UMass-Dartmouth, SMAST, and CIE

UMass Dartmouth’s School for Marine Science & Technology (SMAST) and Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (CIE) offer educational resources and a nexus point for industry leaders and the regional workforce in both marine sciences and technology. SMAST fosters relationships with regional industry, government, and nongovernmental agencies, including SRPEDD, on rising issues within the Blue Economy sector and related technological development. Furthermore, CIE provides an academic backdrop to foster innovation and facilities necessary to help early-stage companies and innovative ideas develop.

Stakeholders: University of Massachusetts (Dartmouth), SRPEDD, Private Stakeholders

Proposed Investments and Initiatives: SMAST provides industry collaborations, as well as research that guides local policymakers on offshore wind development, climate science, and sustainable fisheries. CIE offers lab and manufacturing facilities to serve burgeoning entrepreneurs, industry partners, and provide education and workforce development opportunities. The Biomanufacturing Laboratory supports local and startup companies through the process of product development. With the latest equipment, the Mechanical Prototyping Laboratory facilitates the development of design prototypes, enabling companies to demonstrate their technology to investors in order to obtain patents or test products before final manufacturing. Through the industrial outreach program, industry partners can commission research, generate technical solutions, build prototypes for field demonstration or commercial exhibition, or evaluate new products and processes.

Strengths

• Good, diverse infrastructure

• Competitive housing costs and new transit connections to Boston

• Strength in health care, manufacturing, value-added agriculture, and fishing

• Cities and large towns with growing and increasingly more diverse and educated populations

Weaknesses

• Despite gains, our workforce development efforts are not keeping pace with competitors and the modern economy

• Modern infrastructure investments – especially in ports, water, sewer, and broadband – are still required for more growth

Opportunities

• Improved educational attainment can be advanced through strategic workforce development that is tailored to the “biotech” manufacturing, MST-based, and health care industries

• Comparatively lower housing costs and improved transit connections to Boston can lead to vibrant TOD/mixed-use development and can continue to attract younger, more educated residents

• Our region has numerous remaining development sites where we can leverage state and federal infrastructure funding to encourage growth

Threats

• Perceptions of persistently high unemployment and low educational attainment