R&D Progress

Maine, having started only a few years ago to make serious investments in research and development, struggles to move new products to commercialization, as a conference in Portland last week called Bio-Innovation II emphasized. The challenge isn’t only with biotechnology but in many of its high-tech projects around the state.

This made the announcement by Rep. Michael Michaud last week – that he likely secured $4 million in funding for the development and manufacture of composites – especially important. A lot of the work for this material has been done, and if the final testing in Bath supports production, the commercialization and the jobs would begin in Millinocket.

The $4 million is not yet delivered to Maine, but is in the 2005 Defense Appropriations bill in Congress. Half of it would go to composite projects at the University of Maine through a U.S. Army Center of Excellence. That money would be used to develop light, durable materials for bridges, housing, piers and storage facilities that can be broken down and moved easily, in keeping with a more mobile armed forces envisioned by the Pentagon, according to Rep. Michaud.

The other $2 million would go to the Bath site, where Maine Monolite LLC, a subsidiary of Monolite Composites of Woodland, Wash., would produce a lightweight resin-fiber composite material called monolite, which is said to withstand bullets and temperatures of up to 2,850 degrees. The material would be used in engines and protection panels for military vehicles.

If all goes well with testing and military sales, Maine Monolite will employ a couple hundred people two years after entering the Millinocket area, investing $6 million in R&D and building infrastructure in that region. That’s an encouraging change compared with the news from there over the past several years of downsizing.

Even so, there are, as has been noted in Millinocket, a bunch of “if’s” attached to this project. These are to be expected with any new project but they are not of themselves a reason for hesitation. New ventures come with risk; doing nothing comes with the certainty of failure.

The Army will determine whether Monolite is a good investment of federal dollars. Meanwhile, Maine should remain alert to these kinds of projects, which hold the potential of returning some of the many lost manufacturing jobs to the state and further expanding Maine’s capacity for innovation. Rep. Michaud has shown that he is able to persuade Washington to help the state recover from its economic losses. This latest step along the way is encouraging.