NIST Designates New MEP Centers in SD, KY
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has awarded cooperative agreements to organizations in South Dakota and Kentucky to fill absences of the Hollings Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) program. After 10 years, South Dakota will again have an MEP center — the South Dakota Manufacturing and Technology Solutions, housed at the University of South Dakota in Vermillion.
Kentucky Beefs Up, Rebrands Network to Support Entrepreneurs
To better serve all parts of the state by connecting experienced mentors with startup companies, the Kentucky Innovation Network has a new name and logo, a tighter focus, and expanded services. Established in 2002 as the Innovation and Commercialization Center program, the Kentucky Innovation Network will offer services to entrepreneurs from 13 locations across the state, and as part of the re-branding effort, three smaller centers will be upgraded to full-service centers.
Kentucky's Innovation Economy Review in Report
Businesses that received Kentucky incentives reported creating 55,173 jobs between 2001 and 2010, according to a report from the Anderson Economic Group (AEG). In addition, each year approximately 33,000 jobs were maintained due to the incentives. In 2010, the gross cost to the commonwealth was $140 million and averaged $3,330 per job per year between 2001 and 2010.
TBED People and Job Opportunities: Job Corner
The University of Kansas' Center for Technology Commercialization is seeking a director that will be responsible for effectively managing faculty-generated intellectual property across all the University of Kansas campuses and deploying it for the greater social good.
Governors' Races and Ballot Preview 2011
In what is considered typical for an odd-numbered year, only 34 questions have been certified in nine statewide ballots this election year. Some of those measures include redirecting funds to support higher education, revenue enhancements for states, and repealing legislation that limits collective bargaining for public employees.
Ballot Initiatives
TBED People & Orgs
Richard Bendis has been named the first president and CEO of BioHealth Innovation, Inc. a regional private-public partnership focusing on commercializing market-relevant biohealth innovations and increasing access to early stage funding in Central Maryland.
Kansas City Collaboration To Help Region Compete in Healthcare Contract Research
The Kansas Bioscience Authority (KBA) has launched a collaborative partnership of more than 90 contract research organizations (CROs) to help the region compete in the pharmaceutical and medical device industries. BioResearch Central will help promote the Greater Kansas City region as a destination for pharmaceutical R&D at a time when drug companies are increasingly looking overseas for their contract research needs.
Seven States Selected to Identify, Implement Strategies for Enhancing Manufacturing
A newly established policy academy providing guidance and technical assistance will help seven states improve their environment for innovation and align state R&D investments, workforce development and education systems with current and future needs of advanced manufacturing industries. The policy academy will help each state develop a plan or overcome barriers for putting a plan into action through a highly interactive team-based process that includes input from NGA, MEP, EDA, SSTI, private sector consultants, and research organizations.
Legislators in GA, KY Push Capital Measures in Upcoming Sessions
Lawmakers and technology industry leaders in Georgia and Kentucky are hoping to establish capital programs during the 2012 legislative sessions in an effort to support new business creation and remain competitive with states already offering lucrative incentives.
Time to Seize the Moment? Will States and Regions Lead U.S. into Next Economy?
This week's Digest covers two new independent reports that separately assess two critical aspects to how well nations are prepared for the economic recovery: competitiveness and educational attainment. The news, obvious in our choice of headlines, may suggest the past year - actually several years - has not been kind to the United States relative to other nations. Reading the articles one will see, however, that it isn't time that is working against the U.S.
Funding Local and Regional TBED Activities in Down Years
The current fiscal pressures on regional technology-based economic development initiatives have been never greater than they are now. And, as the article above points out, things are going to get worse over 2010 and 2011 before they get better.
Additionally, since local communities became proactive partners with their universities, businesses, tech councils, civic organizations, and states to support economic growth through innovation, the need for local TBED never has been greater. Economists and policy wonks agree: the next economy is being built on innovation and technology.
Early Registration Ends Sept. 29 for SSTI's Annual Conference: Seize the Moment!
