NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – The privately-funded Morgridge Institute for Research, part of the public-private Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, plans to recruit 10 principal investigators among 100 researchers and support staffers to be hired over the next five years.

The 100 new people will help Morgridge carry out research in regenerative biology, virology, medical devices, pharmaceutical informatics, and education research; as well as develop and run programs in two additional fields, core computational technology and outreach to students and the general public.

The specialties are designed to enhance Morgridge's mission of translating biomedical discoveries into new drugs and devices, as well as complement the research areas of its publicly-funded twin institute, the Wisconsin Institute for Discovery, which include epigenetics and systems biology. The twin institutes are known collectively as the Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery, now completing a $205 million, 300,000-square-foot facility within the UW-Madison campus.

COLUMBUS, Ohio — The Technology Entrepreneurship and Commercialization Center at Ohio State University’s Fisher College of Business was created to assess the commercial and economic viability of technology developed at Battelle

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During a six-month pilot, Battelle’s National Security Global Business provided more than 50 innovations — from millimeter wave technology used in telecommunications to a flame retardant derived from soybeans — to the Technology Entrepreneurship and Commercialization (TEC) center, which evaluated the innovations for their commercial potential, Battelle said in a release.

The pilot went so well, the science and technology institute has agreed to work with the center for two more years, splitting profits with the university when it takes the commercial lead. The partnership eventually could extend to some of Battelle’s other businesses, such as its Health and Life Sciences Global Business.

I [Fergus] was having dinner two days ago and the topic of conversation turned to life expectations. Shallow conversation I know but it passed an hour. I mentioned a recent video I found of Steve Job’s. Now I am not a huge Steve Jobs worshipper. He has had a huge impact on the world we know to day and there is no denying his achievements but for me I have just never gelled with his public persona. I say that because I don’t know him… all I know is what I read. What I read I have never had much time for. (I reserve the right though to meet him and have a completely different opinion of the man himself. They are so often two different things.)

All that said I do find this speech inspiring. It reflects many of my own beliefs and he actually uses a phrase that I often keep in my own head. Its key themes are below they make in my mind the essence of great entrepreneurship. Keep them at the forefront and you won’t go far wrong

1. Go with your heart but go with gusto – Steve famously dropped out and in the video he describes how he then dropped back in “You have to trust in something–your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever–because believing that the dots will connect down the road will give you the confidence to follow your heart, even when it leads you off the well-worn path, and that will make all the difference.”

Here's my [Mark Frauenfelder] round up of highlights from the second day of the TED 2010 presentations. My head is abuzz with all the thought-provoking ideas I learned today. (Here's yesterday's roundup.)

Inventor Nathan Myhrvold, of Intellectual Ventures had the most entertaining presentation of the day: a mosquito death ray. It's part of a plan to eradicate malaria and it's being funded by Myhrvold's former boss, Bill Gates.

First Myhrvold showed off a container that can keep vaccination medicine cold and fresh for six months. The old way -- a styrofoam cooler with ice -- keeps the medicine cold for just four hours. The new container loses less than 1/2 watt. It's similar to a cryogenic dewar, with the same kind of insulation. But this one works like a Coke machine, vending out vials one-at-a-time so warm air never gets inside the container.

Next, malaria. Every 43 seconds a kid dies of malaria in Africa. What can we do about it? Spraying is effective, but there are environmental issues. There's not an effective vaccine yet. Bed nets are effective, if you use them, but people use them for fishnets instead, and it won't make malaria extinct.

While the economy is finally showing signs of life, securing capital for early-stage ventures hasn’t gotten any easier- so it seems timely to let start-up owners in on the criteria by which they will be judged.

Each year our firm typically reviews more than 2,500 companies seeking seed or Series A funding and invests in between six and twelve. Here’s how we judge a young company’s viability.

First of all, we evaluate deals on three axes: The team, the market and the technology or product.

