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December 15, 2016

State awards $322K to eight Central Mass. incubators

Barbara Finer, CEO of TechSandBox.

Three incubators in MetroWest received a collective $105,375 in incubator grants from MassDevelopment as part of a funding round focused on community-based innovation and entrepreneurship from the financing agency.

TechSandBox of Hopkinton, Framingham State University Entrepreneurial Innovation Center, and the Revolution Factory of Maynard each won grant money from MassDevelopment to help them further their goals, whether it’s through expansion (Revolution Factory), infrastructure updates (TechSandBox), or site development (Framingham State).

Central Massachusetts incubators as a whole made up more than one-third of the $950,000 in funding awarded statewide as part of the inaugural round of the state’s Collaborative Workspace Program, announced Thursday by Gov. Charlie Baker. The funding has been split between fit-out awards for incubators to grow existing programs and seed awards to develop new programs. Awards to Central Massachusetts companies totaled $322,375.

The five regional incubators receiving fit-out awards are:

  • The WorcShop in Worcester received $100,000 to deepen its capacity to support art, innovation and creativity.

  • TechSandBox, Inc. in Hopkinton received $55,375 to improve infrastructure and create new prototyping capacity.

  • MassDIGI New Ventures Center at Becker College in Worcester received $50,000 to develop a publicly facing incubator lab at Becker.

  • The Worcester CleanTech Incubator received $23,500 to expand in the historic Printers Building.

  • Greater Gardner Business Incubator received $20,000 to grow jobs in North Central Massachusetts and redevelopment downtown Gardner by launching a new incubator and coworking space.

  • The three regional incubators receiving seed awards are:

    • The Creative Hub Worcester received $23,500 to develop a new visual arts makerspace, specifically funding predevelopment design and planning costs.

  • Framingham State University Entrepreneurial Innovation Center received $25,000 to fund predevelopment work to build a space which is a partnership between FSU and Workbar.

  • The Revolution Factory in Maynard received $25,000 to build out a makerspace at Mill and Main streets for designing, prototyping and small-scale manufacturing.


  • These projects were selected out of 62 applicants statewide, requesting $8.5 million in funding.

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