Empowering Innovation: EDA Tech Hubs Awards and Impact
July 9, 2024
—Last week, the U.S. Economic Development Administration announced $504 million in funding to 12 designees through its Tech Hubs program. Just last October, President Biden announced the inaugural 31 Tech Hubs and 29 recipients of development grants. The final 12 awardees were chosen from the original 31 Tech Hubs to receive Phase 2 implementation funding to scale production and delivery of critical technologies, create jobs, and accelerate economic growth. This massive wave of investment in regional consortia seeks to reshape the U.S. innovation landscape and deliver societal and economic impact.
Awards overview
Innovation ecosystems – and specifically place-based ones – have been a hot topic in the realm of U-I partnerships over the past several years. Governments worldwide are investing in programs like NSF’s Regional Innovation Engines, the EU’s Regional Innovation Valleys, and the UK’s Catapults to encourage the development of innovation ecosystems, regional consortia, and other cross-sector, collaborative innovation models. EDA’s Tech Hubs program is the most recent to announce awards, which specifically focus on funding diverse consortia composed of companies, universities, community colleges, nonprofits, and state and local governments. The number of organizations in the designated hubs ranges from 16 to 127. UIDP member organizations are represented among the university and industry partners in 10 of the 12 Phase 2 awardees.
The implementation grant will support 52 projects across the awardees. Nearly half (21) focus on technology maturation, 14 support workforce development, 10 strengthen consortium coordination, and seven support business and entrepreneurship development. The Tech Hubs address critical technology challenges of U.S. national importance, including quantum information technology, biotechnology, semiconductors and materials manufacturing, and autonomous systems.
Another key focus is building regional economic strength; 10 of the 12 hubs support small and rural communities to address job growth and opportunities in these areas, and minority-serving institutions are also represented across the awardees. The diverse technology foci, geographic areas, and broad institutional reach reflect the program’s aim to ensure that the initiative’s economic and societal impact achieves the program’s goals.
Impact examples
The Elevate Quantum Tech Hub, which serves Colorado, New Mexico, and Wyoming, was awarded $40.5 million as a designated quantum Tech Hub, which was matched with $84 million in state support and $1 billion in private capital. The effort aims to establish the region as the global leader in quantum information technology. The consortium includes over 120 members, including UIDP member institutions like the University of Colorado Boulder, the Colorado School of Mines, and the University of New Mexico, as well as industry leaders like Amazon, Microsoft, and NVIDIA (also UIDP member organizations). The Hub is also engaged with NSF’s EPSCoR program. Already, the region boasts 3,000 commercial quantum jobs and 50% of the U.S. critical supply chain for major quantum modalities. During the next 10 years, Elevate Quantum aims to launch 50 quantum startups, create 10,000 quantum jobs, train over 30,000 workers in quantum technology, and raise over $2 billion in startup funding. See the Elevate Quantum Tech Hubs overarching narrative and the EDA website for more information on the region, the Tech Hubs’ goals, consortium members and partners, and more.
In South Carolina and Georgia, the SC Nexus for Advanced Resilient Energy (SC NEXUS) received $45 million in funding to advance cyber-secure grid resilience technologies, augmented by state government support (one-time $10 million and $10 million in recurring funds) and further commitments from regional organizations and industry partners. Like the Elevate Quantum Tech Hub, SC NEXUS is also engaged with EPSCoR. SC NEXUS focuses on energy target areas in generation, transmission and distribution, and storage. It has more than 50 consortium members, including UIDP members IBM, Siemens, and Clemson University. The consortium aims to create over 14,000 jobs by 2030, of which some 40% are targeted to underserved and rural communities. See the SC NEXUS designee narrative to learn more about the Hub’s goals, members, and more.
Why it matters
Programs like Tech Hubs incentivize innovation to bring societal and economic impact to the regions they serve. With last week’s announcement of more funding, the 12 designated Tech Hubs can expand to bolster critical technology areas, create jobs and infrastructure, and advance U.S. competitiveness. By bringing together diverse organizations to rally and collaborate to solve a defined technology and innovation challenge, these Tech Hubs have laid the foundation for positive outcomes, and the coming years hold great promise for further advancement.
We want to hear from you. Is your organization collaborating Tech Hub or a similar consortium? Let us know on our LinkedIn profile.