Governor and Maine Technology Institute Announce $25 Million in Maine Technology Asset Fund Awards

Augusta, ME -- Governor John E. Baldacci and Maine Technology Institute (MTI) President Betsy Biemann on June 9, 2009 announced that the MTI Board of Directors has approved a total of $25 million in awards to 16 applicants across Maine. Legislators and representatives from organizations receiving the awards attended the State House event to release the list.

“The Maine Technology Asset Fund illustrates Maine’s strong commitment to stimulating the State’s innovation economy and expanding the infrastructure that supports high-tech research and development,”

Governor Baldacci said. “These projects will leverage another $40 million investment into the Maine innovation economy.”

Awards covered projects that are located from Portland to Presque Isle to Bar Harbor 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 second of two rounds of competitive awards from the Maine Technology Asset Fund. The first set of awards were handed out in August of last year.

“The Maine Technology Asset Fund awards will serve Maine’s economy by funding cutting-edge technology development in some of Maine’s most entrepreneurial companies and research organizations,” said Betsy Biemann. “We were extremely impressed with the breadth and competitiveness of the applicant pool overall, and of this group of award winners.

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 16 applicants for the remaining half of the total MTAF funds.

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 Second Round Of The Maine Technology Asset Fund

-- University of Maine at Presque Isle, Advanced Geospatial Information Mapping Facility in Northern Maine, Presque Isle, $96,800

-- University of Maine, Process Development Center Infrastructure Improvement, Orono, $1,083,197

-- Maine Institute for Human Genetics and Health, Maine Regional Flow Cytometry Collaborative, Brewer, $1,247,875

-- Hodgdon Defense Composites, A World Class Composite Materials Shipyard & Manufacturing Complex, Portland, $3,874,719

-- University of Maine, Maine Innovative Industries Initiative, Orono, $3,690,000

-- University of Maine, Maine Center for Autonomous Marine Survey, Orono, $1,283,822

-- Seldon Technologies, Manufacturing Nanocomposite Material for Structural and Filtration Applications, Windsor, VT (establishing a facility in Old Town), $575,409

-- ORPC Maine, OCGen Turbine Generator Unit Commercialization, Portland, $806,138

-- Gulf of Maine Research Institute, Hydroacoustic Equipment for Herring Surveys in the Gulf of Maine, Portland, $543,750

-- Dielectric Communications, A New Design for Universal Rural Wireless Connectivity to Fixed and Mobile Users, Raymond, $2,200,000

-- University of New England, Animal Facilities to Enhance Translational Neuroscience & Pharmacology Research, $1,533,929

-- Maine Aquaculture Innovation Center, Improvements to Maine’s Aquaculture Business Incubation Infrastructure, Orono, $213,900

-- Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences, Center for Blue Biotechnology, West Boothbay Harbor, $4,453,971

-- Ascendant Energy Company, A Solar Center for Excellence: Advanced Photovoltaic Production Facility, Rockland, $575,408

-- The Jackson Laboratory, Solidifying The Jackson Laboratory’s Position in the Emerging Biomedical Market, Bar Harbor, $2,137,429

-- University of Maine, Strengthening Biotechnology & Supporting the STEM Education Initiative in Maine, $883,160

Total: $25,199,507.