Milestone Achievement Program – MAP

The Milestone Achievement Program (MAP) is designed to address the needs of early-stage life sciences companies by providing grant funding to execute critical, value-creating technical milestones. This program aims to fill a gap within the existing funding environment to enable early stage companies to attract additional follow on funding.  The Massachusetts Life Sciences Center recognizes that many innovative companies are a milestone away from reaching an inflection point to further the success of the technology, and advance the company overall.

Up to $2M in funding is available for this program year. The highly competitive MAP will provide awards of up to $200,000 in non-dilutive grant funding to Massachusetts companies who propose the completion of a technical milestone, which has been informed by investors and/or board members. Examples of fundable milestones may include: prototype development, technology assessments, manufacturing process, pre-clinical work, clinical trials, market analysis, competitive assessments, and regulatory strategy design.

Interested applicants are required to submit an online application via the MLSC application portal. Application are due no later than December 14, 2018 at 12:00 P.M. (noon) EST.  In order to be eligible for this program, the Applicant must meet the following criteria:

• Applicant must be a for-profit corporation, limited liability company, sole proprietorship, limited liability partnership, or partnership located in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, which is registered to do business in Massachusetts, and in good standing (an eligible Certificate of Good Standing from the Department of Revenue and the Secretary of State is required)
• Applicant must be a life sciences company in the area of bioinformatics, biopharmaceuticals, biotechnology, diagnostics, medical devices, and digital health
• Applicant must have raised/received as of the date of the application:
  • At least $50,000 and no more than $5,000,000
    • No MLSC funding may be included to meet the minimum threshold
    • No more than $100,000 in non-convertible debt
    • No more than $1,000,000 in equity or convertible debt
• Applicant must outline and describe a new milestone to be achieved with Center funds
• Applicant must have engaged with potential future investors to demonstrate an understanding of what may be required for follow on investment once completing the milestone
• Applicant must be able to issue its own equity (stock or units of ownership) if majority owned (50% or more) by a parent company
• Applicant must have one full time equivalent (FTE) employee
• Applicant must be in compliance with all other Center agreements, if any
• Applicant must not be a Center Accelerator Loan Awardee

The MAP Application is available beginning Tuesday, October 2, 2018 via an online portal. The application will be open until Friday, December 14th at 12:00pm (noon) Eastern Standard Time.

The MLSC manages the MAP award through a rigorous review process:

Upon submission of an online application, an administrative review will be conducted to ensure eligibility criteria has been met. Eligible applications will then proceed to the formal review process by a Scientific Advisory Board (SAB), which is comprised scientific and industry experts. High scoring ranked applicants may be asked questions for further clarification, prior to an in-person presentation to our SAB. Finalists will then move on for a review by the MLSC’s Investment Committee, who will have an opportunity to hear the companies present their proposal. Decisions will be made by the Center’s Board of Directors for approval by May 2019.

The MAP is now accepting applications for 2018! Read our solicitation to review eligibility criteria and for more details on the program.

If you have further questions regarding the program, please email the Industry team at: map@masslifesciences.com