Maryland Releases 2nd Innovation and Technology Index

With the completion of the 2001 edition of the Maryland Innovation and Technology Index, the Maryland Technology Development Corporation (TEDCO) is able to show state policymakers and tech community leaders graphically and statistically the state’s progress since the first Index was prepared two years ago. 

Innovation indices or S&T report cards, as some states and communities refer to them, help identify areas of strength, weakness or underperformance. The first assessment undertaken, for Maryland in 1999, provides a benchmark for measuring future growth or progress. Subsequent indices can help tech-based economic development practitioners refine their efforts. 



Comparing Maryland on 66 items to five other states – Massachusetts, New Jersey, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Virginia – TEDCO concludes from the 2001 Index that “the report paints a picture of opportunities missed. Maryland is at best holding its own among competitor states, or worse, losing ground.” 



While demonstrating Maryland’s overall improvement across most indicators, the Index helps identify those specific areas in which strategic public and private investment of time, energy, and financial resources can help the state’s business community be more competitive in a tech-based economy. 



The indicators selected for inclusion in the Maryland index are distributed among three categories: 

• Performance – measures of economic impact of the successful market introduction of innovations; 
• Dynamics – measures of processes that contribute critical intellectual and financial resources for successful commercialization of new technologies; and 
• Resources – measures of the infrastructure to support and facilitate innovation, including human, intellectual, financial, and physical capital. 

Areas singled out for improvement include achieving excellence in science and math education, commercializing university and federal laboratory technologies, strengthening tech-based start-ups’ success, and encouraging industrial research and development. 



Copies of the 2001 Maryland Innovation and Technology Index are available from TEDCO under publications at http://www.marylandtedco.org