Technology Based Economic Development (TBED) is the integration of research, invention, and innovation as a means to build and diversify the economy. This is accomplished through the creation of partnerships involving cooperative research and development among industry, government, and universities. These partnerships play an instrumental role in facilitating technology transfer, while helping to address major challenges and opportunities at the nexus of science, technology, and economic growth.

There are two research centers in the Southern Willamette Valley promoting Technology Based Economic Development through the establishment of public-private partnerships.

Oregon Nanoscience and Microtechnologies Institute (ONAMI)
ONAMI represents an unprecedented and powerful collaboration involving Oregon’s three public research universities, the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (Richland, WA), the state of Oregon, and the world-leading “Silicon Forest” high technology industry cluster of Oregon and southwest Washington.

Riverfront Research Park
The Riverfront Research Park project is a cooperative effort of the University of Oregon and private developers to build a university-related research park on a State-owned site adjacent to the University campus on the south bank of the Willamette River. The purpose of the Research Park is to attract and promote the growth of technology and the economy of Oregon by providing an environment conducive to research and innovation.

Government policymakers have increasingly focused their attention on high technology industry and the new technologies and entrepreneurial activities that generate them. Many believe that this policy focus is justified. A growing body of economic literature argues that the composition of the economy matters and that high technology industries bring special benefits to regional economies. The attributed benefits rest on a set of interlocking observations:

	High technology firms are associated with rapid rates of innovation. Such firms, in turn tend to gain market share, create new product markets, and use resources more productively than traditional industries do.
	Similarly, high technology firms perform larger amounts of Research and Development (R&D) than traditional firms do. In fact, they are distinguished by the high percentage of revenue devoted to research—10 percent of revenues on research, in contrast to 3 percent for more traditional industries.
	High technology firms create positive spillover effects that are often locally concentrated. Spillovers benefit other commercial sectors by generating new products and processes that can lead to productivity gains. A substantial literature in economics underscores the potential for high returns from technological innovation; with private innovators obtaining rates of return in the 20–30 percent range and spillover (or social return) averaging about 50 percent.
	High technology products are a major source of growth in the major industrialized countries. Sectors such as aerospace, microtechnology, biotechnology, and information systems contribute to the growing global market for high technology manufactured goods.
	High technology firms are associated with high value-added manufacturing and with the creation of high-wage employment.

Reports:
Technology Based Economic Development, Status and Needs (33kb PDF)
Technology Based Economic Development and New Venture Information (343kb PDF)
Venture Capital Update (19kmb PDF)
Oregon Core Research Competencies: Phase I of an Oregon Technology Roadmap (49kb PDF)
The Road Ahead for IT Occupations (1.92mb PDF)