University of Maine: Fostering Maine’s newest innovations and companies
Transcript
MTI is a publicly funded non-profit and our mission is to promote, encourage, support and stimulate research and development activity in the state of Maine and we do that through the deployment of grants, loans and some equity as well. The University is a close strategic partner of MTI so we work closely with the R&D facilities at UMaine so we can spin out some technology and new companies much like we’ve been doing recently.
The University has been a huge asset to some of the companies that are here today at TechWalk. You’ll see Acadia Harvest and they are still growing fish at one of the University Centers with some of the technical oversight there and the Advanced Composites materials. That’s been a real core at the University and this excellent collaboration I see between them and industry.
Young people realize that there is a lot going on in the state and they can stay here and get good jobs at innovative companies and the University has been a really critical partner there with the Innovate for Maine Fellows program.
There is really a very broad range of innovation that’s going to fit with the kinds of programs that we offer. We can really help you figure out what kind of a project is going to be a fit for our programs and how to take what you want to do and find the right funding program for you.
There are so many exciting things going on in the innovation ecosystem and you can see it here at TechWalk and within the MTI portfolio that it really makes me optimistic about Maine’s future.