Designed to create hundreds of jobs and add up to $1 billion to Massachusetts’ gross domestic product by the start of 2030, MassBio’s five-year strategic plan addresses challenges including skill gaps and talent shortages.
By addressing skill gaps, talent shortages and diversity, equity and inclusion, Massachusetts can improve talent recruitment and retention, further bolstering its life sciences ecosystem and industrywide impact, according to MassBio’s five-year strategic plan released today.
Developed with McKinsey & Company, the Vision 2030 plan aims to create hundreds more biopharma and life sciences jobs and add up to $1 billion to Massachusetts’ gross domestic product by the start of 2030. The job creations are noteworthy given findings from a MassBioEd employment outlook report released in June. It found that while the state’s life sciences jobs grew by just 2.5% in 2023 compared to a 7.8% annual average increase from 2020 to 2022, they’re expected to go up 32% by 2033.
To achieve the goals laid out in its Vision 2030 plan, MassBio outlined six key opportunity areas for the Massachusetts life sciences industry. In addition to recruiting and retaining talent, those areas are:
- Scaling innovators
- Engaging investors
- Expanding “techbio”
- Building up biomanufacturing
- Radiating value and extending industry impact
4 Talent Recruitment, Retainment Challenges
In its Vision 2030 plan, MassBio identified four challenges the Massachusetts life sciences industry should address so it can best recruit and retain talent: skill gaps in an evolving industry, an entry-level talent shortage, a scarcity of executive talent and diversity, equity and inclusion.
Skill gaps in an evolving industry
Due to recent industry developments, MassBio noted, there’s need for new types of talent across the life sciences ecosystem, including in AI and digital innovation and technical drug development expertise.
- AI and digital innovation: According to MassBio, it remains challenging to find advanced analytics skills such as AI and machine learning in traditional R&D talent pools—skills that are becoming more important for life sciences. For example, a 2023 MassBioEd report shared that computing and IT jobs in the industry are expected to grow 49% from 2022 to 2032.
- Technical drug development expertise: “The rise of new technologies has led to a more complex clinical development and operations landscape,” MassBio said in the report. It added that production facilities management, regulatory affairs, quality control/quality assurance and information privacy skills are becoming increasingly important in life sciences job postings.
Entry-level talent shortage
In its Vision 2030 plan, MassBio reiterated its 2022 report finding that there’s a shortage of entry-level research associates, manufacturing technicians, quality control analysts, lab technicians and similar roles. The group largely attributed that shortage to small applicant pools as well as a lack of experience and industry-specific knowledge. Research associates were the most difficult entry-level position to fill at that time, with 52.5% of firms citing it as a challenge.
MassBio also noted in its Vision 2030 plan that advanced modalities’ emergence and R&D pipelines’ growing complexity are driving demand for specialized skills that exceed the supply of trained professionals.
Scarcity of executive talent
The Vision 2030 plan also highlighted another key finding from the MassBio 2022 report: a notable shortage of senior-level expertise within the industry. According to surveyed employers at that time, 94% had difficulty hiring for nonentry-level jobs, and 76% attributed that challenge to small applicant pools.
Massachusetts’ high cost of living and relatively poor infrastructure compared to other states could be further exacerbating the executive talent shortage, MassBio noted in the Vision 2030 plan.
Diversity, equity, inclusion
The life sciences industry needs to promote greater diversity, equity and inclusion throughout the ecosystem, especially in senior roles, MassBio noted in Vision 2030. A 2024 BioSpace diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging report supports that assertion. It found that while the workforce is diversifying, some populations are underrepresented, particularly at the executive level. According to the survey that served as the basis for the BioSpace report, 64% of executives were white/non-Hispanic, and 59% were men.
3 Talent Recruitment, Retainment Initiatives
To help recruit and retain talent, MassBio identified three initiatives in its Vision 2030 plan:
- Expand Bioversity across Massachusetts via regional nodes, providing skill-based drug development training programs based on regional specialization.
- Partner with academic and corporate stakeholders to create “techbio dojos” that provide programs and connectivity for upskilling life sciences employees on digital and technology adoption.
- In partnership with The Termeer Foundation, cultivate next-generation biotech chief experience officers (CXOs) to broaden and diversify the talent pool.
According to MassBio, these initiatives could potentially result in more than 500 skills-based trainees across Bioversity and techbio programs, over 200 rising-star biopharma CXOs and a talent map that identifies the Massachusetts life sciences ecosystem’s talent needs and gaps.
Positioning Massachusetts Life Sciences for Success
Through its Vision 2030 plan, MassBio is providing a roadmap for supporting the diverse founders and promising startups that hold the keys to the next breakthrough in disease treatment, the group’s CEO and president, Kendalle Burlin O’Connell, said in the Vision 2030 announcement.
“We are delivering a framework for ensuring that skilled talent remains the Commonwealth’s calling card,” she added. “Deep collaboration brought us to our enviable position, and I look forward to building on those partnerships to launch our industry into the next decade.”
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