Overview
The Massachusetts Life Sciences Center (MLSC) has various programs that provide loans, grants, and tax incentives to industrial organizations and nonprofit entities to encourage the expansion and vitality of the life science sector in Massachusetts. Except where otherwise indicated, the following program descriptions are excerpted from MLSC’s website.
Programs for Academic and Nonprofit Organizations
Capital Program
The Competitive Capital Program is designed to provide grants for capital projects that support the life sciences ecosystem in Massachusetts by enabling and supporting life sciences workforce development and training, research and development, commercialization and/or manufacturing in the Commonwealth. Applicants are academic organizations, research institutions, research hospitals, business incubators and other non-profit organizations. MLSC recognizes that investment in capital projects and infrastructure is required to create and sustain the attributes that make Massachusetts attractive to innovation clusters such as life sciences. This program is designed to help fund high potential economic development projects that promise to make a significant contribution to the state’s life sciences ecosystem.
Cooperative Research Matching Grant Program
According to the press release “Massachusetts Life Sciences Center Announces New Round of Cooperative Research Matching Grants,” issued June 26, 2015,
The MLSC’s Cooperative Research Matching Grants seek to increase industry-sponsored research at academic institutions in Massachusetts in order to accelerate scientific discoveries that lead to commercially viable products and treatments. Under the program, applicants may receive up to $500,000 over two years. The grants support research that could lead to life-saving therapies and commercialized products, and seek to further the goal of sustaining and growing the state’s vital life sciences ecosystem.
STEM Equipment and Supplies Grant Program
The STEM Equipment and Supplies Grant Program enables the purchase of equipment and supplies for high schools and middle schools in the Commonwealth in order to train students in life sciences technology and research, as well as addresses a funding gap in capital dollars for public and not-for-profit workforce training and educational institutions. The program also seeks to increase student achievement and student interest in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math), as well as support the implementation of state STEM standards.
The program also offers funding for teacher professional development to ensure that all recipient schools have teachers that are trained to use the equipment and have access to relevant curricula that deploy the equipment in labs and activities that support learning goals throughout the academic year.
Programs for Industry
Life Sciences Accelerator Loan Program
The Accelerator Loan Program is a funding program intended for early-stage life sciences companies in Massachusetts. Accelerator loans bridge the gap in a company’s capital-raising lifecycle, providing the company with time and resources to advance to a point at which it would become a good candidate for private investment. . . .
Applicants are early-stage life sciences companies with a high potential for technology commercialization, rapid growth, and private equity financing. For therapeutics companies, the applicants should not have raised more than $15 million in total equity financing. For non-therapeutics companies, the applicants are companies that have raised no more than $7.5 million in total equity financing.
High School Apprenticeship Challenge
The Massachusetts Life Sciences Center (MLSC) High School Apprenticeship Challenge facilitates and funds paid internship opportunities for high school students throughout the Commonwealth. Since the program first launched in 2016, the MLSC has supported 106 internships at 49 life sciences companies and research institutions.
The program also offers an after-school laboratory training program for select school districts during the spring that aims to better prepare students for summer internships.
Internship Challenge
The Massachusetts Life Sciences Center’s Internship Challenge is a workforce development program focused on enhancing the talent pipeline for Massachusetts companies engaged in life sciences. The program facilitates the placement of college students and recent graduates who are considering career opportunities in the life sciences in paid internships across the state. Consistent with the MLSC’s role as a catalyst in growing the talent needed by the life sciences industry, the program is designed to create hundreds of new internship opportunities each year by enabling small businesses to hire paid interns.
Objectives of the Internship Challenge include expanding the pool of prospective employees who have practical experience, enhancing opportunities for mentoring, enabling more students to explore career opportunities despite the challenging economic environment, and providing to students interested in working in the life sciences a peer network through educational and informational networking events.
Life Sciences Tax Incentive Program
In order to expand life sciences–related employment opportunities, promote health-related innovations and stimulate research and development, manufacturing and commercialization in the life sciences, the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center [offers] tax incentives to companies engaged in life sciences research and development, commercialization and manufacturing in Massachusetts. The primary goal of the program is to incentivize life sciences companies to create new long-term jobs in Massachusetts.
According to MLSC’s Life Sciences Tax Incentive Program Solicitation No. 2017 TAX-01, issued December 14, 2017,
The Life Sciences Tax Incentive Program is a set of ten different tax incentives which address the significant expenditures associated with the life sciences [research and development] cycle and the high costs of translating research into commercially viable products. Several of these tax incentives are refundable, enabling an awardee to receive cash from the Commonwealth, even if no income tax is paid. The incentives offered under this Solicitation may only be claimed after July 1, 2018 (including, without limitation, the calculation of estimated taxes).
The Program consists of the following incentives:
- Life sciences investment tax credit (pursuant to 62 MGL 6[m] and 63 MGL 38U)
- FDA user fees credit (pursuant to 62 MGL 6[n] and 63 MGL 31M)
- Extension of net operating losses from 5 to 15 years (pursuant to 63 MGL 30, section 17)
- Elimination of throwback provision in calculation of sales tax (pursuant to 63 MGL 38[f], section 6)
- 90% refund of already-available excess §38M research credits (pursuant to 63 MGL 38M[j])
- §38W life sciences research credit (pursuant to 63 MGL 38W)
- Deduction for qualified orphan drug expenses (pursuant to 63 MGL 38V)
- Designation as [a research and development] company for sales tax purposes (pursuant to 63 MGL 42B, section 3)
- Sales tax exemption for certain property (pursuant to 64H MGL 6[xx]) [sic]
- Life sciences jobs incentive refundable credit (pursuant to Chapter 68 of the Acts of 2011, outside sections 63, 65, 70, and 211)
Massachusetts Ramp-Up Program
The Massachusetts Ramp-Up Program (MassRamp) promotes excellence in innovative solutions in the life sciences ecosystem and aims to bridge the funding gaps associated with the long-life sciences [research and development] cycle and the high cost of translating research into commercially viable products.
