SSTI Digest

George Dycio was hired as an economic development specialist for the Lewiston-Auburn Economic Growth Council.

Nicole Witherbee has joined the Maine Center of Economic Policy as a federal budget analyst and communications coordinator.

A $295 million three-part bond referendum package passed by the Maine State Legislature last week includes a number of components central to the state’s TBED strategy, including funds to support continued development of the state’s research enterprise, expanded broadband access and increased rural/economic development financing.   The largest TBED item provides $50 million for the Maine Technology Fund to support research, development, and commercialization efforts of Maine-based public and private entities. The funds are limited to the state’s targeted fields of biotechnology, marine technology, composite materials, environmental technology, forestry and agriculture, information technology, and precision manufacturing.   Additionally, the package includes $48.5 million for improvements at the University of Maine and the state community college system and $2 million for revitalizing downtowns and expanding access to digital resources through the New Century Community Program.   Several revolving loan funds also will be replenished with a combined pool of $6.5 million, including the Maine…

Over the last 10 years, the State of Maine has invested more than $296 million into R&D – an impressive figure for a state with an average population over the decade of just over 1.3 million people. In approving a mid-decade injection of funds, the state’s legislature skeptically or wisely asked the executive branch to periodically conduct independent assessments of whether or not the investment is worthwhile. Few states do that – for R&D investments or anything else, for that matter. As a result, the Maine Comprehensive Research and Development Evaluation 2006 may serve as a model for other states to build their own assessments. In Maine’s case, the analysis is framed to address five questions, answering each in the affirmative but substantiated with dozens of statistics, comparisons with other states, and closing with a handful of recommendations. Overall, has Maine’s public investment in R&D stimulated and sustained consistent, competitive growth in Maine’s economy, especially when compared to other states? Has Maine’s investment in public and private university R&D led to…

Catherine Renault is the new director for the Maine Office of Innovation within the state’s Department of Economic and Community Development.

A new study of the Maine Technology Institute (MTI) reveals MTI's award programs have been effective in contributing to the success of its awardees and in increasing high-tech employment in the state. The MTI evaluation, conducted by the Center for Business and Economic Research (CBER) at the University of Southern Maine, also found that the success rate of MTI's funded projects improved over the five-year history of the organization. Although the available indicators suggest that MTI is a profitable investment for the state, the CBER report recommends that MTI pursue new methods of tracking its role in high-tech economic development.   MTI is a state-supported nonprofit that serves as Maine’s primary vehicle to provide financial support for private sector R&D. Since its first year of activity in 2001, MTI has funded 791 technology development projects throughout the state and committed $32 million through its award programs. These programs include seed grants for early stage companies, development awards for later-stage projects, Accelerated Commercial Fund awards for previous recipients, Phase 0 SBIR awards, and a Cluster Enhancement program…

Gov. John Baldacci has sworn in John Richardson as the new commissioner of the Maine Department of Economic and Community Development.

Peggy Schaffer left Maine's Office of Innovation to become chief of staff of the Maine Senate Majority Office.

$190 million? $200 million? $250 million? Each of these figures has been advanced in Maine to support three different approaches toward tech-based economic development. The bottom line for the 2007 legislative session is Maine’s elected leaders - from the governor and the state assembly - believe a sizable injection of public funding is required to accelerate research and technology commercialization in the Pine Tree State.   On Monday, Gov. John Baldacci established a new council to develop an action plan to invest in R&D and the state’s most promising industrial clusters. The new group, dubbed the council on Jobs, Innovation, and the Economy, will immediately begin work designing a strategy to implement the recommendations of a recent Brookings Institution report on the needs of the Maine economy. That report provides a comprehensive set of investments in state communities and research intended to generate sustainable prosperity in tourism and high-tech business. The governor has commissioned the council, whose membership is composed of “active, younger members of the business community,” to collaborate with state officials and prepare…

The Maine Department of Economic and Community Development is seeking a qualified, energetic, collaborative person to serve as director of its Office of Innovation. The Office of Innovation seeks to advance Maine's economic well-being and to expand employment opportunities by encouraging and coordinating the state's R&D activities and fostering collaboration among its higher educational and nonprofit research institutions and the business community. A four-year degree; experience in science, engineering, technology and/or business; and experience in the management of organizations that innovate, commercialize and deploy technology are among this position's minimum requirements. More information on this opportunity is available through the SSTI Job Corner at http://www.ssti.org/posting.htm.

Dr. Janet Yancey-Wrona left her post as director of the Maine Department of Economic and Community Development's Office of Innovation to join a new University of New England biotech start-up.

It caught the attention of quite a few people when it was first proposed in early 2001, but Maine's investment in 2002 to provide every seventh and eighth grader with a new laptop - approximately 32,000 students and 4,000 teachers - continues to provide a useful example of the size and type of commitment and risk that elected leaders have to be willing to make to transform the outlook for a state or regional economy. It took strong leadership and determination from then-Gov. Angus King to make it happen then, but the move very quickly was recognized as a good investment for the state's future (see 2004 evaluation report). This June, Maine renewed its commitment to the Maine Learning Technology Initiative, promising Apple iBook computers to the state's entire seventh and eighth grade population, both teachers and students at the state's 241 public schools, for the next four years. The $41 million price tag works out to roughly $289 per notebook computer and includes wireless networking capabilities. Still considered one of the largest one-to-one educational technology programs in the world, Maine's laptop initiative has…