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Chip Curry of Belfast represents District 11 in the Maine Senate. He is the Senate chair of the Joint Standing Committee on Innovation, Development, Economic Advancement and Business.
Maine ranks 44th out of 50 states in investing in research and development. This lag in investment is a barrier to our future economic growth and social fabric as Maine’s communities struggle to retain educated and ambitious young people. In November, Mainers can approve $25 million in grants by voting Yes on Question 2 and commit to increase our competitive ranking. Research and development drives our economic growth by funding innovations in our heritage industries, such as forest products and marine technology, and funds contemporary industries, such as medical technology.
This is an investment in our communities, from Presque Isle to Portland. It will help create high-paying careers, to help encourage more families to move to Maine and more college graduates to stay in their home state. While the passage of this bond legislation, sponsored by my colleague Sen. Teresa Pierce, D-Yarmouth, in the Legislature might not have grabbed headlines like other stories, it’s still a major accomplishment worth celebrating. I’m excited for this to go out to voters in November, for your chance to help steer Maine’s economic future.
Our last R&D bond passed in 2017 with overwhelming bipartisan support. According to an independent economic analysis, our $45 million dollar investment generated more than 5,350 jobs and $1.4 billion in economic impact for the state of Maine, reaching every corner of the state. The result of that initial investment is economic growth equivalent to more than 31 times the original state expenditure.
Today, Maine’s flagship public university is an R1 research institution, competing with the top research schools in the northeast. The University of Maine Advanced Structures and Composites Center does incredible work with wood composite materials. Executive Director Habib Dagher shared some of that research in testimony supporting the bill behind this bond. For the past 18 years, the center has been developing technologies to create plastics that contain up to 50 percent wood fiber by weight. These plastic-wood composites are being used in a variety of projects, including 3D-printed boat molds and boat parts.
Dagher said, “By 3D printing plastics with 50 percent wood, we aim to produce boat molds much faster and cheaper than today’s traditional method, lowering costs by as much as 50 percent. Not only does it strengthen boat building, but it also supports the forest products industry.”
The Jackson Laboratory continues to put Maine on the international map by empowering the global biomedical community. Abbott Labs was instrumental in producing COVID-19 tests that were distributed across America. As the state with the oldest population in Maine, there’s a much discussed trend of Maine’s bright young people leaving rural areas of Maine, and collaborative solutions to retain vibrant communities focus on increasing and diversifying our workforce. This bond would play a big role in preventing this phenomenon known as brain drain. Let’s keep Maine kids in Maine.
If approved by Maine voters, the funds in this bond will be distributed by the Maine Technology Institute in the form of competitive grants to provide funds for projects that drive commercialization and economic development. The focus will be on Maine’s seven technology sectors, which include biotechnology; composites and advanced materials; environmental technologies; forest products and agriculture; information technology; marine technology and aquaculture; and precision manufacturing. The investments would allow Maine-based public and private institutions to leverage matching private and federal funds on at least a one-to-one basis.
Targeted investments work. Creating a clear return on investment, and opening the door to federal and private matching funds, this is a smart and necessary bond. It gets Maine a big bang for our buck, and helps spur world-changing research as well and economy-supporting jobs.
