PROVIDENCE – Less than a month after the Ocean Tech Hub was passed over for a cut of $504 million in federal grants, the U.S. Department of Commerce announced that the joint Rhode Island-Massachusetts technology consortium will receive $500,000 in funding.
The funding, announced on Monday afternoon as a Consortium Accelerator Award, doesn't rise to the heights seen in the previously announced round, where grants ranged from $19 million to $51 million. Most awardees, including the neighboring NY SMART I-Corridor Tech Hub in New York and ReGen Valley Tech Hub in New Hampshire, received at least $40 million.
Twelve of 31 federally-designated tech hubs received part of that $504 million allocation, distributed in early July under U.S. Commerce's Economic Development Administration. U.S. Secretary of Commerce and former Rhode Island Gov. Gina M. Raimondo at the time said that the administration would continue to push for more funding, with a goal of all tech hubs receiving additional resources.
In recent days, the The New Energy New York Battery Tech Hub in New York and Kansas City Inclusive Biologics and Biomanufacturing Tech Hub in Missouri also announced that they had received $500,000 Consortium Accelerator Awards from the EDA.
The EDA has now approved a total of $541 million for the Tech Hubs Program, which President Joe Biden signed into law in August 2022.
Jacquelyn Voghel is a PBN staff writer. You may reach her at Voghel@PBN.com.