Tengion Inc., a Montgomery County biotechnology firm that is developing ways to generate new organs based on a patient's own cells, registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission to raise $42.25 million in an initial public offering.

The East Norriton company, founded in 2003, has spent $88.2 million on research and development but does not yet have any revenues.

With what looks to be the world’s second largest market for initial public offerings and a burgeoning limited partner base, China is going to command an increasing amount of attention from some of the world’s largest venture capital firms.

Both New Enterprise Associates and VantagePoint Venture Partners have plans to expand their presence in China, according to investors with knowledge of the firms’ activities. These plans potentially include raising a locally denominated investment fund.

They join Sequoia Capital, which VentureWire previously reported has structured its next fund to focus more attention on the China market.

Thought Leadership...What is a thought leader, and what does thought leadership mean in today's business world? As much as some people wish it wasn't so, a thought leader is not someone who simply restates someone else's views and positions. Furthermore, beyond uniqueness of thought, a true thought leader's positions also challenge established norms and conventions. Moreover, the true litmus test for a thought leader is when their unique ideas are implemented in the marketplace, they tend to create disruptive innovation, and often change the way we view the world. In today's post I'll examine the subject of thought leadership in an attempt to separate fact from fiction

It is certainly much easier to look back in time at world leaders, Nobel laureates, religious scholars, philosophers, and captains of industry to identify historical thought leaders than it is to identify today's visionaries. This is due to the fact that thought leadership was once a term reserved for a limited few. Regrettably the label of thought leader has evolved to become a self-bestowed title for anyone who has something to say or promote, often without regard for qualitative issues. Some would say that the term thought leader, once synonymous with futurist and innovator, is more closely aligned with snake-oil salesman today. Don't get me wrong, true thought leaders still exist; they are just much harder to spot these days.

MOSCOW, Dec 25 (PRIME-TASS) -- Russian President Dmitry Medvedev outlined a plan on Friday to promote innovation and research and development, ITAR-TASS reported.

"We can't wait until the market puts everything in place only by means of competition and other market tools," he said at a meeting of the government commission for modernization and technological development. "We should create a situation when it will become unprofitable to work in the old way and use inefficient technology and obsolete equipment."

Medvedev said that spending on innovation in Russia was extremely low.

This research aims to propose a symbiosis model for new product development based on the open innovation concept. Particularly, a dynamical model of Lotka-Volterra approach is used to analyse the cooperative R&D relationship between the innovation intermediaries and R&D firms, to share their patent portfolio or resources through open innovation process. The study will develop a symbiosis model to assume the growth rate, growth limitation, and positive interaction effect of both R&D firms and innovation intermediaries, for best discussing the market dynamics in four scenarios. Simple numerical examples will also be adopted to demonstrate the utility of this model.

Nerac is a global research and advisory firm for companies developing innovative products and technologies. Two of their employees, Kristy Lutz Ulmer and Margaret Fiore, recently published a report on how companies scout for innovation.

I just got to read it and I find this to be great stuff that I want to share with you. You should also download the full report here - Innovation Scouting For 2009

The findings in the report fit well into a key thing being discussed in the open innovation community right now; the real effects of open innovation are due to behind-the-scenes activity rather than flashy portals and idea-generation campaigns.

As we near the end of the year, it's time to take stock of 2009 and look ahead to 2010. We'll look back at the past year and what we learned in another post, but for what it's worth (and remember what you're paying to read this, and value accordingly) here are five predictions for the coming year in cleantech investing:

1. In terms of U.S. climate change legislation, something will be passed, but it will be more symbolic than impactful
2. 2010: The year of energy efficiency
3. A pickup in investing activity, including the return of the megadeals
4. New hybrid investment models will emerge
5. Some booms and some busts

[Details are available on original article. -Ed.]

Congress has agreed to invest $50 million in the Social Innovation Fund, a program aimed at helping nonprofits bring successful efforts to scale.

The allocation is the full amount requested by the Obama administration, though the victory was tempered by a compromise. Two other programs that benefit nonprofits — the Volunteer Generation Fund and the Nonprofit Capacity Building Program — will have to be trimmed back, according to the Chronicle of Philanthropy. The allocation is included in the 2010 spending bill, and will now go to the House and Senate for votes.

It may be the time of year or the fact that my recent posts have been turgid and trite, but it’s all gone a bit quiet in comment land. So over the festive period I will keep my occasional posts short and sharp to reduce the feeling that I am the on-line equivalent of the person who sits next to you on the bus and shares just a few too many of their opinions about the Government, the council, the BBC and biscuits.

