On Wednesday, February 27, the University of Southern Maine will host an informational session for Maine entrepreneurs and small businesses focusing on how to access technical resources available from Maine’s two largest public universities. The event will be held from 4 to 6 p.m., Room 181, John Mitchell Center on USM’s Gorham campus.

USM’s Campus Ventures program offers assistance to Maine companies and university faculty interested in commercializing new technologies, products, and manufacturing projects. Campus Ventures specializes in the prototyping and design, development, and testing of products.

The University of Maine’s Advanced Manufacturing Center (AMC) offers services to businesses, entrepreneurs, inventors, and researchers, and helps to transform ideas into tangible concepts. AMC specializes in the prototyping and testing of products and materials. Working together, this partnership is able to provide an extensive offering of technical expertise and resources.

Read more ›

The Maine Technology Institute (MTI) awarded $68,000 to the Maine Sustainable Agriculture Society in support of research and development targeting greenhouse technologies for a pilot project to increase year-round agriculture in Maine. This award was funded through MTI’s Cluster Initiative Program which is designed to boost high-potential technology-intensive clusters and fund the work of companies, service providers, research laboratories and educational institutions working collaboratively to expand a sector’s infrastructure.

“This project incorporates some of the best practices in creating successful clusters,” said Robert A. Martin, President of MTI. “We look for joint research and development efforts that accelerate innovation within an industry cluster, along with supportive networks and skills training, so that new products and markets can be developed. This nexus of year-round agriculture, composites and renewable energy will be a strong positive for Maine’s rural communities.”

The award to the Maine Sustainable Agriculture Society will bring together a network of companies and farms from the agricultural, composite and renewable energy sectors to plan for a one-acre greenhouse using a hybrid composite concrete framework, created at the University of Maine’s Advanced Structures & Composites Center, and a flexible photovoltaic membrane to provide electricity and heat.

Read more ›

Congressman Mike Michaud has sent a letter signed by his colleagues to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) urging the agency to raise broadband eligibility standards for the Community Connect Grant Program so that more rural communities lacking high speed internet access can apply for assistance.

“As the program is currently structured, a number of Maine communities have been blocked from seeking assistance,” said Michaud. “Increasing the standard will enable more underserved rural communities to compete for broadband infrastructure grants. Increased high-speed internet access will improve educational and health care opportunities as well as boost the competitiveness of rural businesses.”

Read more ›

Changes in government control herald new ways forward for the economy

President of the Maine Senate Justin Alfond with Gov. LePage at the podium on the day of the swearing in of the 126th legislature

CHANGING PRACTICES IN GOVERNMENT & BUSINESS —

• Changes in government control herald new ways forward for the economy. What will happen this session in Augusta?

• Majority-led Democratic Legislature says they want to grow the middle class & strengthen economy

• Maine’s new constitutional officers will support the majority of Mainers and oppose many of LePage’s policies

• LePage’s budget proposal shifts costs to people who can least afford it, raises taxes, and could cripple Maine’s economy

• Federal Government rejects part of LePage’s MaineCare reduction plan, saying it’s not legal

• Gov. LePage’s budget curtailment hits the most vulnerable, education, and public safety hard

• Maine moms angry over LePage administration’s BPA recommendation

• Rep. Rotundo honored as Legislator of the Year

Lindsey Glick's first-hand report on working on an organic farm in Maine

• U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree appointed to Appropriations Committee — where government spending is decided

• Rep. Michaud named new ranking member of U.S. House Veterans Affairs Committee

• Maine ranks fourth in states were income inequality is increasing the fastest

CREATIVE ECONOMY & COMMUNITIES —

• Life on a Maine organic farm, One Drop, as an apprentice

• India Street in Portland chosen for planning project to support sustainable growth

• Maine same-sex couples get legally married

• Congresswoman Chellie Pingree asks VA for equal treatment for female veterans suffering from sexual disorders

• Casco is Maine’s first town to pass resolution opposing tar-sands oil transportation through state

• Federal $100,000 grant for Portland schools will help expand purchasing of locally produced food

SUSTAINABLE ALTERNATIVE ENERGY—

The first floating offshore wind turbine in the North Sea, built in Norway by Statiol. Now they plan to build them off Boothby and are sharing research with UMaine.

• Total proceeds for Maine from RGGI are over $34 million; for all RGGI states over $1 billion

• Maine’s Renewable Energy Portfolio Standard — an incentive for alternative energy growth

• Two DOE offshore wind grants of $4 million each for UMaine and Stratoil projects — with additional phases could get $93 million

• New road maps available for ocean wind, tidal- and wave-energy projects

SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH = INVENTIONS & INNOVATION —

• Bigelow Laboratory’s new campus is dedicated – the facility will spur economic growth & innovation

• Brunswick company awarded $150,000 research grant for aquaculture, in December also granted MTI funds close to $250,000

• MTI awards $1,473,925 to 28 Maine companies

• Cap-and-trade policy, RGGI, keeps 12 million tons of carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere & generates savings

• Construction underway for Portland Technology Park — to help grow the biotech economy

TRANSPORTATION

Sen. Snowe, Gov. Baldacci, and Gov. King were praised by Congresswoman Pingree for their bipartisan efforts that helped secure federal and state funding for the Downeaster. Pingree also voted for the recovery act, with Sen. Snowe and Sen. Collins, which gave funding for the Downeaster. Photo by Ramona du Houx.