• We want a team with domain expertise in the market space—individuals who can see the opportunities in that market before they are apparent to others and can use that vision to become early movers in the market.
• We want the company to be targeting a market that is nascent or even nonexistent. It needs to be a market the entrepreneurs believe will, at some point, grow rapidly, creating an opportunity for the company to move faster than any incumbents.
• The company needs to have a product with some level of defensibility – something that’s not easily replicable once the market becomes more obvious to others.

This is a first of a kind book.Written by a cohort of authors that have successfully made the transition from engineering to executive leadership, it’s been eye opening to read the examples and advice.I certainly wish this book had been around when I first made the switch from individual technical contributor to manager. Recommend it highly!

Innovation is most often defined as a good idea that has a favorable economic outcome – in other words, you know it when you sell it.

I have seen Corporate executives glow red in the face shouting down top talent barking out; “It’s not innovation unless you can show me the money!”

In reality, you can’t see the money unless you can first see the innovation.

Nobody can solve one equation with two unknowns, i.e., what’s a new idea? and what’s an economic outcome? The trick is to identify the new ideas and direct them to the appropriate economic outcome, not the other way around. Many companies live in a silo where many good ideas can’t find a place to be profitable, so they are scrapped. This is not the fault of talent or the idea, but invariably both are lost.

The Department of Energy today drew upon the recommendations of an Obama administration-wide effort to boost regional economic development, announcing that DOE would team up with six other federal agencies to create an energy-related regional innovation cluster dedicated to developing and commercializing new building efficiency technologies. The other agencies joining the effort are the Small Business Administration, the National Science Foundation, the Departments of Labor and Education, and the Department of Commerce’s Economic Development Administration and Manufacturing Extension Partnership.

The key feature of the proposal unveiled today is that these seven federal agencies will seek bids from regional economies around the country, requiring a “bottom up” self-organizing effort by states and localities, universities and federal research labs, workforce development agencies and the private sector. This was one of the key recommendations in our paper, “The Geography of Innovation,” and is widely regarded among economic development experts and innovation gurus as the best way to build regional innovation clusters in the United States. Capitalizing on our country’s unique regional science and technology strengths, entrepreneurial flair and strong work ethic, targeted federal funds will help these regional clusters self organize and compete on a global scale.

Walter Fredrick Morrison, the Frisbee inventor, died this week. His simple sports innovation – a plastic, aerodynamic disc – has become one of the most popular toys in American history, uniting beachgoers, college kids, and competitive teams for half a century.

How did he come up with the idea? Morrison said it was easy as pie – literally. In the 1940s, he and his future wife brought cake and pie tins with them to the beach. The couple enjoyed flinging the pans back and forth, letting them glide in the California wind.

A former military pilot, Morrison applied his knowledge of aerodynamics to tinker with the tins, improving their control. Finally, in 1948, the Los Angeles building inspector began producing and selling his own discs.

If there’s any doubt that small businesses and access to credit are still a very hot topic in this almost-post recession economy, just read the headlines.

Our very own Anita Campbell isn’t likely to stump for a jobs bill but she did something much better. Recently, Anita conducted a webinar for Verizon titled “How Can You Secure Credit For Your Small Business In Today’s Market?“ Joining her for the presentation was Tom Markel, Vice President of iBank.

The pair of them packed an incredible amount of information into a mere hour. Here are some highlights.

Commercial real estate: Research your options, check to see if there are liens or back taxes owing on the property, and have a lawyer look over the contract. TIP: Be aware that you’ll need a lot of skin in the game; banks now want you to put up about 40- 50% of the purchase price.

Bank lines of credit: Similar to credit cards and should only be used to cover cash flow emergencies. You need good cash flow and a good credit score, but not collateral (unless you have a poor credit history) to get a line of credit. You’ll make monthly payments and there are no penalties for paying off the entire balance. TIP: In the current climate, banks will look closely at the business owner.

