"This evaluation marks a milestone in public investments in R&D. While nearly every state invests in research and development, no state has yet conducted a comprehensive evaluation of its investments to determine how these investments contribute to its economic growth," said MSTF President Joel Russ.
The Foundation was authorized by the 119th Legislature to undertake a comprehensive evaluation to be completed by July 2006. The evaluation will focus on three questions:
- How competitive is Maine's publicly funded R&D and has the state's competitiveness improved over time?
- What is the impact of Maine's R&D investment on the development of Maine's industry?
- What is the impact of Maine's R&D investment on the level of innovation and innovation-based economic development?
"Investments in R&D are a critical ingredient for economic growth. In the past five years the state of Maine has dramatically increased its investments in R&D from approximately $2.5 million per year to $40 million in fiscal 2001. The question now is how will we track the impact of these investments," said Russ.
The authorizing legislation specified that nationally recognized independent reviewers conduct the evaluation. After issuing a national request for proposals, the Foundation has contracted with an independent evaluation team led by Dr. Michael Luger, director, Office of Economic Development, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. The team includes Catherine Renault, UNC Office of Economic Development, and Dr. Irwin Feller, director, Institute for Policy Research and Evaluation, Pennsylvania State University. The independent reviewers will conduct the initial evaluation and develop a strategy to assess these investments in the future.
"One of the great challenges of this project is to develop a data collection process so that we have the information needed to evaluate the investments. This first meeting of stakeholders will help us begin the process of information gathering and determine what kinds of data already exist," said Russ.
The initial evaluation will have four phases. In the first phase, UNC will review the goals of Maine's publicly funded R&D programs in order to map them against expected inputs, outputs, initial, intermediate and long-term outcomes. The objective is to link goals with outcomes.
In the second phase, UNC will work closely with Maine stakeholders to understand the appropriate indicators and the existing efforts to collect data on these indicators. Based on interviews with all the stakeholders, UNC will propose a web-based information gathering system so that data is collected for an on-going assessment of the state's investments. The proposal will be discussed with stakeholders to ensure that the system is reasonable and feasible.
The third phase of the project will consist of five to ten case studies of investments made by a variety of Maine's stakeholders. Since most research and development investments take many years to mature, the best way to assess early progress is to look at individual examples. In addition, the case studies will help to ensure that the team is fully aware of the mechanisms through which Maine's investments are impacting the economy.
Finally, the UNC team will report the results of the initial assessment of investments and propose a complete system for the future assessment of research and development impacts in Maine.
"This evaluation is a long-term process. Investments in R&D often take several years to mature before they begin to show an economic impact. But we must begin now to gather the data and start measuring their impacts. It may be some time before we know their full contribution, but we can at least assess some of the intermediary outcomes in the initial evaluation," Russ stated.