The Maryland Department of Business and Economic Development and NASA will partner to attract high-tech companies to the state, officials announced Monday.
In conjunction with the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, the partnership will aim to grow Maryland’s aerospace industry while providing new talent and technology to NASA.
“We can help each other,” said Nona Cheeks, chief of Goddard’s Office of Technology Transfer. “DBED can help us find scientists in the industry that may help us further our missions and at the same time, by demonstrating the need for those researchers in Maryland, we can help DBED meet some of its economic milestones.”
NASA spends about $1 billion annually in Maryland on federal contracting — more than any other government agency — and is one of the state’s biggest employers, said Christ Foster, deputy secretary for Maryland’s Department of Business and Economic Development.
The agreement, which has no dedicated additional funding, includes the development of outreach programs, workshops and other meetings related to Goddard’s technology needs. DBED will also coordinate joint technology ventures with Goddard and local business, research and academic organizations.
NASA has been informally working with DBED for years, Foster said, but the formalized partnership should give an economic and technology boost to both NASA and Maryland.
“In the past we’ve focused on tech transfer out of NASA,” he said. By attracting more high-tech and space-based companies to the state, Maryland can also focus on funneling scientists and new technology to NASA.
“We’re not focusing just on NASA technology, but on NASA business,” Foster added. The aerospace industry is “an important business cluster for us.”
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Aerospace and defense companies in Maryland:
» Northrop Grumman
» Lockheed Martin
» Hughes Network Systems
» BAE Systems
» SAIC
» ARINC
» Raytheon
» AAI
» Honeywell Technology Solutions
» Swales Aerospace
» General Dynamics
Source: Md. Department of Business and Economic Development
