To stay in Maine, stay the course on R&D

Better than Powerball, better than racino, better than cashing in a tech stock in 1999, investing in Maine’s growing research and development industries has had enormous rewards. Those industries yield great jobs, promote spin-offs and draw $7 in outside money for every buck we put in.

Then there’s the chance to cure cancer, also nice. So why isn’t the Legislature shouting to at least double the $57 million Gov. Baldacci proposes for the next R&D bond question? Why do some legislators doubt whether the state should spend even that much?

Consider MDI Biological Lab, which employed nine people and had a budget of less than $750,000 when it celebrated its centennial in 1998. Back then, it also had a baker’s dozen of disintegrating buildings for the 50 or 60 marine scientists who worked there in the summers. The rest of the year, the lab was essentially closed to all but administrative employees and ? for their work is never done ? grant writers.

Then the lab got lucky because Maine people were generous and knew a good investment when they saw it. As part of a state R&D appropriation in 2001, the lab received $600,000. In a time of multi-institution federal mega-grants, that is barely peanuts, but the effect of the money was profound. With it, the lab won a $5 million federal research grant, which led to a supplemental $8 million the next year and an extended grant of $17.8 million from the federal government after that.

The lab now has a budget of $7.4 million, moved from seasonal to year-round work, has renovated 12 of its 13 decrepit buildings, and quadrupled its year-round work force ? at an average annual wage of $58,000. It has done this while extending its scientific reach from environmental toxicology to functional genomics and marine stem cells. That relatively small grant from the state four years ago changed the course of the lab, and it changed the lives of scores of researchers, lab assistants and students who benefit from working there. The state money, says Jerilyn Bowers, the director of public affairs there, “was the trampoline that gave us the bounce.”

MDI Biological Lab is only a small part ? small even in its neighborhood; Jackson Lab is not far up the road ? of the dramatic change in Maine in a short time and of the dramatic change that could come if Maine people stay generous and its Legislature stays smart. You could see that potential at MaineTech 2005 this week in Augusta.

A few years ago, a trade show like MaineTech could attract perhaps 20 businesses ? Maine didn’t have more tech startups than that. But with a few years of consistent funding from the state, often directly to the University of Maine System or through Maine Technology Institute, the show now has well over a hundred displays.

Some were what you would expect ? UMaine chemistry professor Carl Tripp was there explaining his work for the Department of Defense on a chemical-identification unit. The founders of Ascendant Energy of Owl’s Head had two solar-panel models, a portable one that would run a camp generator and a 10-foot trough made up of seven facets that focused light for electricity and heat to warm water. Another UMaine chemistry professor, Brian Frederick, patiently showed me how his high-resolution electron energy loss spectrometer was more efficient than the standard model.

I’m fairly certain I’d fail a quiz on the subject, but I understood entirely what Dr. Frederick said about his university spin-off, Stillwater Scientific Instruments: “We have contracts. We have products. We’re a real company.”

Other real tech companies may not be what you expect. Erik Grimnes of Brunswick founded HarborTechnologies with his brother and father a couple of years ago. They make reinforced fiberglass docks and pilings they say last decades instead of years. Peter Cowin of Seabait in Franklin grows high-nutrient worms quickly under controlled conditions mostly for aquaculture feed. Verrill Dana, Pierce Atwood and Eaton Peabody were there too ? what’s a new company without legal advice?

Just last week Stephen King blessed the 2005 UMaine graduating class with a top nine list in which numbers 6 through 9 were, “Stay in Maine.” I hope those graduates leave for a while, see the world, grasp the diversity of its ideas and better appreciate what they have in Maine. But when they return, what will be here for them ? a memory or a career? A way to get by or a chance to get ahead? The difference will be in the investment Maine makes now.

The Maine Biomedical Coalition, five institutions including MDI Biological Lab and Jackson Lab ? this is where the cancer research comes in ? have received $42 million from the state so far and leveraged $275 million with it. Jobs at these institutions last year averaged $961 a week. Those aren’t just the top jobs but the average for all work. The University of Maine System has a similar story, adding hundreds of jobs in the last year based on the money its researchers have attracted from outside Maine. In a bottom-line sense, the proposed $57 million in bond money for these institutions would bring another $400 million to Maine ? that’s jobs, construction, associated development, opportunity.

Some lawmakers reluctant to support the proposed bond worry about the cost of the state’s debt load. I don’t blame them. But as its traditional industries fade, how will Maine pay any of its bills if it has failed to invest adequately in new ones?

Those companies at MaineTech and the many hundred more this state will need to remain vibrant are in some of the most competitive fields in the world. Somewhere soon, bright, energetic researchers will create the next models in genomics and pilings, worms, solar panels and mass spectrometers. If you want graduates to stay in Maine, the only choice is to make sure those things are created here.

Todd Benoit is the editorial page editor of the Bangor Daily News.