Fiscal Recession in Cities Expected to Continue into 2005
Ongoing economic struggles, along with rising health care and pension costs, have contributed to the bleak conditions of city budgets around the nation. The majority of America’s cities are still suffering from the recession and city financial officers are pessimistic on the financial outlook for the near future, according to an annual survey from the National League of Cities.
Private Interests Not Far from the Minds of State Legislators, Center Suggests
New data released by the Center for Public Integrity affirm the notion state representatives are often uniquely positioned to influence their personal financial fortunes or those of their employers while in office.
Southern Region Progressing in TBED, But Lags in Private Investment
Southern states may have a justifiable reason to be proud of their progress in technology and innovation, but their leaders should be concerned with the lack of investment in venture capital and industrial research and development (R&D), suggests a report released last month by Southern Growth Policies Board and the Southern Technology Council (STC).
Report Offers Guidelines For Sustaining Diversity Efforts in S&T
Prompted by confusion over the dual rulings in the University of Michigan affirmative action cases last year, the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and the National Action Council for Minorities in Engineering have released a new report to clarify the legalities and offer options for implementing and sustaining diversity programs within science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields.
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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.
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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.
SEC Seeks Candidates for Small Business Capital Formation Advisory Committee
The Securities and Exchange Commission is seeking candidates to fill a limited number of vacancies on the agency’s Small Business Capital Formation Advisory Committee, which provides advice and recommendations to the Commission on rules, regulations, and policy matters relating to small businesses.
The committee advises and consults with the Commission on rules, regulations, and policies as they relate to:
Recent Research: ITIF explains the argument for consolidation and bigger business
Why the U.S. Economy Needs More Consolidation, Not Less, a recent paper from the Information Technology & Innovation Foundation (ITIF), explains from an economics perspective the advantages of scale economy for improving an industry’s overall efficiency and productivity. Not all industries see significant economies of scale as firms grow, ITIF research points out.
Federal grant recipients alert: Uniform Grants Guidance is changing
While the headline above may be one of the most boring written in the SSTI Weekly Digest’s history, any recipient of federal grant funding should be aware that changes are coming to the Uniform Grants Guidance that governs federal grants, effective October 1. The guidance “sets the foundational requirements for agencies in making grants and providing other forms of Federal financial assistance, such as cooperative agreements and loans,” according to the White House. The changes will apply only to awards after October 1.
New Resource: Video provides insight into EDA’s Economic Adjustment Assistance Funds
SSTI has released a new video in our Federal Funding Video Library featuring Trent Thompson, economic development representative with the Economic Development Administration’s Denver Regional Office. In this interview, we discuss how EDA’s Economic Adjustment Assistance (EAA) funds can be leveraged to support technology-based economic development (TBED) activities.
Where are all of the successful accelerator participants?
Accelerators are practically everywhere in the U.S., and a look at Pitchbook data on May 13, 2024, seems to confirm that. For the five years of 2019-2023, Pitchbook tagged 18,808 different companies as having received “accelerator/incubator funding.” Conceptually, they were all startups when they received that funding and will be at widely varying degrees of evolution today (the status for 1,730 of them, for instance, was listed as “out of business”). Only 765 were classified as being one of four statuses that might be most easily considered as positive exits: 1. publicly held; 2.
A bipartisan group of Senators releases recommendations for AI policy
On Wednesday, a bipartisan group of senators published Driving U.S. Innovation in Artificial Intelligence: A Roadmap for Artificial Intelligence Policy in the United States Senate. The roadmap encourages the executive branch and the Senate Appropriations Committee to reach the $32 billion per year non-defense AI innovation spending level proposed by the National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence.
Registration is now open for the SSTI 2024 Annual Conference
Registration is now open for the SSTI 2024 Annual Conference in Phoenix, December 10-12, at the Sheraton Grand at Wild Horse Pass, located in the Gila River Indian Community.
Join us to experience thought-provoking keynotes, open forums, and ample discussion so that you can share your perspective with peers and have your questions answered by policymakers and practitioners—all looking to exchange ideas on creating a better future through science, technology, innovation, and entrepreneurship.
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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.
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Eugene Huang will replace Virginia Secretary of Technology George Newstrom, who is resigning after two years in the position.
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Jesse Jones is the new CEO of Ohio's IT Alliance. Jones formerly was chief technology officer of the City of Columbus.
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Fred Kocher has been elected president of the New Hampshire High Technology Council, which advocates technology-based businesses in New Hampshire.
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Laurie Lachance recently was named the next president of the Maine Development Foundation, Maine's economic development policy organization. Lachance is a former economist for the Maine State Planning Office.
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Kenneth Lynn has been appointed president of KCCatalyst. Lynn formerly was a consultant to biotechnology companies assisting in technology acquisition, strategic planning, and commercial development.
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Tino Mantella has been appointed president of the Technology Association of Georgia, a nonprofit organization that focuses on promotion and economic advancement of the state's technology industry.
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Secretary Aris Melisssaratos of the Maryland Department of Business and Economic Development recently announced two new appointments. Leslie Sipes-Pachol will serve in the position of executive director for the Maryland Economic Development Commission, and Paul Mauritz has been promoted to become Assistant Secretary for Technology Strategy and Business Development.
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Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco appointed state bond commisssion director Sharon Perez to serve as undersecretary for the Louisiana Department of Economic Development, and Secretary Michael Olivier named Dane Revette director of the agency's energy cluster.
NSF, NIH Commit Combined $213M toward Nanotech
While the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the National Science Foundation (NSF) have voiced caution and funded efforts to understand the potential societal and environmental implications of nanotechnology deployment, both agencies announced much larger funding commitments - totaling $213 million - to expedite commercial applications for the explosive field.
Nanotech Solutions for Cancer
What Makes for a Successful TBED Program?
During the states' fiscal crisis, a number of TBED programs were eliminated, while others survived. SSTI staff spent a fair amount of time analyzing what the survivors had in common, and we boiled the results down to three items that successful TBED programs have in common. While it may seem simplistic, the three commonalities are:
Funding Scheme to Support R&D for Large Companies in Scotland
In order to provide further incentives for crucial research and development (R&D) and to encourage more industries to carry out R&D in Scotland, Scottish Enterprise, the economic development agency for Scotland has launched a new funding scheme.