PORTLAND, Maine - Plans to set up a regional business incubator to boost Maine's maritime sector are getting a boost today in the form of a sponsorship deal.
Officials from the University of New England, University of Southern Maine and the Maine North Atlantic Development Office are signing a sponsorship agreement this afternoon with the New England Ocean Cluster House.
UNE professor Barry Costa-Pierce says the cluster house will be a good fit for UNE, which has just launched the nation's first undergraduate program in marine entrepreneurship.
"We're real excited about it because it allows us to do co-operative research in the innovation sphere and all of Maine's marine economy is going to be addressed by these types of partnerships," Costa-Pierce says.
Modeled on a similar venture in Iceland, the New England Cluster House - to be situated on Portland's waterfront - aims to grow the local economy by bringing businesses together to commercialize new maritime products and services.