Akron, Ohio, will become home to a national tech hub for sustainable plastic and rubber technology as part of a new federal economic development program announced Monday.
Akron's tech hub, called the Sustainable Polymers Tech Hub, also will receive a strategy development grant of between $400,000 and $500,000 to help the hub bid for more substantial grants in the future.
The designation and grant are the first phase of a new economic development program designed to drive regional innovation and job creation by strengthening a region's capacity to manufacture, commercialize and deploy technology that could advance American competitiveness, the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Economic Development Administration (EDA) said Monday.
Led by the Greater Akron Chamber, Akron's tech hub aims to tackle the climate and environmental impacts that come from producing and using fossil fuel-derived polymers (rubbers and plastics) by accelerating sustainable polymer manufacturing and commercialization in the United States, the administration said.
Polymers are used in innovations ranging from medical devices to vehicle tires, but producing rubber and plastic has resulted in greenhouse gas emissions and plastic pollution.
Akron is called the "Rubber City" because it has hosted so many tire and rubber manufacturers over the decades.
Akron's tech hub would seek to leverage regional assets — such as the largest concentration of plastics and rubber manufacturing plants, machines and materials in North America — with regional research and development partnerships and a regional workforce to lead the way in reducing emissions and developing polymers that are recyclable, biodegradable and nontoxic.
Akron's was one of 31 tech hubs named in 32 states and Puerto Rico, the EDA said. The Akron tech hub was the only one announced for Ohio, though at least five groups submitted hub applications, including an artificial intelligence group in Northeast Ohio, according to U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown's office.
Also on Monday, the Department of Commerce is launching a second funding opportunity, allowing designated tech hubs to apply for grants of between $40 million and $70 million each for implementation funding, totaling nearly $500 million.
Early this year, Ohio set aside $150 million in its 2025 budget to establish innovation hubs near anchor research institutions, which will increase research and development, create new jobs, preserve existing jobs, and support improved economic conditions throughout Ohio.
The hubs would be smaller versions of the innovation districts that the state helped launch in Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati in 2020 and 2021.
The Tech Hubs program was authorized by the bipartisan CHIPS and Science Act, the administration said.
