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BOSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The FQHC (Federally Qualified Health Center) Telehealth Consortium (the “Consortium”) has received a grant from the Digital Equity Fund of the Essex County Community Foundation in partnership with the Massachusetts Broadband Institute (MBI) at the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative. The $226,660 grant, funded by the Commonwealth’s “Partnerships for Recovery” initiative, will support a new Telehealth Navigator Program that will increase access to telehealth while also addressing digital equity in under-resourced communities located in Essex County, including Lynn, Salem, Peabody, and Gloucester.

WESTBOROUGH – In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Massachusetts Broadband Institute (MBI) at the MassTech Collaborative and KCST USA, the operator of the Commonwealth-owned MassBroadband 123 fiber optic network, are working with local internet service providers (ISPs) to offer new Wifi hotspots to municipalities that lack broadband access. Built off of the MassBroadband 123 network, this new service offers each unserved community a temporary 250 Megabit per second wireless hotspot, free of any monthly charge. This will allow unserved communities that do not have a completed broadband project to increase wireless broadband access for residents and students impacted by COVID-19 restrictions.

WESTBOROUGH - Today, the Massachusetts Broadband Institute (MBI) at MassTech Collaborative announced the extension of several digital equity programs launched through the “Partnerships for Recovery” efforts earlier this year. Supported with $9.2 million in economic recovery funds, the MBI launched public wireless hotspots in unserved towns in western and central Massachusetts and provided digital support for job seekers provided through the Mass. Internet Connect program.

HOLYOKE — Today, the Baker-Polito Administration celebrated the completion of Make Ready work, a four-year, coordinated effort to remove the largest obstacle to extending broadband access across 53 “Last Mile” communities in Western and Central Massachusetts. During a roundtable event hosted at the Massachusetts Green High Performance Computing Center (MGHPCC) in Holyoke, Governor Charlie Baker, Lt. Governor Karyn Polito, and Undersecretary of Community Development Ashley Stolba commemorated the milestone with executives from the utility companies, service providers, and construction contractors who comprised the Make Ready Working Group responsible for delivering high-speed internet access to the doorsteps of 28,000 households in these towns.

PITTSFIELD - Today, the Baker-Polito Administration announced a new grant totaling approximately $429,000 from the Massachusetts Manufacturing Innovation Initiative (M2I2) to support the development of new specialized equipment for testing the reliability and compatibility of spacecraft components by Electro Magnetic Applications, Inc. (EMA). Located at the Berkshire Innovation Center (BIC), EMA will have the only facility in the world capable of both performing testing on materials in a replicated space environment, and the only facility in the world able to design and manufacture the systems capable of producing the energy sources that can replicate the space environment here on earth.

FALL RIVER, MASS. — The Baker-Polito Administration today announced the first round of grants from the new Massachusetts Manufacturing Accelerate Program (MMAP), awarding $2,157,416 to 13 manufacturers from across the Commonwealth. The grants were announced by Housing and Economic Development Secretary Mike Kennealy and were managed by the Center for Advanced Manufacturing at MassTech Collaborative (CAM).

WORCESTER, MASS. – Today, the Baker-Polito Administration announced a new $999,963 grant from the Collaborative Research and Development Matching Grant program to support a new research center at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) focused on the security of semiconductors and hardware critical to key innovation industries. The new facility will enable a critical testbed for WPI and partners to work with private industry, utilizing new testing equipment that will be the first of its kind in the Northeast, plus will develop training programs to support the workforce needs of technology companies in the region.

CAMBRIDGE – Today, at the state’s first-ever Cybersecurity Forum, Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker announced the creation of the “Cybersecurity Growth and Development Center at the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative” - a new public center that will aim to connect the cybersecurity ecosystem and train new cybersecurity workers across the Commonwealth. To advise and steer the center, MassTech will convene a Cybersecurity Strategy Council made up of leaders from both the private and public sector. 

BOSTON – Governor Charlie Baker addressed the 2018 Massachusetts Cybersecurity Forum and announced new leadership for the MassCyberCenter, awards totaling $385,000 to support cyber workforce development, and a new public-private effort called ‘Cyber Resilient Massachusetts.’ The Forum convened over 200 top cybersecurity leaders from state government, the private sector and the state’s top research institutions.

Governor Baker welcomed U.S. Navy Captain Stephanie A. Helm as the first director of the MassCyberCenter at the Mass Tech Collaborative, a state effort initiated by Governor Baker to strengthen the Commonwealth’s cybersecurity ecosystem and to improve cyber-resiliency in the state. The Administration also announced the names of 19 executives that will make up the Cybersecurity Strategy Council.