Technology transfer is a long-established part of early-stage research within the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries. Although technology transfer offices have traditionally been associated with inefficiency and a lack of commercial judgment, recent trends have shown improvements in staffing, expertise and service levels. However, the tech transfer function has recently suffered from ‘funding gaps’ for promising new technologies. A clear disparity exists between current service offerings and demand levels amongst investors/industry partners, while the lack of an established model for effective technology transfer function and significant regional variations are major obstacles to future progress.

‘Technology Transfer Strategies’ is a new, uniquely themed report provides a comprehensive examination of the major trends in technology transfer activity in the US, Canada and Europe. The report provides a detailed country-level analysis of technology transfer and associated intellectual property technology regulations, in addition to evaluating the key approaches to office structuring and strategies to negotiate the ’funding gap’. A series of in-depth interviews also document the experiences and insights of 11 tech transfer experts, and their recommendations for successful technology transfer strategies are revealed.

Last year wasn’t the finest for the venture-capital industry, which experienced a continued lack of big returns from initial public offerings and mergers and acquisitions and had to deal with fundraising hurdles besides. But according to a new survey from law firm Fenwick & West, there was some good news for venture capital towards the end of last year.

Valuations of venture-capital investments in startup companies improved markedly in the second half of 2009, showing that the trajectory for deals was positive, according to the new survey. The survey, which analyzed the terms of venture financings for 335 companies headquartered in Silicon Valley that raised money in 2009, found that “up” rounds–in which the price per share at which a company sells its stock rose from a previous financing–exceeded “down” rounds 44% to 33%, with 23% flat, in the second half of 2009. In contrast, down rounds exceeded up rounds 47% to 28%, with 25% flat, in the first half of 2009, notes Fenwick & West.

Here's a video of mosquitoes being shot with Intellectual Ventures' laser zapper I mentioned in my TED round up yesterday. I'm not sure if the soundtrack ought to be "Blue Danube" or "Yakety Sax."

I took some photos of the gadget, along with Intellectual Ventures' project Scientist, 3ric Johanson standing next to it. It was made from off-the-shelf parts purchased on eBay. See them after the jump.

The necessity for a radical change in Russia's economic development paradigm has become clear in recent years. President Medvedev has responded by formulating principles of innovative economic development and outlining the industrial priorities of the state. However, the success of Russia's effort to modernize depends on real cooperation between government and society in taking concrete actions that can facilitate technological breakthrough.

For the first time in recent history, Russia is making a serious attempt to drop the use of invocations and declarations while speaking about the innovative renewal of the Russian economy, and instead acting pragmatically by formulating both a plan of priorities and the basics of long-term policy. Russia's modernization plan has two major components: a) seeding innovation and technological breakthroughs inside the country and b) importing technology and equipment more efficiently for use in the real sector of the economy.

Both components are necessary.

In the past two weeks alone, the Cleantech Group's reporters have spotted quite a bit of activity in the water industry, underscoring again the importance of water as a cleantech category.

Recent stories include Grundfos six-month test of a new compact wastewater treatment technology; Coca-Cola’s 16 rain water harvesting projects in India; Brunel University spin out, WaterBoxs’ disaster relief efforts and H20 Innovation India joint venture between Chembond Chemical and H20 Innovation.

To boot, Cleantech Group is also featuring water leaders at its upcoming San Francisco Forum (more info here): NanoH20 (confirmed), Microvi Biotechnologies (confirmed) and HydroPoint Data Systems (pending).

Since 2005, however, the share of cleantech venture investment in water technologies has been on the decline, yet the fundamental premise of water investing appears to remain strong: demand is high and supply is low.

On Tuesday, I attended the Front End of Innovation conference in Amsterdam. It was good to see innovation leaders from a wide range of companies in attendance — to me it was a small but important sign of an increasingly stable global economy.

