LAWRENCE – Tuesday, March 8, 2022 – The Baker-Polito Administration today announced $2.8 million in new infrastructure grants through the Massachusetts Manufacturing Innovation Initiative or M2I2 to three growing manufacturers. The three grants were announced by Lt. Governor Karyn Polito and Housing and Economic Development Secretary Mike Kennealy during an event at 99Degrees Custom in Lawrence, a 375-employee manufacturer of tech-integrated apparel, which received nearly $1.1 million in new state support. Grants were also awarded to Soliyarn, a maker of smart textiles based in Belmont, and to Human Systems Integration (H.S.I.), a wearable technology company headquartered in Walpole.
FALL RIVER, MASS. — The Baker-Polito Administration today announced the first round of grants from the new Massachusetts Manufacturing Accelerate Program (MMAP), awarding $2,157,416 to 13 manufacturers from across the Commonwealth. The grants were announced by Housing and Economic Development Secretary Mike Kennealy and were managed by the Center for Advanced Manufacturing at MassTech Collaborative (CAM).
SEMI-FlexTech, a consortium working to advance manufacturing of printed flexible electronics, has awarded $920,696 in federal funds from a cooperative agreement with the Army Research Laboratory for development of the glove. The Massachusetts Manufacturing Innovation Initiative (M2I2), a state effort to advance manufacturing innovations and job growth through industry-academic collaborations, has awarded an additional $844,242 for the purchase of equipment at WPI and UMass Lowell that will be used to produce and test a prototype glove.
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.
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.
BOSTON – During a meeting of the Commonwealth’s Advanced Manufacturing Collaborative (AMC) on Wednesday, the Baker-Polito Administration announced that Massachusetts has been awarded a new $3.2 million grant from the U.S. Department of Defense’s Manufacturing Technology Program (DoD ManTech) to develop a manufacturing technician training program that will serve as a national model. During the meeting, Housing and Economic Development Secretary Mike Kennealy, a co-chair of the AMC, announced the award, known as “MassBridge,” which will develop and test a state-based training and career pathway model for manufacturing technicians that meets the talent needs of the national Manufacturing USA Institutes and their members.
CHICOPEE — Today, the Baker-Polito Administration announced a new grant totaling approximately $2,581,109 from the Massachusetts Manufacturing Innovation Initiative (M2I2) to support the development of a new advanced manufacturing center at Convergent Photonics in Chicopee, which is partnering with Western New England University (WNE) on the new facility. Called a ‘Lab for Education and Application Prototyping, or LEAP, the lab will focus on product development, training, and research in the field of integrated photonics, and will be the fourth lab of its kind in the state.
On Friday, February 14th, leaders of the M2I2 program traveled to Westfield to tour Peerless Precision, a small, woman-owned company that has benefitted from the Commonwealth’s grant program for advanced manufacturers.
The visit to Peerless included State Senator Eric Lesser, co-chair of the Legislature’s Manufacturing Caucus; Carolyn Kirk, Executive Director of the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative; and M2I2 program managers Ira Moskowitz and Farhad Vazehgoo. The facility tour was led by Kristin Carlson, President of Peerless Precision, a 30-employee shop that manufactures precision machined parts for the aerospace, defense, and medical devices industries, serving clients such as FLIR Systems, Eaton Aerospace, Aircraft Component Design, Inc., Zygo Corporation, and others. Many of the components manufactured are used in advanced fuel and engine systems, as well as high-tech thermal imaging gear.
BRIDGEWATER — Today, the Baker-Polito Administration announced two new grants totaling over $5.2 million from the Massachusetts Manufacturing Innovation Initiative (M2I2) to support the development of new advanced manufacturing technologies across the state. Lt. Governor Karyn Polito announced the new funding at an event hosted at the Dana Mohler-Faria Science and Mathematics Center at Bridgewater State University, which, along with partner Stonehill College, will host some of the new M2I2 program-funded infrastructure. The Lt. Governor also announced a grant to Human Systems Integration, Inc., of Walpole, to support its collaboration with UMass Lowell to evolve its garment-embedded physiological monitoring platform.
Hundreds gathered across the state last week to participate in the first ever Massachusetts Cybersecurity Week. Speaking at the Massachusetts Cybersecurity Forum on Thursday, Governor Charlie Baker put a capstone on the week when he announced $300,000 in new funding for a program to help municipalities improve their cybersecurity resiliency. The program will be managed by the MassCyberCenter.
