News Archive

State and local governments invested $3.8 billion in R&D at institutions of higher education in FY 2015, with the top ten states accounting for $2.3 billion – roughly 59.4 percent of overall spending, according to an SSTI analysis of NSF data. From FY 2011 to FY 2015, total spending remained relatively unchanged (0.1 percent decrease). Over that same period, colleges and universities in 25 states reported increased expenditures from state governments, while 25 and the District of Columbia reported declines. This edition of Useful Stats examines how institutions of higher education report changing state and local investments in R&D.

In this historic city by the sea in northeast Brazil, burn patients look as if they’ve emerged from the waves. They are covered in fish skin — specifically strips of sterilized tilapia.

Doctors here are testing the skin of the popular fish as a bandage for second- and third-degree burns. The innovation arose from an unmet need. Animal skin has long been used in the treatment of burns in developed countries. But Brazil lacks the human skin, pig skin, and artificial alternatives that are widely available in the US.

There was a remarkable moment during Donald Trump’s historic address to Congress last night. The president, attacking what he called a “slow and burdensome” regulatory process at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), highlighted a heart-rending story about Megan Crowley, a young woman suffering from a rare medical disorder who was among the speech’s attendees. (Notably, the address was delivered on the night of Rare Disease Day.)

Tuesday, March 7 at 12:00 PM – 1:00 PM

Join Rich to discuss the challenges and successes of Maryland’s biotech startup industry. Rich is an entrepreneur, corporate executive, venture capitalist, investment banker, innovation and technology based economic development leader, international speaker and consultant in the technology and healthcare industries. He currently serves as the founding President and CEO of BioHealth Innovation, a central Maryland public private partnership focused on elevating the BioHealth Capital Region (BHCR) by mobilizing key regional stakeholders around a shared growth agenda and providing strategic services to its entrepreneurial community.

The Federal Laboratory Consortium for Technology Transfer (FLC) is now accepting submissions for its 2017 edition of the Federal Laboratories & State and Local Governments: Partners for Technology Transfer Success publication.  

The State & Local Governments (S&LG) publication showcases the significant regional value that comes when state and local government entities and federal laboratories form strategic partnerships. Help us raise awareness about the impact federal labs can have on their surrounding areas by submitting your laboratory’s S&LG success stories for publication!  

The FLC S&LG Committee encourages multiple success story submissions per region or agency. For examples of previously published success stories, view the 2015 S&LG publication.

Celebrate Your Organization’s Excellence in 2017!

Each year, UEDA members compete for our prestigious Awards of Excellence, which recognize outstanding, leading-edge higher education projects and initiatives promoting economic development and engagement. Never content to rest on our laurels, however, last year saw a significant revamping of the Awards program to reflect UEDA’s ongoing research on economic development and engagement in higher education. We hope you will join us!

Of all five scenarios proposed by Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker for the way forward after Brexit, the real scenario is Number 3: “Those who want more do more,” which is another way of saying that the EU will be multi-speed, EURACTIV.com was told.

The Commission published today its White Paper (1 March) on the future of the EU-post-Brexit.

The NHS has been a godsend to the British people since its introduction in 1948 – with the free healthcare it has provided ensuring hundreds of millions of people have been able to live longer and healthier lives.

Such is the impact of the scheme, a tribute was paid to it during the opening ceremony for the 2012 London Olympic Games – an honour reserved for only the most impactful and important moments in a host nation’s history through the ages.

A prototype online platform that uses real-time visualization and viral genome data to track the spread of global pathogens such as Zika and Ebola is the grand prize winner of the Open Science Prize (link is external). The international team competition is an initiative by the National Institutes of Health, in collaboration with the Wellcome Trust and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI). The winning team, Real-time Evolutionary Tracking for Pathogen Surveillance and Epidemiological Investigation (link is external), created its nextstrain.org (link is external) prototype to pool data from researchers across the globe, perform rapid phylogenetic analysis, and post the results on the platform’s website. The winning team will receive $230,000 to fully develop their prototype with NIH awarding $115,000 to the U.S. members of the winning team, and the Wellcome Trust and HHMI also contributing $115,000 to the winning team.

Imagine you are a local technology startup looking to manufacture a tiny air quality sensor that can be incorporated into an iPhone to dramatically improve public health. This is a potential billion-dollar market, but you need access to specialized and expensive semiconductor testing and evaluation labs to scale up the technology.

Large semiconductor manufacturers aren’t located in Maryland, so where do you go? California’s Silicon Valley?  New York and its semiconductor cluster in Albany?