Private equity has long lost its mantle as the enemy at large in the capital markets. The banks now have become the focus for public opprobrium, to such an extent that there is little ire left to be expended on other corners of the financial world. The European Union, belatedly, seems to be acknowledging this as it moves in the direction of common sense in shaping the regulation of private equity.

Yesterday's news that the European Council had put forward a compromise text that was in line with the European Parliament's prevailing position was encouraging. That private equity should be lumped into the Alternative Investment Fund Management Directive seems anyhow to be unnecessary but, since its inclusion appears to be inescapable, the drive has to be to achieve a regime that is at least workable. The European Venture Capital Association has greeted the latest development enthusiastically, saying it shows the Swedish presidency to be "clearly cognizant of the unique contribution venture capital can make to European innovation and long term economic growth."

When it comes to investing, venture capitalists are far more optimistic about next year’s prospects than they were about 2009, but they’re still just as downcast about their industry’s future, according to a survey by the National Venture Capital Association.

As it has done for the past four years, the NVCA asked its members more than a dozen questions about their expectations for the coming year. This year’s survey, conducted between Nov. 30 and Dec. 8, drew more than 325 responses to questions centered around investing, exits and their partnerships.

VCs surveyed largely expect firms to raise smaller funds in 2010 and for the industry to shrink in the next five years. Fifty-eight percent believe the industry will contract by 16%-30%, while 21% expect a 31%-50% shrinkage. That specific question wasn’t asked in last year’s survey, which took place three months after Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.’s demise. But VCs then were equally sour about the industry’s forecast in related queries.

Again and again, high-level experts confirmed what we're hearing on the ground, at side events, press debriefs and happy hours - REDD is going to be the big winner this week.

Unless progress on finance and emissions reduction deals completely collapse here at Copenhagen, which is not likely, we are " on the verge of a major breakthrough on protecting tropical forests," said Kevin Knobloch, President of the Union of Concerned Scientists.

WWF US President Carter Roberts added: "This may be the most important moment in the history of forests ever in the world...we are within reach of the ability to save magnificent places."

Companies that received some government support outperformed those backed purely by private venture capital in recent years, according to new research that conflicts with recent reports by other bodies.

Enterprises that received up to half of their venture capital funding from governments outperformed rivals backed purely by private venture capital and also those with over 50% of government backing; both in terms of value on exit and patent creation, according to a report published today by the World Economic Forum, the Switzerland-based, non-profit foundation.

The report's authors – James Brander and Thomas Hellmann of the University of British Columbia and Qianqian Du at Shanghai Jiao Tong University – wrote: “In small amounts, government-supported venture capitalists can address obvious market failures and improve economic outcomes [by] picking the low-hanging fruit. In large amounts, however, GVCs may simply compete with, and crowd out private venture capitalist activity”.

The European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT) has chosen climate change, sustainable energy and information and communication technology as the subjects of its first three programmes, following a hearing with six short-listed candidates in Budapest yesterday (16 December).

“Today is a great day for innovation in Europe,” said Martin Schuurmans, chair of the EIT’s governing body, announcing the three winning bids to form Knowledge and Innovation Communities (KICs). These entities, each co-located at several centres in Europe, will bring together industry and academics to work together and become world experts in each of their fields. They will be reference points not only for other academic groups, but also for companies and for investment in these areas of technology.

It might be a bit of an understatement to say 2009 was a challenging year. I imagine there are a few who will be celebrating less that a new year is coming and more that this one is ending.

But the truth is, despite the recession and all its attendant trials, a lot of good things happened in Pennsylvania in the past year--the kinds of things that highlight the unique strengths of our state and our ability to position it for a competitive future when the economy recovers.

Here is a single page highlighting innovation resources in Australia. Australian Capital Territory, New South Wales, Northern Territory, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria and Western Australia are all recognized and list specific resources for innovation and businesses.

Hurt by smaller R&D budgets and offshoring, Yankees are winning fewer U.S. patents than non-residents

Has the U.S. lost its Yankee ingenuity? For the first time in 2009, non-Americans were granted more U.S. patents than resident inventors, accounting for 50.7% of new grants, according to recent data from the Patent & Trademark Office. Moreover, for only the second time in the last 25 years, patent applications fell overall in the year ended Sept. 30.

The role reversal had been only a matter of time. Led by Japan and the likes of South Korea and China, other countries have been zigzagging their way higher in patent awards for decades, while the number granted to U.S. residents peaked in 2001. Still, the inflection point troubles American tech industry advocates and other analysts. "The U.S. is losing its innovation base," says Robert D. Atkinson, founder and president of the Information Technology & Innovation Foundation (ITIF), a Washington think tank.

Authors say a free agency for inventors will get innovations to the market faster and create jobs, benefit consumers, researchers and universities

(KANSAS CITY, Mo.) Dec. 17, 2009 – Creating an open, competitive licensing system for university innovators is one of Harvard Business Review's "Ten Breakthrough Ideas for 2010" and the brainchild of researchers at the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation. The free agency solution is one of the 10 ideas that HBR says "will make the world better."

Current restrictions imposed by U.S. research universities on the ways their faculty can commercialize federally funded discoveries are slowing the diffusion of new technologies, according to the article by Robert E. Litan and Lesa Mitchell published this week in the January-February 2010 issue of HBR. These limitations are detrimental to the U.S. economy and universities themselves.

Wichita-based NetWork Kansas needs to sell a little more than $400,000 in 75 percent state entrepreneurship tax credits before the end of the year.

The program allows donors to buy the tax credits, which are used as seed capital for entrepreneurs and small-business owners, said Steve Radley, director of NetWork Kansas.

