Worcester Business Journal

wbjournal.com | April 18, 2022 | Worcester Business Journal 13 ARCHITECTURE | PLANNING | DESIGN INNOVATION 50 Speen Street, Ste 300, Framingham, MA 01701 Photo: © Keitaro Yoshioka 617-467-3119 MATZCollaborative.com CREATIVE SPACES FOR LEARNING, GROWING AND SUSTAINING H E A L T H C A R E F O C U S Fiscal 2022 NIH funding breakdown at UMass Chan Funding area Dollar amount No. of awards Research project grants $38,783,912 79 Training $817,907 14 Research centers $558,914 1 Other research-related funding $3,191,589 9 Source: U.S. Department of Health & Human Services NIH Research Portfolio Online Reporting Tool Originally designed to assist the state's health and human services office with Medicaid and Medicare claims, the pro- gram has ballooned into a consultancy service for 26 states. "Across the board, we have so many huge projects going," Guertin said. "Many of them are grant-funded, and those grants require that we have a certain amount of researchers working on these projects. We have to have those individuals hired at the start of each proj- ect, so there's a huge push for us to have those individuals hired." e medical school is offering $2,000 sign-on bonuses for some full-time re- search lab positions and $1,000 for some part-time research jobs. "It's definitely not typical," Guertin said. "We need the researchers – we needed them yesterday. We're adding the bonus potential, even for part-time re- searchers and also for animal tech folks." From the start of the pandemic, UMa- ss was tapped to help tackle many facets of COVID-19, including testing and clinical trials for the vaccine. e school was one of four universities to receive a $100-million grant from NIH for its rap- id testing program, and it worked on all phases of the clinical trials for both the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines for COVID. To house its growing research ef- forts, UMass announced a nine-story, $325-million education and research building in the fall of 2020. It also opened a new 48,000-square-foot outpatient clinic for veterans in November. "Definitely, there's concerns about how that [is] going to get staffed when the university is already facing big challenges finding current staff to fill up the open positions," Caceres said of the education and research building, which is under construction. e new research building is on track to be a LEED Gold building, meaning its goal is to have a net-zero energy use, which requires hiring people with certifi- cation in green technology, Guertin said. A plan for recruitment Although both Worcester and Boston offer their fair share of talent from new college graduates, competition among healthcare recruiters is tight. UMass Chan must offer wages, benefits, and – for those not working remotely – a living situation which rivals the many medical and biotech jobs in Boston. "Although prices of real estate have gone up in the past few years, they're still significantly lower than in Boston and its surrounding areas, which will help recruit and retain workforce," said Alex Guardiola, vice president of government affairs and public policy at the Worcester Regional Chamber of Commerce. In the past year, UMass has raised wages and offered some retention bonuses to staff, which Caceres said has helped put UMass in a better place for recruitment. "Wages are really, really important and kind of the first step to trying to recruit and retain staff, but there's more to do," she said. "We are interested in improving and making changes in this [upcoming] contract, which are more related to just how it feels to come to work every day, about having a say and being able to participate in decisions about how work gets done." UMass kicked off its recruitment process for the 600 open positions with a career fair on March 30, which was attended by 230 individuals. So far, three positions are filled and a dozen inter- views are scheduled. e school's expansion, in both its personnel and physical footprint, will continue to be an economic driver for the Worcester region, Guardiola said. "It reinforces how important it is to have a UMass Chan in Worcester for our economic growth," he said. "It will help the entire city to grow and continue to be a competitor throughout New England and the country." NIH funding at UMass Chan Source: U.S. Department of Health & Human Services NIH Research Portfolio Online Reporting Tool 0 $100M $200M $300M $400M 0 100 200 300 400 Total funding Number of awards $130.35M $43.35M 312 103 '13 '14 '15 '16 '17 '18 '19 '20 '21 '22 Mental health counselors and animal technicians are two jobs in particularly high demand at UMass Chan. W

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