The Biden administration on Tuesday awarded $504 million to a dozen projects across the country aimed at transforming communities that had been neglected in the past into tech powerhouses.
The grants will fund “technology hubs” that aim to boost production of critical technologies in regions such as western Montana, central Indiana, southern Florida and upstate New York. These hubs are expected to accelerate the growth of cutting-edge industries in the United States, such as biomanufacturing, clean energy, artificial intelligence and personalized medicine.
The program is part of a federal effort to expand funding for U.S. science and technology beyond Silicon Valley and some coastal regions. Biden administration officials say the initiative will help revitalize areas that have traditionally received less government investment. Proponents say the projects will help create “good-paying” jobs and tap into underutilized reserves of workers and resources across the country.
The $10 billion program was authorized by the CHIPS and Science Act, a sweeping bill lawmakers passed in 2022 to accelerate domestic semiconductor manufacturing and boost funding for scientific research. The idea of spreading tech funding beyond Silicon Valley helped the legislation gain broader support from lawmakers representing regions of the country eager to benefit.
The Commerce Department initially reviewed nearly 400 applications, narrowing them down to a group of 31 projects that received the “tech hub” designation in October. As of Tuesday, 12 regions won grants ranging from $19 million to $51 million.
It’s unclear, however, how much more will be available. Although Congress authorized $10 billion for the five-year program when it passed the CHIPS Act, only about $541 million, or about 5 percent, has been allocated so far, which some say could hamper the program’s success.
John Lettieri, managing director of the Economic Innovation Group, a Washington think tank, said the lack of funding was a major obstacle for the program and he doubted the grants would lead to substantial transformation in those regions. He said that while the Biden administration was not responsible for the limited funding, he would have preferred to see officials make “big bets on a smaller number of emerging technologies and promising locations,” rather than small grants spread across a dozen regions.
“It is unlikely that we will get major technological breakthroughs from this half-billion dollars,” Lettieri said, adding that the funds “would help to gradually boost these regions, but would not lead to transformative results.”
Mark Muro, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, said the funding was a “significant down payment,” but that additional funding was needed to see more meaningful economic transformation in these regions. Muro said he was “not entirely pessimistic” about the prospect of additional funding, given the bipartisan interest in the program. Still, he said it would be a challenge because of the political tensions that have made government spending a divisive issue on Capitol Hill.
“There is hope for new investments, but nothing is easy right now,” Muro said.
Commerce Department officials said they would be willing to offer additional funding if lawmakers allocate more money to the program.
“Simply put: We can do more with more,” Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said in a statement. “With more funding, we will award more prizes, which will lead to more technological advancements, more regional growth, and many more good-paying jobs.”
One of the beneficiaries of the initiative Tuesday is a project in Tulsa, Oklahoma, that aims to develop drones and other autonomous systems for customers such as the U.S. military. Tulsa is home to a drone port with labs that can replicate a variety of weather conditions to test the drones.
Jennifer Hankins, executive director of Tulsa Innovation Labs, which is leading the Tulsa project that received $51 million, said the initiative would help reduce the country’s reliance on foreign manufacturing for autonomous technologies and their components.
She also said the project would focus on addressing the problem of cultural bias in AI systems, partnering with Native American tribal nations and Black business organizations, among others. “Tulsa has been very intentional about who we partner with to address this challenge,” she said.
Another winning project came from an Indiana consortium called Heartland BioWorks, which was promised $51 million to invest in biotechnology and biomanufacturing, including human, animal and plant biosciences.
Andrew Kossack, executive vice president of partnerships at the Applied Research Institute, which is leading the Indiana project, said the tech hub would build on local advantages, such as the presence of pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly, a network of contract drug manufacturers and other companies that focus on plant and animal sciences.
“The Tech Hubs program was designed to take advantage of industry clusters like the ones we have here in Indiana in the biotech space,” he said. The money would help put those industry clusters on the map for venture capital and other funding that might not otherwise invest “in what some might consider flyover country,” he said.
