Dynamic Pool of Program Managers

Massachusetts has the most skilled talent pool to supply the quality & quantity of program managers that ARPA-H will need. This strong network of researchers, practitioners, and leaders will not only be an excellent pipeline of talent but will also contribute their existing connections to the world’s top research organizations.

  • Massachusetts is home to nearly 120 colleges and universities, with 375,000 undergraduates and 136,000 post-graduate students enrolled annually
  • MA centers of higher education & research institutes received $1.52 billion in NIH funding in 2020
  • Between 2018 and 2020, MA universities filed 5,490 new inventions and licensed 1,061 patents
  • In the last ten years, Massachusetts universities have spun out over 500 companies
  • A regional network of community colleges, technical & vocation schools, and nonprofits offer broad access to life science career training

The Hub of Research & Development

We are producing the people, places, and partnerships harnessing the powers and possibilities of science and technology benefiting patients globally.

  • Highest number of scientific Nobel Prize winners per capita
  • 7,085 postsecondary Life Sciences Degree Graduates in Massachusetts in 2020
  • Doctoral and master’s postsecondary completions made up nearly 27% (nationally only 18%) of total life sciences degrees in MA over the 2018 to 2020 period
  • 90,000+ life science workers in Massachusetts
  • Healthcare & life science employees make up 20% of the state workforce
  • Massachusetts-based companies represent 14% of the US drug development pipeline & 7% of the global pipeline

Our talent is taking on the ideas so bold no one else is willing to give them a chance. They are doing it in the 21.6 million sq ft of lab space built over the past decade, our 100+ incubators, accelerators, and coworking spaces, and our state-of-the-art core facilities which are the envy of the world.

U.S. News and World Report has Harvard and MIT ranked in the top 5 schools in biological and biomedical sciences in 2022, with graduate programs at those same schools across a variety of life sciences specialties spanning genomics to bioinformatics also ranked in the top 5.

Boston University, UMass Amherst, Tufts University, Northeastern University, Brandeis University, and Boston College each generated more than 750 graduates in life sciences degree programs over the 2018-2020 period.


Healthcare Innovation & Research

Patients from around the globe come to Massachusetts to seek care for some of the most complex and rare conditions. ARPA-H can draw from this excellent staff of expert program managers and researchers who regularly rotate between hospitals, research institutes, academic institutions and industry, to create a collaborative environment for innovation.

  • 6,000 clinical trials currently active across Massachusetts’ 100+ hospitals, of which about 2,500 are focused on cancer
  • Nation’s #1 largest hospital-based research enterprise, Mass General Research Institute, comprised of over 9,500 researchers working across more than 30 institutes, centers, and departments
  • Over 5,500 principal investigators and 3,800 post-doctoral fellows
  • Cancer, infectious disease, and diabetes are key focus areas for the Boston Medical Center’s Health Equity Accelerator, working to eliminate the race-based health equity gap
  • Beth Israel’s Joslin Diabetes Center is the world’s leading diabetes care and research center and one of the only institutions in the nation focused solely on the treatment and research of diabetes
  • Governor Baker’s administration & MA hospitals have worked to place equitable care and coverage as a core part of the Medicaid payment model
  • All of the top MA hospitals have signed on together to an initiative focused on diversifying governing boards, leveraging their voice for health equity in policy decisions and sharing best practices for anti-racism and DE&I