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News Index
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Natick Labs Inks Accord with Massachusetts Defense Technology Initiative, Eyes Private Sector (MetroWest Daily News)
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By Andrew J. Manuse/ Daily News Staff
Saturday, September 23, 2006
NATICK -- A new formal partnership has emerged from the defense of the U.S. Army Soldier Systems Center, which was among the installations preserved during last year's round of military base realignments.
Natick Labs and the Massachusetts Defense Technology Initiative, or MassDTI, signed a "cooperative research and development agreement" this week that creates a formal link between the base and the private sector.
During the base realignment and closure (BRAC) process, "We were making the case to the army that it was critical to maintain the soldier center to make use of (Massachusetts') technology cluster," Alan Macdonald, executive director of MassDTI, said yesterday. "Part of the feedback to that ... was that's a good point, but Natick (Labs) is not maximizing the value of its proximity to the regional technology cluster."
The state's defense industry cluster could involve up to 85,000 jobs, according to a count by Ranch Kimball, the state's secretary of economic development, in February.
The agreement is geared toward enhancing the Army's mission in Natick and fueling even more economic benefit to the region, according to Philip Brandler, director of Natick Labs.
With the agreement, Macdonald's organization will begin a five-month effort to identify how Natick Labs can pump its technologies into new private-sector products and how those innovations can help soldiers fighting in the desert.
One of those possible technologies is a "fashion world" system for measuring a person's size that would let consumers buy inexpensive, custom-fit clothing, according to Maxwell Morton, a technology consultant with Grayhead Associates in Wellesley, which is working with MassDTI on the project.
One of the technologies that could move the other way is the Army's system for making lightweight army helmets, which might be used to make lighter weight football or motorcycle helmets, he said.
MassDTI was awarded a $207,000 grant from the John Adams Innovation Institute at the state-funded Massachusetts Technology Collaborative in Westborough for the initial effort, Macdonald said. The result will be a new organization at Natick Labs, which will become independent of MassDTI. That new organization, which is yet to be named, will coordinate the exchange.
(Andrew J. Manuse can be reached at amanuse@cnc.com or 508-626-3964.)
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