During her remarks at the World Medical Innovation Forum, Governor Maura Healey announced new application rounds of MLSC programming for Research Infrastructure, Bits to Bytes, Novel Therapeutics Delivery, and the Women’s Health Initiative. The MLSC is adding an additional layer of equity to these returning programs during the application process, asking applicants to not only consider gender diversity, but other overlooked factors such as race, geography, and other social determinants of health.
Since its inception, the MLSC has administered competitive capital programs to provide grants for projects totaling approximately $600 million that support the life sciences ecosystem in Massachusetts. In recent years, the Center designed its programming to address additional focus areas, such as women’s health, therapeutics delivery, and data science. This enables MLSC funding to further drive innovation in these sectors, as well as industry and academic collaboration.
The Center is also launching a new Health Equity program to provide smaller grants in areas around health equity, such as clinical trial recruitment, studying conditions which affect underrepresented populations, and ensuring datasets have representation from diverse groups.
The Governor also announced $19.8 million in MLSC funding to support 15 projects driving innovation in R&D, data science, drug delivery, and women’s health. Read more on the announcement here.
