PORTLAND (AP) – The Gulf of Maine Research Institute was the first Maine organization to sign an economic agreement during Gov. John Baldacci’s trade mission to Ireland and Northern Ireland.

The institute reached an agreement to share scientists with The University of Ulster in Northern Ireland, which is known for its research and its ability to help local businesses grow. The pact is based on the similarity of coastal interests from tracking cod to managing beach erosion.

“We have a lot in common and a lot of common interests,” Gerry McKenna, university president and vice chancellor, said Monday after signing the agreement.

Maine officials say the university itself represents a model in applying academic research to business development and job creation – and to selling those products and services worldwide.

The school, whose administrative center is in Coleraine, has earned an international reputation for creating businesses in the fields of medical research and nanotechnology in a rural region known for its dairy farming and rugged coastline.

“Coleraine is going to be your springboard to Europe,” said Moira Mann, head of development services for the Coleraine Borough Council.

The deal, in the works for months, was completed as Baldacci began a week long trade mission to spur trade and investment with Europe.

The university will send an expert in mapping the ocean floor to Maine for a year in mid-2004. This kind of maritime research found a Neolithic boat carved from a log and mapped the ocean floor in a way that suggests Ireland’s first settlers arrived by boat rather than by walking across a land bridge from Scotland.

The Portland-based research institute will reciprocate by sending an expert in fish habitat to Ireland in 2005. The two organizations will jointly fund a position that divides its time between the two locations by 2006.

“They have the same problems here” as we do in Maine, said Don Perkins, president of the research institute. “The promise of it is that it allows us to complement each other.”

The agreement is valued at $150,000, but because the fellowship should create three to five research assistants, Perkins said, the total value could rise to $1.2 million.

Northern Ireland has roughly the same population as Maine. The borough of Coleraine, meanwhile, has traditionally relied on farming and tourism for one-third of its economy, Mann said, just as natural-resource-based industries and hospitality businesses have been vital to Maine.

Also like Maine, Coleraine’s economy is built on small companies. Nearly nine out of 10 businesses have 10 or fewer workers.

With the help of its flagship university, Coleraine has become a leader in medical and engineering research. New research facilities at the university are tangible proof of its success.

Mainers have dabbled in turning university research into jobs, but not as broadly or aggressively as the University of Ulster.

“Education is the key driving today’s economy,” said Jack Cashman, state economic development commissioner.