The District will enter a partnership with Howard University to offer below-market rent for on-campus space to venture capital firms, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser announced Wednesday. The details right now are a little scarce, but here's what is known so far: The District will fund the construction of between 5,000 to 10,000 square feet of office space on the Howard University campus, with the aim of leasing the space before the end of the year.

Image: Michael Neibauer D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser, shortly after taking the oath of office on Jan. 2, 2015.

LANSING – State-funded perks and incentives for businesses are coming under increased scrutiny in the state Capitol these days. And venture capital firms took their turn on center stage this week.

Since 2003, when the state was trying to thwart a deepening economic downturn by enticing new companies to the state, Michigan began investing in 20 venture capital companies, which in turn, raised even more private money to invest in entrepreneurs and their start-up companies.

Image: (Photo: Kathleen Gray/Detroit Free Press)

Many people seem to have the sense that ethics are spiraling downward in business, and unfortunately most startup professionals and entrepreneurs I know don’t believe they can make a difference. They don’t realize that if they don’t take an active role in the solution, they really become part of the problem.

I do believe that most business people want to do the right thing, but many just don’t have the skills to develop an unemotional ethical position, or confidence to act on their ethical beliefs, or simply are not sure how to go about making a difference in their daily actions, without jeopardizing their own career.

The stereotype of the quiet, introspective mountain loner and the beach-going partier may have truth to it: These different personalities are drawn to different physical terrains, according to new research.

The investigation, presented at a meeting of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, found that introverts tend to live in mountainous regions, while extroverts are more likely to live on a beachfront or other open and flat terrains.

ScienceWorks presents to you the developments in the program of the conference Impact of Science. Next to the key science policymaker Robert-Jan Smits (EU) several leading experts have confirmed to contribute to the conference. They wil present inspiring insights from mulitple countries on how to demonstrate the impact of science on society. Please see our website for a full overview of the program.

Register now: if you register before 1 April you can still benefit from the reduced fee for early bird registrations.

SAN FRANCISCO — Gov. Jerry Brown has made a habit of criticizing California's public colleges and universities for what he sees as a failure to adapt to the 21st century. Now he is putting the state's money where his mouth is.

The governor has pledged $50 million to reward campuses with creative and cost-effective approaches to getting more students to earn degrees in less time. A seven-member committee chaired by Brown's finance director is scheduled to name the winners of the California Awards for Innovation in Higher Education later this month.

Go back to the basics. That is the imperative of radical innovation: take a look at the underlying rules and principles that guide your organization and see what happens when you change them. This often means disrupting and unsettling rules that your company or industry has taken for granted as given for years. No rule is a timeless truth. With new environments, new technologies, new clients, so, too must come new rules. The challenge is having the courage to break old rules.

THIS newspaper was established in 1843 to take part in “a severe contest between intelligence, which presses forward, and an unworthy, timid ignorance obstructing our progress”. One of the chief ways in which intelligence presses forward is through innovation, which is recognised as one of the most important contributors to economic growth. Innovation, in turn, depends on the creative individuals who dream up new ideas and turn them into reality.

Image: http://www.economist.com 

Apple held its big Apple Watch media event on Monday, where the company offered more details about its first-generation smartwatch that's finally going on sale next month. Even though Apple will offer the Watch in a variety of models and prices — starting at $350 and topping out at $17,000 — BI Intelligence believes Apple's smartwatch will still dominate the smartwatch category over the next five years.

Image: http://www.apple.com

Earlier today the United States Senate confirmed Michelle Lee to head the United States Patent and Trademark Office, a position that has been vacant since the resignation of David Kappos at the end of January 2013. Lee’s official title will be Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the United States Patent and Trademark Office, which is the second longest title in Washington. The only longer title is her previous position as Deputy Director, which is identical to her new title except for using the word “deputy” twice.

