Benchmarking tool for knowledge economy unveiled

The iPad was on the floor playing a movie when Thomas F. Cafaro, vice president of innovations for G-Form in Providence, dropped a bowling ball on it with a loud thud that brought gasps from the audience.
He picked up the iPad and it still played the same movie without skipping a frame because of the special case protecting it.
The case of unusual yellow material is made of what Cafaro called “soft, flexible foam” that turns hard upon impact, a product his innovative startup business developed in the city’s Knowledge District.
Cafaro was one of 21 innovators featured in a “showcase of entrepreneurs” at the Nov. 9 annual community forum, attended by about 200 people, on latest developments in the knowledge-driven economy, championed by the Greater Providence Chamber of Commerce. The forum was held in a lecture hall at Brown University’s state-of-the-art Warren Alpert Medical School on Richmond Street, the heart of the Knowledge District.
Chamber President Laurie White used the forum to introduce a “benchmark tool” to assess the strengths and weaknesses of the district and the state’s emerging knowledge economy.
The tool, “the first step in the data-collection process,” is a listing of 23 “carefully chosen” indicators, White said. Indicators include state funding for science and technology, patents issued, academic, industry and nonprofit research and development performance and venture capital investments.
The state’s knowledge economy, centered in Providence’s Knowledge District, is graded for each indicator showing, for instance, that academic R&D is improving and on the upswing, while industry-based R&D is decreasing and needs to be strengthened.
Other findings show strength in: high-speed Internet access; patents issued; venture capital investments; total R&D performance; notprofit R&D (includes hospital and university work); science and engineering degrees awarded; and education attainment (percent of population with a bachelor’s degree or more).
Areas of weakness include: gross state product, migration of persons 22- to 39-years of age; state appropriations for higher education; entrepreneurial climate; math scores for 8th graders; and scientists and engineers in the work force.
One area where Rhode Island could do better is in small-business innovation. The benchmark tool gives one of its lowest rankings to investments in Small Business Innovation Research and Small Business Technology Transfer, competitive government funding intended to encourage smaller businesses to undertake innovative technology projects. The benchmark tool, put together by Camoin Associates and Innovation Policy Works over a period of six months, includes Rhode Island’s most-recent ranking on national performance indexes for each indictor.
The state’s top ranking, No. 4 in the nation, is for nonprofit R&D (which is mostly hospital-based research). Its lowest, No. 46, reflects state appropriations for higher education.
White said plans call for the benchmark tool to be updated regularly. It cost about $20,000 to create; to be split between R.I. Science & Technology Advisory Council and the Chamber.
Besides the innovators featured at the forum, Danny Warshay, a professor of entrepreneurship at Brown University, offered some other examples of the knowledge economy’s growth.
He presented a list of 11 Knowledge District highlights, including: BetaSpring launched 28 startups in 2009-11; Social Ventures Partners mentored 31 social ventures in 2010-11; the Rhode Island Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (RI-CIE) is incubating 26 companies and supporting 50 others; the Rhode Island Business Plan Competition now can offer awards of up to $250,000; and the annual Startup Weekend held at Providence College this year drew 50 young entrepreneurs.
In a telling tale, Warshay spoke of his own days as a young entrepreneur in 1987 when he had just graduated from Brown University and began a software company, Clearview. Software in those days came in packages about as big as a four-slice toaster, compared to the apps that can be simply downloaded to smartphones today, he noted.
He and his colleagues back then knew they were unique because few entrepreneurs were working in Providence and no support network existed for them, no BetaSpring, no RI-CIE, no Knowledge District. His company survived in part because a sympathetic landlady charged them low rent for an entire floor of a Wickenden Street building. Apple eventually acquired Clearview and moved it to California.
“Times have changed for the better in Rhode Island in a dramatic fashion,” Warshay said. •