Aug 1, 2025 Featured Videos
Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey said establishing a public investment fund will bolster research jobs, a main driver of the state's economy, as the federal government cuts back. She also touches on Harvard's path forward on federal funding and how tariff uncertainty has impact Massachusetts relationship with major trading partner Canada.

Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey is proposing to spend $400 million to offset some of the Trump administration’s massive cuts to scientific research funding at Boston’s prestigious hospitals and at schools like Harvard University.
The plan would direct $200 million to the University of Massachusetts and other public colleges, funded through the state’s millionaire’s tax, according to an announcement by Healey’s office on Thursday. The remaining half would go into a fund administered by the state Development Finance Agency that would back research at hospitals, universities and other institutions.
Healey is also encouraging the private sector to help fill the gap. Venture capital firms, nonprofits and individual donors are being invited to contribute to a newly proposed Research Catalyst Fund, overseen by a state-appointed review board. Donors could earmark funding for specific projects or make general contributions to support “high-impact” research.
Eric Paley, co-founder of venture capital firm Founder Collective and an early Uber Technologies Inc. investor who is taking over as Healey’s economic development chief in September, said this week that he’s been in talks with Boston-area executives and investors about contributing to the effort. The focus is on research with the greatest potential for commercialization, he said in an interview, acknowledging that it’s not possible to backstop all of the lost federal funding.
“We have to get very creative right now,” Paley said. “I think it is a combination of private, public, nonprofit, foundation efforts around supporting those sectors.”
Healey has warned business leaders that it will likely be years before federal scientific funding returns to pre-Trump levels, saying the state needs to plan ahead to bolster its economy. The new spending would promote life-saving research as well as help fend off attempts by foreign institutions to recruit professors, scientists and other employees, according to the governor.
“With uncertainty in Washington, in the face of competition from places like China, we are stepping forward Massachusetts to lead,” Healey said at a news briefing in Boston. “We are not just going to survive. We are going to thrive like never, ever before.”