ACTiVATE®, the flagship program of the Path Forward Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, garnered national recognition from the State Science and Technology Institute (SSTI) as the 2011 winner of the Excellence in Tech-based Economic Development (TBED) for commercializing research and increasing the number of technology-based startups founded by women.

“ACTiVATE® is a compelling program achieving impressive results from a modest investment,” said Dan Berglund, SSTI president and CEO. “ACTiVATE® provides a replicable model for commercializing research by enabling underrepresented but motivated groups to become engaged in the creation of tech-based startups.”

We have entered what might be called the era of "frontier economics." As older, easier sources of economic growth are drying up, the prospects for continued dynamism and prosperity hinge more than ever before on pioneering entrepreneurial start-ups to explore and extend the technological barrier.

This puts national economies under a constant pressure to knock down artificial barriers to competition. In other words, in their search for economic growth, countries need to make their economies more entrepreneurial.

NPR ran a story today about how drug companies are not the only ones making money inventing new medicines for the market. A man in Massachusetts has brought three drugs to market almost on his own.

His process is the same as the big drug makers, but he farms out each aspect of the process to independent labs and specialists. When the drug starts to succeed in trials, he sells it to one of the big companies.

When I was in Berlin recently, I spotted a T-shirt in a shop window. The slogan on it read: “I don’t do Facebook or Twitter I have a life”. Please, that’s so 2009.

The truth is that we live online and in so-called real life, at the same time, and this is the way it is going to be from now on. We have a digital self that we project out into the world via social media, and that self is rooted in another that goes to school, plays sport, watches TV — that person who does the things that people have done for generations.

Willing to risk your knowledge, skills and monetary reward in competition? If you are under age 50, you’ve probably not reached your competitive peak. If you are older, that peak is behind you. That people are willing to engage in risk at 50 surprised University of Oregon economists and psychologists who explored such behavior in their research.

Ever since former Harvard University President Lawrence Summers lit up the news in 2005 with his comment that innate differences between men and women may explain the lower numbers of women in the upper echelons of science, researchers have been exploring the impact of gender differences and risk-taking across the lifespan, said Ulrich Mayr, professor of psychology.

By definition, most entrepreneurs are thought leaders. They have the ability to recognize a market need, the skills to design and implement a solution, and the drive to start a business from that solution. It all comes from within themselves. A business leader does the same thing and more through the people around them. Most entrepreneurs are not both.

In reality, a successful startup can be built by a thought leader, but growing a successful business requires a business leader. That’s why venture capital investors often replace startup CEOs as a condition of their scale-up investment. That’s why so many startups plateau after gaining some initial traction, and are run over or acquired by their competition.

Everyone has a different set of fears. Little kids may be afraid of the dark, some people may fear the unknown, and entrepreneurs have their own list of fears, too. Forbes considers a few fears that some entrepreneurs may face.

Losing my drive: Leila Janah founded Samasource, a non-profit that gets women, youth and refugees in the developing world technology-based jobs such as data-entry and call centers. It provides a livelihood to thousands, both in a paycheck and, more importantly, skills. She does it through “jugaad.” Jugaad, Leila tells me is a Hindi word that roughly means “doing more with less.” “As more people join Samasource and we secure new funding and better office space, I fear that we’ll lose our jugaad spirit and get complacent,” she says.

Most people now have computers and phones that can talk to them. From straightforward, voice-activated commands to the strangely poetic responses of the iPhone 4S's Siri, computers and humans are getting closer. But what if your computer had a face? What would she–he–it look like?

Researchers at Munich Technical University in Germany might have an answer. They've developed Mask-bot—a robot with a three-dimensional human face. The face is projected onto the mask from behind, and the researchers have developed a computer program that can replicate facial expressions based on what's going on around it.

As a small business owner you should always be in learning mode, even when those lessons come from an unpleasant source…like the recent recession. Keep your focus positive. Some of the most important lessons you will learn as an entrepreneur come out of tough times and can allow you and your business to come out more profitable and productive than ever.

Finance & Startup

How the recession helped this small business. Mimi Bullock has had a rough time keeping her business and her personal life afloat as a result of the downturn, but in the end she believes the experience has made her a better businessperson and wiser financially in her personal life. Yahoo! Finance

When’s the last time you applied for a grant? For many small businesses, cash flow is a bigger problem than ever.  During a recession, it’s very difficult to get credit from banks, and getting paid within 30 days is no longer guaranteed–but you still have to pay expenses and salaries.

One way you can reduce this financial pressure is to apply for government grants. For most of us, the idea of applying for a grant is seems like a headache. The process, paperwork and politics don’t appeal to everyone.  But getting a grant may not be as hard as you think.

According to recent U.S. Census Bureau statistics, almost 98 percent of the nation's businesses are small businesses, defined as having fewer than 100 employees. But of the 938 metropolitan and micropolitan areas it surveyed in 2009 -- the most recent year for which statistics are available -- only 11 areas boast more than 100,000 small businesses.

