Follow-up Study Evaluates Maine’s Technology Cluster Development

A recent study prepared for the Maine Technology Institute and the Office of Innovation within Maine’s Department of Economic and Community Development examines and ranks 16 identified technology clusters in Maine - defining eight as sustainable clusters, five as potential clusters, and three as emerging clusters. These labels are based upon an extended view of clusters, namely that successful clusters depend on knowledge generation and knowledge spillovers and not just specification within certain industries. Along with measures of entrepreneurship and product production and distribution, Maine’s Technology Sectors and Clusters: Status and Strategy examines 7,300 records of patents, grants and publications in the state to determine potential research strengths and opportunities within the state’s clusters.

This report follows up and expands on a previous cluster analysis by the Maine Science and Technology Foundation (see the June 28, 2002 issue of the Digest), which identified seven broad technology sectors in the state. The 16 clusters analyzed in this report are comparatively narrower in scope, yet align with the seven technology sectors. For example, the cluster of “bioinformatics” lies at the intersection of the biotechnology and information technology sectors.
 
Examining knowledge attainment as a component of future potential cluster growth, the report finds the proportion of Maine’s workforce in STEM occupations is 30 percent to 40 percent below the national average, even as the state awarded 7.5 percent additional higher education degrees in the STEM fields in the decade after 1996.

The eight clusters identified as demonstrating sustained levels of innovation over time can be found within the sectors of forest products and agriculture, composites and advanced materials, environment and energy, and marine technology and aquaculture. Maine’s less-developed clusters are identified with the precision manufacturing, information technology, and biotechnology sectors.
 
But how to improve economic development within certain clusters? The report’s recommendations include, among others:

• Create networks of services that promote competitiveness and spread knowledge, in addition to product development;
• Build technology networks though tools like trade associations and conferences;
• Connect clusters within Maine to clusters outside of Maine;
• Use long-term capital plans to build targeted infrastructure; and,
• Require applicants for state funding to identify the knowledge and skills to be developed, if selected.

Maine’s Technology Sectors and Clusters: Status and Strategy can be found at: http://www.mainetechnology.org/content/277/Cluster_Enhancement_Awards/