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ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
PRESIDENT'S OFFICE
CONTACTS |
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Tom Chmura
Vice President for
Economic Development
[email protected]
Doug Banks
Associate Vice President for Economic Development
[email protected] |
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UMass Donahue Institute
Lynn Griesemer
Executive Director;
Associate Vice President for Economic Development
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Office of Technology Commercialization & Ventures (OTCV)
William Rosenberg
Executive Director [email protected] |
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Mass. Tech Transfer Center
Abigail Barrow
Director
[email protected]
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ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
CAMPUS
CONTACTS |
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UMass Amherst
James Capistran
Executive Director, UMass Innovation Institute
[email protected]
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UMass Boston
John Ciccarelli
Associate Vice Chancellor for Govt. Relations & Public Affairs
[email protected]
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UMass Dartmouth
Louis Goodman
Interim Vice Chancellor
for Research &
Economic Development
[email protected]
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UMass Lowell
Steven Tello
Associate Vice Chancellor,
Entrepreneurship and
Economic Development
[email protected]
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UMass Medical School
James Leary
Vice Chancellor,
Community & Govt. Relations
[email protected]
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National Cybersecurity Network Workforce Summit
December 1-2, 2014
UMass Boston
Campus Center
Boston, MA
Business Higher Education Forum
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2014 Healthcare Conference
by the Mass Technology Leadership Council
December 3, 2014
UMass Boston
Campus Center
Boston, MA
Register
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SAVE THE DATE
UMass Boston Community-Engaged Partnerships Symposium
April 8, 2015
Boston, MA
Symposium Information
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SAVE THE DATE
4th Annual Deshpande Symposium
A Conference on Entrepreneurship
June 9-11, 2015
UMass Lowell Inn & Conference Center
Lowell, MA
Deshpande Symposium
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Technology Commercialization & Entrepreneurship |
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GREETINGS!
InnovationSpotlight is an electronic newsletter
designed to highlight research, innovation and talent development across the University of Massachusetts
and its five campuses and their impact on the Commonwealth's innovation economy. |
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UMass Develops New Life Sciences Strategy
 | | Robert L. Caret |
Last year, the University launched a task force under the leadership of Michael Collins, MD, chancellor of the University of Massachusetts Medical School and senior vice president for the health sciences, for the University System, to develop a successor system-wide strategic plan for the life sciences.
The initial life science strategic plan five years ago helped build a culture of collaboration within the five-campus UMass system that led to graduating more life sciences talent, advancing the innovation economy in all regions of the state, and commercializing more UMass discoveries.
I cannot thank Chancellor Collins and his system-wide task force enough for their vision, hard work and leadership of this successful new strategic plan, which enables us to promote and sustain external collaborations, especially with industry partners. Likewise, the input and guidance from such industry partners as MassBio and MassMedic assisted our team greatly as the University seeks to position itself as the primary partner to industry and state government in strengthening the life sciences ecosystem across all regions of Massachusetts.
The plan sets new goals for:
- Developing talent among our students and faculty that meets the needs of a dynamic and growing life sciences ecosystem
- Fostering collaboration across the research enterprise
- Positioning the UMass campuses as hubs for industry engagement, technological innovation and regional development that drive the Commonwealth's innovation ecosystem across all regions of the state.
I am proud to say that we have already begun to see the fruits of our labor, with several initiatives already under way. Industry partnerships are now being formed following the industry roundtables held in the areas of Bio IT, entrepreneurship, and R&D generally. The campuses have recruited faculty and invested in R&D resources in support of the life sciences, including the Amherst campus's recent hiring of a director for its Institute for Applied Life Sciences. The Lowell and Medical School campuses, meanwhile, have led an initiative to coordinate the system's research cores, review campus assets, promote efficiency and foster shared use of UMass cores with industry.
We are excited to embark on this new strategic plan, which will define where UMass can continue to play a central role in sustaining the Commonwealth's global leadership in the life sciences. As the state's public research university, it is our mission to position our academic and research programs to grow and strengthen a crucial component of the state's innovation economy. By forming new models for partnership with other key stakeholders in the life sciences ecosystem, UMass will help ensure the successful future of the state's broader economic development goals.
