Dedication to Innovation; New state science and technology adviser looks to turn cutting-edge research into jobs for Maine

BYLINE: ANNE RAVANA OF THE NEWS STAFF

Catherine Renault, the new director of the state Office of Innovation, has arrived, and she's ready to bring scientific research and development achievements from Maine classrooms and laboratories to local businesses.

"I'm interested in technology transfer. How do we get the technology out of the universities or out of the nonprofit research labs and how do we have them generate jobs in Maine?" Renault said in a recent interview.

Renault's position also makes her the science and technology adviser to Gov. John Baldacci. After accepting the position of director of the Office of Innovation, Renault, 53, moved to Topsham from Durham, N.C. A lifelong summer resident of Boothbay, Renault began working full time in Augusta on March 1.

She holds a bachelor of arts degree in government from Radcliffe College, an MBA from the University of Virginia, and a Ph.D. in public policy from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Before joining the Office of Innovation, Renault served as a project manager for Research Triangle Institute International, a $500 million nonprofit think tank based in Research Triangle Park, N.C., and as a senior research associate in the Office of Economic Development at the University of North Carolina, where she assisted in the evaluation of Maine's research and development sector.

As Maine economic development officials fret about losing educated workers to areas such as North Carolina's Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill "Research Triangle," Renault has seemingly made a reverse move. She said while high-tech enterprises are certainly thriving in the Research Triangle, rural North Carolina, like Maine, struggles to stimulate new economic growth.

"In North Carolina we are very concerned that the state government is doing almost nothing to support science and technology because they think it's already all there and they're fine," Renault said. "In fact, a lot of other states are catching up with" North Carolina's science and technology sector. State officials in North Carolina "don't have a strategy or set of programs even remotely like what we have in Maine."

The Office of Innovation is a branch of the state Department of Economic and Community Development. As director, Renault oversees funding and support for science and technology-based research and business in Maine. She hopes to encourage collaboration between the state's businesses and universities and research institutions.

The Office of Innovation was created in 2004 to do just that. The office oversees the Maine Technology Institute, a state-funded, private nonprofit in Gardiner that offers funding and other assistance to technological businesses and projects, and Maine's seven Applied Technology Centers or "incubators," which nurture young, entrepreneurial companies around the state. Now 87 percent of all businesses that emerge from the incubators remain in business, according to the Office of Innovation Web site.

Renault replaced former director Janet Yancey-Wrona.

In her first few months on the job, Renault has worked mainly on the $55 million research and development portion of the $295 million state bond package approved earlier this month by the Legislature, she said.

Jake Ward, executive director of the Office of Research and Economic Development at the University of Maine, said in a recent interview that Renault's position is challenging because it requires her to understand a broad range of scientific and technical disciplines and to navigate the legislative process and the government's economic development efforts.

"She's coming in with a good knowledge base and therefore hit the ground running," Ward said.