On the DRIVE Initiative and a new advisory commission to advance R&D in Massachusetts
MIT is grateful for the leadership and dedication demonstrated by Governor Maura Healey and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in launching the Discovery, Research and Innovation for a Vibrant Economy (DRIVE) Initiative aimed at helping to sustain crucial research and jobs threatened by federal cuts. America’s economic strength, scientific leadership, and national security depend on world-class research institutions like MIT, and it is heartening to see the state taking action to help ensure that this vital source of American strength is not diminished or lost.
The Governor has also announced a new Advisory Commission on Advancing Research and Discovery in Massachusetts, a body put together to look at long-term solutions to sustaining the state’s research ecosystem. We welcome a longer-term conversation about how to ensure the Commonwealth’s leadership role in research and innovation going forward.
The Commonwealth’s commitment to helping the region’s colleges and universities, medical research centers and other research institutions is critical. Still, it’s important not to overlook – as the governor’s announcement points out and as President Sally Kornbluth has been emphasizing in D.C. – that continued federal investment in research and universities is essential to American innovation.
“With the DRIVE Initiative, Governor Healey provides a welcome endorsement of the Commonwealth’s ‘eds-and-meds’ ecosystem, which benefits all of us in Massachusetts,” said Kornbluth as part of the announcement. “And of course, advances that spring from our universities, hospitals and laboratories benefit all Americans; if we see these institutions diminished or compromised, all Americans stand to lose. At MIT, our work is crucial to America’s economic strength, global scientific leadership, and national security. Though no other source can replace federal funding for sheer scale, I applaud the Governor’s announcement of a new advisory commission to find ways to sustain the Commonwealth’s leadership in research, education and innovation for decades to come.”
Driving the success of American innovation
For more than 150 years, MIT has produced an unending stream of advancements with a focus on real-world impact. MIT research and the Institute’s strong support for entrepreneurship contribute to the state’s thriving startup ecosystem across key industries including manufacturing, construction, and heavy industry; health and biotech; energy for power and industrial heat; semiconductors, photonics, quantum, and telecommunication; robotics, automation, and logistics; and emergency response, national security, and defense.
About 200 active companies headquartered in Massachusetts are the result of MIT research and innovation. In 2015, Sloan Professors Edward Roberts and Fiona Murray published a report detailing how the Institute’s alumni entrepreneurs have created more than 30,000 active companies, employing 4.6 million people, and generating annual global revenues of $1.9 trillion, a figure greater than the gross domestic product (GDP) of the world’s 10th-largest economy, as of 2014.
The direct and catalytic impact of the higher education sector on the economic vitality of the Commonwealth is significant, as noted in a recent report by the Association of Independent Colleges and Universities in Massachusetts (AICUM), of which MIT is a member: “AICUM members’ aggregate annual statewide economic impact is $71.1 billion, supporting over 320,000 jobs… [and that] economic activity results in $2.4 billion a year in state tax revenues.”
Additionally, research universities like MIT contribute significantly to the strength of the U.S. economy. A recent study by researchers from Texas A&M University found that government-funded, non-defense R&D yields economic returns of 140% to 210%, well above estimated returns for private sector R&D of about 55%. Additionally, analysis by the organization United for Medical Research suggests that each $1.00 of NIH-funded research in fiscal year 2023 generated $2.46 in new economic activity.
You can watch the full announcement of the DRIVE Initiative here.