Jul. 13--A new analysis by the researchers at Team NEO shows Northeast Ohio's scientific research and development community has been growing more than twice as fast as the national average.

Between 1993 and 2008, the market value of all final goods and services produced by the region's R&D sector grew 169 percent. The national rate was 73 percent.

Another bright spot in the Team NEO report: The gross regional product of the area's legal services sector is also doubling the country's pace.

The economic impact of legal services in the region over the past 15 years has grown about 75 percent, compared with 41 percent in the United States overall.

While the analysis does not seek to explain the data, Team NEO chief Tom Waltermire noted the area has a mix of well-established research and development companies (such as Akron's Bridgestone technical center) and newcomers (like Rolls-Royce Fuel Cell Systems in Stark County).

Add to that a rich legacy of area research institutions, including the University of Akron and Kent State University, both of which are spinning off entrepreneurial companies that develop new medical, polymer and liquid crystal applications.

The City of Akron is nurturing several young research and development companies at its Akron Global Business Accelerator.

Robert Bowman, Akron's deputy mayor of economic development, said studies done on Ohio several years ago concluded the state "was at risk because a lot of its older, more traditional industries were not product innovators. They were more about supplying others . . . with pieces, parts and components."

Not only is the region evolving, but those new innovative companies will help established manufacturers by giving them new industries to supply.

For instance, a machine shop that used to make screws for a declining auto industry might have opportunities to supply parts for a growing Please see R&D, B7

Continued from Page B6 number of medical companies, Bowman said.

Explaining the area's reputation as a legal center, Waltermire said that industry grew here over the past century to serve the needs of many global manufacturers.

"We have a lot bigger legal sector here than Detroit has, and Detroit is twice the size of Greater Cleveland," Waltermire said. The sector "got established here early and did well."

And the need remains, Waltermire said. A Team NEO analysis released this year counted 541 corporate headquarters in the 16-county region, employing 40,000 people -- making Northeast Ohio the fourth-largest headquarters capital in the nation, behind St. Louis, New York and San Francisco.

Team NEO, a business attraction organization founded by area business chambers, has been taking an in-depth look at various economic indicators each quarter.

Its latest economic review looked at what are called professional, scientific and technical service sectors in the region.

The gross regional product for all those sectors grew 79 percent in the past 15 years, and accounted for nearly $10 billion of the region's economy in 2008.

"So you're talking a little over 51/2 percent annually, versus Northeast Ohio's GRP, which has . . . 11/2 to 2 percent of growth a year," researcher Jacob Duritsky said, "so it's a real strong, significant sector.

"It's a continued pattern of that changing diversity of our economy. Manufacturing remains important, but as some of that employment goes away, you have sectors like this that are stepping up.'

The Team NEO report also found that the professional, scientific and technical service sectors added 21,000 jobs between 1993 and 2008.

"That makes up 20 percent of all new jobs that were added here in that period," noted Team NEO Marketing Director Nina Holliday. "And these are high-skilled, above-average-wages jobs as well."

Paula Schleis can be reached at 330-996-3741 or pschleis@thebeaconjournal.com.

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