Incubator RoundUp: Top Performing Incubators Named in NBIA Awards
The role of a technology incubator or accelerator for supporting nascent firms generally is regarded with the utmost importance by the tech-based economic development community. Tech incubators provide essential resources for startup companies to develop and commercialize new technologies, leading to the creation of high-quality jobs.
TBED People and Organizations
Gov. Jim Douglas plans to merge the Vermont Departments of Economic Development and Housing and Community Affairs.
NY Governor Proposes TBED, Economic Development Agency Consolidation
Scotland Universities to Direct Nearly 11 Percent of Funding on Pursuing Innovation
EU Promises $1.28 Billion for Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Initiative
Bank bailouts may be capturing all of the headlines, but a new initiative from the European Union (EU) promises to inject a considerable pool of money during the downturn to accelerate the development of hydrogen and fuel cell technologies. The European Commission, as well as participants from the European research community and industry will contribute nearly 1 billion Euros (U.S. $1.28 billion) to the public-private partnership over the next six years to fund research.
SSTI Job Corner
Complete descriptions of these opportunities and others are available at http://www.ssti.org/posting.htm.
Universities Perform more than One-Third of Canadian R&D, Thirteen Percent of U.S. R&D
Universities in Canada are a major component of the country's science and technology ecosystem, and as gauged by funding, they performed 36 percent of Canada's R&D activities in 2007. In the U.S. comparatively, universities accounted for 13 percent of the R&D performed in the country.
Communities Around the World Celebrate First Global Entrepreneurship Week
People
John Wilkinson was promoted to minister of research and innovation in the Ontario cabinet.
Toronto Regional Innovation Gauge Released along with Other Competitiveness Reports
A handful of competitiveness reports have been released in the past two weeks, each comparing various geographic locations and incorporating a range of innovation metrics. Perhaps the publication garnering the most international press has been The Global Competitiveness Report 2007-2008 by the World Economic Forum.
The Clustering of Technology-based Economic Development Organizations
The theory of spatial clustering has been very popular in the TBED field for many years, as researchers attempt to explain the transformation of places like Silicon Valley and the reasons various locales are economically competitive. Practitioners have utilized the theory as a method to describe their own state and regional economies and to support the development of specific industries. As an industry cluster grows, additional benefits of agglomeration are realized.
Singapore Government, Private Industries Investing in Innovation
Three major announcements were made in Singapore last month focusing on R&D of new technologies and educating the workforce to produce specialized graduates in upcoming fields.
Québec Commits $1B+ for Innovation & Research Strategy
The provincial government of Québec committed to infusing $888 million (Canadian) into its science and technology community over the next three years, as a result of the innovation and research strategy released earlier this month. The new investment is in addition to $278 million committed this year alone for research infrastructure and the Québec Aeronautical Industry Development Strategy.
People
Gov. Eliot Spitzer has named Daniel Gundersen co-chairman of the Empire State Development Corp. in New York.
People
Dr. James Weyhenmeyer will become senior vice president for the State University of New York (SUNY) Research Foundation and SUNY senior vice provost for research, effective March 3, 2008.
New York Unveils $1B Upstate Revitalization Fund
Last week, Gov. Eliot Spitzer gave New York’s first ever “State of the Upstate” address in Buffalo, outlining his administration’s $1 billion Upstate Revitalization Fund. Among the components intended to encourage economic growth in the northern part of the state are:
People & TBED Organizations
Brenda Wyland will join the Research & Technology Park Inc. at North Dakota State University as the incubator manager, effective Feb. 1, 2008.
SEMATECH, New York to Invest $600 million in Nanoelectronics
Deal’s Impact on Texas Operations Remains Unclear
If you follow college sports, you know all how strong rivalries can be between certain schools. Bragging rights after a football game spill over into competitions over everything. Those that cross neighboring state borders seem to have even more edge sometimes.
Recent Research: Why Do Manufacturing Firms Choose to Collaborate on Innovative Projects?
Manufacturing firms come in all shapes and sizes. Little ones. Big ones. Ones that need more labor from their employees to assemble components. Ones that need more R&D from their employees to design products.
People & TBED Organizations
President Bush announced he will nominate Assistant Secretary of Commerce Sandy Baruah to serve as the administrator of the Small Business Administration.
The Rensselaer County Regional Chamber of Commerce has created the Economic Development Partnership to help businesses relocate to or expand in the county.
Berlin Commits $250M for Star Faculty Recruitment at Research Institutions
Our German isn't what it should be and online translators weren't as helpful as we'd expected, but we wanted to make readers aware of the size of the investment Berlin is making over the next four years to recruit star faculty to its four research universities and the four local, private research institutions of Fraunhofer Gesellschaft, Helmholtzgemeinschaft, Leibniz Community, and the Max Planck Society.
U.S. Completes $531M Contribution to Large Hadron Collider Project
The U.S. Department of Energy and the National Science Foundation recently announced that the U.S. had completed its contribution to the international Large Hadron Collider (LHC) Project on budget and ahead of schedule. By the end of the year, the LHC at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) laboratory near Geneva will generate its first particle collisions and research output. Total U.S. contribution to the project is about $531 million of the $5.89 billion cost of the project. Although the U.S.
SSTI Job Corner
A complete description of this opportunity and others is available at http://www.ssti.org/posting.htm.
Research Park RoundUp
The following overview is a synopsis of select recent announcements from research parks across the world, including groundbreakings and development plans to support vibrant regional economies based on science, technology and innovation.
Microsystems and Nanotechnology Product Center Opens in Alberta
The Alberta Center for Advanced Microsystems and Nanotechnology Products (ACAMP), funded with $8 million from the provincial Alberta government and $3.5 million from the Canadian government, recently commenced operations in the Edmonton Research Park. The new program will be structured around three central components to assist commercialization in this area: packaging and assembly, product development, and marketing.