June 21, 2004
The innovation imperative | Janet Yancey-Wrona becomes the state's first director of innovation
By Michaela Cavallaro
Investment in research and development, says Janet Yancey-Wrona, is critical to Maine's future. She's not alone in that assessment; both the King and Baldacci administrations have emphasized R&D investment as a way to bulk up Maine's economy. In fact, the state's R&D spending jumped from just over $2 million in 1991 to approximately $60 million in fiscal 2004.
But now, for the first time, the state will have its own R&D advocate in Yancey-Wrona, who late last month was named Maine's director of innovation, a new position created by the state Department of Economic and Community Development. "I'm a scientist at heart, so I always go back to the data," Yancey-Wrona says when asked to explain the rationale for investing in R&D. "If you look at economies where that has happened, incomes are higher. It's only through these types of efforts that income [in Maine] will rise ˆ and we need to raise income to alleviate some of our tax issues. It's all tied together."
Yancey-Wrona, 40, comes to the new position from the Maine Technology Institute, which she has directed since its founding in 1999. The organization has made targeted seed grants to private companies and research labs since 2000. Though Yancey-Wrona says it's far too soon to see the long-term impact of those grants ˆ most are multi-year awards, so even companies that were funded in MTI's first round may not have brought their products to market yet ˆ she says the early results are encouraging. (MTI's second independent evaluation, which is mandated by the legislation that formed it, is due to the Legislature next Jan. 1.)
Yancey-Wrona came to MTI from Idexx Laboratories in Westbrook, where she worked as a research scientist. Earlier, she spent five years at the National Institutes of Health working on DNA recombination. Her new position as director of innovation gives her a chance to get more involved with what she calls the "basic research" she did early in her career. "I'm very interested in how you go from basic research and turn that into useable [products] ˆ and that's where you get big, important things like jobs," she says.
For the moment, Yancey-Wrona also remains director of MTI, a position she'll hold until a new director is appointed by Gov. John Baldacci, which she anticipates will take a few months. Then, as director of innovation, she'll oversee her successor at MTI, as well as the state's incubators and the Experimental Programs to Stimulate Competitive Research, a program that encourages investment of federal R&D dollars in states that have been identified as underperforming. "The role of the state is that if 10 proposals were submitted [for EPSCoR funding], to pare them down to the top two or three that fit with the state's economic development strategy," Yancey-Wrona says, echoing DECD Commissioner Jack Cashman, who emphasized the need for that kind of strategic thinking when he announced Yancey-Wrona's appointment.
In the last decade or so, Yancey-Wrona explains, Maine's R&D efforts largely were funded by state bond issues targeting biomedical and marine research, as well as investment in MTI and the university system. "But there's never been someone to coordinate it all and help [DECD] and the Legislature and the public understand how it all fits together," she says. "We evaluated all these investments, starting a year or two ago, so there are lots of people looking at the data, but no one to view the data [comprehensively] and then make recommendations" ˆ a task that will be at the heart of her new job.
Despite the state's tight budget ˆ and, perhaps, because of it ˆ Yancey-Wrona says it's critical that Maine make long-term investments in R&D. "Our ultimate aim is to create companies that are sustainable with jobs that are sustainable," she says. "Innovation is the only way to [do that], whether you're a mussel farmer or working on biotech drug development. It's the only way we're going to survive."
But now, for the first time, the state will have its own R&D advocate in Yancey-Wrona, who late last month was named Maine's director of innovation, a new position created by the state Department of Economic and Community Development. "I'm a scientist at heart, so I always go back to the data," Yancey-Wrona says when asked to explain the rationale for investing in R&D. "If you look at economies where that has happened, incomes are higher. It's only through these types of efforts that income [in Maine] will rise ˆ and we need to raise income to alleviate some of our tax issues. It's all tied together."
Yancey-Wrona, 40, comes to the new position from the Maine Technology Institute, which she has directed since its founding in 1999. The organization has made targeted seed grants to private companies and research labs since 2000. Though Yancey-Wrona says it's far too soon to see the long-term impact of those grants ˆ most are multi-year awards, so even companies that were funded in MTI's first round may not have brought their products to market yet ˆ she says the early results are encouraging. (MTI's second independent evaluation, which is mandated by the legislation that formed it, is due to the Legislature next Jan. 1.)
Yancey-Wrona came to MTI from Idexx Laboratories in Westbrook, where she worked as a research scientist. Earlier, she spent five years at the National Institutes of Health working on DNA recombination. Her new position as director of innovation gives her a chance to get more involved with what she calls the "basic research" she did early in her career. "I'm very interested in how you go from basic research and turn that into useable [products] ˆ and that's where you get big, important things like jobs," she says.
For the moment, Yancey-Wrona also remains director of MTI, a position she'll hold until a new director is appointed by Gov. John Baldacci, which she anticipates will take a few months. Then, as director of innovation, she'll oversee her successor at MTI, as well as the state's incubators and the Experimental Programs to Stimulate Competitive Research, a program that encourages investment of federal R&D dollars in states that have been identified as underperforming. "The role of the state is that if 10 proposals were submitted [for EPSCoR funding], to pare them down to the top two or three that fit with the state's economic development strategy," Yancey-Wrona says, echoing DECD Commissioner Jack Cashman, who emphasized the need for that kind of strategic thinking when he announced Yancey-Wrona's appointment.
In the last decade or so, Yancey-Wrona explains, Maine's R&D efforts largely were funded by state bond issues targeting biomedical and marine research, as well as investment in MTI and the university system. "But there's never been someone to coordinate it all and help [DECD] and the Legislature and the public understand how it all fits together," she says. "We evaluated all these investments, starting a year or two ago, so there are lots of people looking at the data, but no one to view the data [comprehensively] and then make recommendations" ˆ a task that will be at the heart of her new job.
Despite the state's tight budget ˆ and, perhaps, because of it ˆ Yancey-Wrona says it's critical that Maine make long-term investments in R&D. "Our ultimate aim is to create companies that are sustainable with jobs that are sustainable," she says. "Innovation is the only way to [do that], whether you're a mussel farmer or working on biotech drug development. It's the only way we're going to survive."
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