D2 News

December, 2000

Maine Technology Institute Awards 17 Seed Grants 

GARDINER, Maine - December, 2000
Grants for 17 diverse projects have been approved by the Maine Technology Institute (MTI), according to Dr. Janet Yancey-Wrona, director. "These Seed Grants, which can be up to $10,000, are for small research and development projects or for technical or business planning consulting," Dr. Yancey-Wrona said. "We approved 17 grants from the 64 applications we received. And I must say, the reviewers were surprised at the innovativeness and quality of the ideas put forth by these Maine companies."

Several applications were not approved because they were not clearly written or did not provide the information requested in the RFP. "In all cases, we send letters to applicants and request they call us to get specific reasons their application was denied. That should help them if they reapply for a Seed Grant," Dr. Yancey-Wrona said.

The MTI was created by the Legislature in 1999 to encourage, promote, stimulate and support research and development activity leading to the commercialization of new products and services in the state's technology-intensive industrial sectors. Programs are designed to enhance the competitive position of those sectors and increase the likelihood that one or more of the sectors will support clusters of industrial activity and create new jobs.

The targeted technology sectors include advanced technologies for forestry and agriculture, aquaculture and marine technology, biotechnology, composites materials technology, environmental technology, information technology and precision manufacturing technology.

"All targeted technology sectors are covered in this round of grants," Dr. Yancey-Wrona said, "and we have awarded grants to companies from the South Coast to Mapleton in Aroostook County."

The technology sectors and individuals and companies receiving grants include: Composite Materials Technology: Baychar (no last name) of Baychar, Inc. of Farmington and Jim Crick of Elite Boatworks in Topsham; Aquaculture and Marine Technology: Ira A. Levine of Biological Services, Inc. of Poland; Brian R. Burwell of PFBco.of Freeport; Eric Truebe of SeaWorks of South Berwick, and Dr. Robert Bayer of the University of Maine, Orono; Environmental Technology: John H. Merrill of Brims Ness Corp. of South Portland and Claude Morin of Spill Free Oil Drainage Products of Bangor; Precision Manufacturing Technology: Donald G. Parent of D2 Systems of Windham and James Boyko of Refrigeration Technologies of Gorham; Information Technology: Scott Irwin of My Virtual CFO, Inc., of South Portland; Becky Benton of Red Raven of Edgecomb; George Markowsy of Trefoil Corp. of Orono and Steve Stofanak of TSI Systems of South Berwick; Advanced Technologies for Forestry and Agriculture: Elliott Batson of Sunrise Composting of Addison and James A. Weber of the University of Maine, Orono; Biotechnology: Tobin Farms of Tobin Farms of Mapleton. top of page   News/Media Home

"These are all very interesting companies," Dr. Yancey-Wrona said. "These grants should help many of these companies better position themselves when they go looking for more money. Of course, many of these grants are funding ideas and a lot has to fall into place before these companies can become successful. However, many ideas fail because small start-up companies don't have a management team to help get the product to market," she added. "These funds should help advance the ideas to the next step and give these companies a chance to work on further development at a time when most of them have very little collateral for loans and so forth."

MTI Seed Grants of up to $10,000 per projects are offered on a competitive basis to support early activities for product development, commercialization or business planning and development. Each grant requires a 1:1 match consisting of actual cash, salaries, staff time or equipment directly attributable to the proposed project. Seed Grants will be awarded up to four times each year. The application deadline for the next round of grants is February 16, 2001.