The Obama administration announced winners of the Advanced Manufacturing Jobs and Innovation Accelerator Challenge on Tuesday. The challenge — publicized earlier this year — is one of the key initiatives of the interagency Taskforce for the Advancement of Regional Innovation Clusters and is sponsored by a partnership between the U.S. Department of Commerce, the National Institute of Standards and Technology, the Departments of Energy and Labor, and the Small Business Administration.

The State University of New York has released a ten-year strategic plan to help revitalize the New York state economy. One major element of the plan is increasing the university's involvement in statewide entrepreneurship through several new inititiatives, including SUNY Start-UP, which would invite entrepreneurial mentors on campus to work with students and professors, and SUNY-INC, which would align research teams across the state to accelerate the commercialization of new technologies. Read more ...

Having the tools and resources to develop innovative concepts and products and move discoveries from the lab to the marketplace is an essential component for building tech-based economies. Research parks, a place where innovative ideas are borne, partnerships between university and industry are created, and companies grow and create new jobs, provide a foundation for the kind of economic growth necessary to compete in a global economy. Over the past few months, development plans and groundbreaking announcements from research parks across the nation have been made.

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Michael Burcham has been named the first president of the Nashville Entrepreneur Center. Burcham currently serves as a clinical faculty member at Vanderbilt University's Owen Graduate School of Management.

The NY-BEST Board of Directors released a solicitation to acquire an Executive Director for NY-BEST and an organization to provide operational support.

The $68.2 million FY 11 budget approved last week for the New York State Foundation for Science, Technology and Innovation (NYSTAR), allows the foundation to continue to provide 10 percent matching funds for research institutions and businesses in order to attract federal, private and industry funds. The budget allocates $29.5 million in FY11 for a matching grants program started with ARRA stimulus funding and $5.2 million for the state's six Centers of Excellence.

Silicon Valley, a region often looked to for trends in the technology field, is expected to see a rise in the number of new high-tech incubators and the expansion of existing incubators in the coming months. A recent Wall Street Journal article points to these openings as a sign of revival for technology startup companies amid a relatively slow period last year as startup investment plunged during the recession.

Sweden replaced Denmark as the world's most networked economy and the U.S. fell two spots to fifth place in the Global Information Technology Report 2009-10 rankings. The report, released last week by the World Economic Forum, finds that the U.S. boasts a very conducive information and communication technologies (ICT) environment because of intensive competition, excellent infrastructure and top-notch education. Aspects of the U.S. performance which show margins for improvement include high tax rates, excessive red tape, and a poor general regulatory framework.

A new report from TechNet finds that on the two-year anniversary of the National Broadband Plan aimed at getting more Americans to use broadband at home, the adoption rate remains about the same. The study identifies several reasons behind the plateau and calls for better coordination among policymakers and private stakeholders to improve adoption rates. Meanwhile, some states have big plans in the works to improve their broadband networks, including governors in Hawaii and New York pushing for funding to expand Internet access to underserved areas.

Funding is inlcuded for Gov. Andrew Cuomo's regional economic development initiatives under a FY13 budget agreement between the governor and legislative leaders announced earlier this week. This includes a new round of funding for the state's 10 regional councils and university challenge program initiated last year. The agreement also provides a down payment on the Buffalo Regional Innovation Cluster and funding to create a statewide energy initiative.

MaRS Discovery District, Toronto's innovation and entrepreneurship center, has launched a $30 million early stage clean tech fund, the first of its kind in Canada. This week, the group announced that it had raised its fundraising goal entirely from private sources, and that released information about its first two investments. The MaRS Cleantech Fund LP portfolio companies will be encouraged to seek maximum support from MaRS. Read the announcement... Interested in how U.S. states and regions are catalyzing clean tech innovation?

The European Union (EU) launched the Technology Transfer Offices — Connecting Innovation and Research Centers and Laboratories in Europe (European TTO CIRCLE ), a network of tech transfer offices at Europe's 25 largest public research organizations. With the goal of increasing the market and societal impacts of publicly-funded research, the European TTO CIRCLE members already have adopted a set of several initiatives including:

As global economies shift, developing nations are attempting to transition as suppliers of raw materials to nations that are producers of value-added goods. Africa has been a major supplier of raw materials to the developed world. However, it drastically lagged behind in the production of valued-added goods. Recently, African nations have attempted to reinvent their economic development efforts from suppliers to producers by developing programs to grow tech-based economies.

Two common themes emerged in a trio of reports aimed at growing the bioscience sectors in Indiana, New York and Pennsylvania: the need for a sustained financial commitment from the states and the importance of a shared vision and better communication between policymakers and industry leaders. In all three reports, the authors say the payoff is big for the states. The bioscience and life science industries support high-wage jobs and attract significant federal funds.

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With a continued push toward regionalism to better support the state's high-tech platform, lawmakers approved in the FY14 budget startup funding for a new statewide incubator program that provides grants for the incubators and tax incentives for client companies. The initiative is part of Gov. Andrew Cuomo's planned expansion for the state's 10 regional councils.

Businesses on SUNY campuses outside of New York City, and on certain designated private campuses, will be exempt from sales, property and corporate state taxes under a new initiative unveiled this week by New York Gov Andrew Cuomo. In addition, employees of these businesses will be exempt from income taxes. Eligible businesses must have a relationship with the host university related to its academic mission. The state will offer an additional 3 million square free of tax-free commercial space at New York private universities as part of the Tax-Free NY initiative.

Rice University's Rice Alliance for Technology and Entrepreneurship has been named the top university business incubator in the world by the University Business Incubator (UBI) Index based in Sweden. The group reviewed 550 university business incubators and studied 150 incubators to determine the top incubators in the world based on their value for the ecosystem, their value for clients, and their attraction rate and past performance. Other U.S.

Industry support for additive manufacturing is exploding as startups find new ways to market the technology to businesses. States and universities are taking advantage of this growing trend to form partnerships with companies that support the lean innovation approach is driving the 3D printing renaissance.

At the close of many recent legislative sessions, states across the country moved to strengthen their high-tech workforce while supporting industry cluster development.

As many state legislative sessions wind down, a clearer picture of the current direction of state innovation policies is emerging. This week’s SSTI Weekly Digest presents a few of the major trends in technology-based economic development initiatives approved by state legislatures during their most recent sessions. While this review is not meant to be comprehensive, it should illuminate the shifts states are making to refine their investments in the high-tech economy by providing smarter, more targeted support.

The co-locating of researchers, donated equipment, and capital are recent examples of key elements provided by private-sector partners to help accelerate technology commercialization. In the past month, leaders from universities and nonprofit organizations across the country have announced new efforts to expand research capacity and bring more products to market by launching innovative centers in collaboration with corporate partners.

Recently, Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder announced a statewide Regional Prosperity Initiative — a voluntary, competitive grant process for existing state-designated planning regions and metropolitan planning organizations. The plan will divide the state into 10 zones with the intent of empowering local and regional partners to develop a consensus vision and implementation plan for economic success.

Well-designed research centers can help bring an innovation ecosystem together through the spillover effects of knowledge dissemination, student learning experiences, local early access to new technologies, and by attracting R&D funding. In New York, Gov. Andrew Cuomo recently announced a $30 million initiative led by SUNY’s College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering (CNSE) to transform and revitalize a vacant building into a hub for smart cities technology companies, research, education and workforce training.

In the face of the spiraling unemployment in Greece and Spain, the European Union (EU) received encouraging news regarding the economic recovery of firms across its 27-member states.