SSTI Digest

The Arlington Technology Incubator (Texas) has selected Geoffrey Grant to serve as the new director beginning July 1.

Richard Greene, director of the Arlington Technology Incubator and former mayor of Arlington Texas, has been appointed regional administrator of the U.S. EPA.

During the past two years, efforts have been launched in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex to boost its capacity for building a technology-based economy. The efforts have been directed toward increasing public-private cooperation, especially across organizations and jurisdictions that traditionally have thought of themselves as competitors, and conducting a critical review of the area's strengths and weaknesses.

Carolyn Stark is the new director of the Austin Technology Council, filling the position vacated by Paul Toprac.

Last week, Texas Governor Rick Perry announced the formation of the Governor's Council on Science and Biotechnology Development. The Council will strive to create a seamless system of innovation from the laboratory to the marketplace in rapidly developing areas of biotechnology — such as biopharmaceutical development, bioinformatics, genomics and nanotechnology.



Governor Perry described the Council's mission as one that will ultimately bring more research dollars to Texas higher education institutions, encourage university researchers to get products that advance the quality of life to the market, and create biotechnology jobs — and growing companies — across Texas.



Among its responsibilities, the 36-member Council will work to identify ways institutions of higher learning can coordinate efforts to attract federal research funds. Currently, Texas ranks sixth in research funds received from the National Institute of Health and third overall in research expenditures.

If one were asked to identify localized examples of the economic spectacle that was the late 1990s, the metro region of Austin, Texas would be on most short lists. A recently completed economic development plan from the tech-soaked Austin suburb of Round Rock, however, reflects the fundamental upheaval or disruption that characterizes the economies of many regions of the country.



Round Rock has grown quickly, doubling in population during the last decade to become the second largest city in the Austin-San Marcos metro area. It is experiencing for the first time, like many other cities emerging in a decade marked by rapid urban sprawl, the challenges of a recession.

More than $800 million for science, engineering, research, and commercialization activities



Each year a few state legislatures are more active than others on issues affecting efforts to grow tech-based economies. With $385 million for research infrastructure, $45 million committed to commercialization and seed financing, nearly $150 million for university and life science research, more than $300 million for college scholarships, authorization to create university commercialization centers, a series of tax credits, and $20 million for a biotech park, the recently concluded 77th legislative session in Texas was one of the busiest and most aggressive proponents nationally for technology-based economic development (TBED).

Stefanie Sanford has joined Texas Governor Perry's office as Policy Director for Technology & Telecommunications