Maine Considers Value, Impact of Public R&D Investments

Over the last 10 years, the State of Maine has invested more than $296 million into R&D – an impressive figure for a state with an average population over the decade of just over 1.3 million people. In approving a mid-decade injection of funds, the state’s legislature skeptically or wisely asked the executive branch to periodically conduct independent assessments of whether or not the investment is worthwhile.

Few states do that – for R&D investments or anything else, for that matter. As a result, the Maine Comprehensive Research and Development Evaluation 2006 may serve as a model for other states to build their own assessments.

In Maine’s case, the analysis is framed to address five questions, answering each in the affirmative but substantiated with dozens of statistics, comparisons with other states, and closing with a handful of recommendations.

* Overall, has Maine’s public investment in R&D stimulated and sustained consistent, competitive growth in Maine’s economy, especially when compared to other states?

* Has Maine’s investment in public and private university R&D led to increased research capacity; the development of an educated, technically skilled workforce; and increased commercialization of university technologies?

* Are Maine’s investments in nonprofit research institutions broadening their impact on Maine’s economy?

* Is Maine fostering the growth of research-intensive companies, increasing private sector R&D activity, and building a technology-based entrepreneurial community?

* To what extent are these investments increasing the competitiveness of Maine in its key strategic technology and industry areas?

Maine’s $296 million of investments were distributed among the state’s academic, nonprofit research, and private industrial research communities in proportions not met by many states. While academia received half of the pool, private nonprofit research institutions received 27.7 percent and the private sector received the 22.5 percent balance.

Part of the Maine report’s value for the larger TBED community is the way success is measured – with controls or comparisons allowing readers to see progress in fundamental or structural ways. For instance, while many states’ programs will report job figures for grantees or their client companies, the evaluation asserts:

“The private sector recipients of the state’s investments are reporting higher job growth (6.8 percent) than the average Maine economy (0.5 percent) and much higher average wages ($38,825), strongly suggesting that they are contributing to this improvement in Maine’s overall economic situation.”

The report also points to areas of concern to guide future TBED policy decisions for Maine:

“There is, however, a serious mismatch between the investment in R&D and the resulting performance. The state has invested roughly 49.87 percent of new R&D in the universities in the past 10 years, bringing the universities up over 160 percent – to 20 percent of the total R&D performed in the state. Conversely, while the state has invested 22.5 percent in industry R&D through private sector-focused programs, industry now performs 53.8 percent of the state’s R&D, down 30 percent. Maine’s nonprofit sector has grown 211 percent from 1995–2003, while nonprofit research in the United States has gone up only 89 percent. The net effect of the state’s investment has been to increase the academic and nonprofit share, while decreasing industry’s share substantially.”

The report’s recommendations are equally specific but broadly valuable and, without the advantage of similar analyses, seem equally or even more applicable for others. The recommendations include:

* Maine needs to continue to invest in R&D and should accelerate its investments.

* R&D investments must include a larger percentage of programs supporting the private sector that will have a significant or meaningful impact on the state’s economy.

* Investments supporting university and nonprofit R&D should have greater emphasis on in-state commercialization.

* Curricula of a state’s universities and community colleges should be enhanced to ensure the workforce needs of the research-intensive industries of a state are met internally.

* University technology transfer efforts and tools must be assessed and updated periodically to reflect market changes.

Maine’s Comprehensive Research and Development Evaluation 2006 is available at: http://www.maineinnovation.com/news/pdfs/RFP_package.pdf

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