• Federal grant for ME Port Authority could lead to cargo services for Portland

• Downeaster comes to Freeport and Brunswick, Maine, reviving passenger rail that stopped in 1960

• Portland City Council supports study for transit link to Lewiston-Auburn

• Rail is better plan than east-west highway project, which was named one of the worst highway ideas

“Were it left to me to decide whether we should have government without newspapers or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter.” — Thomas Jefferson, 1787

Maine Insights is a non-profit 501(c)4 corporation and an associate member of the Maine Press Association. Contributions to help support this publication — dedicated to growing Maine communities — are always needed and very appreciated. Please click here for a PayPal link. We look forward to continuing to serve you as we have for the past seven years! Thank you for your insights and support.

Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences and the University of Mississippi have entered into a Strategic Inter-Institutional Partnership Agreement that creates a range of collaborative research and innovation commercialization initiatives, including marine biotechnology, pharmaceutical sciences, single cell genomics technology, aquatic optical flow cytometry and bioinformatics, among other emerging research fields.
 
“The agreement establishes a framework that facilitates collaborative R&D activities between our two institutions across a broad spectrum of shared interests,” said Mark Bloom, Bigelow Director of Corporate Alliances and Technology Transfer. “We’ll be working with the University of Mississippi School of Pharmacy’s National Center for Natural Products Research and its Department of Pharmacognosy, as well as the university’s National Institute for Undersea Science and Technology (NIUST) to advance biopharmaceutical sciences, as well as to develop transformative new approaches to marine natural products research and development – at Bigelow, we refer to this research focus as ‘blue biotechnology.’”

Specific areas of collaboration will include molecular exploration of natural products as potential new sources of pharmaceuticals, nutraceuticals and cosmeceuticals; research and development of prototype anti-infective and anti-cancer agents from aquatic sources; and development of new techniques for evaluating the potential research and commercial applications of aquatic algae, bacteria, viruses and invertebrates.

Read more ›

MITT ROMNEY said in all three presidential debates that we need to expand the economy. But he left out a critical ingredient: investments in science and technology.

Scientific knowledge and new technologies are the building blocks for long-term economic growth — “the key to a 21st-century economy,” as President Obama said in the final debate.

So it is astonishing that Mr. Romney talks about economic growth while planning deep cuts in investment in science, technology and education. They are among the discretionary items for which spending could be cut 22 percent or more under the Republican budget plan, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

Read more ›

This article appeared was in the mid-coast Forecaster May 23, 2012

BRUNSWICK — A bill that would provide an additional $20 million to the technology business development program of the Brunswick-based Maine Technology Institute got a boost on May 16, when state lawmakers approved the measure for inclusion on a November ballot.

“It’s better than a good idea. It’s absolutely critical to the future of Maine,” said Chris Sauer, owner of Ocean Renewable Power Co. in Portland.

The Maine Technology Asset Fund was created in 2007, with an initial bond amount of $50 million. In 2010, voters approved an additional $3 million. The program has nearly $53 million invested in 35 research and development projects across the state. Over the past five years, MTAF has won many fans among the state’s business leaders. Sauer said that ORPC owes its existence to the MTI program.

“They are part of the reason I relocated from Florida to Maine in 2008. There were times in the past that we would not have survived if it had not been for MTI,” he said.

Read more ›

The University of Maine plans to partner with the regions private sector to deploy Internet at speeds several hundred times faster than what’s currently available in Orono, Old Town and nearby communities.
Bringing high-speed broadband to UMane’s neighbors is part of a national effort called “Gig.U.”

”Broadband access is increasingly critical in contemporary society, with significant implications for economic development, education and quality of life,” said UMaine President Paul Ferguson. “We look forward to working with collaborators to forge even stronger connections with the neighboring communities that depend on meaningful linkages with the University of Maine.”

Read more ›

The University of Maine’s Forest Bioproducts Research Institute is building a pilot-scale plant for manufacturing cellulose nanofibrils (CNF), a wood-based reinforcing material that is increasingly of interest to researchers worldwide looking for super-strong materials that could replicate synthetic plastics.

“With development of new natural and functional nanomaterials, UMaine will be recognized as an innovator in novel cellulose nanofibril processing,” said FBRI Director and UMaine Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering Hemant Pendse, one of the researchers involved with the project. “UMaine will have the ability to process cellulose nanofibrils in ways that open up new markets and applications for cellulose nanocomposites.”

Read more ›

The ConnectME Authority has awarded 23 grants to expand broadband communications services to unserved pockets across Maine.

The authority was created by Governor John Baldacci to expand broadband access in the most rural areas of the state. The latest grants totaling $1.6 million will be used for projects totaling nearly $2.4 million that will expand services to an estimated 2,300 households and businesses.

Read more ›