The Business Journals recently compiled a database of these Census numbers of small businesses and microbusinesses (those with fewer than 10 employees) per city, and ranked the top U.S. metropolitan areas in order of number of small businesses, with additional data on the number of microbusinesses and percentages of each.

Excluding their current state, if Americans had to say where they would most like to live, the top three mentions are states typically associated with sunshine and the beach: Hawaii (1), California (2) and Florida (3). These states have consistently been in the top 3 the last 8 times this question has been asked. However, this year marks the first time since 2001 that California has not been the top mention.

These are some of the results of The Harris Poll of 2,463 adults surveyed online between October 10 and 17, 2011 by Harris Interactive.

Rounding out the top 5 this year is Texas (4) and Colorado (5). Texas saw a nice jump this year, up to 4 from 8 last year, while Colorado dropped from 4 last year, to 5 this year.

The federal government has budgeted $50 million for a new funding program meant to support development and commercialization of new products and processes in the agriculture sector.

Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz and Quebec MP Jacques Gourde on Thursday launched the Agricultural Innovation Program (AIP) at separate events in Regina and St-Hyacinthe, Que., respectively.

Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grants are critical for supporting small biotech companies with promising science to continue critical research and development of treatments and cures for debilitating and life threatening diseases such as HIV/AIDS, cancer, Multiple Sclerosis and Parkinson’s.

BIO strongly supports passage of the SBIR/STTR Reauthorization Act of 2011 (S. 493) and the Creating Jobs Through Small Business Innovation Act of 2011 (H.R. 1425) as the SBIR program is critical for supporting small companies with promising scientific innovation to continue critical R&D of medical advancements and breakthroughs.

"Nano House," a new book by Phyllis Richardson, compiles outstanding examples of small-scale living. Studio-apartment dwellers may feel reasonably content living a small-scale existence. But if transplanted in the country, how many would opt for a similarly sized house?

Driven by a commitment to reduce energy consumption and built space, there’s a growing trend among the eco-conscious to build tiny homes. A new book, Nano House by Phyllis Richardson (Thames & Hudson), gathers 40 of the best-designed examples from around the world--all of which showcase an appreciation for the efficient use of space, materials, and resources.

We are not all equally happy. Happiness varies not only from one person to the next but also from one country to another. (For more discussion of happiness around the world, see The Many Faces of Happiness.) Psychologists measure happiness in several ways. One approach involves the extent to which you experience positive versus negative emotions. Another assesses life satisfaction, or how pleased you are with your life as a whole. Take the quiz below to find out how happy you are and how your happiness compares to the average for people in your country.

Editorial by Brian Darmody

Brian Darmody is an NASVF Board member and Associate Vice President for Research and Economic Development at the University of Maryland. He is a principal investigator for the University of Maryland’s EURECA partnership, funded by the U.S. Russia Foundation and other groups. He is the principal author of the Power of Place and Power of Innovation, two national policy papers written on behalf of the Association of University Research Parks (AURP).

The views he expresses here are his own, and do not reflect the views of any organization.

Do you know this person? His name is Sergey Brin. In the late 1970s, his family emigrated from Russia to the United State, his father becoming a math professor at the University of Maryland and his mother a researcher at nearby NASA-Goddard. He completed his computer science and math undergraduate degree at the University of Maryland, moved to Stanford for his PhD, worked on some university research projects, but became so distracted launching a start-up company, he never finished his doctorate. (But he did get his Master’s degree.)

That start up’s name? Google.

Had Sergey Brin stayed in Russia for his studies, could he have launched Google? Not likely, for two reasons.

The story emanating from the Zynga is a wake-up call for startups.

Reports allege the company threatened to reclaim stock options originally granted to employees who, in the eyes of the company, were not performing to levels on par with their equity holdings. I don’t know what’s true and what’s not about the Zynga news. Therefore, I’m not going to comment on the particulars of those specific allegations in this post. That said, however, something is clearly going on and spreading around the developer community, and if the Hacker News community is any indicator, this earthquake could have powerful, plate-shifting aftershocks.

The National Venture Capital Association (NVCA), the National Association of Seed and Venture Funds (NASVF) and the University-Industry Demonstration Partnership (UIDP) representing the venture capitalists (VCs), angel investors and Global 1000 private funders of research commercialization

About this Series: On September 16, 2011, President Obama announced new steps that will help America's universities and research labs convert ideas into new products, expand the economy and create 21st century jobs. In coordination with the Administration, 135 university presidents committed to working more closely with industry, investors, and agencies to bolster entrepreneurship, encourage university-industry collaboration, and advance the nation’s social and economic interests. The commitments are aimed at helping achieve the President’s goal of strengthening commercialization of the nearly $148 billion in annual federally-funded research and development.

Startups, however, have found that, as with the rest of the global economy, belts have become tighter. Venture capitalists and angel investors are no longer as willing as they once were to provide that much-needed funding.

Despite talks of a “tech bubble” in the wider industry, the problems faced by start-ups in finding funding have been so prevalent that even The New York Times has reported on it.