PROVIDENCE – Maybe a third time will be the charm for the R.I. Commerce Corp. when it comes to the state's effort to get millions of dollars of funding for an Ocean Tech Hub.
R.I. Commerce's Chief Strategy Officer Daniela Fairchild told the agency's board of directors Monday night that it has applied for two federal grants totaling more than $5 million,
including a $2 million ask from the U.S. Economic Development Administration’s Build to Scale program to support blue economy business incubation.
The $2 million grant application had been filed earlier on Monday.
And last month, R.I. Commerce had applied for about $3 million from the latest round of the EDA's Good Jobs Challenge program for workforce development, funded by $25 million from the American Rescue Plan Act.
The Ocean Tech Hub of Southeastern New England – a joint Rhode Island-Massachusetts effort spearheaded by the R.I. Commerce Corp. – had been one of 31 regional technology hubs deemed eligible for more than $504 million in grants, but the consortium was passed over last summer for an award of about $64 million.
That failure left the agency "dismayed," Fairchild said Monday. (The federal government later allocated $500,000 for all the tech hubs that did not receive funding from the initial tranche.)
It was the second time that the EDA had overlooked Rhode Island, even though it is part of the U.S. Department of Commerce, which has former R.I. Gov. Gina M. Raimondo at the helm.
In September 2022, the EDA denied the University of Rhode Island Research Foundation’s application for Build Back Better Regional Challenge funding, which would have provided up to $100 million for blue economy efforts.
Since then, R.I. Commerce has been developing relationships with federal officials, such as hosting Kristina Killingsworth, acting assistant secretary of commerce and economic development, in August, and having staffers attend a recent visit with the U.S. Secretary of State’s office to talk potential “synergies."
“We are getting a lot of national and international interest,” Fairchild said.
Plans for the Ocean Tech Hub call for a wide range of other blue economy initiatives, including developing a marine robotics lab and creating a “smart bay” where undersea and maritime technologies can be invented, prototyped and tested. There have been some estimates
that the blue economy could reach a regional value of more than $4 billion by 2027.
It's unclear how the presidential election on Nov. 5 and the change of administration in the White House in January will affect future funding.
McKee said economic changes such as the prospect that Hasbro Inc. will uproot from Rhode Island and relocate to Massachusetts should spur the state’s efforts to prepare for the future economy.
"There is a lot on the table that is going to continue to come our way," he said, calling the challenge with Hasbro “a good exercise."
“This is a place where we are going to have an Ocean Tech Hub for our country," he said. "That conversation has opened up – realizing not everybody out there sees what we are doing.”
After the meeting, R.I. Commerce spokesperson Matthew Touchette said the agency remains confident the most recent failed grant bid was just a bump in the road and would not ultimately delay the goal of making the state a blue economy powerhouse.
“You can’t put a price tag on that," he said.
Part of the CHIPS (Creating Helpful Incentives to Produce Semiconductors_ and Science Act of 2022, the Tech Hubs Program has been authorized for $10 billion over five years, of which the government had appropriated $541 million as of July.
Christopher Allen is a PBN staff writer. You may contact him at Allen@PBN.com.