Once again, SSTI's annual conference continues to be the most affordable professional development event of the year for the state, local, and university-based TBED community. Early registration discounts, which knock off $100 from the lowest prices already in the field, will expire Sept 29. Make the smart investment for your TBED program and your career by registering today. More information, including a registration form, is available at: http://www.ssticonference.org
Forging a Stronger Partnership with the Federal Government for Regional Tech-based Economic Development
The opportunities for improving the partnership your TBED effort has with the federal government appear to be improving rapidly. Are you ready? Is the TBED community ready? SSTI's Annual Conference theme, Seize the Moment, was developed around this growing momentum. Timely and highly interactive plenary sessions, 16 intensive breakout sessions and some of the most forward-thinking TBED practitioners and policymakers will be on hand with hundreds of your peers at SSTI's Annual Conference, Oct 21-23. Shouldn't you be there?
Job Corner
The Kansas Bioscience Authority - Heartland Bio Ventures, and the Kansas Technology Enterprise Corporation are jointly recruiting for a federal research funding specialist.
Biomedical Initiatives Face Cuts As Governors Seek to Erase Deficits
Governors across the nation are trying to find ways to prevent their state finances from falling further in the red as revenues continue to fall while costs for Medicare and unemployment remain high. Deficit-reduction plans announced in two states seek to delay payments and cut funding to biomedical research initiatives that were established to expand the states’ research capacity and generate wealth.
Connecticut
TBED People and Job Opportunities
Maine Gov. Paul LePage has nominated George Gervais, the acting commissioner of the Maine Department of Economic and Community Development as commissioner. His nomination must be reviewed by the Joint Standing Committee on Labor, Commerce, Research and Economic Development and confirmed by the Senate.
TBED People
E. William (Bill) Colglazier, recently retired executive officer of the National Academy of Sciences and the National Research Council, has been selected the Science and Technology Advisor to Secretary of State Hilary Clinton.
Mayors Unveil Initiatives to Improve Cities' Competitiveness
From undertaking a joint regional initiative to improve two cities' competitiveness in advanced manufacturing to launching an effort for engaging venture capital companies and bringing in top university students to showcase area opportunities, mayors in Lexington and Louisville, Boston and Chicago recognize the value in promoting their cities as top destinations for growing tech-based economies. While each of the three recent announcements detailed below target different sectors of the innovation economy, they share the same mission of making their region more desirable for startups.
Tech Talkin' Govs, Part II
The second installment of SSTI's Tech Talkin' Govs' series includes excerpts from speeches delivered in Arkansas, Connecticut, Idaho, Kansas, New Hampshire, Virginia, Washington, and Wyoming. Our first installment was in the Jan. 5 Digest.
TBED People
Maine Governor Paul LePage named Phillip Congdon as the new commissioner of the Department of Economic and Community Development. Cogndon is a licensed professional engineer who spent more than 20 years with Texas Instruments in Dallas. He replaces Acting Commissioner Thaxter Trafton.
Investments in University Research, TBED Consolidation Sought in Kansas
While seeking to spur economic growth through new investments in university-based research, Gov. Sam Brownback also proposes to consolidate the efforts of a longstanding program recognized for creating high-wage jobs and diversifying the state's economy. Under the governor's FY12 budget proposal, many of the programs currently managed by the Kansas Technology Enterprise Corporation (KTEC), which provides dedicated support for researchers, entrepreneurs and technology companies, would be transferred to the Department of Commerce.
Research Parks RoundUp
Often credited with contributing significant revenue to states' economies, research parks also house facilities for workforce training and provide resources for tech-based industries, which is especially important as the nation's employment begins to pick up steam. In West Virginia, officials are building a $15 million advanced technology-training center at the state-owned research and technology park, and in Utah, officials recently broke ground on a building that will house engineers and analysts working on the nation's Intercontinental Ballistic Missile program.
TBED People
TBED People
Walter Bumphus has been named the next president and CEO of the American Association of Community Colleges. Bumphus currently serves as a professor in the Community College Leadership Program and chair of the Educational Administration Department at the University of Texas at Austin. Bumphus will begin his tenure with AACC in January.