Maine funds R&D activities at its public universities through the Maine Economic Improvement Fund, which in FY24 delivered a more than 6:1 direct rate of return, supported more than 1,400 student researchers and helped hundreds of small businesses innovate new products and improve productivity
PORTLAND — State-funded University of Maine System research is delivering its highest-ever rate of return and driving the growth of Maine’s workforce and economy.
Led by the University of Maine, the state’s public research university and only institution to be designated R1 by the Carnegie Classification for “very high research activity,” UMS directly generated $6.45 for every $1 the State invested through the Maine Economic Improvement Fund in Fiscal Year 2024.
The Maine Legislature established MEIF in 1997 to support commercially promising UMS research and development activity in seven strategic sectors and provide the basic investment needed to obtain matching funds and competitive grants.
UMaine President Joan Ferrini-Mundy, who in 2021 was appointed by Chancellor Dannel Malloy as the first-ever UMS Vice Chancellor for Research and Innovation, presented the annual MEIF outcomes report to the System’s Board of Trustees at its meeting yesterday at the University of Southern Maine (USM).
She told trustees that in FY24, the $21.85 million appropriated by the State for MEIF generated $141 million in external R&D grants and contracts just in the seven sectors and mostly at UMaine to support laboratories and researchers, including students, who collaborate with Maine companies to solve their challenges. In some sectors, the flagship provided the State a far greater rate of return on its investment. For example, UMaine leveraged $1.7 million from MEIF to generate $46.2 million in grants and contracts to support its world-leading R&D activity in composites and advanced materials technologies.
In total, Maine’s public universities secured more than $260 million in R&D grants and contracts in FY24, including $225 million by UMaine and $34 million by USM.
“Led by the University of Maine, our public universities are at the forefront of fostering innovation and driving and diversifying private sector growth across the state like never before. We are grateful for the ongoing investment in MEIF from Gov. Mills and the Maine Legislature, the support of the state’s Congressional Delegation and the hundreds of industry and community partners who make our incredible impact possible,” Ferrini-Mundy said. “In partnership with MEIF-supported researchers, Maine’s small businesses are creating new products and high-paying jobs, increasing productivity and profits, solving industry challenges, improving our environment and quality of life, making food systems safer and more resilient, and expanding their market reach.”
Brant & Cochran is one such small business. Mark Ferguson, its founder and president, shared with Trustees how his family partnered with the MEIF-supported UMaine Advanced Manufacturing Center to revive the traditional craft of axe-making in Maine.
“The resources available at the University of Maine can often be overlooked by the entrepreneurial community in the Pine Tree State and they shouldn’t be,” he said. “We worked extensively with the university on expanding and re-imagining our axe-making process. This has already increased production by 50 percent while simultaneously reducing our costs and creating a safer and more sustainable business.”
Harvest Maine was founded in 2022 to create products with produce that was otherwise going to waste. Last year, the start-up worked with researchers, including students, in UMaine’s Food Science Innovation Center to launch a new line of dried fruit snacks.
“We had this idea that we could make something delicious and nutritious from the apple pomace that often gets thrown out after apple pressing. The University of Maine helped us take the idea and turn it into a product. The food science intelligence that they brought to the table was critical — we simply did not have that kind of expertise in-house,” said Ben Slayton, the company’s co-owner. “We could not have gotten this product to market without their help.”
Among the researchers funded directly or indirectly by MEIF in FY24 were more than 1,400 students at UMaine and its regional campus in Machias as well as USM, whose hands-on paid research experiences prepared them to be leaders and innovators in the workforce.
At USM, MEIF supports the Quality Control Collaboratory, which provides laboratory analysis and testing for the craft brewing industry at a greatly reduced rate.
Janelle Googins, a chemistry major from Scarborough, says she started out as a below-average student at USM but through her paid research in the QC2 lab and at local breweries, including Portland’s Orange Bike Brewing, developed a love of learning and positively impacted the industry.
“Through QC2 I’ve been able to work with, and directly for, a number of Maine breweries,” explained Googins. “The lab has instruments that most Maine breweries don’t. As an intern in the lab, I use this equipment to perform more advanced analysis than they would normally be able to and develop my own confidence and skills that will lead to more workforce opportunities post-graduation.”
Despite the proven rate of return, Maine currently invests just 1.1 percent of its GDP in R&D according to the most recent Measures of Growth report, far below the national average of 3.6 percent and 5.7 percent by other New England states. Gov. Janet Mills and the Maine Legislature have recently improved State investment in R&D, including by increasing the annual appropriation for MEIF after seven years of flat funding and supporting a $25 million R&D bond that was ultimately passed by voters in November and will be administered by the Maine Technology Institute.
Other UMS Board actions
At Jan. 13’s meeting, trustees also authorized a three-year contract with the union representing nearly 1,000 full-time faculty across the System.
They additionally gave final approval to the University of Maine at Augusta to expand its allied dental health education programs to the University of Maine at Presque Isle’s campus as part of a multi-university partnership to improve rural oral health care access and outcomes.
