The U.S. Small Business Administration has named Steve Rosa, founder, president and chief executive officer of (add)ventures, in Providence, as the 2008 Rhode Island Minority Small Business Person of the Year.

He is among seven minority small-business owners, advocates and SBA lenders who will receive awards during the annual Minority Enterprise Development Week awards dinner Oct. 15 at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Warwick.

The MED Week celebration, Oct. 14 to 17, is cosponsored by the SBA and the Rhode Island Hispanic American Chamber of Commerce. The event celebrates the achievements of small minority businesses and recognizes their contributions to the nation's economy.

Rosa was nominated by Charles Newton, director of the Rhode Island Minority Business Enterprise Compliance Office. Rosa founded (add)ventures, a full-service advertising and public relations firm, in 1989 and expanded it into a multidisciplinary communications consultancy.

In addition to the awards dinner, the weeklong celebration includes free professional development workshops, a networking reception and a "matchmaker fair," where small-business owners meet individually with federal, state, and local government agency representatives and purchasing agents from major corporations to discuss business opportunities. All events will be held at the Crowne Plaza Hotel

For more information about the Rhode Island Minority Enterprise Development Week activities, visit the SBA Web site at www.sba.gov/ ri, or call (401) 528-4561.

The Rhode Island Science and Technology Advisory Council will invest another $1.4 million for research that promotes collaboration by the state's academic and commercial institutions. "Rhode Island is committed to making strategic investments into its R&D platform and significant improvements to our innovation infrastructure," says council co-chair Jeff Seemann, dean of the College of the Environment and Life Sciences at the University of Rhode Island. The investment program, started in 2006, supports research that represents discoveries likely to deliver value to Rhode Island's citizens, has strong technology development and/or commercialization potential and is well-positioned to attract follow-up financing from federal agencies, corporations and/or foundations.

Brown professors to lead discussion

Brown University professors Peter Howitt, Ross Levine and David Weil will lead an economic roundtable discussion of the current economic situation, including the prospects for the $700-billion bailout plan in Washington.