Healey urges 'stake in the ground' with $400M investment in higher ed, med research

Ella Adams | 10.31.25

BOSTON — Higher education, biopharma and business leaders argued Thursday, Oct. 30, that while $400 million is likely not enough to fill gaps in the higher ed and medical research sectors left by federal cuts, lawmakers need to sign onto the governor's plan to ensure Massachusetts doesn't fall behind in the sectors it touts the most.

"Four hundred million dollars is short money to charge our economy. There are so many needs out there, and we are spending so much time thinking about the various pots, the various places that we're going to go to deal with the Medicaid cuts, and to deal with the infrastructure cuts, and to deal with SNAP," Gov. Maura Healey told lawmakers Thursday after announcing that morning that she will advance $4 million to food banks in the midst of potential food aid cuts starting Saturday, Nov. 1.

"This isn't meant to be a one-time Band-Aid as much as it's meant to be a stake in the ground," Healey said. "This will help us hold on to people, keep them from going. Because once people go, they're not coming back. And when people go, entrepreneurs, founders, companies, go, along with hope for families looking for those lifesaving cures."

Healey filed her Discovery, Research and Innovation for a Vibrant Economy (DRIVE) bill (H 4375) on July 31, petitioning the Legislature for state investment in medical research and higher education in order to remain nationally and globally competitive.

Healey's bill would funnel $200 million from the interest generated by the state's Stabilization Fund to a one-time multiyear research funding pool to support research projects at hospitals, universities and independent research institutions. Another $200 million would be placed into a higher education bridge funding reserve, funded by the income surtax paid by wealthier households and meant to provide public higher education campuses with support for research costs.

The Review Opportunity Board, a body that would be created by the bill, would be able to create a way for the state to get back some of its return on these investments, Administration and Finance Secretary Matthew Gorzkowicz said when asked about whether the state could reinvest in the sector in a revolving manner.

As the federal-state relationship shifts, Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation President Doug Howgate said something like Healey's bill needs to be done "as a bridge," considering rapid changes to funding streams the state has long relied on, naming the research grant funding structure that has existed since World War II as an example.

"We know we want to stay number one. We know we need to foster those strong relationships between public higher ed, private higher ed, research, the tech sector," Howgate said. "How do we create some of that connective tissue? Those conversations continue to be ongoing. And I think when you look at the advisory councils that are created within this bill, we look at the conversations that have been going on in those efforts, you're seeing that muscle memory being built."

Economic Development Secretary Eric Paley told lawmakers that he believes that $400 million will make a "very, very large impact."

"I'm challenging everyone as we talk about DRIVE to start thinking about it like seed investors," Paley said. "Seed investors don't fund the later stages that are enormous dollars, and they don't fund the entire life cycle of a company — they think about, what can they invest in where there are clear milestones that will potentially generate commercial interest or other sustainable funding sources to support programs? That's how we have to do it."

Cuts to federal funding won't just touch the institutions of higher education and medical research it directly supports, but also businesses that operate in the same ecosystem, Associated Industries of Massachusetts CEO Brooke Thomson said.

Thomson said the impact of the loss of federal funding "stands to have the exact same type of impact on small and microbusinesses that we saw with COVID," from small biotech startups to advanced manufacturing suppliers.

Grants for invasive species climate research at UMass Amherst, fisheries research at UMass Dartmouth, human-AI decision-making research at UMass Lowell and Braille instruction work at UMass Boston are also in distress, university leadership told lawmakers Thursday.

UMass Chan Medical School in Worcester specifically has 55 grant submissions that have gone through the study section and council process, which would usually mean that the money would be out the door by now, Chancellor Michael Collins said.

"Thirty-four million dollars worth of grants are being held up. Over the life of those grants, it would be $171 million," he continued. "Today, we have 284 grant applications that are in the NIH inbox. Government is closed. Nobody's reading them. $140 million in first-year costs. $635 million over the entire grant period."

UMass Chan has had to lay off hundreds of employees, Collins said, and had to rescind some graduate school admissions because the university wasn't sure it would have enough grant funding in the future.

Asked how UMass would determine which programs and research would receive funding through state investment, UMass President Marty Meehan said UMass will have a "system."

"To be candid with you, if we don't have a merit-based system to determine wherever this money should go, we're no better than the people in Washington," Meehan said. "We have a system set up where we're going to have a professional look at the investment areas, what has the greatest potential for economic and societal success. Where are they in the grant process?"

Responding to Republican concerns about job loss in the bio and tech sectors, empty lab spaces and the use of public funds that could create benefits for for-profit companies, MassBIO CEO and President Kendalle Burlin O'Connell emphasized that the biopharma industry contributes $42 billion to GDP annually, and said that if the state doesn't continue to invest in innovation, it "will cede innovation to China absolutely within two years."

"This is part of continuing to fuel our innovation pipeline. Is $400 million enough? Probably not. But it's something to help fill the gap with some of these grants that are on the cusp of spinning out into companies and creating those jobs," O'Connell said.

"This is not just important to our economy and for continuing to maintain our leadership position in the industry, but to send a message globally that we are deeply invested in contributing here," she added.