Advancing Job Creation Now 

In his recent annual address to the House of Representatives, Speaker DeLeo, citing missed opportunities when innovators like Mark Zuckerberg opt to start their companies elsewhere, called for a renewed commitment to grow jobs by reasserting the Commonwealth’s edge as home to the innovation economy.

To ensure that job creation remains the top legislative priority at the State House, the House and Senate Chairmen of the Joint Committee on Higher Education have put forth a creative proposal to continue pushing the jobs growth agenda in what Massachusetts does best – research and innovation.

The bill crafted by Representative Tom Sannicandro and Senator Michael Moore, An Act to Strengthen Research and Innovation in the Commonwealth, would invest $100 million in a matching grant fund that would be used to leverage more than $300 million in additional funding from private sources. This funding will better position the Commonwealth to maintain its standing as the global leader in cutting-edge research across a wide spectrum of industries and disciplines – in the sciences and engineering, from green technology to healthcare to robotics to game design to wherever research drives the next great discovery – and keep in Massachusetts the jobs that inevitably will flow from spin-off businesses evolving from such innovation.

The news from Washington, DC, remains disconcerting. Budget gridlock and debt reduction efforts require Congress to contemplate significant cuts to discretionary spending. This creates great uncertainty for academic medical centers and research universities, as such funding pressures undermine the Commonwealth’s competitive advantage and threaten our ability to cultivate long-term job growth. Although Massachusetts’ economy is emerging from the recession at a faster rate than the rest of the nation, any sustained growth is undeniably linked to the success of our research and innovation sectors. 

This matching grant fund is one way to help Massachusetts help itself – by reaping the benefits of the jobs and technological advancements provided by research and innovation.  Every $1 of state investment would be required to attract at least $3 in funding from private sources, including venture capital. That money would support projects located in Massachusetts, be used to hire employees from Massachusetts, and attract business that want to be located near groundbreaking research.  It would encourage the type of public-private partnerships among universities that led to the construction of the Massachusetts Green High Performance Computing Center in Holyoke. And the fund would help drive our competitive advantage in a knowledge-based economy – the brainpower being harnessed by our world-renowned public and private colleges and universities.

The Legislature should not – indeed cannot – miss this opportunity to continue growing jobs.  Speaker DeLeo is correct that Massachusetts has established itself as a world leader in innovative research.  And quick passage of this legislation would be a strong message to the rest of the world that Massachusetts intends to keep its competitive edge. 

Richard J. Doherty                           
President                               
AICUM, Inc.