The Biden administration on Tuesday awarded $504 million to a dozen projects across the country in an effort to transform once-ignored communities 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. The hubs aim to accelerate the growth of advanced industries in the United States, such as biomanufacturing, clean energy, artificial intelligence and personalized medicine.
The program reflects a federal effort to expand funding for U.S. science and technology beyond Silicon Valley and some coastal regions, a move Biden administration officials say will help revitalize areas that have traditionally received less government investment. Backers say the projects will help create “well-paying” jobs and tap into underutilized worker pools and resources across the country.
The $10 billion program was authorized by the CHIPS and Science Act, a sweeping bill that lawmakers passed in 2022 to speed up domestic semiconductor manufacturing and increase funding for scientific research. The idea of extending technology funding beyond Silicon Valley helped the legislation gain broader support from lawmakers representing parts of the country eager to benefit.
The Commerce Department initially considered nearly 400 applications, narrowing them down to a group of 31 projects that received “tech hub” designation in October. On Tuesday, 12 regions were awarded grants ranging from $19 million to $51 million.
It is unclear, however, how much additional funding will be available. Although Congress authorized $10 billion for the five-year program when the CHIPS Act was passed, only about $541 million (about 5 percent) has been allocated so far, which some say could hamper the program’s success.
John Lettieri, executive director of the Economic Innovation Group, a think tank in Washington, said a lack of funding has been a major hurdle for the program and he was skeptical that the awards would translate into substantial transformation in those regions. He said that while the Biden administration was not to blame for the limited funding, he would have preferred officials to make “big bets on a smaller number of promising emerging technologies and places,” rather than smaller grants spread across a dozen regions.
“We are not likely to achieve major technological breakthroughs as a result of this $500 million,” 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 an “important down payment” but that additional funding was needed to see more significant economic transformation in those regions. Muro said he was “not entirely pessimistic” about the prospect of additional money, given bipartisan interest in the program. Still, he said it would be a challenge because of political tensions that have made government spending a contentious issue on Capitol Hill.
“There is hope for more investment, but nothing is easy for now,” Muro said.
Commerce Department officials said they would be eager to offer additional rounds of funding if lawmakers appropriated more money for 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, leading to more technological advancements, more regional growth, and many more good-paying jobs.”
One of the beneficiaries on Tuesday was 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 various weather conditions for testing drones.
Jennifer Hankins, CEO of Tulsa Innovation Labs, which is leading the $51 million Tulsa project, said the initiative would help reduce the country’s dependence on foreign production of autonomous technologies and their components.
He also said the project would focus on addressing the issue of cultural bias in AI systems, by partnering with Native American tribal nations and Black business organizations, among others. “Tulsa has been intentional about who we partner with to address this challenge,” he 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 technology center would take advantage of 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 science.
“The Tech Hubs program was designed to take advantage of industrial clusters like the one we have here in Indiana in the biotechnology sector,” he said. The money would put these industrial clusters on the map for venture capital and other funds that might not otherwise invest “in what some might consider an ‘overseas country,’” he said.
