There are opportunities for SBIR funding of environmental technologies in the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) SBIR Phase I Solicitation closing on September 4, 2008. There are at least three possible areas of collaboration between USDA’s SBIR topics and EPA’s technology needs. EPA technology needs are described in the last Phase I Solicitation that is still posted on the EPA SBIR Website. The linkages between the EPA technology needs and USDA topics are summarized below:  

     EPA TECHNOLOGY NEEDS (TOPICS)                    Corresponding USDA TOPICS

     Water and Water Monitoring                                     USDA Topic 8.4 

     Biofuels and Biobased Products                                USDA Topic 8.8

     Animal Waste Management                                      USDA Topic 8.11

Today’s innovation is not your father’s—or your grandfather’s---innovation. The way that new products, services, and technologies emerge has changed, and innovation policies need to change in response to this transformed innovation ecosystem. A new study sponsored by the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation analyzes forty years of data from R&D Magazine, which has annually ranked its top 100 innovations since 1976. This historical perspective yields some interesting insights. One major finding is that the role of Federal investments in supporting innovations has grown rapidly. Also, collaboration is more important. In the 1970s, a large portion (80%) of innovations came from large corporations acting alone. Today, a similar portion of innovations—roughly 2/3--results from inter-organizational partnerships and collaborations. American firms and government agencies are quite effective in building partnerships, and this collaborative mindset is something of a competitive advantage for the US. The author contends Federal innovation policies need to respond to these trends with more funding and better collaboration across government agencies. Both of these moves will ensure that Federal support for R&D has greater impact as well as greater efficiency.

A prototype robot that can help monitor climate change will be tested on the Juneau Icefield the week of June 7-13. The “snowmote” is a small two-foot long robot like a snowmobile. It is autonomous (not remote-controlled) and outfitted with sensors, gauges and cameras.

Georgia Tech associate professor Ayanna Howard, who developed the prototype, is scheduled to arrive in Juneau on June 7.  “In order to say with certainty how climate change affects the world’s ice, scientists need accurate data points to validate their climate models,” said Howard.  “Our goal was to create rovers that could gather more accurate data to help scientists create better climate models. It’s definitely science-driven robotics.”

The Juneau visit marks the first time the robot will be put to the test in Alaska.  Howard envisions SnoMotes roving Antarctica collecting important data. Simulations so far have proved effective.

Howard is being hosted by UAS Environmental Science professor Matt Heavner.  “The NASA funded SEAMONSTER project at UAS is serving as a sensor web test bed, and we have been able to collaborate with two different research groups through the NASA funding:  Dr. Ayanna Howard's Snowmote Robot project from Georgia Tech and Dr. Dipa Sura's sensor web control software project from Lockheed Marting/VanderbiltUniversity.  Several UAS faculty and students are interacting with both of these groups,” said Heavner. SEAMONSTER stands for Southeast Alaska Monitoring Network for Science Telecommunications Education and Research.

The BEAR is awake. The Alaska Space Grant Program's Balloon Experiment And Research Program, or BEAR, has launched its first balloon from Poker Flat Research Range. The launch marked the culmination of more than five months of work by researchers with Space Grant and the Arctic Amateur Radio Club, which formed the program in December.

The program's aim was to launch a high altitude balloon equipped with two amateur radio signals and more from Poker Flat Research Range in the spring of 2008. The balloon launched last month flew as high as 95,327 feet above Fairbanks in three hours, capturing more than 100 photos and video during its flight.

The balloon had three payloads in tow, all built and designed by Dan Wietchy of the Fairbanks-based Arctic Amateur Radio Club. The packages performed well, allowing BEAR participants to track and document the balloon's flight and its subsequent recovery. The balloon was found less than seven miles from where it was launched at Poker Flat Research Range.

The Alaska Space Grant Program intends to expand BEAR into a larger program that will allow University of Alaska Fairbanks students the opportunity to fly payloads of their own design and to conduct atmospheric research in the spring and fall. Faculty members from the Geophysical Institute already are interested in designing graduate-level courses that will take advantage of this new arena to bolster hands-on student research.

Improving fisheries management models, increasing the size of farm-raised oysters, and learning how to raise red and blue king crab in large-scale hatcheries are among the $1.5 million in new projects, activities, and administration of the Alaska Sea Grant College Program over the next two years, the program announced today.

