MTI awards $1.2M to boost Maine's 'high-potential' clusters

File Photo / AMBER WATERMAN Amber Lambke, MGA's executive director and owner of Maine Grains in Skowhegan.

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By Staff

The Maine Technology Institute has issued four new awards from its Cluster Initiative Program totaling $1.2 million for collaborative projects that boost Maine’s high-potential, technology-enabled clusters. The CIP awards leveraged $1.42 million in private sector matching contributions to the projects.

CIP awards support the success and growth of Maine businesses by funding joint work of companies, service providers, research laboratories and educational institutions and expanding the infrastructure that helps them to thrive.

Projects supporting Maine’s agriculture, aquaculture, fisheries and food production cluster and the state’s composites and advanced materials cluster were supported in this round of funding.

Award recipients are:

The Maine Grain Alliance of Skowhegan: $50,000 for a feasibility and planning project to inventory existing grain drying and storage infrastructure along convenient trade routes, and research technologies and financing options to improve this infrastructure.

FocusMaine, in partnership with Gulf of Maine Research Institute and the Maine Aquaculture Association: $219,600 to develop and maintain business planning tools to support efficient growth and unlock access to traditional financing for aquaculturists, and to create an open source small business resource, building on Maine’s competitive advantages;

The Midcoast Regional Redevelopment Authority of Brunswick: $495,165 to develop TechPlace’s Shared Composites Layup Room and Paint Booth for use by TechPlace tenants and other scale-up composites companies.

University of Maine Advanced Structures and Composites Center: $438,046 for the establishment of a Smart Materials Industry Consortium and Smart Materials Lab in Orono.

“These projects leverage significant support and leadership from the private sector and will advance and stimulate economic activity in two strong clusters in the state of Maine,” MTI President Brian Whitney said in a statement. “They will enhance collaboration between public and private sector entities, improve our innovation infrastructure to increase Maine’s competitiveness, and help emerging companies gain access to capital that will lead to the development of new businesses, products, processes, skilled workforce and jobs.”

MTI is a publicly financed, private nonprofit created by the Legislature in 1999 to stimulate research and development activity leading to the commercialization of new products, processes and services in the state’s seven targeted technology sectors. It offers loans, equity investments and grants.