Steve Biggers has been promoted to Deputy Director for the Oklahoma Center for the Advancement of Science & Technology.

To support innovation and technology with increased accessibility for small-and medium-sized firms, Canada's Minister of Industry, David Emerson, announced a new program that will replace Technology Partnerships Canada (TPC).

Upon ruling in favor of a $50 million bonds issue last month, the Oklahoma Supreme Court cleared the way for an endowed chairs program at colleges and universities throughout the state .

Voters in Oklahoma approved 54 percent to 46 percent State Question 725, which was intended to provide financial assistance to "high-risk" manufacturers in the state, in order to minimize the possible loss of employment. Funds provided to each manufacturer by the state would be limited to 10 percent of the manufacturers in-state capital investment.

The Economic Development Board of Bahrain and Kuwait Finance House have begun planning a $1 billion (US) Science and Technology Park in Bahrain. The park will be modeled on the Sophia Antipolis Technology Park in France, which is the largest of its kind in Europe and the second-largest technology park in the world, according to the European Commission’s PAXIS innovation program. The Kuwait Finance House has appointed Philippe Mariani, former director of the French park to oversee the new project.

 

ANGLE, an international venture management and consulting company with broad experience in technology development initiatives at the regional and national level, has position openings for a consultant and a senior executive. These starting-level positions would assist ANGLE's U.S. Consulting and Management operation on domestic and international projects. Both positions require someone with a Ph.D.

Britain’s Pre Budget Report 2005, released Dec. 5, calls for the United Kingdom to double spending for stem cell research to £100M within the next two years and launch a number of new initiatives to sustain innovation and science.

In China, leaders of the rapidly growing nation dogged by soaring energy needs and unrelenting pollution problems made a commitment to double the nation’s use of renewable energy resources within the next 15 years.

A study suggests policies enacted in 1999 to encourage cooperative research, establish tech transfer structures and provide venture capital contributed to a dramatic shift in the biotech topography in France.

While many regions, states and countries are lamenting a drain of talent from their area, the Pakistan Higher Education Commission is taking an opposite strategy to strengthen the nation's science and research capacity: sending up to 15,000 of its brightest students to study selected disciplines abroad through its Foreign Ph.D. Scholarship Program.

In the opening ceremony of the 2005 FORTUNE Global Forum, held in Beijing on May 16, Chinese President Hu Jintao broadly outlined the course his country is taking to reach a goal of quadrupling its 2000 Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by the year 2020. Science, technology and innovation figure prominently in the strategy.

States such as Oklahoma must leverage scarce resources if they hope to attract top scientists, stimulate development, and achieve measurable economic impact, says the latest impact report from the Oklahoma Center for the Advancement of Science and Technology (OCAST).

Recognizing the economic benefits of engaging young people in science and technology, Ontario's McGuinty government recently launched the Youth Science and Technology Outreach Program. The new program links high school students with researchers to support in-depth mentorship experience and postsecondary career advice.

Do tax credits pave the way for more investment in R&D and equity investments in new enterprises? Or, do they reward companies and venture capitalists for investments they would have made anyway?

Discussions on these questions can become quite heated and fueled by data supportive of both sides, as two new academic analyses demonstrate.

On the final day of March, Gov. Brad Henry signed legislation establishing a $475 million bond issue for a slate of higher education projects, much of which targets research and laboratory facilities. The Oklahoma Higher Education Promise of Excellence Act of 2005, which the governor called "desperately needed," was one of his top legislative priorities for the year (see the Feb. 7, 2005, issue of the Digest).

There are several factors that go into location decisions for biomedical firms. Proximity to strong university research capacity, other biotech businesses, and technically competent workers are all important considerations. With the financial investments many states and localities are making toward the life sciences, however, the field of prospective locations for successfully launching a biotech firm has grown considerably larger than the "usual suspects."

To spur job creation in Ontario, the provincial government recently announced two initiatives focusing on innovation and regional economic growth -- the new Fuel Cell Innovation Program and the newly refocused Northern Ontario Heritage Fund Corporation (NOHFC).

Galynn Beer succeeds Johnny Roy as the new chairman of the board of the Oklahoma Center for the Advancement of Science and Technology.

During the past decade, the European Union (EU) invested heavily in civilian R&D by building first-class laboratories and expanding higher education in science and engineering. Its efforts, according to the Data Brief for a new National Science Foundation report, Human Resources for Science and Technology: The European Region, are narrowing the lead the U.S. holds in R&D.

For example:

The Oklahoma Alliance for Manufacturing Excellence, Inc. will receive $1.5 million from the National Institute of Standards and Technology's Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP). The Alliance, a program of the Oklahoma Center for the Advancement of Science and Technology, is an MEP affiliate that received its initial federal funding through the Technology Reinvestment Project.

[Editor's Note: SSTI is excited to welcome Phillip Battle to its staff as a policy analyst. The author of this article, Phil recently received his Master in Public Affairs degree from the LBJ School at the University of Texas at Austin. His area of research interest is technology policy and economic development.]

Nearly $300 Million Tagged for TBED
It took moving into a special session and negotiating a late deal between lawmakers and Gov. Brad Henry last week for the Oklahoma legislature to pass several bills related to the state's budget for fiscal year 2007, which begins this weekend.