 Alaska Sea Grant is a statewide marine research, education, communication, and extension service based at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, School of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences. The program is funded by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in partnership with the State of Alaska and private industry.  During 2008-2010, researchers will:  

* Examine whether interbreeding between hatchery and wild salmon diminishes the genetic fitness of wild salmon. This study is aimed at further understanding the consequences of interbreeding on Alaska's wild salmon.

* Study ways to improve single-species fishery management models and understand the uncertainties associated with them. Such efforts will improve the scientific advice given to the North Pacific Fishery Management Council and Alaska Department of Fish and Game.

* Study the early stages of red king crab through laboratory studies on growth and field studies on the importance of specific habitats.

Here's a new spin on spin-outs. Rather than launching a company around an invention or IP portfolio, the Southwest Foundation for Biomedical Research (SFBR) has launched a company by converting its entire organic chemistry department into a for-profit drug development firm. The new company, Evestra Inc., will focus on women's health issues, and is composed of all the department's assets, personnel and scientific expertise, says SFBR President John Kerr. Initially, SFBR will be the majority shareholder of the new company, which will be based in San Antonio. However, Evestra is also working on raising its first round of financing primarily from San Antonio-area investors. The management team for Evestra will include the leadership of the organic chemistry department. "The spin-off of Evestra advances our mission to improve human health through innovative biomedical research, and it could ultimately be of tremendous financial importance to SFBR, its largest stockholder, as the value of its holdings increases," Kerr says. Go to: http://sanantonio.bizjournals.com/sanantonio/stories/2008/05/12/daily4.html?jst=b_ln_hl

The NBC news crew, led by weekend anchor Lester Holt, arrived to a fresh layer of snow when they landed in Anchorage last week. Holt, who spent a few years of his childhood in Anchorage, taped an interview with UAA's Vice Provost for Research, Douglas Causey, on global warming and the melting of glaciers in Alaska.Recorded at the face of Spencer Glacier, this segment will air on the "Today Show", 5-7 a.m., NBC (KTUU Channel 2) and NBC Nightly News, 5:30 p.m., NBC (KTUU Channel 2) on April 26 and April 27. Holt also traveled to Fairbanks to do a piece on the Chena Hot Springs.

Many of America’s leading innovative companies utilize the popular research and development tax credit, but unfortunately, the process for using the credits has become much too complicated and cumbersome. A new legislative plan from Congressman Jerry McNerney (D-CA) seeks to remedy this situation. His bill, the Innovation Tax Credit Act (H.R. 5681) would address these challenges by making the R&D tax credit permanent. At present, the credit is temporary and requires regular renewal by Congress. This process has the effect of increasing uncertainty about the credit’s future existence. Computing the credit is also quite complicated. HR 5681 would simplify the process by consolidating the current batch of five related credits into one simplified tax credit that will ultimately provide a credit for up to twenty percent of the cost of qualified R&D expenditures. Learn more about HR 5681, the Innovation Tax Credit Act of 2008.

Make way for the real nanopod and make room in the Guinness World Records. A team of researchers with the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and the University of California at Berkeley have created the first fully functional radio from a single carbon nanotube, which makes it by several orders of magnitude the smallest radio ever made.

 A single carbon nanotube molecule serves simultaneously as all essential components of a radio — antenna, tunable band-pass filter, amplifier, and demodulator,” said physicist Alex Zettl, who led the invention of the nanotube radio. “Using carrier waves in the commercially relevant 40-400 MHz range and both frequency and amplitude modulation (FM and AM), we were able to demonstrate successful music and voice reception.”

When we’re asked to think of innovative industries, most people conjure up high-tech sectors like information technology or biotech. But, innovation also occurs in more prosaic industries like construction or retail banking. A new study from Great Britain’s National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts (NESTA) examines the role of “hidden innovation” in six so-called “low innovation” industry sectors. The research makes a bold and important claim: “the innovation that matters most differs between sectors.” In other words, innovation in the legal services field looks a lot different from innovation in the oil production industry. Innovation in these services sectors depends very little on R&D spending. Instead, innovation is often more about absorbing ideas instead of creating new ones.