Donors will receive $75 of every $100 they contribute to directly offset income tax liability. If the credits aren't sold, they are lost, Radley said.

"We're again trying to wrap up our year," Radley said. "It's been a successful year, utilizing about $1.5 million with some of our e-communities working on raising some funds."

Washington, DC – The Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee today unanimously passed legislation, introduced by Senators Mark Pryor (D-AR) and Olympia Snowe (R-ME), intended to spur innovation and economic development through the development of science parks.

The Building a Stronger America Act will help construct or expand science parks, which seek to encourage new startup businesses, generate student interest in science and technology fields, and encourage relationships between universities and industry. Specifically, the legislation allows the Secretary of Commerce to guarantee up to 80 percent of loans exceeding $10 million for the construction of science parks. The bill would also provide grants for the development of feasibility studies as well as plans for the construction of new, or expansion of existing, science parks. Finally, the bill would require the National Academy of Sciences to evaluate the program.

The membership of the National Association of Seed and Venture Funds (NASVF) commends thoughtful application of lessons learned in modeling the Angel Investment Tax Credit legislation. We believe that tax credit for investing in qualified early stage companies is crucial to enhancing the local and regional entrepreneurial business environment. Clearly, Wisconsin Act 255, which provides tax incentive for investors in early stage companies, has helped to create a healthy angel community, which helps sustain that region’s innovative early-stage companies. Every effort should be made to take advantage of lessons learned from this legislation, in order to build effective tax policy that helps sustain local and regional economic improvement on a national basis.

We urge a comprehensive legislative initiative regarding angel investor tax credits, with specific attention to the areas of immediate behavioral reward, venture eligibility, and investment eligibility.

Rich Bendis and Innovation America fully support the NASVF position on this matter.

A team of scientists from an American university say they have reinvented the bicycle wheel.

The Copenhagen Wheel is a hub containing motor and batteries which can be fitted to the rear wheel of almost any bike, providing a boost to the cyclist whenever needed, say developers.

It has been unveiled at the UN Climate Summit by the team from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Commentary from the BBC's Martine Croxall.

Forbes editors and writers take a look ahead at Entrepreneurship & Leadership in 2010. Click on the authors to read what they think will be the big trend, hear their unconventional wisdom, be cautioned against misplaced assumptions, check the watch list and get a bold prediction.

Researchers have sought to speed up the ongoing Copenhagen climate talks by gathering evidence of the catastrophic impacts of accelerating global warming. But climate science has been disputed by sceptics who say such claims are unfounded.

Recent research suggests that the scientific consensus within the UN-backed Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) may have been too optimistic.

A group of researchers, most of whom are authors of previous IPPC reports, said last month that sea levels are set to rise much more quickly than expected.

There are innumerable articles and templates for preparing a business plan for start-ups. But what I found is that most of them are too exhaustive and so a strong de-motivator for an enthusiastic individual who wants to pen down his ideas and present it to his potential investors/advisers.

Immaterial of the scale of the business viz., financial size or employee size, the below business plan is a good starting point. When one has got this right, a large part of planning has been accomplished. Depending on one’s purpose, additional information and more details can always be added.

Leave it to the Greeks to provide an epic mythology for interpreting the essence of biotech innovation.

As John Maraganore of Cambridge, MA-based Alnylam Pharmaceuticals puts it, drug development is a voyage of Odysseus that requires wily and ingenious problem-solving and extraordinary seamanship. Put another way by Kleanthis Xanthopoulos of Carlsbad, CA-based Regulus Therapeutics, the quest of biotech innovation boils down to a succinct question: “How do you build business in an environment that has been challenging and is likely to continue to be challenging in the future?”

If you’re a small business owner who also tweets, Google’s got a new service you may be interested in to help you simplify the process and to give you more data about its results. Who doesn’t love more data? And Twitter!

Let’s start from the beginning.

Google started this week off the same way it started last – by announcing a slew of new products and features. The big story this time around was a brand new Google URL shortener to help SMB owners to share content on the Web. Unlike popular shorteners like TinyURL and Bit.ly, Goo.gl isn’t a standalone service. It sits inside Google Toolbar and Feedburner so business owners can share content they find (via Google Toolbar) or share the content that they create (via Feedburner) directly. If you’re interested in sharing content using the latter approach, well then you’ll also want to meet Socialize.

A lack of skilled labor, a meager pool of local investment capital and disjointed economic-development strategies are hindering growth in Arizona's technology sector, a study released Tuesday says.

But state leaders can build on strong resources already here, including universities, federal research funding and business startups, by fostering collaboration among stakeholders, according to the Milken Institute, a Santa Monica, Calif.-based research think tank.

Its report "Charting a Course for Arizona's Technology-Based Economic Development" compares Arizona's performance on tech indexes with peer states, including Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon and Utah.

Some – but not too much – government involvement is good for venture capital.

That’s a conclusion of a Globalization of Alternative Investments report issued Tuesday sponsored by the World Economic Forum. The research project, led by Harvard Business School Professor Josh Lerner, examined more than 28,800 enterprises based in 126 countries that received venture capital from 2000 through 2008. They represented a wide range of industries, but many were high-technology companies. The researchers divided the enterprises into three groups: those with only private venture capital, those with less than 50% of their venture capital from government-supported venture groups and those with 50% or more of their venture money from government-supported groups.

The main finding is “the striking result that the strongest performance is associated with moderate levels” of government-supported venture capital. These enterprises generally did better than those with extensive government venture capital and those with none. Performance measures were based on whether the enterprise went public or was acquired and the value of the enterprise at that liquidity event. Researchers also scored enterprises with moderate levels of government support highest for innovation based on patents filed.