I provided a few thoughts in the morning, and then heard a fascinating presentation from Patrick O’Riordan — global director of innovation at Anheuser-Busch InBev. Here are some of his lessons for innovators:

Explain strategic objectives in simple terms. AB InBev is the world’s largest beer company. Its strategic objectives are to increase SOB (share of beer) and SOT (share of throat). It can achieve these objectives by getting consumers to switch to its products, consume its products in new locations, or attract new consumers. I’m guessing that the simple and immediately memorable language brings great clarity to AB InBev’s innovation efforts. Importantly, it clarifies things that InBev won’t do, which is an overlooked innovation enabler.

According to the Department of Labor, the majority of jobs in the near future will have a heavy focus on technology and having technical skills, including technical consulting and computer systems design. To ensure college students graduating have those skills, IBM announced today the launch of what it calls a free “academic cloud,” which is a bundle of web-based IBM software to help professors teach technology skills to students.

The announcement will officially come at a New York City get together of over 200 education and industry influencers set to discuss the changing landscape of cloud computing and it’s integration in the education community. If you’re interest, you can see the live stream here at 8:30am Eastern. The hopes for the conference and academic cloud are high. IBM sees users becoming tomorrow’s entrepreneurs using these technology skills in information management and business analytics, digitized patient records, and clean technologies.And of course this is a way for IBM to put its software in front of potential future users at an early stage.

SAN FRANCISCO — Silicon Valley’s economy is sputtering and risks permanently stalling, according to an annual report by a group of researchers in the region.

Part of the toll on Silicon Valley has resulted from the recession. The region, the center of the global technology industry, lost 90,000 jobs from the second quarter of 2008 to the second quarter of 2009. Unemployment is higher than national levels and the worst in the region since 2005, when technology companies were still recovering from the dot-com implosion.

The drop in the number of midlevel jobs — the engineers who drive much of the Valley’s growth — has been sharpest. And when companies do hire, they are cautiously hiring independent contractors instead of regular employees, and are hiring abroad, according to the “2010 Index of Silicon Valley” report, which was produced by the Joint Venture: Silicon Valley Network and the Silicon Valley Community Foundation, two local nonprofit groups.

The Taxation Committee of the Maine Legislature will hold a hearing this Tuesday (February 2nd) on a bill submitted by the President of the Maine Senate and gubernatorial candidate Libby Mitchell, LD 1666 An Act To Improve the Seed Capital Investment Tax Credit Program. After review by the TechMaine Policy Committee and Board, TechMaine is supporting this bill. Listed at the end of this message is our testimony to the Taxation Committee.

The Seed Capital Investment Tax Credit Program is designed to encourage equity and near equity investments in young business ventures, directly and through private venture capital funds. State income tax credits to investors for 40% to 60% of the cash equity they provide to eligible Maine businesses may be authorized. Investments may be used for fixed assets, research or working capital.

LD 1666 would increase the Seed Capital Tax Credit to 60% statewide and allow it to be refundable, which would allow non-taxable and out-of-state investors to invest in innovative Maine businesses take advantage of the credit.

The Taxation Committee meets in room 127 of the Cross State Office Building in Augusta at 1:00 pm this Tuesday, February 2nd – we urge you to attend the hearing and testify on the real world impacts of LD 1666 on your company. If you can’t attend; please send an email, or make a call.

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BILL SUMMARY
This bill changes the seed capital investment tax credit program by increasing the existing credit from 40% of an eligible investment to 60% and applying it uniformly across the State rather than basing it on unemployment rates. The bill eliminates the up-front tax credit for investors in certain venture capital funds and makes changes to the conditions and restrictions related to business ownership by investors in private venture capital funds. The bill retains the current amount of $30,000,000 as the aggregate amount of credits that the Finance Authority of Maine may issue through the end of calendar year 2011 and then increases the amount to $50,000,000 starting in 2012. It allows investors entitled to the credit that are part of a partnership, corporation or similar entity to allocate the credit using an alternate allocation method rather than allocating the credit in direct proportion to their respective interests in those partnerships, corporations or similar entities. It adds the partners, members or equity owners of certain nonprofit, civic and charitable organizations to the list of those entitled to the credit and states that they must be treated as taxpayers for the purposes of this refundable credit. The bill provides an exception to the provision that specifies that 25% of the tax credit must be taken in the year the investment is made for certain time periods and provides a schedule that specifies what percentage must be taken in each taxable year. The bill also makes the tax credit refundable to provide an incentive for investment in Maine businesses.

