Grohman's bill aims to boost MTI's role in creating strong innovation economy

Photo / Courtesy of Maine Center For Entrepreneurial Development Thomas Rainey, executive director of the Maine Center for Entrepreneurial Development, testified in support of broadening the mission of Maine Technology Institute, as spelled out in a bill proposed by state Rep. Martin Grohman, D-Biddeford.

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By James McCarthy

The scope of Maine Technology Institute's mission in supporting innovation and entrepreneurship in Maine would be broadened under a bill proposed by state Rep. Martin Grohman, D-Biddeford.

LD 1324, “An Act To Support Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Maine's Economic Future,” earned an “ought to pass as amended” recommendation from the Legislature's Labor, Commerce, Research and Economic Development Committee on April 25 following a public hearing hosted by the committee earlier in the month.

Grohman told Mainebiz that the bill would allow MTI to establish additional programs and collaborate with other organizations to foster small business creation, provide training and mentorship opportunities and protect intellectual property.

“I think they do a great job,” he said. “I went to MTI early in the process and told them I wanted them to have more leeway in their statute, which hasn't been updated since they were created in 1999. That's a big driver for this bill: It gives MTI greater latitude to fully develop and support Maine's entrepreneurial landscape.”

Expanding MTI's scope

In brief, Grohman's bill would authorize MTI to do the following:

Administer a technology center.

Establish a program to promote and encourage business incubators and accelerators through grants and other forms of financial assistance, including programs that train or educate entrepreneurs.

Establish a program in cooperation with the University of Maine System to “provide summer internship opportunities for college students in the entrepreneurial support system.”

Establish a program in collaboration with the Maine Innovation Economy Advisory Board to support the technology transfer activities of the University of Maine System and other organizations; to increase their level of patenting; and to promote the licensing of patents, “especially to new and existing companies” in Maine.

Establish a program in collaboration with the University of Maine School of Law “to support the commercialization and manufacturing of innovations” in Maine by providing technical assistance to Maine companies, innovators and entrepreneurs.

Additional benefits

Grohman said his bill also supports MTI as the logical entity to take over administration of three incubator programs within the Applied Technology Development Center that are slated to be zeroed out in Gov. Paul LePage's $6.8 billion two-year state budget proposal:

Maine Center for Entrepreneurial Development's 15-week Top Gun training program, which has assisted more than 140 small businesses since 2006

Maine Aquaculture Innovation Center, which sponsors and facilitates innovative research and development projects involving food, pharmaceuticals and other products from sustainable aquatic systems

Target Technology Center at the University of Maine in Orono, home of the UpStart incubator that provides coaching services and support to entrepreneurs in order to build competitive, market-oriented companies.

The three programs stand to lose $178,838 in 2018–19 funding within the Department of Economic and Community Development. Historically, the funding had been shared equally by the three parties.

“I think those are programs that it makes sense for MTI to run,” Grohman said.

MTI President Brian Whitney agrees, noting that his board had already authorized at its April meeting spending $179,000 in continued support for the programs.

“MTI's statutory mandate is pretty broad and flexible,” Whitney told Mainebiz, providing, as he noted in his written testimony supporting Grohman's bill, “ample bandwidth to create programs as the board deems necessary to 'encourage, promote, stimulate and support'” R&D in Maine and the commercialization of new technologies and products.

Stakeholders testify in support

Grohman’s bill received strong support at the LCRED committee’s April 19 public hearing from stakeholders in the state’s R&D and entrepreneurial development sector. Several explicitly mentioned Gov. LePage’s proposed elimination of funding for the three incubator programs within the Applied Technology Development Center, stating that if those cuts prevailed Grohman’s bill would help keep them alive under MTI’s expanded role.

“There are strategic investments needed in our state to fill funding holes in our R&D strategy, namely entrepreneurship support, internships, and technology transfer,” said Catherine S. Renault, principal and owner of Innovation Policyworks, a Brunswick firm that works with economic development officials around the country on innovation policy and strategies. “MTI is the logical organization to undertake these tasks, but their current statute is too vague to include these activities, while some of their funding remains on the sidelines, uninvested.”

Renault previously served as director of innovation and science advisor to former Gov. John Baldacci and has just stepped down from the board of the Maine Center for Entrepreneurial Development after serving two years as its chairwoman.

She said Grohman’s bill also addressed the strategic economic development goal of supporting technology transfer of new ideas developed in Maine’s universities and research labs by protecting those ideas — typically through patents — and then licensing them to private entities who can take them to market.

“Maine lags in the total number of patents compared to other states,” she said. “The big difference is that our research institutions, with the exception of Orono, do almost no patenting. And our corporations do little as well, meaning they are not protecting their innovations. We believe that MTI should develop programs to attack this big gap in our knowledge economy.”

Thomas G. Rainey, executive director of the Maine Center for Entrepreneurial Development, told committee members that expanding MTI’s mandate was crucial in light of the proposed cut in funding for the three incubator programs within the Applied Technology Development Center.

“The proposed bill will provide MTI with a more explicit mandate to support initiatives like MCED and others that foster new businesses, retain graduates, and attract new talent and outside venture capital to the state,” he said. “Combined, these activities lead to a more fertile ecosystem for other new businesses that create the jobs necessary to expand our economy.

This story, first published in the May 15 print edition of Mainebiz, has been updated to include comments from the April 19 public hearing hosted by the Legislature's Labor, Commerce, Research and Economic Development Committee.