Without more private R&D spending, Spain, Italy and others in the south may continue to lag as national governments and the EU are slashing money earmarked for research and innovation. Critics of government cuts say these risks are creating a vicious circle, discouraging business.   

Amanda Bolanos knows she will not be coming home. "Exiled in Cambodia" read the banner the molecular biologist carried at a protest in Madrid against government cutbacks.

Back on leave from Phnom Penh, the 30-year-old researcher plans to head for Latin America if her present contract in Cambodia is not renewed. She sees little chance of finding work in Spain.

Nine companies received a combined $975,000 in funding in November and December of 2012, and three promising commercialization projects at nearby universities received a combined $125,000 in funding from Innovation Works, the Ben Franklin Technology Partners office in Southwestern Pennsylvania.   

The investments are as follows:   RessQ Technologies Inc. (StatEasy), Pittsburgh (East Liberty): $100,000

StatEasy is the next generation sports media company based on a software platform that helps teams integrate their stats and video and generate media products.

I’m sick of it.  The term “Lifestyle Business”.

From Wikipedia: A lifestyle business is a business that is set up and run by its founders primarily with the aim of sustaining a particular level of income and no more; or to provide a foundation from which to enjoy a particular lifestyle.

Right, I get it, most people who live on the beach and teach surf lessons have a “lifestyle business”.  They have an awesome, simple life, and don’t desire any more income than they need to sustain their lifestyle.

Then came Tim Ferriss.  The Four Hour Work Week introduced the concept of “lifestyle design”, and said that we should build a business that gives us what we want out of life.  Tim said that everyone should take the time to consider why they do what they do, and find out a way to support those dreams.

British healthcare firm GlaxoSmithKline has filed for US regulatory approval of its new type 2 diabetes drug albiglutide, which belongs to the same group of injectable GLP-1 receptor agonists as Byetta, Bydureon and Victoza .

GSK announced on Monday that it had submitted the once-weekly medication to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for approval and confirmed that it also plans to seek European Union regulatory approval for the new product in 2013.

Albiglutide is one of a number of new drugs developed by GSK that it hopes will boost its product portfolio, but it is yet to be approved as a treatment for type 2 diabetes or any other indication anywhere in the world.

Another day, another class of digital health startups. That’s how it feels sometimes, with so many accelerators working with dozens of new companies each year. While there are plenty of “me-too” startups entering crowded markets, accelerators are still managing to find some fresh and interesting gems.

Blueprint Health’s winter program kicks off this week with the addition of Verizon, Humana and Aetna as partners, as TechCrunch reports. It’s also brought on mentors from powerhouses like the Cleveland Clinic, Optum, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and Weight Watchers.

Partisanship may be a problem on Capitol Hill but there was a surprising amount of common ground between a Republican and a Democrat in a debate, Tuesday, at the CIO Network conference in San Diego. Professor Lee Ohanian, a senior fellow at the conservative Hoover Institution, discussed technology policy and innovation with Robert Reich, former U.S. Secretary of Labor during the Clinton Administration.

The pair said the government should support basic research, avoid politicizing innovation policy, modernize the patent system and reform immigration by expanding the number of visas for foreign workers who specialize in technology. The discussion was moderated by David Wessel, economics editor at The Wall Street Journal.

Most business leaders don't understand what makes innovation so different from everything else they do at work -- and they haven't adjusted their behavior to accommodate these differences. By Jeff DeGraff (TheMIX) -- Chances are, innovation doesn't work where you work -- or only works some of the time, mostly in spite of your organization's system and processes. Why? Because you don't understand what makes the innovation game so different from everything else you do at work -- and you haven't adjusted your playbook to accommodate these differences. The good news is you're not alone. Too many of the best leaders still get a lot wrong when it comes to innovation. Getting on the path to mastery requires a deep understanding of what we don't understand. Here are five truths about innovation that most of us get wrong -- and how to get it right:

Harvard Business School might have topped MIT Sloan in the Best Business School rankings mid-November, but the entrepreneurially-minded students have spoken. And if you want to start something, their advice is not to cross the bridge from Cambridge over to Allston, but perhaps stay in the city or make the trek out to Babson instead.

Bloomberg Businessweek ranked the top MBA programs for entrepreneurship and Harvard Business School has been left from the list. Filling the void are MIT Sloan and Babson, snagging the second and third spots, respectively.

When someone introduces me to an “idea person,” I automatically jump to the down-side conclusion that this person doesn’t do follow-up. Of course there are people who are great at getting things done, but haven’t had an original idea in their life. Great entrepreneurs, like Bill Gates, are great at both.

I was with IBM in the early PC days when Bill worked with us to provide PC DOS and other software. He was relentless in his focus on getting a project done, and he always assigned himself the toughest tasks. At the same time, he was always pushing the limits of our business relationship with new ideas.

The GE Global Innovation Barometer, now in its third year, explores how business leaders around the world view innovation and how those perceptions are influencing business strategies in an increasingly complex and globalized environment. The Barometer is an international opinion survey of senior business executives  actively engaged in the management of their firm’s innovation strategy. It is the largest global survey of business executives dedicated to innovation.

GE expanded the global study in 2013, surveying more than 3,000 executives in 25 countries.  This year’s Barometer examines what factors business believe to be drivers and deterrents of innovation and analyzes specific strategies and policies that enable innovation and drive growth.

Be sure to read Joe Bartlett's new post on VC Experts, QUIET 506 - A Study in Irony.

Joe's provocative take is that it almost doesn't matter whether the SEC moves on 506(c). (Translation for those who haven't memorized the shorthand references: it almost doesn't matter whether the SEC finalizes rules, as required under the JOBS Act, to permit startups to advertise for angel investors.)