Sincerely,
Robert L. Caret
President
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CONDUCTING WORLD-CLASS R&D |
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Boston and Lowell Designated as "Innovation and Economic Prosperity (IEP) Universities" by APLU
The Association of Public Land-Grant Universities (APLU) Commission on Innovation, Competitiveness and Economic Competitiveness (CICEP) selected UMass Boston and Lowell as leading examples of universities promoting innovation and economic prosperity, as part of a program developed last year by a CICEP working group co-chaired by Doug Banks and a colleague from Purdue.
The designation goes to institutions that undergo a self-study involving faculty, staff, administration, external stakeholders and community leaders, and then brings those groups together to create an implementation plan that supports regional economic development and aligns with the university's strategic plan. Associate VCs Steve Tello of Lowell and John Ciccarelli of Boston led their successful campus efforts.
Additionally, UMass Boston received an award in the "Talent" category, for national excellence in promoting a diverse STEM workforce; supporting educators shifting toward applied, industry-informed IT education; and building an integrated biomedical research and training facility, among many other efforts.
Read more at APLU Annual Meeting Awards
See a photo of the UMass Boston Recipients
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UMass Dartmouth Launches Strategic Plan With the Intent to Become a Doctoral Research University
 The Dartmouth campus released its UMassDTransform2020 under the leadership of Chancellor Grossman and Provost Karim with the aspiration to be recognized as a national research university and with a focus on entrepreneurship, public service, and community partnership.
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UMass Amherst Hires Peter Reinhart as Founding Director of Institute for Applied Life Sciences
 UMass Amherst has hired Peter H. Reinhart to be the founding director of the Institute for Applied Life Sciences (IALS), created in 2013 with funding from the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center and the university to accelerate life science research and advance collaboration with industry.
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UMass Amherst Computer Scientists Receive part of $10.8M NIH Grant for Big Data Research
National Institutes of Health director Dr. Francis Collins today announced a new national initiative, the National Center of Excellence for Mobile Sensor Data-to-Knowledge (MD2K), focused on developing computational tools to facilitate the collection and analysis of large-scale health data generated by mobile and wearable sensors. Computer scientists Deepak Ganesan and Benjamin Marlin will co-lead the center at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, one of 12 institutions sharing $10.8 million over four years.
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UMass Amherst Receives $1M Donation from Monsanto
UMass Amherst has received a more than $1 million donation of a unique plant cell library and related equipment from the Monsanto Company. The library contains tissues and cells from 3,500 plant species and is considered to be one of the largest plant cell collections in the world. It will be used by university researchers and their industry partners.
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UMass Medical School to Lead Ebola Team in Liberia
UMass Medical launches Ebola Relief effort with $7.5M grant
With a $7.5 million grant from the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation, UMass Medical School will lead a team of academic partners to provide comprehensive relief efforts in Liberia, bringing doctors, nurses, and training and medical supplies to the Ebola-stricken country.
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EPA Awards $4.1M Water Innovation Grant to UMass Amherst
Officials from the EPA and UMass Amherst announced a $4.1M grant led by UMass Prof. David Reckhow, to create a research center that develops and tests low-cost methods to reduce, control and eliminate water contaminants in small water-treatment systems.
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UMass Boston Researchers Fight Health Disparities for Children with Autism
 UMass Boston Professor of Clinical Psychology Alice Carter, who studies the development of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) has received a $3.9 million grant from the National Institute of Mental Health. One in 68 American children has ASD. Researchers have shown that early intervention is critical, but poor children, children of color, and English language learners often experience delays in getting a diagnosis and access to ASD-specific care.
