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April 14, 2016

U.S. tallies strong tech biz R&D performance; Maine lags

SOURCE: Camoin Assdociates/Maine Development Foundation/ Maine Economic Growth Council "Measures of Growth 2016" report

Two reports released this week show that the U.S. information and communications technology, or ICT, industries accounted for $133 billion of business R&D performance in the country in 2013, while Maine’s total R&D investment hit $535 million in 2011, showing slight improvement from some sources but still falling short of the state’s benchmark goal.

A report released Thursday by the National Science Foundation showed that ICT technologies account for a large share of business R&D expenditures in the country, in fact, some 211.5 times larger than the pharmaceutical manufacturing industry, which is the largest industry in terms of R&D spending, according to the NSF.

The $133 billion placed the U.S. fifth in terms of ICT share of business R&D by most recent year available. ICT manufacturing and ICT services contributed about equally to the share of business R&D.

Taiwan ranked first, followed by South Korea, Finland and Israel. Japan was 9th and China was 13th, according to comparative economies selected by the NSF.

The Maine Development Foundation’s “Measures of Growth 2016” report released Tuesday showed that Maine’s total percentage of gross domestic product spent for R&D in 2011, the most recent year available, was $535 million, which is about 1% of the state’s GDP and about $1 billion short of the 3% benchmark, according to the report. That ranked Maine 21st among U.S. states. However, the report predicted that Maine’s total spending on R&D would reach 3% of the state’s total GDP by 2020.

Maine’s percentage of total R&D funding from the private sector, at 58%, also trailed the 81% nationally and 80% in New England as a whole. Universities and colleges had 27% of R&D spending. However, the 15% from Maine’s nonprofit sector was well above the 5% for all of New England and 2% for the country.

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