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As we close out an exciting and transformational year for the Rhode Island Life Science Hub (RILSH), we want to share our progress, celebrate the achievements of many, and outline the momentum that will carry us into 2026. This year has underscored the strength, creativity, and resilience of Rhode Island’s life sciences ecosystem. Between fueling startups and helping entrepreneurs achieve success, working to strengthen regional and national partnerships, we have made great strides as a community while providing great hope for new cures and treatments for patients at home and abroad.
We’ve reached a watershed moment in RILSH’s evolution – we’ve laid the groundwork for an environment where companies can scale and flourish, and now those companies are coming to life here in our region.
RILSH was founded with a clear mandate: to ensure that groundbreaking science discovered here can stay in our region and scale. Over the past 12 months, we have advanced that mission with laser focus, by providing financial backing, building state-of-the-art lab space and supporting the people who turn discoveries into therapeutic advances.
One defining achievement of 2025 was the build-out of Ocean State Labs powered by Portal Innovations, the state’s first-ever life science incubator. Ocean State Labs is the first major infrastructure investment designed to support and scale life science companies from the earliest stages of translational innovation, attract biotech talent, and translate scientific discoveries into real products and therapies. The lab is operated by Portal Innovations and supported by Brown University and a coalition of academic and clinical partners and the 195 District who believe in what Rhode Island’s life science ecosystem can become. The State’s General Assembly and leadership provided tremendous support in their commitment to the building of 150 Richmond Street in Providence’s Innovation district.
When we announced the first six companies that will anchor Ocean State Labs, the excitement in the room was palpable. These companies are working at the frontiers of neuroscience, aging, oncology, regenerative medicine, and RNA biology – areas of science where our researchers and institutions have deep and distinct expertise. Many emerged from the labs of Brown, URI, Brown Health, and Care New England; others chose Rhode Island because they saw a community willing to invest in bold ideas and provide the infrastructure to help them thrive.
Across our ecosystem, we saw promising science turn into promising companies. In 2025, RILSH awarded $20 million in nondilutive funding to 37 different entities helping to grow our Life Science sector. These awards support companies advancing diagnostics, regenerative medicine, women’s health, and more.
Our work has attracted attention from companies across the U.S. and the globe. In May, Organogenesis, a regenerative medicine company that makes skin-like products to heal chronic wounds, opened a manufacturing plant in Smithfield. We also welcomed VeinTech, a MedTech innovator from Western Australia, which opened its first U.S. office in Providence.
Meanwhile, the California company Expanse Medical expanded to Rhode Island where it will launch its newest portfolio company, Valorian Medical Technologies, dedicated to men's health innovation. These are signs that the Ocean State is becoming an international destination for life science growth.
Finally, 2025 was a year of convening. We hosted the Rhode Island Biotech Summit at the BIO International Convention, joined university showcases at Brown and URI, and had big presence at RI Startup Week’s Health & Life Sciences Day, the Newport Investor Summit and statewide panels and symposia.
We also deepened our commitment to workforce development—supporting training pipelines, university partnerships, and programs designed to ensure Rhode Island has the talent needed to power a growing life sciences sector. As the biotech venture capitalist Bruce Booth has said, “Figuring out how to identify, cultivate, develop, and scale the next generation of leadership is the single most important key for our ecosystem to unlock the next wave of biomedical innovation.”
Looking Ahead to 2026
Because of the foundation we built together in 2025, we enter 2026 with extraordinary momentum and strong drive to convert the groundwork we’ve laid into measurable impact. We look eagerly ahead to the upcoming R&D, financial, and clinical milestones on the horizon for the 30 companies we have to date supported with non-dilutive awards.
In the year ahead, we will:
- Welcome up to 30 startups and 180 scientists, operators, and entrepreneurs into Ocean State Labs, a shared community built for translational impact.
- Expand support for emerging companies through funding, infrastructure support, and mentorship.
- Welcome new companies from across the U.S. and around the world into Rhode Island’s rapidly growing life sciences ecosystem.
- Strengthen connections between Rhode Island’s universities, health systems, and industry partners to accelerate pathways from bench to bedside.
- Continue work to strengthen the workforce pipeline.
- Increase industry engagement and clinical partnerships.
- Drive statewide strategy to ensure Rhode Island becomes a leading region for discovery, development, and deployment of life-changing technologies.
This is our moment to show how a small state can deliver outsized impact. Rhode Island offers close connections, accelerated growth and a community that allows big ideas to scale fast.
I am deeply grateful for your partnership, your trust, and your belief in what Rhode Island can achieve.
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