BANGOR – When it comes to Maine’s economy, how do you spell relief?

With the letters R and D, in that order, according to two state officials who spoke Thursday to the Action Committee of 50.

Jake Ward, executive director of research and development at the University of Maine, and Janet Yancey-Wrona, director of the Office of Innovation in the Maine Department of Economic and Community Development, addressed the local economic development advocacy group Thursday morning at the Dyke Center for Family Business at Husson College. Both touted the role technological research and development, or R&D, could play in the state economy if it is adequately supported by Maine’s public and private sectors.

Their appearance was part of an effort by the state to promote its Maine Science and Technology Action Plan, which was released last month by the Office of Innovation. Yancey-Wrona spoke Wednesday in Rockland about the plan at a session sponsored by the Rockland-Thomaston Area Chamber of Commerce and Eastern Maine Development Corp. Gov. John Baldacci and DECD Commissioner Jack Cashman have spoken publicly this week about the need for greater R&D funding in Maine.

Ward talked about UM’s investment in R&D activities and how the investments are being translated into private enterprise in the state.

A collaboration between UM’s Advanced Engineering Wood Composites Center and Hodgdon Yachts of Boothbay has led to the creation of Maine Marine Manufacturing, a Portland company that hopes to build high-speed vessels for the Navy, according to Ward.

With a $1 million grant, the UM facility and Hodgdon Yachts are hoping to design a new, more efficient type of hull that will land a defense contract for the start-up company, he said. The same technology could be applied to boats made for private marine transportation firms.

“They need 400 [employees] if they get this job,” Ward said.

Stillwater Scientific Instruments is another example of overlap between more than one of a handful of key technological sectors in Maine being promoted by state officials, Ward said. The Orono company, using patented technology developed at UM’s Laboratory for Surface Science and Technology, makes advanced analytical instruments such as mass spectrometers and devices that measure electron energy.

“They hope to be a $30 million company in the next two or three years,” Ward said.

Seabait Maine LLC, a company developing aquaculture techniques for sea worms at UM’s Center for Cooperative Aquaculture Research in Franklin, and the university’s major role in developing forest products biorefinery technology are other examples of how R&D can benefit the state’s economy, according to Ward.

“Investing in University of Maine R&D really is investing in our kids,” he said.

According to Yancey-Wrona, Maine ranks 10th nationally when the amount of research and development money invested by its nonprofit sector is compared to those in other states. When it comes to R&D money invested by academic institutions, however, Maine ranks 50th, or dead last, nationwide.

She said this is because the University of Maine is the state’s only higher learning institution with a significant R&D budget, whereas other states generally have more than one. On its own, University of Maine ranks competitively against other land-grant academic institutions in the United States, she said.

Maine also is below average when its R&D funding is compared to its gross state product and when the percentage of its R&D spending by private, for-profit companies is compared to those in other states, Yancey-Wrona said.

To improve Maine’s standing, both in New England and nationally, Maine’s Legislature has to show more commitment to public funding of technological R&D efforts, she said.

“It’s having an innovative economy that brings high-paying jobs to the state,” Yancey-Wrona said.

The state’s goal for R&D funding, which would put Maine in line with most other states, is to have a total of $1 billion invested in Maine from multiple sources and sectors by 2010, she said.