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The Baltimore area is a hub of intellectual and technological capital, but a new report says the city ranks behind the national curve when it comes to patenting this research.

The Baltimore region ranks 116th out of 358 metro areas across the country when it comes to per capita patent applications, according to a report released Friday by the Brookings Institution. And while the number of patents granted per year nationally has increased by roughly 50 percent, the number of patents granted in the Baltimore area has remained relatively the same since 1980, according to the report.

Silicon Valley venture capital giant New Enterprise Associates, known as NEA, is likely to open a Boston area office within the next six months. That’s according to General Partner David Mott, leader of the venture firm’s health care investing and former CEO of drug maker Medimmune, which was bought by AstraZeneca plc (NYSE: AZN) in 2007.

Mott is based in Washington D.C. but says he spends so much of his time in Boston, that it only makes sense to put out a shingle here.

Portfolio optimization and strategic site selection are crucial for success in the industry’s new reality.

In the new reality for life sciences companies – one where the product development formula of the past no longer applies, where extensive M&A activity is needed to fill pipelines and mitigate risk, and where an increasing amount of attention and opportunity lie in emerging markets – prudent measures and strategic solutions are critical to succeed. Yet with all this change and uncertainty comes an immeasurable amount of opportunity.

A New Jersey foundation that funds research coming out of the state’s medical school has agreed to replenish its investment arm with $5 million to pump into biotechnology startups at the pre-seed stage — one of the most difficult stages for companies to get funding.

The New Jersey Health Foundation’s Foundation Venture Capital Group in New Brunswick, New Jersey invests up to $500,000 in pre-seed stage companies spinning out of the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey. It is poised to close its 10th investment deal from the fund initially set up in 2006.

Jim Gates, physics professor and string theorist at the University of Maryland, is best known outside academia for his ability to explain the super-cerebral world of theoretical physics to scientific dummies.

In one oft-viewed PBS video, Gates endeavors to define string theory in 30 seconds, asking: What’s left after splitting an atom 35 times? “We have no instruments to measure that, and so people like me have been working on a piece of mathematics called string theory and superstring theory to answer that question. We think there are filaments there.”

Two more venture capital firms have been selected to receive money for investing in early-stage businesses through the state’s InvestMaryland program.

New Atlantic Ventures in Reston will receive $8 million and Kinetic Ventures in Chevy Chase will receive $5 million through the program, which is run by the Maryland Venture Fund Authority. The $84 million InvestMaryland program will give two-thirds of its money to venture capital firms to invest in early-stage companies in Maryland and the Venture Fund Authority will invest the rest itself.

Health IT venture capital funding totaled $1.2 billion in 2012, according to a report by communications and consulting firm Mercom Capital Group, Healthcare IT News reports.

The amount is more than 200% higher than 2011’s total of $480 million (Miliard, Healthcare IT News, 1/29).

According to the report, 163 health IT venture capital funding deals occurred in 2012, compared with 49 deals in 2011 and 22 deals in 2010 (Mercom report, January 2013).

Consistently, Maryland stands at or near the top of national rankings for basic research and development. This will come as no surprise to many who do business in the state, whether it’s in government contracting, defense, health care, banking and finance, or in any one of the dozens of other key sectors of the knowledge economy as defined by the Silicon Valley model. But its much lower position in entrepreneurial activity—#33, according to a recent report by the Kauffman Foundation—is prompting the Merrick School of Business at the University of Baltimore to ramp up its efforts to provide first-rate preparation for the state’s future leaders of tech-oriented businesses, whether new or established in the marketplace.

Debuting this fall, the M.S. in Innovation Management and Technology Commercialization program is intended for working students who plan to transition from the laboratory to organizational management. It integrates technological, market and organizational issues into the core of the program. Students with science-and technology-based degrees can enhance their career potential, moving into management through the program’s four themes:

The UMD $75K Startup Challenge is an intensive business model competition for students, staff, faculty, postdocs and recent alumni at the University of Maryland, College Park, and the University of Maryland, Baltimore to leverage their talent and ideas to create tomorrow’s leading companies.

INNOVATE

Take your research or great idea and start a company! Enter the UMD $75K Startup Challenge by February 22, 2013 with just an executive summary and three-minute video pitch.

Interested initial entrants can take advantage of the free, open entrepreneur office hours offered by Mtech for advice in preparing your submission.