Mass. House Speaker Robert DeLeo Joins UMass and Business Leaders to Celebrate New Innovation Voucher Program

***MEDIA ADVISORY***

DATE:        Friday, April 6, 2018
TIME:        1:30 p.m.
WHERE:    Institute for Applied Life Sciences, 240 Thatcher Road, UMass Amherst

Robert DeLeo, speaker of the Massachusetts House of Representatives, University of Massachusetts leaders and industry representatives will mark the launch of the Innovation Voucher Program, a new House-led initiative providing small and medium-sized businesses access to advanced research facilities at campuses throughout the five-campus UMass system.

Joining DeLeo at the event will be UMass President Marty Meehan, UMass Amherst Chancellor Kumble Subbaswamy and Lauren Liss, president and CEO of MassDevelopment, which is administering the program fund, as well as business representatives.

Created with a $2 million state investment, the Innovation Voucher Program supports local companies in their research and development and manufacturing efforts by subsidizing the cost of using core UMass laboratories and equipment, such as the advanced facilities at the Institute of Advanced Life Sciences (IALS) at UMass Amherst. Participating companies also receive access to the university’s world-class research faculty, trained professional staff and students.

The voucher program is expected to help start-ups and small- and medium sized companies gain an edge in business development. With the state incentives, start-ups can develop prototypes and test new devices at a lower cost. Similarly, established companies, especially manufacturers, can create prototypes to bid on contracts without having to make large investments beforehand.

The program is also expected to foster new learning opportunities for UMass students as they use and train on hardware and software used by industry employers.

The event will also showcase the more than two dozen specialized facilities at IALS, including human magnetic resonance imaging, genomic sequencing, electron and atomic microscopy, computational modeling, human motion labs, and state-of-the-art facilities for fermentation and separation/purification of biomolecules.