have driven economic growth and improvements in the quality of life in America for the last 200 years.
Many of the products and services we have come to depend on for our way of life in America -- from lasers to communications satellites to human insulin -- are all the products of US policies to encourage investments in science and technology....
Statement on Podesta Remarks: by James Sensenbrenner, Jr.
I am encouraged by the Administration’s sudden interest in science funding. Over the last seven years, overall science budgets, which include both defense and civilian R&D, when indexed for inflation, have been flat or decreasing. Science needs a boost.
Unfortunately, the President’s Fiscal Year 2000 (FY2000) budget depends on budgetary tricks such as tax hikes and user fees that will never be enacted. In fact, the House of Representatives defeated the President’s FY2000 budget request by a vote of 426-2 and the Senate defeated it 97-2. This gimmickry significantly overstates the amount of money that can be made available for R&D.
Venture Capital Explodes During 2nd Quarter of `99
Buoyed by a strong national economy, venture capital firms have invested at an all-time during the 2nd quarter of 1999, according to the latest quarterly survey by PricewaterhouseCoopers. At $7.61 billion for the quarter, venture capital investments were more than double the total reported only one year ago. The current survey reflects the investment activity of 684 venture capital firms.
Three of the last four surveys have revealed record levels of investment. The previous high, set in the first quarter of 1999, was $4.31 billion -- 41 percent over the earlier record of $3.77 billion set during the third quarter of 1998.
$50 Million Research & Technology Fund Underway In Indiana
Last week, Indiana Governor Frank O'Bannon named the Board of Directors to oversee the design and administration of the new 21st Century Research & Technology Fund. By law, the Lieutenant Governor serves as chairman for the board.
Earlier this summer, the Indiana General Assembly approved a budget for the initiative of $50 million for the next two years for the initiative. This level of funding, coupled with the existing programs of the Indiana Business Modernization Technology Corp. (BMT), moves Indiana into the top tier of states investing in technology-based economic development.
The 21st Century Research and Technology Fund is to provide grants and loans that support economic development by addressing one or more of the following goals:
EPA Makes 48 SBIR Phase I Awards
Small companies' interests in developing environmental technologies appear to growing. Between 1998 and 1999, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) saw a 64 percent increase in the number of SBIR Phase I proposals submitted. The number of awards made by the agency was unable to keep pace, growing by only 30 percent. As a result, EPA was able to fund less than 9 percent of the 535 SBIR Phase I proposals received in 1999. In 1998, more than 11 percent of the proposals were funded.
The accompanying table presents the distribution of EPA awards and proposals by state.
Abstracts of EPA awards for the 1999 SBIR Phase I solicitation have not been posted on their website currently but should be soon. The web address is: http://es.epa.gov/ncerqa/sbir/
Taratec Corp. To Prepare National S&T Indicators
Taratec Corporation of Columbus, Ohio has been awarded a $44,500 contract from the Department of Commerce's Office of Technology Policy (OTP) to prepare a report of science & technology indicators for all 50 states. The indicators are intended to assist Commerce in evaluating the impact and outcome of projects funded by the Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Technology (EPSCoT) as well as other OTP programmatic improvements.
The solicitation, released in early July says the report will be completed for Commerce in 18 weeks (refer to the 7/2/99 SSTI Weekly Digest Addendum for more details). Commerce will be responsible for any further publication and distribution.
For more information, contact Anita Balachandra with the EPSCoT program at 202/482-8004 or by email at Anita_Balachandra@ta.doc.gov
Correction
The September 3, 1999 issue of the SSTI Weekly Digest contained some errors in the SBIR tables. The correct information is below. Revised tables are available for review on our website at: http://www.ssti.org/Digest/Tables/090399t.htm
In the Department of Education's SBIR Phase II awards, the totals for Michigan and Minnesota were inadvertently switched. There were no Phase II proposals received nor awards made to Michigan firms this year. Minnesota firms submitted two proposals, both of which were selected for Phase II funding.
Commerce Responds to Sensenbrenner on ATP
U.S. Department of Commerce Secretary William Daley has labeled as Amisleading@ a press release issued by the House Science Committee regarding the proposal review and selection criteria of the Advanced Technology Program (ATP). [See August 27, 1999 issue of SSTI Weekly Digest.] In the release, Rep. Sensenbrenner, the Chairman of the Committee, questioned the program's commitment to ensuring federal grants were not displacing private capital.
The Department of Commerce disputes that criticism.
"With respect to ensuring that project applicants adequately demonstrate the need for Federal funding, the ATP requires applicants to provide convincing assurances at several stages in the review process,@ said Daley in a letter to Rep. Sensenbrenner. AATP rejects proposals that fail to make a convincing argument that the work could not be entirely funded by industry."
Kentucky Completes S&T Strategic Plan
The Kentucky Science and Technology Corp. (KSTC) has released Kentucky's Science and Technology Strategy, a plan outlining ten specific recommendations in four strategic areas to guide the Commonwealth's future R&D investments. If implemented, the recommendations are expected to have significant impact in just a few years.
The four key strategic areas include enterprise development, manufacturing modernization, technological infrastructure, and people. The recommendations and their estimated annual costs are listed below. Most will require passage of new legislation by the Kentucky General Assembly in their next session.
The recommendations are:
NASA SBIR Phase II Awards Posted
NASA has announced the selection of 103 R&D projects to share approximately $62 million as Phase II recipients under the agency's Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Program. The 103 awards were chosen from 319 proposals submitted by promising NASA 1998 SBIR Phase I recipients.
Ninety firms in 27 states won the 103 Phase II awards. Each project may receive up to $600,000 over two years to support their Phase II efforts.
The accompanying table presents the distribution by state of awards to proposals, the conversion percentage, and the number of firms selected. More detailed information on NASA's selections may be found on the NASA SBIR website: http://sbir.hq.nasa.gov/.
Dept of Education Announces 1999 SBIR Winners
The U.S. Department of Education's Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Program has announced approximately $3.2 million has been awarded through the 1999 SBIR solicitation. The agency funded 40 Phase I projects, totaling nearly $2 million, from 208 proposals received from companies across 40 states. An additional $1.2 million was awarded to ten Phase II projects selected from a pool of 34 proposals. The accompanying table presents the distribution of proposals and awards by state. No proposals were received from firms in those ten states omitted from the table.
More information on Education's 1999 SBIR awards, including research topics and specific information for each awardee, may be found at http://www.ed.gov/offices/OERI/SBIR/