MANCHESTER, NH – You don’t need to be a scientist, or even have a college degree, to be part of the emerging biofabrication regional effort that aims to make southern New Hampshire a global leader in the industry.
You don’t even have to know what biofabrication is to take advantage of training and jobs as the industry emerges.
Development of a biofab hub in Hillsborough County has been fueled by millions in federal grants, but one big key to its success is a resource that’s just as valuable – New Hampshire’s working people, backed by the manufacturing tradition that built the state’s two biggest cities.
Community-focused outreach includes a newly formed Equity Advisory Committee, two apprentice and training programs, and a STEM-MoBILE that will travel around the state providing information about biofabrication and job and training opportunities. “These initiatives are led by Advanced Regenerative Manufacturing Institute (ARMI) | BioFabUSA and coalition partners of the NextGen Manchester Resiliency Council.”
“Let’s level up the folks in the community,” Julie Lenzer, ARMI chief innovation officer, said. “Let’s give them some family-sustaining jobs.” Lenzer spoke with Ink Link Friday, a day after a community update that capped off the three-day Meeting in the Millyard 2024, a conference for those involved, or interested in, biofabrication industry development in the region.
The region’s biofab cluster – businesses focused on developing and manufacturing regenerative tissue and organs – is expected to create up to 9,000 jobs and more than 40,000 indirect jobs across southern New Hampshire in the coming years.
Manchester was awarded a $44 million Build Back Better Regional Challenge grant in 2022, but in the past year the effort has spread to the Nashua area as part of ReGen Valley Tech Hub, designated one of 31 inaugural Tech Hubs in the nation in October by the U.S. Department of Commerce.
“We saw a surge in demand [after the grant was announced], and we realized that Manchester itself is not going to be able to absorb itself in 10 years what’s going to happen here,” Lenzer said.
Many of the new jobs can be filled by people who live in the Manchester-Nashua area, and there’s a focus on making sure the word gets out.
The Equity Advisory Committee, chaired by Steve Thiel. Assistant Vice President of Community Impact at Southern New Hampshire University and recently joined by Flo Nicolas, is key to the effort. Nicolas, founder and chief innovation officer of Get Tech Smart, joined the NextGen Resiliency Council board earlier this year. She is also in line to become chief impact officer for ReGen Valley if it’s awarded a Tech Hub implementation grant as part of its recent designation.
As chief impact officer, Nicolas would track metrics in general, but also through an inclusive growth lens, Lenzer said.
“We don’t want to lose what makes New Hampshire special,” Lenzer said. “So, that’s part of the lens through which we’re eyeing this economic growth. How do we do it smart? And how do we do it with community engagement to make sure that we’re not leaving anyone behind?”
The Equity Advisory Committee is a big part of opening the community up to opportunities.
“It’s helping to make sure that the work that we’re doing in growing the industry is not leaving our local residents behind,” Lenzer said. “Especially the ones who may have not yet participated in STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) types of jobs.”
Some $2 million of the BBBRC grant money is earmarked to help build capacity with community organizations that serve under-represented populations “that we’re trying to get into our job pipeline,” Lenzer said.
The outreach will include everything from education on biofabrication to English as a second language training, and a lot more. That means partnering with organizations to “reach those folks who may otherwise not know what’s going on in the Millyard.”
Two apprenticeship programs funded by two federal grants are already reaping results. Thirteen apprentices of the Advanced Regenerative Manufacturing Institute | BioFabUSA inaugural Biofabrication Technician Apprenticeship Program recently earned certification after completing 159 hours of technical instruction. Manchester Community College and the University of New Hampshire-Manchester are partnering on the education components of the program, which is mostly funded by a U.S. Department of Defense grant, with the curriculum funded by the BBBRC grant. ARMI just launched a second apprenticeship program this year in partnership with Merrimack Manufacturing for Advanced Manufacturing Technicians. This two-year program includes college-level coursework and on-the-job training to prepare students for family-sustaining careers in advanced manufacturing.
These programs not only result in jobs, but also may prompt participants to go on to get associate or bachelor’s degrees in related fields, Lenzer said.
“What we’re finding is that it’s really just opening opportunities that people didn’t even know they had,” she said.
Participants don’t need a college degree to take part, and get a good job at the end of the program. “Such a large percentage of those jobs that we’ll be creating will be those manufacturing-level jobs,” she said.
To help spread the word, the STEM-MoBILE, a food truck converted into a mobile lab, was unveiled Thursday. The UNH-Manchester vehicle will travel around the state to expose students, and adults, to biofabrication – what it is and what the education and job opportunities and possibilities are.
