Maine nonprofits are big draw for federal R&D funding
Photo / Greta Rybus, Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences
Graham Shimmield, executive director of Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences, at its East Boothbay campus.
Maine’s colleges and universities fell short in attracting federal funding for science and engineering in fiscal 2014, but the state’s nonprofit institutions made a comparatively strong showing with almost double the amount of money.
Federal funding for Maine colleges fell significantly to $38.5 million in fiscal 2014 compared to $52 million in fiscal 2013. Country-wide, funding was up by 6% to $30.8 billion in fiscal 2014 for the first time in five years.
That's according to the most recent data from the National Science Foundation's National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics.
And while federal R&D funding from all sources for Maine’s nonprofits was down to $72.62 million in fiscal 2014 from $84.98 million in fiscal 2013, there is positive news within those numbers from many of the state’s best-known nonprofit institutions.
The $72.62 million, for example, is just a bit shy of being double the total amount that came in to all colleges and universities in the state, Graham Shimmield, executive director of the Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences in East Boothbay, wrote to Mainebiz in an email.
The laboratory saw its funding from all federal agencies rise to $5.1 million in fiscal 2014 compared to $4.5 million the year before.
Shimmield noted that Bigelow leads in the state for both National Science Foundation ($3.35 million) and NASA ($1.64 million compared to $1.27M for the University of Maine system) funding.
Among other big winners for federal nonprofit funding was The Jackson Laboratory in Bar Harbor, which received $52.18 million in fiscal 2014 compared to $50.91 million in fiscal 2013. Most of the money in both years came from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Maine Medical Center also saw higher funding at $6.79 million in fiscal 2014 compared to $6.23 million the prior year.
The MDI Biological Laboratory in Bar Harbor was down slightly in overall agency funding to $7.44 million in fiscal 2014 compared to $7.51 million the year before, but funding from HHS was up at $7.43 million from $7.39 million the year before.
Shimmield said those numbers underscore the huge role of nonprofit R&D in Maine.
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