FAIRFIELD – Husson College officials are expected today to announce a partnership with the town of Fairfield that could boost efforts to create a research park along Interstate 95.

The Bangor college has offered the expertise of faculty and graduate students to start-up companies looking to move to the park when it opens in mid-2001. The college, which has offered the service at no charge, plans to keep an office in the complex.

Husson and Fairfield officials are scheduled to sign a memorandum of agreement on the partnership at 1 p.m. today in the Fairfield Community Center.

“It’s a wonderful thing,” Paul Tessier, president of the Fairfield Economic Development Corp., which is developing the park, said Sunday evening.

“The biggest problems these small companies face is they may have the science, but most of them do not have the business savvy,” he said.

Husson College officials could not be reached Sunday for comment on the agreement.

The Thomas M. Teague Biotechnology Park, named for the former state legislator who provided the land, is planned for 20 acres beside Kennebec Valley Technical College.

Construction of utilities and an access road began last summer. Town officials now are working with a developer who intends to begin building a laboratory and office complex next spring.

The nonprofit economic development corporation so far has raised about $1.9 million of the roughly $3.5 million that will be needed to create and outfit the complex, which calls for at least 10,000 square feet of space.

Supporters view the park as an incubator, providing laboratory space and technical support to new and growing companies in what has become one of the fastest-growing parts of Maine’s economy.

The supporters hope to attract an initial six companies, then gradually expand over the next decade. They say they have received a commitment from one, a Winslow start-up that is developing natural preservatives for produce. They are also in talks with at least three others.

Companies being targeted are researching a variety of products and services, from new treatments for disease to food preservatives made from plant proteins.

Supporters had hoped to have the park ready this year, but construction has been delayed at least until spring.

“We’ve got some tenants lined up,” said Clyde Dyar, the town’s economic development director. “Will they wait until spring? We don’t know.”

Still, Fairfield officials believe the agreement with Husson will create incentives.

Faculty and graduate students plan to act as on-site advisers, helping companies to create business plans that could encourage stable growth and increase their chances of securing financing.

The college earlier this year approached Fairfield officials, who welcomed the support.

“It’s difficult to get that kind of support,” Tessier said. “For us to get it free of charge is wonderful.”