Investing in a Brighter Future: SSTI's Ninth Annual Conference, October 20-21, 2005, Atlanta, Georgia

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The State Science and Technology Institute (SSTI) has held a series of conferences with the goal of strengthening the partnership among higher education and state, regional and local technology-based economic development efforts. This year, the ninth annual conference will be held in Atlanta, Georgia October 20-21, 2005. The conference will involve federal, state, academic and local policy makers and practitioners from across the country that are associated with S&T policy development, implementation and evaluation. Many state leaders are recognizing the important role of strong universities in research, innovation and workforce development as they face the challenges of current state fiscal constraints. As a result of these challenges, more innovative partnerships must be fostered among academic and research institutions, economic development practitioners and private sector businesses. This conference provides an excellent venue to forge stronger government-university-industry partnerships and discuss new strategies for encouraging tech-based economic development and technology commercialization. As part of the conference, breakout sessions and workshops will offer participants methods for examining and fortifying higher education's contributions towards robust local, state, and regional economies. The goals of this portion of the conference are to 1) provide a forum for universities, economic developers and regional stakeholders to discuss shared challenges and issues in and examples of effective tools and techniques for increasing commercialization of university technology, building the research enterprise, encouraging faculty entrepreneurship, and preparing tomorrow's worker and leaders; 2) increase recognition and support for the important roles universities play in building technology-based economies; 3) attract more university leadership and research administrators to participate and foster stronger working relationships with their state, local and regional economic development partners; and 4) promote interstate and intrastate cooperation toward common goals for research and economic development.