MassRamp leverages federal resources by providing supplemental funding for companies who have been awarded Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) or Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Phase I Federal Grants / Contracts to:
- support activities that cannot be covered by a federal grant (such as [intellectual property] protection);
- provide additional resources when federal funds are insufficient to complete an approved federal project;
- expand the scope of the federal grant provided that the proposal to MLSC is based on the same technology approved in the federal award.
Massachusetts Transition and Growth Program
The Massachusetts Transition and Growth Program (“MassTAG”) will provide grant funding to encourage companies to establish operations in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, the world’s leading ecosystem for life sciences innovation and growth.
Critical objectives for this program are job creation, scientific advancement that will benefit patients and further growth of the Massachusetts life sciences ecosystem. The program will focus on companies that do not initially qualify for the MLSC’s tax incentive program due to a lack of existing operations in the Commonwealth.
Other Programs
Life Sciences Milestone Achievement Program
According to MLSC’s Life Sciences Milestone Achievement Program (MAP) Solicitation for fiscal year 2015,
The Life Sciences Milestone Achievement Program (MAP) is a new program created to address the need of early-stage life sciences companies to reach critical value-creating scientific or business related milestones. In addition, the program’s goals are to fill a gap in the existing funding environment and to enable companies to attract additional outside funding. The MAP will fund grants to Massachusetts companies to support their work toward completion or fulfillment of scientific and business milestones, e.g. prototype development, clinical testing, legal filings, and business plan development. Successful completion of the milestone is expected to contribute to the overall development of the company or technology, as well as create value for the company. Companies applying to the program must be in the fields of life sciences, which include bioinformatics, biopharmaceuticals, biotechnology, diagnostics, and medical devices.
Massachusetts Next Generation Initiative
The Massachusetts Next Generation Initiative (MassNextGen) is a five year, $1 million commitment to ensure greater gender parity in the next generation of life science entrepreneurs. Increasing the number of successful entrepreneurs is in the best interest of the entire life science industry and as such, this initiative is a public-private partnership between the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center and our initial corporate sponsor Takeda.
Each year, following a competitive program, women-led early-stage life science companies will be awarded a year-long customized package of support, which includes non-dilutive grant funding and access to a network of seasoned Executive Coaches from the life sciences ecosystem to refine their business strategies and effectively raise capital.
National Institute for Innovation in Manufacturing Biopharmaceuticals
In 2016, the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center announced its partnership in the nation’s first biomanufacturing innovation institute, known as the National Institute for Innovation in Manufacturing Biopharmaceuticals (NIIMBL). The Center has committed up to $20 million for five years as an anchor to the northeastern node for the biopharmaceutical manufacturing project. The NIIMBL project is regionally led by a consortium of small, medium and large biopharmaceutical industry partners from across the supply chain, along with Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Quincy College, UMass Lowell, UMass Medical School, and the Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI). . . .
The NIIMBL mission is to accelerate biopharmaceutical manufacturing innovation, support the development of standards that enable more efficient and rapid manufacturing capabilities, and educate and train a world-leading biopharmaceutical manufacturing workforce, fundamentally advancing U.S. competitiveness in this industry.
NIIMBL relies on its members to shape the direction of its research and provide expertise in diverse areas of biopharmaceutical manufacturing. The investment, engagement and collaboration of its members allows NIIMBL to advance biopharmaceutical manufacturing, solve industry challenges and develop a highly-skilled workforce.
Neuroscience Consortium
The Consortium, the formation of which was announced in June of 2012 at the Bio International Convention, will fund pre-clinical neuroscience research at Massachusetts academic and research institutions. . . .
In July of 2013, the MLSC announced the first round awardees under the Consortium including three grants focused on Alzheimer’s Disease, two grants focused on neuropathic pain, and one grant each focused on Multiple Sclerosis and Parkinson’s Disease. For this second round, the Consortium has expanded the diseases of interest and is seeking proposals focused on neurodegenerative and neuroinflammatory diseases (such as [Alzheimer’s disease], [Parkinson’s disease], [multiple sclerosis], Huntington’s [disease], [amyotrophic lateral sclerosis]), neuropathic pain and treatment-resistant depression).
Consortium Members have pooled their resources to fund the identification and validation of novel targets for the symptomatic treatment and modification of these chronic and debilitating neurological diseases. All proposals must be anchored in recognized human disease genetics and pathophysiology, or within pathways of known relevance to human disease, and should be translational, rather than exploratory.
According to MLSC’s annual audit report for fiscal year 2017,
In June 2012, the Center [MLSC] announced the formation of . . . the Massachusetts Neuroscience Consortium (the “Consortium”), a collaboration between seven global pharmaceutical companies. . . . The Center is not a member of the Consortium and makes no financial contribution to the Consortium. . . . The designated members of the Consortium are responsible for all decisions regarding disbursement of funds. The Center acts solely as a custodian of the Consortium funds.
Universal Partnerships Program
The UP program will fund grants to Massachusetts companies to support milestone-based [research and development] collaborations with any international organization. Successful completion of the milestone is expected to contribute to the overall development of a new or significantly improved product or process intended for commercialization. Applicable collaborations must be in the fields of life sciences, which include biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, medical devices, diagnostics and bioinformatics.
| Date published: | February 14, 2018 |
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