Link to the Legislation:  http://www.mainelegislature.org/LawMakerWeb/summary.asp?ID=280035115
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Now is the time for you to contact Representatives and Senators on the Taxation Committee, explain to them how this bill could improve the growth of your company, and urge the legislators to vote YES on LD 1666. Please contact these Committee members and make sure your voice is heard.

Maine Legislature Taxation Committee Members' e-mail addresses

Senate:

Senator Joseph C. Perry (D-Penobscot), Chair
http://www.mainesenate.org/perry/email.htm

Senator Lawrence Bliss (D-Cumberland)
http://www.mainesenate.org/bliss/email.htm

Senator Richard A. Nass (R-York)
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House:
 
Representative Thomas R. Watson (D-Bath), Chair
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Representative Donald E. Pilon (D-Saco)
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Representative Mark E. Bryant (D-Windham)
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Representative Linda M. Valentino (D-Saco)
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Representative Patsy Crockett (D-Augusta)
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Representative Lawrence Sirois (D-Turner)
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Representative Elspeth Flemings (D-Bar Harbor)
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Representative Kathleen D. Chase (R-Wells)*
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Representative L. Gary Knight (R-Livermore Falls)
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Representative Brian D. Langley (R-Ellsworth)
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TechMaine's Position

LD 1666 - An Act To Improve the Seed Capital Investment Tax Credit Program

This testimony is offered in favor of LD 1666. TechMaine, The Technology Association of Maine, believes that LD 1666 would have a positive impact on the growth of Maine’s science and technology related industries.  We ask you to vote for this proposed legislation.

TechMaine is supported by hundreds of member businesses across the State of Maine that either create or are reliant on the productivity gains brought about through new technologies. Many of our member technology companies are capable of above average growth; both in terms of revenue and in the number of employees they hire. Lack of investment funding in Maine at crucial stages during a company's early years limits their growth and the health of Maine's economy.  Maine needs additional financing vehicles to attract new companies and ideas and to fund and retain our current entrepreneurs. LD 1666 could be an attractive part of a strategy to position Maine as a haven for entrepreneurs. Maine tech companies have consistently called for efforts to increase access to capital and this bill is an important step forward.

Maine’s annual evaluation of R&D programs has revealed that with support from the Maine Seed Capital Tax Credit, Maine companies have been in a better position to:

• Grow employment and revenues that exceed state averages
• Lead to furthering leveraging of needed debt and equity financing
• Generate intellectual property protection

Passage of this legislation will provide private funding incentives for commercialization of Maine’s R&D efforts, extend the tax credit to 60% statewide, regardless of location, and add flexibility for investors which will increase the potential for investment in Maine companies.

Attracting investment for early stage businesses is challenging in Maine during good economic times; it is extremely difficult in our current economic environment. If enacted, LD 1666 could lead to a significant improvement in the results of Maine entrepreneurs to stay in Maine and attract investment capital to help grow their companies. 

One thing Boston and Silicon Valley have in common: it's very hard to see the places where innovation actually happens. The interesting work takes place in labs behind locked doors and in conference rooms that require clearance to enter. Want to dine at Google's cafeteria in Mountain View, or walk the halls at BBN in Cambridge where some of the researchers who helped build the Internet and develop e-mail still toil? You'll need a special invitation.

So when a visitor asks you how they might see what's interesting and vibrant about the tech scene in either place, the answer isn't easy.

That's why I wanted to put together a short tour of Boston places where you can actually get a sense for what has made the city's innovation economy tick, over more than two centuries. I asked some friends on Twitter for help ? and got it.