For all the talk about North Carolina being one of the top emerging hubs for innovation in the U.S., the state apparently wasn't good enough for the Biden administration. Bids from Charlotte and the Triangle to get a federal “Tech Hub” designation from CHIPS Act dollars have failed — losing to places such as South Carolina; central Indiana; and Tulsa, Oklahoma.
The Biden administration yesterday announced 31 sites across the country to focus on artificial intelligence, clean energy, biotech and other areas. But the bids for Charlotte and Raleigh were left off the list — meaning the areas are missing out on the potential for tens of millions of dollars in federal funds to fuel innovation and create jobs.
Officials behind the effort in Raleigh said they learned early in the morning yesterday that they didn’t make the cut.
“This does not deter us to move forward in our vision of becoming a smart-connected region,” said John Holden, Smart City Manager with the city of Raleigh. “We will continue to seek out private and public (federal and state) partners and financial resources.”
The chosen Tech Hubs span 32 states and Puerto Rico. There was plenty of effort to make the list in North Carolina, where at least seven entities in the state were vying for a designation and the potential to receive $75 million in federal funding.
Four organizations in Charlotte, including Meta Lab Tech Hub, submitted bids for the tech hub recognition to the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Economic Development Administration.
Charlotte’s bid focused on designating the region as a global competitor in artificial intelligence innovation. The consortium of organizations that supported the proposal could've helped stretch the grant money and give it more impact for the initiative.
That impact would have included recruiting high-performing talent in AI, creating adult and youth workforce training programs for the technology or implementing exclusive research and development capabilities alongside industry testing, Tariq Bokhari, founder of Carolina Fintech Hub and Charlotte City Council member, previously told CBJ.
Although the Charlotte region was passed over on gaining the formal tech hub title, a local organization is receiving federal funding through the program. UNC Charlotte's Carolinas Innovation Center for Optics and Metrology was one of 29 recipients of the Tech Hubs' Strategy Development Grant. Part of the Tech Hubs program, the grant was created to boost local collaboration and planning activities, the EDA said.
UNC Charlotte's program was selected out of 181 applicants. It plans to use the funding to design and leverage optics and metrologies technologies to "create a sustainable manufacturing framework" for the region, according to the EDA. The initiative could allow the local program and other grantees to compete for future Tech Hubs funding opportunities.
In Raleigh, the plan had been to get the city a designation as an official Advanced Communications and Immersive Technologies hub. The local effort — which called itself The Connected Triangle + Consortium — proposed the entire region for its key technology focus area (KTFA).
“As one of the fastest growing U.S. tech hubs for IT talent, we have a market-ready environment to support our KTFA’s growth and are recognized nationwide as a thought leader in research, innovation, entrepreneurship and commercialization,” the consortium said in its proposal.
The consortium was led by the Central Pines Regional Council (previously called the Triangle J Council of Governments) in partnership with the Wireless Research Center, RIoT’s entrepreneurial program and the city of Raleigh’s Smart City program.
According to the proposal, the private sector had also committed to the consortium — including Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO), NFF, Celito and Global Impact Partners. Also, IBM (NYSE: IBM), Red Hat, SAS and T-Mobile (NASDAQ: TMUS) were among those considering being a part of the initiative, according to the application.
The winners included initiatives such as the Tulsa Hub for Equitable & Trustworthy Autonomy in Oklahoma, focused on commercializing autonomous systems for agriculture and pipeline inspections, The Bloch Tech Hub, a Chicago-based quantum computing-focused program, and Heartland BioWorks, a biotechnology-focused bid that “aims to develop central Indiana into a global leader in biotechnology and biomanufacturing.”
In South Carolina, it was the SC Nexus for Advanced Resilient Energy led by the South Carolina Department of Commerce, which "aims to be a global leader in advanced energy by developing, testing, and deploying exportable electricity technologies."
