Senate plan boosts investment in sciences

Senate leaders, worried that Massachusetts is lagging in science and technology, will unveil plans today for a $50 million life sciences program and a state office charged with bringing high-speed Internet access throughout the Commonwealth.

The initiatives, included in a $500 million economic development package the Senate expects to take up this week, stem from a growing concern among lawmakers that Massachusetts needs to do far more to attract high-tech companies and to ensure its graduates are prepared to enter the 21st-century workforce.

''Right now, whatever we're doing is falling woefully south of where we need to be as it relates to our competitiveness internationally," Senate President Robert E. Travaglini said in an interview yesterday.

The Senate proposals will add to a debate already raging on Beacon Hill and beyond about how Massachusetts can keep pace with other states that have invested more aggressively in the sciences, and with Asian countries that many believe place a far greater emphasis on math and science in schools. Governor Mitt Romney, for example, rarely talks about education without expressing fear of falling behind India and China.

The life sciences center the Senate is proposing would be an entity similar to the Massachusetts Office of Business Development, which gives grants, loans, and other financing to companies looking to build in the state.

A key component of the initiative is a $35 million investment in a proposed facility at the University of Massachusetts at Lowell for nanotechnology and biotechnology, where university researchers and private companies would work toward commercializing and manufacturing various technologies, said state Senator Steven C. Panagiotakos, the Lowell Democrat who helped craft the plan.

He cited as an example: A researcher figures out how to prevent or delay rust from developing on a car, and uses the UMass-Lowell facility to help bring the technology to the market. Panagiotakos said he hopes new Massachusetts-based companies are born out of efforts like this.

The facility would cost about $80 million; the rest of the money would come from the university, through borrowing and private fund-raising, Panagiotakos said. It could be up and running in as soon as three years.

In addition, the Senate proposal calls for $10 million toward a smaller, similar facility at UMass-Dartmouth.

''We're behind a lot of states in investing in new technology," said Panagiotakos. ''The competition is just from everywhere now."

The Senate plan would also dedicate $2 million to study how to make broadband or wireless Internet available from Pittsfield to Provincetown, and it calls for spending $250,000 a year to fund a new entity, the Wireless and Broadband Affairs Office. The proposal calls for a report back to the Legislature and the governor's office by April 2006.

Other cities, notably Philadelphia and San Francisco, are already working toward citywide wireless networks, but no states have yet done it, said Frank Hanzlik, managing director of the Wi-Fi Alliance, based in Texas. Hanzlik said the fears of falling behind are well-founded: South Korea, for example, has invested heavily in providing widespread broadband access and is now reaping the economic benefits, he said.

''They certainly seem to have very much embraced it," he said.

Along with the Internet and life sciences center initiatives, the Senate plan would allocate new funding for math and science education -- $4 million a year for a program dedicated in part to teacher training, and $1 million over five years for student internships in engineering and other high-tech companies.

''If we don't have a prepared workforce, and if we don't get them at an early age, then we could wish for all those jobs that we want in technology and in the life sciences, but the companies won't locate here because we don't have a skilled workforce and an educated workforce," said state Senator Jack Hart, a South Boston Democrat who helped craft the Senate plan.

The full Senate is expected to take up the overall economic development bill, called the Commonwealth Investment Plan, tomorrow. Another component of the plan that has drawn attention is $55 million in transit and road improvements to the Fenway Park area. The House has an alternative spending plan.