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Arizona has outpaced the country in bioscience job growth, but has seen a slowdown in federal research funding for the biosciences, according to a new report released this week.

In the report "Picking Up Speed," an update of Arizona's Bioscience Roadmap by the Battelle technology firm, the state also saw its most successful year in attracting bioscience venture capital since 2002. Arizona's universities also had "substantial gains" in bioscience intellectual property, such as increases in patent applications and invention disclosures.

Yet the report also pointed to funding declines last year from the National Institutes of Health, which it said reflected a U.S. trend. In fact, Arizona had a sharper decrease, dropping about 8 percent in 2006 versus a decrease of about 1 percent for the United States.

"The stars have been aligned in terms of people working together," said Walter H. Plosila, a vice president at Battelle and road map author. He said the NIH funding decreases "may be a detour" and that it might take a few more years' worth of data before it's definitive that the declines are detrimental.

"We're moving along a trajectory and building the biosciences," said Michael Cusanovich, a UA biochemistry and molecular biophysics professor and the director of Arizona Research Laboratories.

But he said "the downturn at the NIH is really rough," particularly for new hires trying to get grants.

Out of 19 strategies Battelle recommended in 2002 that were to be achieved over 10 years, progress has been made on 16, including "substantial" progress on eight, the report said.

Those eight include stimulating research collaboration among universities and other research organizations, as well as securing federal investments.

Southern Arizona has made movement in private investments as recently as this fall.

In October, Tucson-based High Throughput Genomics Inc. announced it will get a total of $10 million in venture-capital funding by next year. The company, also known as HTG, makes special high-capacity sample plates for rapid chemical screening in genetic testing, along with related imaging equipment.