RCP’s ongoing relationship with the Maine Technology Institute (MTI) gives us the opportunity to work in two of our program areas - Peer Review, and Innovation and Entrepreneurship. By facilitating peer review of applications to MTI’s Maine Development Loans program (MDL), we are able to help MTI further its goal of helping innovators in Maine to expand their economic impact in the state.
Since 2009, RCP has facilitated peer review of applications to MDL (and its predecessor, the Maine Development Awards program). Over the past year, RCP provided evaluations for 18 applications that were submitted to MTI and then sent to RCP by MTI on a rolling basis. For each application received, RCP recruited an evaluator from outside the state of Maine, selected for his or her expertise in the particular technical and commercialization area of the application, and then facilitated the development of the evaluation. Applications were evaluated using an accelerated format developed by RCP on MTI’s request, in which evaluations were returned to MTI within 20 days of RCP receiving the application.
Applications received over the past year were submitted by a variety of entrepreneurs in Maine, with projects including a mobile price card app, a cloud-based online registration software for education organizations, and a venture marketing high speed carbon fiber passenger ferries in the U.S.