The UMass Lowell Emerging Technologies Innovation Center will officially open next week.

The opening of the UMass Lowells 84,000-square-foot Emerging Technologies and Innovation Center (ETIC) is slated for next week.

Susan Windham-Bannister, president and COO of the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center told Mass High Tech that the $80 million education and research-based facility specializing in nanotechnology, molecular biology and plastics engineering, will not only support the university, it will position UMass Lowell as an integral member of the regions life sciences cluster and ultimately become a powerful resource for the entire state.

The North Shore has a very strong life science cluster, and with this investment, UMass Lowell is becoming a focal point for this cluster, said Windham-Bannister.

High on the list of facility assets is the nano-manufacturing research laboratories and clean room. These amenities equate to a $5 million-a-year operation is largely supported by federal grants.

In addition to high tech clean rooms, the facility located off VFW Highway in Lowell will also house a plastics-processing high bay. The facility mission is to educate students in the fields of life sciences, energy, national security and environmental protection and become a corporate and government-sponsored research site, a release states.

Officials said the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center will commit $10 million dollars and house nano medicine and biomaterial laboratories on the facilitys third floor.

We are very excited to not just support the university but to be creating a resource that will create value for the life sciences community more broadly, Windham-Bannister said.

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$80M research facility to open at UMass Lowell