Former Massachusetts State Senator Peter Larkin is the senior vice president and chief operating officer for the Massachusetts Biotechnology Council.

The challenge for industry, academic leaders and policymakers in Massachusetts over the next few years is to translate the competitive strengths of the state's economy into new companies and new jobs, the ninth annual Index of the Massachusetts Innovation Economy indicates.

As expected, Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney rejected last week Senate Bill 2039, the bill supporting stem cell research. Exercising a power not enjoyed by all governors, Gov. Romney sent the measure back to the legislature with four amendments for consideration, rather than vetoing the measure.

Minnesota Technology Inc. (MTI), the leading technology-based economic development organization in the state of Minnesota, is seeking a Deputy Director to serve as the right hand to the CEO. This critical position will be responsible for the following:

Using patent filing and quality as a measure of innovation, “a dollar of venture capital appears to be about three times more potent in stimulating patenting than a dollar of traditional corporate R&D,” according to a July 2000 paper by Samuel Korton (Boston University) and Josh Lerner (Harvard University).

Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty recently unveiled four energy initiatives to promote clean energy R&D and the use of renewable energy technologies in the state. Through a combination of executive orders and legislative proposals, the programs are intended to push Minnesota towards its goals of having 25 percent of the state’s energy come from renewable sources by 2025 and reducing the state’s greenhouse emissions 80 percent by 2050. These new initiatives are:

The gradual aging of the American workforce and the domestic migration of young workers may be at fault for slow economic growth in many states that have historically been successful in promoting high-tech business, according to this year’s Index of the Massachusetts Innovation Economy.

Massachusetts' innovation indicators may be strong, but the conversion of innovation into new high tech jobs is lagging and the state’s median household income continues to dip, according to the latest Index of the Massachusetts Innovation Economy.

Cleveland Fed: "Innovation, Growth, and Economic Policy in an Environment of Change,"

At a time when manufacturing jobs are relenting to the pressures of an expanded service sector, foreign competition and productivity growth, the idea of economic prosperity has a renewed urgency with innovation as the greatest strength and flexibility the greatest asset, argues a new report from the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) recently selected Texas A&M University and the University of Minnesota to lead the second and third Homeland Security Centers of Excellence (HS-Centers). The department anticipates providing Texas A&M University, the University of Minnesota and their partners with a total of $33 million over the course of the next three years to address security in two key agricultural sectors -- foreign animal diseases and food security.

Chief Executive Officer

Oklahoma Center for the Advancement of Science and Technology

Study Suggests Cultural Changes in Universities Could Be Key to Promoting Greater Tech Transfer

Peter Bianco has been named executive director of University Enterprise Laboratories, a nonprofit entity created by the University of Minnesota that provides incubator laboratory space for bioscience start-up companies.

Former Massachusetts House Majority Leader Salvatore DiMasi has replaced Thomas Finneran as Speaker of the House. Finneran recently resigned to run the Massachusetts Biotechnology Council.

The presentations from last week's conference, Knowledge Clusters and Entrepreneurship in Regional Economic Development, now available online, provide a good introduction to many of the topics and issues to be discussed at SSTI's annual conference, Building Tech-based Economies: Preparing for Tomorrow's Challenges, in Philadelphia, Oct. 13-15.

Minnesota Technology Inc. has hired Wayne Pletcher as its new president.

Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney appointed Kathy Kottarodis to serve as the state’s first small business advocate. Kottarodis had been director of small business and entrepreneurship within the state’s office of business and technology.

Gov. Mitt Romney outlined a legislative package on Monday totaling $125 million designed to create more jobs. Many elements of the package target the science and technology communities.

Funding for energy and TBED initiatives were highlighted in the fiscal year 2007-09 biennial budget at the close of the legislative session in Minnesota late last month. Winning nearly unanimous approval from the legislature was Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s Next Generation Initiative announced during his State-of-the-State Address (see the Jan.

Robert Coughlin will replace Thomas Finneran as the new head of the Massachusetts Biotechnology Council by October. Coughlin is Gov. Deval Patrick's undersecretary for business development.