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PROJECT UPDATE
Flagship R&D Alliance Projects Move Forward
One
of the Science & Technology
Initiative priorities was to establish state R&D match funding to leverage
federal funds and support university-industry collaborations. We accomplished the
goal with creation of the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative's John Adams Innovation
Institute in 2004. When Adams Innovation Institute funds became available, our Science
and Technology Initiative (SciTech) partners urged us to establish work groups to
explore new large scale R&D alliances.
In
March, Mass Insight released four SciTech Work Group reports. These reports explored
the potential for flagship R&D strategic alliance projects in drug development,
Ocean Research, Nanotechnology and Homeland Security. Each of these four project
areas met the state technology leadership criteria established by the Technology
Road Map:
- Unique resources to solve national and state challenges with federal funding
- Potential to position the state for continued national research leadership
- Opportunity to support key regional industry clusters and produce job
Large-scale R&D Projects
Since March, Mass Insight has been facilitating and organizing the campaign to raise
additional funds for three of these large scale R&D collaborative projects.
- Drug Development Services Center:
Focus - Imaging and Biomarkers
The goal of this collaboration of pharma, biotech, equipment makers and academic
centers is a transformational $50 million+ center focused on pre-competitive collaboration
that provides a bridge between industry and academic research. Validation of imaging
biomarkers is a national priority for NIH and the FDA's critical path initiative.
Led by Joe von Rickenbach, CEO of PAREXEL, Bill Terry of Brigham and Women's and
Ralph Weissleder of MGH, the Work Group has received initial support of $100,000
from Merck and the UMass President's fund. The group is now raising $300,000 of
additional funding to support the development of a business plan in partnership
with LEK Consulting.
Milestone: Plan completion: Winter 2006
- Ocean Research Center: Focus - North Atlantic Ocean Observation Project
This Work Group brings together the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, UMass, MIT
and industry. The goal is to establish a $200 million+ center in southeastern Massachusetts
to compete for the northeast NSF ORION ocean observation project and make Massachusetts
a national center for undersea defense and homeland security R&D, fisheries,
weather and ocean management research.
Bill Walsh, CEO of Sippican, and John Armstrong, head of IBM research (ret.) are
leading the effort. The group has received initial support from South Coast Partnership
and UMass President’s fund for a strategic plan developed by Mass Insight and Battelle.
Milestone: Plan completion: March 2006
- Nanotechnology Collaborations
The goal of this Work Group is to conduct exploratory work with major Massachusetts
universities involved with nanotech research. The effort is boosted by the two new
UMass nanotech centers and a Lux rating Massachusetts number one in nanotech. Mass
Insight has conducted an initial inventory of university centers and MTC is conducting
an industry survey. A conference held in July and led by Greg Shelton, Raytheon's
vice president of engineering, brought together key players to establish priorities.
The key discussion topics identified Nanotech as a scale, not a product, and specific
Massachusetts industry opportunities: advanced materials and bio-nano. MTC is taking
the lead.
Milestone: Industry survey completion: Winter 2006
- Homeland Security
This Work Group, in conjunction with the Northeast Regional Competitiveness Council,
focused on a model emergency preparedness communication project. Without obvious
project champions, this project did not move forward. In addition, the Department
of Homeland Security is reorganizing. However, the Commonwealth has the depth and
breadth in key technologies (sensing, wireless communications, IT and systems integration
among others) critical for R&D in this area. Homeland security remains an important
national and state challenge and an opportunity in search of a champion in Massachusetts.
Mass Insight is launching a major new economic development initiative to focus on
Talent
We are announcing
Global Mass 2015: Winning the Competition for Talent. This new
multi-year economic development initiative, led by Mass Insight and our lead partners
from the Science & Technology Initiative, the Massachusetts High Technology
Council and Associated Industries of Massachusetts (AIM), will frame the state’s
economic development agenda around winning the global competition for talent.
Building on the findings of our groundbreaking 2004
Technology Road Map study, Global Massachusetts 2015 will bring together
new leadership, focus on national and international trends shaping major and emerging
industry sectors, and establish a vision for success in 2015. Global Massachusetts
2015 will layout the policies required to achieve that success.
We look forward to working with you to make the Flagship R&D Centers and the Global
Massachusetts 2015 initiative successful.
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