BOSTON – Housing and Economic Development Secretary Mike Kennealy joined leaders from the tech and innovation sector at Rapid7 in Boston today for the announcement of three new grants from the Commonwealth’s Tech Talent Diversity Initiative, an effort aimed at boosting diversity hiring and training opportunities for diverse candidates. The three grants, totaling $494,947, were awarded to Hack.Diversity in Boston, Benjamin Franklin Cummings Institute of Technology in Boston, and Tech Foundry in Springfield.
BOSTON – The echoes of the COVID-19 global health crisis were apparent in the latest edition of The Index of the Massachusetts Innovation Economy, a report that tracks the strength of the Commonwealth’s tech and innovation sectors. Even with net job losses in nine of 11 key tech sectors in 2020, the Massachusetts tech and innovation economy continued to be a top state in terms of total R&D investment ($36 billion in 2018, second only to California), record venture capital investment ($15.8 billion in 2020), and increased investment in higher education per student (up 29.4 percent since 2015).
QUINCY, MASS. – Today, the Baker-Polito Administration announced a $1,961,375 grant to Quincy’s QUBIC Labs, an incubator that will work with startups and entrepreneurs interested in building blockchain apps, technologies that hold the potential to transform innovation-focused sectors including finance, healthcare, insurance, supply chain, and government. The grant is the first award made under the Commonwealth’s Technology & Innovation Ecosystem Awards program, a funding initiative launched earlier this year to provide capital support to innovative projects statewide.
BOSTON – On Wednesday, the Baker-Polito Administration announced a $4,394,848 grant to Boston University for a new research and development center called the Robotics and Autonomous Systems Teaching and Innovation Center (RASTIC). The project will drive the development of new innovations with private sector partners in Massachusetts and increase student research opportunities in the robotics space. RASTIC will emphasize real-world prototyping projects to integrate new materials, functionality, and artificial intelligence into robotic devices, delivering tools that will allow students to design and launch their own R&D projects.
BOSTON- On Tuesday, Housing and Economic Development Secretary Mike Kennealy visited UMass Boston to announce a $999,000 grant from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts that will fund new quantum computing infrastructure. The grant is from the Collaborative Research and Development Matching Grant program, an effort managed by the Innovation Institute at the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative (MassTech), and will support a three-year, $1,999,774 project managed by UMass Boston in partnership from Western New England University in Springfield.
WESTBOROUGH, MASS. – Today, the Baker-Polito Administration announced a new grant award of $3,057,320 to Harvard University and Boston University to support the development of next-generation robotics and wearable technologies. Researchers aim to improve the lives of people with neuro-motor impairments and to help individuals achieve ambitious fitness goals, driving innovation in a new category of rehabilitation, diagnostic, and assistive devices that are more lightweight, affordable, and connected.
WESTBOROUGH, MASS. – The Innovation Institute at the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative (MassTech) has partnered with Northeastern on a program that will bring artificial intelligence (AI) to boost Massachusetts businesses. The award of $200,000 to Northeastern University will support AI Jumpstart, a pilot program launched in April 2021 that will assist 18 Massachusetts companies with projects that will deploy AI to enhance their businesses.
WORCESTER, MASS. – Today, the Baker-Polito Administration announced a new $999,963 grant from the Collaborative Research and Development Matching Grant program to support a new research center at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) focused on the security of semiconductors and hardware critical to key innovation industries. The new facility will enable a critical testbed for WPI and partners to work with private industry, utilizing new testing equipment that will be the first of its kind in the Northeast, plus will develop training programs to support the workforce needs of technology companies in the region.
DARTMOUTH, MASS. – Yesterday, Lt. Governor Karyn Polito and executives from UMass Dartmouth celebrated the announcement of a new $739,936 award from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to support the development of a new research and development laboratory in New Bedford to study biodegradable and ocean-safe plastics. The new Plastics Biodegradation Laboratory at UMass Dartmouth will enable efficient testing of plastic biodegradation, helping address the significant waste caused by traditional plastics used in textiles, packaging, and other products that accumulate in the ocean and other water resources.
WESTBOROUGH – On Friday, April 9th, 2021, a panel of expert judges declared Keva Health of Lexington the winner of the Massachusetts COVID-19 Connect Tech Innovation Challenge, a competition focused on entrepreneurs and startups working on innovative solutions to enhance resiliency and guard against potential future disruptions in industries like ecommerce, manufacturing, digital health, FinTech, and EdTech.