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TECHNOLOGY
COMMERCIALIZATION & ENTREPRENEURSHIP |
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UMass Records Best-Ever Year for Start-up Businesses
UMass -- through its newly renamed Office of Technology Commercialization and Ventures (OTCV) -- created six new startup companies within the past year, its best-ever annual performance, and set new records for patent applications and the number of faculty members disclosing inventions. The new companies reflect the University's increased focus on coaching, mentoring and providing other services and support to help researchers start businesses.
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Another Strong Year in Technology Commercialization for UMass
It was the 8th consecutive year that the University topped $30M in licensing income, with most of it generated from the Mass Biologics unit of the Medical School. Additionally, there were 180 faculty invention disclosures, 157 patent applications and 6 new start-up companies - the best-ever performance in each of those three categories.
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UMass Amherst Ranks in US Top 30 Public Universities
UMass Amherst now ranks among the nation's Top 30 public universities, moving up 10 spots during the past year in the 2015 Best Colleges guide released by U.S. News & World Report. There are more than 600 public, four-year colleges in the country.
Read more at UMass Amherst News & Media Relations
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11th Annual MA STEM Summit Impresses in Worcester
More than 1,300 educators, legislators, business leaders and community representatives attended the annual day long STEM Summit. Hosted by the Massachusetts Business Roundtable (MBR), the Governor's STEM Advisory Council and the UMass Donahue Institute (UMDI) and sponsored by the state's leading education, research, and technology organizations, the STEM Summit continues to address the challenges facing Massachusetts' students, set goals for their continued achievement, and strengthen the STEM pipeline of skilled workers.
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UMass Center at Springfield Opens
On September 24th, Gov. Deval L. Patrick led a distinguished group of government and UMass officials to mark the grand opening of the system-wide center, the UMass Center at Springfield. "This satellite center will bring vitality to downtown Springfield and open up new educational and job opportunities," Patrick said.
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UMass Dartmouth Survey Highlights MA Manufacturing Workforce
 A UMass Dartmouth survey led by Michael Goodman, found that in their hunt for workers, roughly 70 percent or more of manufacturers had never turned to vocational schools, community colleges, or other programs that train students for jobs in the industry. Rather than a labor shortage, there is a disconnect between manufacturers and the state's workforce development system.
Read more at The Boston Globe
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UMass Amherst Gets $1M Grant for Veterans Entering Nursing Workforce
The UMass Amherst College of Nursing has received a three-year, $1 million federal grant to implement "Heroes into Health Care: Veterans Entering the Nursing Workforce," a program designed to increase the number and percentage of ethnic minority and disadvantaged veterans who successfully complete a university-based nursing education program and become employed as nurses.
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ECONOMIC ANALYSIS FOR THE COMMONWEALTH |
UMDI Study Knowledge Corridor: Educated Workers an Asset Now, but Shortage Looms
In 10 years, 63 percent of the job openings across the Connecticut River Valley will require some sort of college degree, whether two-year or a four-year bachelor's. But currently only about 45 percent of the 1.7 million people living from Berlin, CT, to Greenfield, MA have those degrees and the numbers in densely populated cities are even worse.
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Report: Devens Jobs, Businesses on Rise
A report by the UMass Donahue Institute shows that employment, wages, and the number of businesses in Devens all increased between 2013 and 2014, generating economic benefits for the broader Bay State economy. Devens, a 4,400-acre North Central Massachusetts community that was formerly a U.S. Army base, employs 4,030 workers this year, according to third annual Donahue report that measures Devens' economic impact. That's up from 3,634 in 2013, and 3,208 in 2012. Seventy-four percent of those jobs are in the private sector, with the rest nonprofit and government jobs.
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Mass Economy Expands Moderately in Q3
 Massachusetts real gross domestic product grew at an estimated annualized rate of 3.2 percent in the third quarter according to the MassBenchmarks Current Economic Index, released by MassBenchmarks, the journal of the Massachusetts economy published by the UMass Donahue Institute in collaboration with the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston. U.S. real domestic product grew at an annual rate of 3.5 percent during the same period according to the advance estimate of the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis.
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To learn more about the University's Economic Development efforts, please call 617-287-4087 |
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