Governor and Maine Technology Institute Announce $30 Million in Maine Technology Asset Fund Awards

August 11, 2008 -- AUGUSTA – Maine Governor John E. Baldacci and Maine Technology Institute (MTI) President Betsy Biemann today announced that the MTI Board of Directors has approved a total of $30 million in awards to 14 applicants across Maine. Legislators, Maine Department of Economic and Community Development Commissioner John Richardson, and a number of representatives from the organizations receiving the awards attended the State House event to release the list.

“The projects that are receiving support today will develop and bring new technologies to market, boosting the state’s economy and creating and sustaining good jobs for Maine people,” said Governor Baldacci. “These are smart investments in our State’s technology sectors to transition to a 21st century economy, building on our strengths. Over the years, these investments have generated new good paying jobs across our State and leveraged federal funding for path breaking centers of excellence.”

Awards covered projects that are located from Standish to Orono to Beals in all seven of Maine’s technology sectors and will help to develop technologies that build on traditional Maine industries in aquaculture, forestry, and agriculture, as well as genetics, nanotechnology, global positioning, high-resolution imaging, and ceramics and composites.

In November 2007, voters of the State of Maine approved $50 million in bond funds to finance capital assets to help individual companies and research organizations, as well as collaborative efforts among them, move new technologies along the research and development (R&D) path to the market and benefit the Maine economy. MTI manages the Maine Technology Asset Fund (MTAF) and the award process.

This is the first of two rounds of competitive awards from the Maine Technology Asset Fund. The MTI Board expects to release a Request for Applications this fall for a second round of awards for the balance of the funds.

“With a strong field of 66 applications and requests for $113 million, it was clear from the first that these awards would be highly competitive,” said MTI President Betsy Biemann. To oversee the initial written review of all applications, MTI contracted with the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), a respected scientific organization that has worked with more than 30 states to implement research and technology commercialization programs. The applications ranked highest were interviewed in mid-July by AAAS experts and Maine reviewers experienced in Maine’s technology economy. Explained Biemann, “The reviewers from Maine and those from AAAS, who were from across the country, were uniformly impressed with the quality of the applicant pool.”

The reviewer panel scored and then rank ordered applications according to the following criteria: Economic Growth and Impact, Scientific or Engineering Merit and Feasibility, Team and Institutional Merit and Commitment, Relevance to Maine's Innovation Economy Needs and Collaboration. The MTI Board approved the top-ranked 14 applicants for more than half the total MTAF funds available.

DECD Commissioner John Richardson noted that the applications clearly built on Maine’s strengths and demonstrated the potential of collaboration among Maine technology developers to foster economic development across the state. The Commissioner also commented, “The competitive application process of the fund is extremely important because it encourages collaboration among our universities, nonprofit research laboratories and for-profit innovative businesses. Collaboration is proven to bring new technologies from the lab directly to the market, such as our composite technology and its application today in our boat building industry.”

A new Request for Applications for the second round of Maine Technology Asset Fund awards will be announced in late 2008. Detailed information about the Fund and the general application process are available on the MTI Web site.

MTI was created by the Legislature in 1999 to stimulate and support research and development activity leading to the commercialization of new products and services in the state’s technology-intensive industrial sectors. Programs are designed to enhance the competitive position of those sectors and increase the likelihood that one or more of the sectors will support clusters of industrial activity and create new jobs.

The list of award recipients and their projects follow. For more information on the award recipients and their projects, please visit Maine Technology Institute’s Web site, www.mainetechnology.org.

AWARD RECIPIENTS FOR THE FIRST ROUND OF THE MAINE TECHNOLOGY ASSET FUND

* AEWC Center, University of Maine Advanced Nanocomposites for the Renewable Energy Industry, Orono, $4,999,460
* Bar Harbor Biotechnology, Inc. Development of gene dense, high throughput qPCR arrays, Trenton, $440,000
* Center for Cooperative Aquaculture Research, University of Maine Building capacity & excellence in Maine's marine aquaculture R&D infrastructure, Franklin, $2,619,807
* CrossRate Technology, LLC
Portable non-magnetic compass/positioning/timing device, Standish, $794,445
* Dept. of Physics & Astronomy, University of Maine Ultra-High Resolution Imaging Facility, Orono,
$158,706
* Downeast Institute for Applied Marine Research & Education Investing in Downeast Maine's Marine Resource-Based Economy, Beals, $1,009,450
* FHC, Inc. Development of Micro-fabrication Facility for Neurosurgical Devices, Bowdoin, $438,077
* Forest Bioproducts Research (FBRI) Technology Center, University of Maine, Forest & Ag Bioproducts Research, Development, & Commercialization Facility,
Orono, Old Town, $4,800,000
* Laboratory for Surface Science & Technology (LASST), University of Maine,
Maine Nanofabrication R&D Infrastructure Enhancement,
Orono,
$480,000
* Maine Aquaculture Innovation Center,
Improvements to Maine's Aquaculture Business Incubation Infrastructure,
Franklin, $360,548
* Sappi Fine Paper Technology Center,
Aqueous Based Ceramic Green bodies Using Cellulose,
Westbrook, $2,213,000
* Seldon Technologies, Inc., Manufacturing nanocomposite material for structural and filtration applications, Old Town, $2,905,953
* The Jackson Laboratory,
Expanding The Jackson Laboratory Product Development Pipeline, Bar Harbor, $4,700,000
* University of New England, University of New England College of Pharmacy Drug Research & Development, Portland, $4,000,000