Lenzer said that the aim of the traveling program is to meet people where they are. “If you can’t see it, you can’t be it. [Students] don’t even know it’s an option. I mean, how do they know?” Students who may otherwise leave for college, then not come back, as well as working people looking for a better job or income, may benefit from learning about the industry, she said.
Also underway is a transportation equity study conducted by the U.S. DOT Volpe Center and Deo Mwano Consultancy seeking feedback from Manchester community members about their experiences and challenges with transportation in the city. The study includes an online survey that organizers are encouraging Manchester residents, or those who work or spend time in the city, to take. The results will help form strategies to remove transportation barriers for underserved and marginalized populations who live and work in the area.
Building the biofab ecosystem
A more wide-spread result will come from the hoped-for Tech Hub grant, which would be between $40-$70 million. That grant would help build the ecosystem for regenerative technology, closing the gap between the origin end, which includes scientific research and development, to the to the final end – getting it to patients. The journey also includes development and manufacturing.
That funding would be the latest federal money boosting the regional biofab initiative.
The Department of Defense in March renewed a grant that began as $80 million in 2017, but was recently extended to $100 million. The grant provided $50 million over five years, with options for $10 million a year for the next five. It requires a cost-sharing match of funding and in-kind services that will be met, Maureen Toohey, ARMI deputy executive director, told a real estate industry conference earlier this month.
The defense department grant money is foundational, providing support to a “technology readiness level,” Lenzer said Friday. The BBBRC and potential Tech Hub grants bridge the gap.
“Now we have the full continuum to take great ideas and get them all the way to patients,” she said.
ReGen Valley Tech Hub has a consortium of more than 40 organizations, not only in the medical field but also in the community at large.
Building the ecosystem is also a community-focused effort.
“The community said, ‘Let’s make sure we do this right,’ and wanted to become part of the solution,” Lenzer said.
The consortium is a diverse group that includes organizations like the New Hampshire Center for Justice and Equity, Granite YMCA, Southern New Hampshire University, UNH, the state community college system, the New Hampshire Hospital Association, St. Anselm College, Franklin Pierce University, and more.
The Tech Hub grant would help build capacity for manufacturing, workforce development, support for small businesses and entrepreneurs, Lenzer said. That even stretches to things like supporting proposals for child care for employees of biofabrication companies.
The grant would also help generate access to capital, which is another major key. Lenzer said that while the capability for the biofab hub exists, the capacity isn’t yet in place to deal with the logjam of companies that want to be part of it.
“New Hampshire, the great state it is to live in, does not have the resources that other states like New York, California, have to put into [generating capital],” she said.
For instance, the state of Illinois recently invested $100 million in quantum technology. “In New Hampshire, we’re not going to get that,” Lenzer said. “So, we need to bring the private sector in, and we need to raise the funds, and provide the capital to these companies that they’re going to need to kind of get to the point that then the venture capitalists, the institutional funding, will be able to fund them.”
In general, the biofab cluster initiative is creating a “wraparound set of capabilities,” that began with ARMI, and has extended since then in a variety of ways that will help get it to the level that investors will come on board.
She said that they’re already seeing signs that investors are paying attention. An investment summit last October was sold out, and another one is planned for this Oct. 16.
The summit will “shine the light on what we’re doing and how this community is really stepping up to help these companies be successful.”
The recent New England Real Estate Journal session on ReGen Valley is an example on how the community at large is already taking ownership. Lenzer said that ARMI and NextGen didn’t plan the meeting, the real estate industry publication did.
Toohey, ARMI deputy executive director, told real estate industry stakeholders at the meeting that they were an important part of the initiative.
“The real estate component, along with the Economic Development Administration and Tech Hub designation, gives us the commercialization and place-based funding that is necessary for the ReGen Valley to become an epicenter for regenerative medicine,” Toohey said.
ARMI founder Dean Kamen urged the group of more than 120 to focus on what’s needed to keep the momentum that has built over the past year and a half a success.
“We now have proven that we are on the precipice of creating an entire new industry,” he said.
Thursday’s community update also drew more than 100, many of whom weren’t familiar with what was going on and wanted to find out more, Lenzer said. The session was originally scheduled for a smaller venue, but had to be moved because of the large response.
In addition to Lenzer, Nicolas, and Toohey, speakers were Ashley Marcoux, executive director, Next Manchester Resiliency Council, Jodie Nazaka, Manchester director of economic development; Steve Thiel, assistant vice president, community impact, SNHU; Shannon McCracken-Barber, Manchester CREATES project director, UNH-Manchester; Sydney Rollins, STEM-MoBILE project manager, UNH-Manchester.