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Tuesday, April 20, 2010
The Innovation Index touts Mass. as global R&D leader
By Mass High Tech staff
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This year’s Index of the Massachusetts Innovation Economy was released today, and in it the John Adams Innovation Institute for the first time compares the Bay State not only with other innovating states in the U.S., but with other countries. The result? Massachusetts leads the nation and the globe in patents per capita.
Massachusetts also sits in the top seat among all states and the leading R&D countries for the amount of research and development done as a percent of its gross domestic product, according to the institute, which is part of the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative. As it has for years, Massachusetts also ranks No. 1 in Small Business Innovation Research awards per capita, receiving $227 million in federal SBIR funds for proof-of-concept research and prototype development.
When it comes to fundraising, Massachusetts is holding its own against the rest of the nation. The Index shows that, while the rest of the country saw a 57 percent drop in the dollar amount raised by venture funds, Massachusetts companies saw only a 35 percent drop in the amount of funds distributed to them by VCs.
In this year’s Index, the institute chose California, Connecticut, Illinois, Maryland, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, and Virginia as the other Leading Technology States (LTS) to compare with Massachusetts.
Another positive for the commonwealth, the 2009 Index shows that, after six years of more people leaving the state than coming in, more individuals are now moving into Massachusetts than are leaving. The report does note some ongoing negatives, however. Since the 2001 recession, Massachusetts has trailed most of the LTS in launching new businesses and the new jobs that come with them. And high school seniors in the Bay State continue to express below average interest in engineering, computer and information science, and health and biological science degrees, despite the fact that these are the fastest-growing sectors in the Massachusetts economy.
The Index has been published by the John Adams Innovation Institute each year since 1997 and looks at 11 key industries and 25 economic indicators to reach its conclusions. Copies of the report can be obtained at www.masstech.org.
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