Image: http://www.ipwatchdog.com 

By harnessing the forces of nature, a simple egg-shaped device invented by a blacksmith and a builder has been found to remove pesky air trapped in UK central heating systems, boosting energy efficiency by as much as 30%.

Its unique shape harnesses the forces of nature to drive dissolved air out of water, with a growing number of field tests showing big increases in energy efficiency.

Image: http://www.globalconreview.com 

WASHINGTON (Legal Newsline) – A group of 40 economists and law professors from around the country sent a letter to members of Congress Tuesday, expressing serious concerns with the many “flawed, unreliable or incomplete” patent litigation studies that have become the basis for another possible restructuring of the nation’s patent system.   The economists and professors sent their five-page letter to U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa and chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee; Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee; U.S. Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., and chairman of the House Judiciary Committee; and Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., and ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee.

The success of implementing a new and revolutionary idea not only relies on having the right people, resources and environment in place, but also recognising the obstacles that inhibit innovation and ensuring measures are put in place to avoid them.

Nothing kills off an idea better than some red tape and lack of executive support. By identifying the triggers that stifle innovation, large organisations can create an entrepreneurial culture where employees feel empowered to innovate.

The Founding Fathers of the United States considered intellectual property so important that they gave it a special place in the Constitution: “To promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries.”

This year’s Top 10 U.S. Biopharma Clusters List features the same 10 regions as last year’s GEN List, but the top seven occupy slightly different positions than they did in the 2014 list.

One factor in the changes this past year has been a recovering venture capital market, which pushed numbers above last year’s totals for most, though not all regions (three showed declines and one was flat over 2013). For example, the top region racked up $1.82 billion in 2014, versus $1.447 billion in 2013.

Image: http://www.genengnews.com/

Traditional tales of teenagers inventing gadgets in basements or undergraduates launching companies in dorm rooms are fading into history. The era of the garage startup is waning, for good reason.

First, entrepreneurs are generally a sociable bunch who like interacting while transacting. Gaining access to groups of like-minded entrepreneurs is the biggest reason startups rush to join incubator and seed accelerator programs, according to a recent report by Social Enterprise @ Goizueta. Little wonder incubation and seed accelerators in Canada have mushroomed.

Is it time to be strict about what, when and to whom you make disclosure?

A few years ago, Mark Suster wrote a thoughtful post on How Much Information Should You Give VCs During Diligence and I ended up writing something pretty technical in response. I’ve had many discussions with founders whose views on the topic range from paranoid to paranoid-with-justification to overly trusting. Because it has been almost three years since I’ve written on the topic, I figured it was worth dusting things off a bit.

Economic development doesn’t just rest on the shoulders of the city manager or the economic development director. Economic development is a community responsibility. That was the message of an attorney from Gothenburg, Nebraska, who specializes in economic development during a presentation Tuesday at the Gering Civic Center. Mike Bacon has worked for 25 years in economic development, overseeing a tax increment financing project 25 years ago and assisting with more than 200 projects since his role with the Dawson Area Development, which brings together the communities of Lexington, Cozad and Gothenburg.

Image: MAUNETTE LOEKS/Star-Herald Mike Bacon speaks with Gering City Engineer Paul Snarr during a break Tuesday. Bacon spoke on economic development to city leaders and others. 

Each year, millions of people lose billions of dollars in NCAA March Madness basketball pools. Still, most return the following year for another pummeling.

But flipping a coin yields better results than carefully selecting brackets, says Dae Hee Kwak, assistant professor of sport management at the University of Michigan School of Kinesiology.

This month, the bull market celebrates its sixth anniversary with the S&P 500 up over 200% during that period. Just how extraordinary is that run? Societe Generale analyst Andrew Lapthorne illustrates it by charting the rolling six-year return in the S&P 500 since 1907. "Such a strong six year run up in US equities has only been seen twice since 1900, i.e., back in 1929 and 1999, neither of which ended well," Lapthorne wrote.

Image: http://www.businessinsider.com