Press Release

LOWELL – Yesterday, the Baker-Polito Administration announced a new $2.3 million grant to Lowell-based composites manufacturer Specialty Materials, Inc., an award from the Commonwealth’s Massachusetts Manufacturing Innovation Initiative (M2I2). The award will support the expansion of Specialty’s production of its boron-based composite materials, materials widely used in aerospace, sporting goods, and industrial applications to strengthen products. The M2I2 grant will support a project that will nearly triple the size of the Specialty Material’s manufacturing capability, adding an additional 75 employees and $6 million per year of spending in Massachusetts.

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.

BOSTON – The Baker-Polito Administration today announced the winners of the BlueTech Tech and Innovation Grant program, a program managed by the Innovation Institute at the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative (MassTech) that was launched with the support of the Commonwealth’s Seaport Economic Council, which partnered with MassTech on the new grant program. The two new grants, totaling $337,714, were awarded to the Cape Cod Commercial Fishermen’s Alliance and Tufts University, and will advance innovation and drive economic growth in the Massachusetts “Blue Economy.”

BOSTON - Today, ARCHANGELS, a start-up dedicated to supporting unpaid caregivers, with support from Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts (Blue Cross) and the Mass Caregiving Initiative at the MassTech Collaborative, launched the Any Care Counts campaign, designed to increase recognition and support of unpaid caregivers in the Commonwealth. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 43 percent of adults nationwide serve as unpaid caregivers. The collaboration will increase awareness for this vital and often invisible role, that disproportionately impacts the most at-risk populations and can result in serious mental health consequences.

LINCOLN, MASS. – Lt. Governor Karyn Polito joined executives from the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative to announce $700,722 in grants from the ‘Pathways to Scale’ program, an effort from the Commonwealth to boost tech and innovation companies emerging from the startup phase and poised for growth. The four grants will help build or expand mentorship programs statewide that support ‘scaling companies’ and aim to increase the survival rate of innovative, high-growth companies across Massachusetts.

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.

WESTBOROUGH – The MassCyberCenter at the MassTech Collaborative has selected the participants for the spring cohort of its Cybersecurity Mentorship Program, an effort that aims to increase diversity within the cybersecurity workforce in Massachusetts. A total of 25 undergraduate students from 14 different schools across the Commonwealth have been paired with 22 mentors from 14 different organizations.

BOSTON — Today, the Baker-Polito Administration announced the launch of the Seaport Economic Council’s BlueTech Tech and Innovation Grant program, established to identify new business and technology approaches that address the needs of the Commonwealth’s coastal communities.

Following up on the success of the Seaport Economic Council Grand Challenge in 2018, the BlueTech Tech and Innovation Grant program seeks proposals from municipalities, entrepreneurs, and technology firms interested in developing innovative solutions to improve the economies of our marine industries and coastal communities. Applicants can propose business or technology solutions that focus on sectors such as commercial fishing, aquaculture, maritime monitoring or security, shipping, marine biotechnology, offshore renewable energy, and more.

PITTSFIELD - Today, the Baker-Polito Administration announced a new grant totaling approximately $429,000 from the Massachusetts Manufacturing Innovation Initiative (M2I2) to support the development of new specialized equipment for testing the reliability and compatibility of spacecraft components by Electro Magnetic Applications, Inc. (EMA). Located at the Berkshire Innovation Center (BIC), EMA will have the only facility in the world capable of both performing testing on materials in a replicated space environment, and the only facility in the world able to design and manufacture the systems capable of producing the energy sources that can replicate the space environment here on earth.

WESTBOROUGH – The Massachusetts eHealth Institute at the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative recently announced awards for the new Right Care 4 You grant program totaling $189,360 for two digital health companies to support pilot projects with Massachusetts employers to help reduce their healthcare costs. The two competitive grants were awarded to Fitbit to conduct a randomized controlled trial with UMass Memorial Health Care (UMass Memorial) employees, aimed to help prevent and manage cardiometabolic diseases using Fitbit Premium™ and Health Coaching services and to Vincere Health to conduct a pilot of their smartphone-connected smoking cessation solution with Boston Medical Center (BMC) employees.