BOSTON – The life science “Super Cluster” in Massachusetts “continues to change the face of medicine by driving research innovation, but it faces increasing competition for talent and funding from other states and countries,” a public-private coalition said in releasing the 2008 Massachusetts Life Sciences Super Clusters report.

The report – released in advance of the 2008 BIO International Convention in San Diego, slated for June 17 to 20 – is based on a confidential Web-based survey of 147 industry executives working at biotechnology, medical device and pharmaceutical companies and academic medical centers across the state. Their responses “raised some concerns about whether Massachusetts companies will be able to continue to mine its strengths in research and commercialize the ideas coming out of the state’s laboratories,” the groups said.

“Talent attracts talent, and success breeds success,” Dr. Wendy Everett, president of the New England Health Care Institute, said in a statement today. “This clustering brings enormous benefits to the organizations and communities involved, such as ease of collaboration. That is why it is so important to maintain the momentum.”

Among the report’s findings:

• Seven in 10 respondents (71 percent) said it was important for them to stay in the “Super Cluster,” near other life-sciences firms.

• Nearly two thirds (66.2 percent) consider themselves to be entrepreneurs. Even more (68.8 percent) expect their next position will be in a start-up company.

• More than half (55.1 percent) expect job opportunities in the state will increase in the next decade, while only 9 percent said the life-sciences job market will weaken.

• More than half (51 percent) said that being able to just “run into” people has generated at least one business opportunity or research collaboration.

• Only 27 percent of respondents rated venture-capital firms in Massachusetts as strong in their willingness “to fund radically new ideas.”

• Only 28 percent rated their own organizations as “effective” at spinning off or commercializing new ideas that fall outside their core missions.

“A key takeaway from the report,” said James Connolly, a partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers and the firm’s New England life sciences assurance practice leader, “is that, while Massachusetts has world renowned scientists and researchers and is positioned to thrive in an environment that places a premium on innovation, making the jump from pure research to marketable products will require strengthening the partnerships among universities, teaching hospitals, life sciences companies and venture capitalists.”

The study was conducted this spring by PricewaterhouseCoopers and Boston news and technology company Xconomy on behalf of the nonprofit New England Healthcare Institute, the quasi-public Mass. Life Sciences Center and the Mass. Technology Collaborative, a state development agency for the renewable energy and innovation sectors.

Grants to Bay State researchers from the National Institutes of Health declined in 2006 for the first time, and fell again in 2007 to a three-year low, the groups said in their announcement. The effects of the slowdown already are being felt in the Bay State, the survey found: A lack of funding for collaborative efforts in recent years, as federal research funding has lagged inflation, has had the biggest negative impact on cooperation between institutions, 44 percent of respondents said.

The state still had the highest level of NIH funding per capita in 2007. But if the agency’s funding continues to lag inflation – as it has for the past five years – that trend “could hit particularly hard in Massachusetts, whose young researchers have served as a wellspring of ideas and products for the rest of the industry,” analysts noted.

“Massachusetts has a tradition of innovation in the life sciences that has produced a true Super Cluster of talent,” Daniel O’Connell, the state secretary of housing and economic development, said in a statement today. The life-sciences sector directly employs 77,247 people, according to the latest quarterly data from the U.S. Department of Labor’s Census Bureau. Employment in the sector increased 8 percent from 2001 to 2006, while the number of jobs statewide shrank by 2.5 percent.

“We must build on the strength of this Super Cluster, because the future of our economy depends on it,” O’Connell said. “That is why the governor proposed a 10-year, $1 billion investment package to assist the private sector, academia and the research community in working together to reaffirm the position of the Commonwealth as the international home of the life sciences.”

Massachusetts Biomedical Initiatives estimates the sector contributes about $8.8 billion per year to the Massachusetts economy.

The Mass. Life Sciences Center is a quasi-public entity established by the state Legislature in 2006 to promote the life-sciences industry. For more information, visit www.masslifesciences.com.

PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP is a provider of industry-focused assurance, tax and advisory services via offices in 150 nations. For more information, visit www.pwc.com.