Lawmakers approved many of Gov. Bob McDonnell's proposals aimed at growing Virginia's technology and life sciences industries by dedicating about half of the funding requested by the governor to support R&D, commercialization, SBIR matching grants, and funding for early stage equity investments.

In a recent speech in front of China's National People's Congress, China's Premier Wen Jiabao outlined the country's 12th five-year plan (2011-2115). The plan will focus heavily on boosting consumption through sustainable growth fueled by renewable energies and state support of strategic, emerging industries. Expenditures on R&D should reach 2.2 percent of GDP. Much of this R&D investment will be targeted in three sectors — healthcare, energy and technology.

During the campaign trail and in speeches delivered during their first few weeks in office, governors in Florida and Nevada announced plans to overhaul economic development efforts without providing many details on how the new systems would operate. Draft legislation recently was introduced in the respective states, providing some insight on the structure and governance of the proposed agencies.

Expanding the federal research tax credit and making it permanent could help generate $10 billion per year in research activity, according to a report from the U.S. Department of Treasury's Office of Tax Policy. Treasury also suggests that the enhanced credit could expand use of the credits, which already generate a one-to-one match in research spending and help support almost one million jobs. The current credit, which has been reauthorized temporarily 14 times since its introduction in 1981, is set to expire at the end of the year.

Recruiting bioscience faculty to universities and investing in R&D infrastructure tops the list of strategies recommended for Iowa to capitalize on a growing bioscience economy. A report commissioned by Innovate Iowa also finds that while significant progress has been made in growing the state's bioscience industry over the last 10 years, declining state funds to build research capacity and provide seed and venture capital remains a challenge for bioscience companies and entrepreneurs to compete regionally and globally.

Three recent reports from Maine provide insight into the challenges of fostering an innovative economy in a rural state. Overall, the research suggests that Maine has done well in its efforts to support startups, but could do more to help those startups expand and find new markets. By encouraging innovation-based businesses to expand to markets outside of Maine and by offering mentoring services, the state could overcome the stagnation that can occur when companies and states focus on local markets.

In 2007, the federal government dedicated $111.4 billion to R&D, an amount roughly equal to 0.81 percent of the U.S. gross domestic product (GDP), according to a recent report from the National Science Foundation (NSF). While research-intensive states, such as California, Maryland, Massachusetts and Virginia are the leading targets for federal R&D spending, several other states attracted a comparable amount of federal funding relative to their economies between 2002 and 2007.

The vast majority of basic research performed in this country is funded by the federal government, so odds are most innovations also stem from our federal research investments, right? The generalization may seem logical but it could never be proven. Let alone following research through to any resulting technologies, it is currently impossible even to tell the number of jobs resulting from federal research investments–supporting people in positions ranging from top of the field faculty researchers to research assistants, lab technicians, and administrative/custodial support staff.

The National Science Foundation (NSF) has begun reporting employment and R&D investment figures for companies that perform R&D based on the agency's new Business R&D and Innovation Survey. The inaugural data, based on 2008 results, shows that U.S. companies that perform R&D employed 27.1 million people worldwide 1.9 million of whom were directly involved in research. Domestic employment within these companies totaled 18.5 million, with 1.5 million R&D workers.

Canadian universities and affiliated hospitals disclosed and reported 1,613 new inventions in 2008, a 20 percent increase over the previous year, according to a new report from Statistics Canada. These same institutions reported that 19 new spin-off companies were created using university intellectual property in 2008, bringing the total number of spin-off companies to 1,242 since 1999. The reported value of research undertaken at Canadian universities and hospitals reached an estimated $2 billion in 2008, a 55 percent increase over 2007.

Companies that engage in R&D activities — either through performing R&D or funding others to perform R&D — are far more likely to innovate than companies that do not, according to new data from the National Science Foundation's (NSF) 2008 Business R&D and Innovation Survey (BRDIS). NSF researchers found that companies with R&D "exhibit far higher rates of innovation than do non-R&D companies. However, only 47,000 (3%) U.S. companies engaged in R&D activities from 2006 to 2008.

Twenty universities and organizations received $100,000 grants to support R&D and small business innovation under the U.S. Small Business Administration's FAST program. The program is designed to stimulate economic development among small, high-tech businesses through federally-funded innovation and R&D programs such as the SBIR and STTR programs. The project and budget periods are for 12 months beginning Sept. 30, 2010, according to a press release.

Proposals that promise job creation and economic growth have taken center stage in several state legislatures. Lawmakers who recognize the importance of R&D, tech commercialization, access to risk capital, and investment in higher education are fighting for passage of TBED-focused bills in the final months of their states' 2011 legislative sessions.

The Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Department of Energy (DOE) announced the Biomass Research and Development Initiative (BRDI) — a $30 million initiative to support up to 10 research and development (R&D) projects focused on advanced biofuels, bioenergy and high-value biobased products. Projects should propose integrated science and engineering research in three technical areas of interest:

International collaboration in science and technology (S&T) research has risen over the past 15 years from approximately 25 percent to over 35 percent, according to Knowledge, Networks and Nations: Global Scientific Collaboration in the 21st Century — a new report from the Royal Society Science Policy Center.

From 2000 to 2008, the U.S. ranked 18th out of 30 countries in the growth of government-funded university research, according to a new report by the Information Technology & Innovation Foundation (ITIF). In University Research Funding: the United States is Behind and Falling, Robert Atkinson and Luke Stewart compared the U.S. government and business funding for public university research against 29 other developed countries.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced that it will commit $25 million over the next five years to support the U.S.-India Joint Clean Energy Research and Development Center, as part of the Partnership to Advance Clean Energy. DOE will provide matching grants to universities, national labs, private companies and others to support research in energy efficiency, second-generation biofuels and solar energy. The $50 million contributed by DOE and award grantees will be matched by an additional $50 million in public and private funds from India.

The Slovenian parliament recently approved the Resolution on the Research and Innovation Strategy of Slovenia 2011-2020, a comprehensive strategy to establish "a contemporary research and innovation system that will ensure a higher quality of life within the country." According to the UNESCO Science Report, Slovenia is drastically ahead of their counterparts in Southeastern Europe.