I may be exaggerating Joe's view, but only slightly:

"The fact . . . is that the ban (on general solicitation and general advertising) has been, as a practical matter, history for a number of years by virtue of the Two-Step process. Quiet 506(b) is in fact a very noisy Rule 506 in the real world and platforms such as AngelList, Circle Up, and others are already taking advantage of the internet to raise capital for emerging growth companies … and have been for some time. The advent of the Title II Regs, in that sense, is anti-climactic. We are already there, courtesy of the internet, and the trick now is to adjust to the new reality in the legal sense of the word."

As the economy continues to drag along, one might think that starting a business right now is not the best of ideas. However, the opposite is true! One scenario that exists which makes now a great time to start a new business is the fact that there is less competition because many people are simply focused on surviving, not thriving. There is also a head start on gains once the economy turns around as well as lower office space prices and wages.

The following infographic by ProfitBricks provides some very interesting data on why it’s start-up time in America.

News reports in the past two weeks have noted that 2012 was the warmest year ever recorded in the U.S. Today we learn that 3,527 monthly weather records were broken in 2012, according to the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC). The tally exceeds the 3,251 records set in 2011, the previous high. NRDC has just released an interactive map equipped with a slider that can be moved from January to December to reveal where record temperatures, rainfall, snowfall, floods, droughts and wildfires were occurring on any given day.

Tables on the map’s Web site also list specific dates, locations and weather records. Kim Knowlton, senior scientist at NRDC, noted in a prepared statement that the rising incidence of extreme weather “has awoken communities across the country to the need for preparedness and protection.”

Your widgets are selling slow and steady. But the kids are demanding widgets with Wi-Fi. Should you bet the farm on a new product line or concentrate on incremental improvements in widget production?

Our brains have two basic problem-solving strategies. Exploitation means taking advantage of what you already know, concentrating deeply on a current task to optimize performance and efficiency. Exploration means taking a step back from the task at hand to allow your mind to roam flexibly among alternatives. Leadership in the age of flux calls for "ambidextrous" minds that can switch back and forth between the two strategies when called for. A new study from MIT suggests that one component of this ambidextrousness involves tapping your creative and logical sides at the same time.

Innovation is not for the faint of heart, nor for those who lack the capacity for joy.  Leading an innovation culture means living inside of chaos, while maintaining a focus on cardinal points; operating within demanding goals and financial requirements while remaining open to diverse and contradictory points of view; sometimes “losing your way to find your way.”  Above all else, though, authentic leadership is about experiencing and celebrating the joy of innovation.  And if you are looking for a good role model — someone who best exemplifies all the traits of innovation leadership — you need look no further than Neil Young.

I recently gave a talk at the Technical University of Denmark. Many of the attendees were university people and at one point we got into a discussion on the role of universities and their tech transfer units in the context of open innovation and innovation ecosystems.

As usual, I was quite frank and I said that universities are at risk of becoming less relevant in the future of innovation. Let me explain why I think so.

In the circles of open innovation, there is quite some focus on becoming the preferred partner of choice within a given ecosystem. Big companies fight each other to gain this position, but universities need to play this game as well as any ecosystem will have their mix of big companies, small companies, startups – and universities.

As people age, their brain tends to shrink and their memory gets worse. But what if this deterioration weren't inevitable? New research suggests not only that some elderly individuals retain sharp memory skills but also that their brain remains unscathed. Although scientists do not yet know what is responsible for this special resiliency—or how to help people acquire it—a brain region involved in attention may offer an important clue.

Researchers at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine identified 12 individuals older than 80 years—whom they called “Super Agers”—who performed as well on memory tests as a group of 14 volunteers between the ages of 50 and 65. The scientists performed structural MRI scans on both groups as well as a third group of normal subjects over the age of 80. Although the researchers expected the Super Agers' brains to show some evidence of age-related decline, their average brain thickness matched that of the younger group, and both groups' brains were significantly thicker than those of normal octogenarians.

The prodigious juggling skills necessary for parenthood translate well to entrepreneurship. Here's some advice on how to hang in there from the founders of Esoteric Food Company, maker of Zuké pickles.

Working women know the dilemma well: How can you start a family without torpedoing your career? America’s stingy parental-leave policies, platinum-expensive daycare, and a business culture that pays lip service to work-life balance but not much more, are enough to make any frustrated parent ask: Could you blaze a more accommodating career path on your own?

Venture capital for 2012 hit $28.3 billion invested across 3267 deals. Funding was down 7.5% and failed to reach the $30 billion mark seen in 2011 ($30.6B) while deal volume climbed 7% from 2011 on the back of continued strong activity at the Seed VC stage (from 3051 to 3267 deals). Q4 2012 saw VC funding dip for the 2nd consecutive quarter as it fell back significantly from the heady $8.1B seen two quarters ago in Q2 2012 and the $7.5B seen in Q3 2012.  On the deal activity front, Q4 maintained the record-setting pace seen in Q3 ending at 834 financings (compared to 835 in Q3).

Venture capital database CB Insights is releasing a new report today on the state of the VC industry and investments in 2012. For the year, $28.3 billion was invested by venture capital firms in 3,267 deals. However, it’s interesting to note that while seed VC funding hit highs during the year, overall investment fell from 2011’s $30+ billion level. And VC funding actually dipped for the second consecutive quarter in Q4 2012.

After Q3 2012’s deal activity levels (these were the highest since the dot-com days), Q4 stayed strong on a number of deals, which dipped slightly from 835 financings to 834 in the quarter. Funding in Q4 fell for the second straight quarter coming in at $6.8 billion. Funding slipped 7.5 percent from 2011 but still remained up 36 percent versus 2009.