Brady PieperThe U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC) is expanding a national research and development initiative to spur economic, technological and regional growth throughout the country.
The DOC’s Economic Development Administration (EDA) will award approximately $210 million in grants for technology coalitions to drive regional innovation and support job creation across the country. The funding, drawn from the federal Tech Hubs Program, will develop six new technology hubs that reinforce American economic competitiveness and national security.
The EDA’s Tech Hub Program, authorized in 2023, is a multi-phased funding initiative designed to gather a collaborative consortium of partners to drive inclusive regional innovation. As the second funding distribution in phase two, this round of Tech Hub funding will draw new appropriations from fiscal year (FY) 2025 of the National Defense Authorization Act.
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The federal grants, up to $48 million, will fund tech hubs that have been designated under the program’s initial announcement and have not yet received implementation grants. Expanding the EDA’s efforts, these new hubs will primarily focus on advancing technology deemed vital to economic growth and national security.
The six hubs set to receive EDA funding, leading agency and total award allocations are as follows:
- American Aerospace Material Manufacturing Tech Hub in Washington and Idaho – $48 million for American Aerospace Materials Manufacturing Center to develop new domestic supply chains to address the growing demand for advanced composite aerostructures in defense and commercial markets.
- Corvallis Microfluidics Tech Hub in Oregon – $45 million for Oregon State University to create a platform for high-performance computing, biotechnology, advanced energy and advanced materials for manufacturing companies to demonstrate microfluidics technologies.
- Birmingham Biotechnology Hub in Alabama – $44 million for Southern Research Institute to integrate artificial intelligence-driven biotechnology into drug, vaccine and diagnostics development to increase representation in clinical genomic data and clinical trials.
- Critical Minerals and Materials for Advanced Energy Tech Hub in Missouri – $29 million for University of Missouri System to process minerals critical to the development of batteries and new innovative battery technologies.
- Vermont Gallium Nitride Tech Hub – $23 million for the University of Vermont to accelerate the development and adoption of high-power, high-frequency electronic devices using Gallium Nitride-based semiconductor chips.
- Forest Bioproducts Advanced Manufacturing Tech Hub in Maine – $22 million for Maine Technology Institute to extract biological building blocks from forests, find use for the bioproducts and create environmentally sustainable projects from these components.
While these awards are not yet assured, each coalition’s funding will be evaluated and finalized by the end of winter. With this announcement, the Tech Hubs Program has delivered more than $700 million in implementation grants to 18 hubs around the nation.
All tech hubs were selected from a pool of over 400 applicants, including a variety of industry experts, academia, government officials, economic development organizations and partnerships with labor and workforce stakeholders.
The Tech Hub Program’s previous round, the first of phase two, awarded over $500 million in grants to 12 tech hubs that focus on researching and developing semiconductor, clean energy, electric vehicle materials and climate-resilient infrastructure technologies.
To provide tech hubs further resources, the EDA is allocating additional funding to the Builder Platform, the agency’s post-award support tool that engages with tech hubs. This additional funding intends to harmonize all regional efforts to commercialize technology, create jobs, attract private investment and strengthen global leadership in tech and innovation.
Image by Colossus Cloud from Pixabay