The news today is full of Peter Mandelson’s announcement that universities will lose another £135 million of central funding on top of the £180 million they already knew they had to find. Three points occur to me:

Drawing on extensive new research through dozens of interviews with entrepreneurial champions in diverse sectors, Creating Regional Wealth in the Global Innovation Economy pinpoints the key reasons why some locations succeed in the quest to become centers of technology and innovation - and sustain their competitive advantages over time - while others fail. It answers the central questions about the world's entrepreneurial hotspots: What makes these locations special? How can local business and government organizations most effectively promote local entrepreneurship? And what can budding centers of entrepreneurship do in order to enter the game?

Don Norman’s provocative statement that technology drives human needs and hence, innovation, is, in turn, driving a fantastic intellectual conversation about the interplay of invention and culture. In his comment on my blog and in his own cool and provocative essay, Don challenges anyone to come up with a piece of design research that led to a game-changing technology. I’d like to take up that challenge, Don.

Here goes: I’m old enough to remember starvation. When I was a kid, I remember the annual or semi-annual starvation that wracked Asia (I bet you also remember your mother telling you to eat all the food on your plate because there were starving children in China, right?)

"Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal,” Jesus commanded his disciples, “but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven . . . For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” Some take this biblical passage and others like it as a direct assault on capitalist aspirations. But that’s a misreading of the text, and of capitalism.

Look carefully at the command. Whom does Jesus have in mind here? Clearly, he’s not referring to just anyone engaged in commerce or investment, or even to someone who happens to be rich. He’s talking about the person hoards his wealth—that is, a miser.

Creative Entrepreneurs Protect their Future One Idea at a Time

Those creative entrepreneurs who are not only willing to go out on a limb and invest in the next big thing, but to actually develop a project from start to finish can sometimes face a unique conundrum. These entrepreneurs want to spread the word about their business like fire through a forest, but know they must keep their new applications, unique innovations, and brilliant ideas from their rivals or potential pirates.

Morgantown, WV (Bluehost/PRWEB ) December 23, 2009 -- Virtual Global, a leading provider of cloud-enabled enterprise solutions and the TeamHost™ online platform for creating SaaS applications, released its "Top ten cloud computing predictions for 2010" as part of its "Cloud Computing Made Easy" eBook available for download at www.cloudipedia.com.

"Cloud computing's time has come," said Cary Landis, CEO of Virtual Global. "In today's economy, smaller businesses see it as an economic necessity. The market demands it."

Many small business owners start a blog as a way to connect with their audience, grow authority and help educate their little corner of the world. But even the best content goes nowhere without an audience. As a small business blogger, building your audience means finding ways to continually bring new subscribers and eyeballs to your blog. But how do you do that?

I’m no stranger to blogging for business and have found there are many low intensity ways for bloggers to increase and encourage people to subscribe to their blog. Below are some suggestions.

Small, economical cars have satisfied a niche of the auto market for decades.

The guys pictured are pushing a BMW Isetta, one of the first ever produced. It premiered in 1955, but only lasted a couple years. After making around 160,000 units, BMW ceased production of the original and started coming out with new and improved versions, which it continued to do until the early 1960s when the Isetta was retired for good.

There is no doubt that these are tough economic times. Unemployment is high and credit is tight. Key indicates show that is the worse economy in a generation. Many technology transfer offices have seen potential business partners reduce their innovation portfolios and expenditures. This coupled with a reduction in funding sources, from grants and investors to university sources are blowing the technology transfer research commercialization efforts into the perfect storm.

There are difficulties and challenges, but these times also create opportunities. Here are seven tips to help your technology transfer office succeed in these tough economic times.

Going into next year, venture capitalists are feeling more optimistic about the chances of exiting their portfolio companies. Much of this optimism comes from the successful, albeit few, public offerings of venture-backed companies this year.

Investment bankers are now giving a clear green light for new offerings and the number of companies to file has increased dramatically from the first half of the year. The number of companies making plans to go public next year has increased even more.

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From the teams of Innovation America and The Delmarva Group, LLC, please have a happy, safe holiday season.

Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak said on Wednesday that the country will be launching a National Innovation Center (MyNIC) in the first quarter of 2010. In his latest blog's posting on Wednesday, Najib said the MyNIC, supported by a network of innovation excellence centers, was tasked to advance the country's scientific and technological capabilities.