Our heartfelt thanks to all of you who so far have completed our annual readers' survey. A record number of responses!

SSTI extends a friendly reminder there is still time for readers to complete the 2002 SSTI Weekly Digest survey. As mentioned in a separate e-mail earlier this week, the survey results help us determine the editorial direction and content of future Digest issues.

In honor of Independence Day, no SSTI Weekly Digest will be published July 5.

A Note from the Editor

SSTI extends its thanks to those of you who have participated in the 2003 SSTI Weekly Digest survey. As mentioned in a separate e-mail earlier this week, the survey results help us determine the editorial direction and content of future issues of the Digest and Funding Supplement. We're also open to suggestions for our website, publication catalog, investment portfolios and hairstyles, so the survey offers a great chance to express yourself.

NorTech is interested in hiring an Associate Director who will be responsible for all activities associated with one or more initiatives and ongoing high level support for the initiatives. The mission of NorTech is to ensure economic growth and leadership in Northeast Ohio by promoting entrepreneurially based globally competitive technology development and commercialization.

NorTech – an organization whose mission is to ensure economic growth and leadership in Northeast Ohio by promoting entrepreneurially based globally competitive technology development and commercialization – seeks to hire an Associate Director who will be responsible for all activities associated with one or more initiatives and ongoing high level support for the initiatives.

William Seelbach has been named Interim President of the Ohio Aerospace Institute.

To give environmental technology entrepreneurs the chance to have their business plans analyzed by experts and win money for it, the National Environmental Technology (NET) Incubator in Wilberforce, Ohio, is hosting the first annual National Business Plan Competition.

With more than 110 great titles to aid the policy, practice and study of tech-based economic development, the SSTI Publication Catalog, Resources for Building Tech-based Economies officially is online.

Last week, Texas Governor Rick Perry announced the formation of the Governor's Council on Science and Biotechnology Development. The Council will strive to create a seamless system of innovation from the laboratory to the marketplace in rapidly developing areas of biotechnology — such as biopharmaceutical development, bioinformatics, genomics and nanotechnology.

While visions of sugarplums will be dancing in the heads of most Americans, SSTI's staff will be boxing up its files and moving to new offices on Dec. 20-21.

Due to the move and because SSTI will be closed during the week of December 24-28, the next issue of the SSTI Weekly Digest and the funding supplement will be published January 4, 2002.

State and local strategies to assist start-up business formation often focus on three elements to help nascent firms: securing much-needed funding or capital (either private or public), lowering the overall cost of doing business, or gaining the skill set or access to intellectual resources to succeed.

If one were asked to identify localized examples of the economic spectacle that was the late 1990s, the metro region of Austin, Texas would be on most short lists. A recently completed economic development plan from the tech-soaked Austin suburb of Round Rock, however, reflects the fundamental upheaval or disruption that characterizes the economies of many regions of the country.

Richard Greene, director of the Arlington Technology Incubator and former mayor of Arlington Texas, has been appointed regional administrator of the U.S. EPA.

The University of Toledo and its partners are seeking a director for the Toledo Science and Technology Corridor. The Corridor is an initiative to enhance the region's innovation-based economy through investments that promote linkages and collaboration among academic institutions, business industries and government entities.

The University of Cincinnati has appointed Anne Chasser to serve as associate vice president for technology transfer and commercialization in the school's Office of Research.

So far this year, SSTI's Funding Supplement has made its subscribers aware of more than 1,400 different opportunities to secure funding. If you aren't a subscriber, your client companies, academic researchers, and state and local TBED efforts are at a significant disadvantage!

Complete descriptions of these opportunities and others are available at http://www.ssti.org/posting.htm.

The field of tech-based economic development has changed dramatically since the creation of SSTI in 1996 and continues to change almost daily. With these changes in mind, SSTI is releasing a new mission statement that better defines the organization's current direction.



SSTI's new mission is to lead, support, and strengthen efforts to improve state and regional economies through science, technology, and innovation.

Last week, Texas Gov. Rick Perry signed off on the state’s budget, but not before making substantial use of his line-item veto. Overall, the approved $151 billion FY 2008-2009 budget increases general revenue spending by $7.7 billion (11.8 percent) over the current biennium. Much of that new spending will support education in the state; however, a number of programs, particularly those connected to higher education, failed to receive the governor’s approval.

 

Steve Gage announced he will retire as president of MAGNET, the Manufacturing Advocacy and Growth Network, effective July 13. Fatima Weathers will serve as acting president for the manufacturing advocate in Northeast Ohio, beginning July 16.