SECTION 1. Chapter 15A of the general laws, as appearing in the 2014 Official Edition, is hereby amended by adding the following section:-

Section 42. (a) There shall be established within the department of higher education, a higher education matching grants program to provide funding to public institutions of higher education, as set forth in section 5 or non-profit research institutions headquartered in the Commonwealth working in partnership with the public institutions referenced in section 5, to meet the matching contribution requirements as specified by the awarding federal agency, foundation, or other non-state funding entity.

The purpose of the program is to: (1) expand access and availability of federal and corporate research funding for both basic and applied research at public institutions of higher education; (2) enable faculty and staff to successfully compete for external funding and to increase their research capabilities; (3) improve the research capabilities of public institutions of higher education; and (4) provide a vehicle for faculty and staff to meet required matching contribution requirements and be eligible for available competitive grant funds.

(b) There shall be established and placed within the department a fund to be known as the Higher Education Matching Grants Fund, hereinafter in this section referred to as the fund, to be held by the department separate and apart from its other funds. The fund shall be credited any appropriations, bond proceeds, or other monies authorized by the general court and specifically designed to be credited thereto. All available moneys in the fund that are unexpended at the end of each fiscal year shall not revert to the General Fund and shall be available for expenditure in the subsequent fiscal year.

(c) The department shall develop and approve rules for the program prior to the distribution of any grants from the fund. Said rules shall establish the terms and conditions for all grant awards and shall establish the terms, procedures, standards, evaluation criteria and conditions which the department shall employ to identify qualified applications, process applications, and make grant determinations. Copies of the approved rules, and any modifications thereto, shall be submitted to the clerks of the house of representatives and the senate and shall forward the same to the house and senate committees on ways and means and the joint committee on higher education.

All requests for funding from the program shall be accompanied by a copy of the application for federal, foundation or other non-state funding and shall include a copy of the matching fund requirements as specified by the funding entity. Applications may be reviewed on a rolling basis.

(d) Projects eligible for funding shall meet the following criteria: (1) the project involves either basic research or applied research activities in any academic discipline; (2) the research project is awarded grant funds through an open and competitive process of merit review; and (3) matching funds are required by the sponsor or the award is conditioned on a match as a determination of institutional commitment.

Research projects for which the commonwealth has provided a specific grant or appropriation or which have received funds pursuant to section 2 of chapter 238 of the Acts of 2012 are ineligible for funds under the program.

(e) Funding under the program may be used to pay the base salaries of faculty, staff, and to fund affiliated graduate or undergraduate student fellowships directly related to the stated research project. Funds may also be used to purchase basic infrastructure including, but not limited to, essential equipment supplies and materials directly related to the research project.

Workforce training or development, curricular development, clinical trials, building construction or renovation or any other activities seen as incidental to the basic research or applied research being proposed shall not be funded under the program.