It’s no secret that American and British universities dominate the global university rankings, a fact that's prompted the proliferation of regional rankings that delve deeper into the pool of say, just Latin American or just Asian universities. The slicing and dicing of international university rankings has been happening for years, but three new efforts to rank universities in countries that haven’t historically fared well in the international league tables – the Middle East and North Africa region and the so-called BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) countries – have been announced in recent months.

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State government agency expenditures for research and development totaled $1.404 billion in FY 2011, an 11.3% increase over the $1.261 billion reported in FY 2010. Expenditures for R&D facilities (construction projects, major building renovations, and land and building acquisitions intended primarily for R&D use) totaled $109 million in FY 2011, a 1.7% increase over the $107 million reported in FY 2010. This InfoBrief presents summary statistics from the FY 2010 and FY 2011 Survey of State Government Research and Development, sponsored by the National Science Foundation (NSF).

Agbogbloshie, a neighborhood of Accra, Ghana, wasn't a pretty place in 2006, but the rising flood of e-waste had yet to completely drown the dump in the middle of town in toxic pollution. Ghana now imports some 215,000 metric tons of European computers, cell phones, microwaves, refrigerators, televisions and other electronic goods, making Agbogbloshie the second-largest site for processing such e-waste in all of west Africa. It may yet take the title as largest because e-waste imports are expected to double by 2020. And Agbogbloshie has already earned the dubious distinction of landing on the Blacksmith Institute's top 10 list of the world's most polluted sites, after failing to make the cut for the original list in 2006.

Image: Blacksmith Institute

A couple of weeks ago I shared a project by Andrew David Thaler called Drown Your Town that used Google Earth to show what cities around the world would look like under water. You could (and still can!) submit your favorite city and desired sea level rise and see how close to Waterworld you can get. And last week I shared a real life Drown Your Town in Austin, Texas after a massive rainstorm that flooded many parts of the city.

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Innovation is the application of new ideas to solve problems, which are sometimes specific to a region or a context. And as long as India has as many problems as it does now, it will be important.

Any startup that has not embraced the digital revolution will find it increasingly harder to captivate and retain their target audience. In fact, the startups that show the greatest increase in footprint, market share and sales figures are all those that have invested in a carefully conceived online marketing strategy. It is important to emphasise the need for startups to have a suitable and sustained business branding. If you aren’t good at design, employ the services of design specialists who can immerse themselves in your company vision, and help build your brand.

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Thuuz Co-Founder and CEO Warren Packard discusses why some ventures require greater adherence to perfection. Comparing ventures from different industries, Packard encourages entrepreneurs to embrace "the god of partial credit" as a tool, whenever possible.

"The act of commitment is not about thinking about it in your head, it's about literally leaning forward and taking the first step," says JOYUS Founder Sukhinder Singh Cassidy. She describes how the simplest way to start working on a new venture or idea, particularly for young entrepreneurs, is to engage in the basic mechanics of discussing and planning with others.

Gov. Mark Dayton and policymakers supported University of Minnesota initiatives aimed at advancing research and boosting the state’s economy during the 2013 Legislative session.

A merger of the University System of Maryland and the Southern Maryland Higher Education Center is one step closer after leaders signed an agreement this month for a new building at the California campus.

A merger could open up educational and business opportunities for the region, officials said Friday during a signing agreement at the Chesapeake Biological Laboratory in Solomons.

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The web's most divisive debate isn't iPhone vs. Android or even Apple vs. Microsoft. The feud that will fan the Internet flames forever is "GIF" vs. "JIF."

Perhaps it's because the world so rarely interacts face-to-face anymore or discusses issues using our actual voices, but it appears the pronunciation of certain tech terms is still up for debate. Specifically, the five words in the poll below attract a host of vocal interpretations.

If you had invested $1,000 in Amazon when the company went public on May 15, 1997, you would be $229,045 richer by now.

But that's over the course of 16 years. Had you invested that same $1,000 in companies like LinkedIn or Facebook during their IPOs, your earnings would be substantially less to date — $3,972 and $269, respectively — but each of those companies had IPOs less than three years ago.

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With crowdfunding due to come under FCA regulation from next April, should advisers be considering the concept as a way of directly accessing higher risk start-up investments?

The FCA is taking over the regulation of the sector from the Office of Fair Trading and is currently consulting on how crowdfunding should be treated.

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We all know that Hollywood tends to dramatize things. It isn’t any different when it comes to portraying the plight of the entrepreneur. Though many of these characters listed below are based on the stories of real people, what better place to find inspiration than in the movies?

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Despite extensive efforts for years to bridge the gap between industry and academia in order to improve the quality of education and impart practical skills to make engineering students job-ready, it seems little has changed so far.

The latest survey conducted jointly by the All-India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) and the Confederation of Indian Industries reveals that filing patents, intellectual property rights, technology transfer and research consultancy are still rare even in established engineering institutes in India.

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A tax relief aimed at encouraging angel investors to back UK start-ups has resulted in £82m being invested over the past 18 months, according to figures released by the Treasury. The Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme (SEIS) is one of the world’s most generous tax reliefs for early-stage investments, but it got off to a slow start when it was launched last year.

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Universities, once reluctant to venture beyond the status quo of classroom education, have embraced and encouraged entrepreneurship and innovation among its faculty and students, according to a report from the U.S. Department of Commerce.

Two- and four-year colleges are investing heavily in the development of their students’ entrepreneurial skills and encouraging faculty research because they realize it strengthens the regional economy, creates jobs and keeps America competitive, says “The Innovative and Entrepreneurial University: Higher Education, Innovation and Entrepreneurship in Focus.”

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A venture capital firm with offices in Minnetonka and significant Minnesota backing announced Wednesday that it has raised $100 million to invest in young business-to-business software companies.

General partners and co-founders Charles Beeler in Menlo Park, Calif., and Jeff Hinck in Minnetonka, both venture capitalists since 1997, have formed the fund, called Icon Venture Partners. The two invested in and helped sell Twin Cities firms such as Compellent and Enstratius in recent years.

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SiTime Corporation, the fastest growing semiconductor company, today announced that Innovative Venture Fund, which is co-operated by NEC Capital Solutions (8793:Tokyo) and SMBC Venture Capital, led SiTime's round of financing. All major investors participated in this oversubscribed round. Also, a new partner, Hercules Technology Growth Capital, Inc. HTGC -2.08% , provided a commitment for debt financing to SiTime.

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Newly-minted MBA graduates are more frequently turning away from finance jobs as financial crisis aftereffects linger and instead picking careers in the tech sector. In fact, for the first time, more Stanford Graduate School of Business grads this year chose tech jobs over finance jobs, The Wall Street Journal reports. Thirty-two percent of this year's class picked tech while 26 percent headed into finance — those figures were 13 percent and 36 percent, respectively, two years ago.

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