'We're on the right path'

See Correction/Clarification at end of article

A Central Florida coalition led by Kissimmee-based Bridg is in the running for a major National Science Foundation grant.

The Osceola County group on Aug. 4 was named one of 16 semifinalists — narrowed from 34 semifinalists — vying for up to $160 million over a 10-year period as part of the U.S. NSF Regional Innovation Engines competition. Come winter 2024, when the awards are announced, it’s likely economic growth nonprofit Bridg will be named a finalist, according to an NSF news release saying most of the semifinalists will be included.

Bridg leadership — those heading up efforts to build a tech hub at the 500-acre NeoCity in Kissimmee — is cautiously optimistic, President James Vandevere said.

“It’s validation of what we are trying to do here at NeoCity, that we’re on the right path.”

NeoCity in Kissimmee is home to a tech business community that includes Bridg, Belgian nanotechnology firm Imec USA and the Center for Neovation, once operated by the University of Central Florida and now run by SkyWater Florida, an arm of Bloomington, Minnesota-based semiconductor manufacturer SkyWater Technologies Inc. (Nasdaq: SKYT).

The NSF Innovation Engines competition exists to ensure the U.S. remains or becomes globally competitive in key technology areas. The goal is to establish local industry centers — and that’s what Osceola County wants to capitalize on.

In fact, this award could help make Osceola County a key player in semiconductor manufacturing — a major global industry worth nearly $600 billion in annual revenue.

Grant-seeking supergroup

Vandervere believes there’s strength in numbers.

Bridg — which stands for Bridging the Innovation Development Gap — brought a group together to contribute to the application for the best shot at the NSF Engines grant. The Bridg-led Central Florida coalition includes Osceola County, UCF, Imec, Orlando Economic Partnership, University of Florida, Valencia College, the Florida High Tech Corridor and CareerSource Central Florida.

Each of those entities had a role to play in the application process, and they all stand to benefit if the money comes in — but it initially took some work, Vandevere said. “It was hard at the beginning, but it eased up once we built the relationships, knew how to talk about it and knew the right people to reach out to.”

Vandevere said the coalition got practice collaborating while developing the application for the federal Build Back Better grant, which in September 2022 won $50.8 million from the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Economic Development Administration. That application serves as a template of sorts, he said.

“Everybody put in their budgets for their projects and programs, and we based the budget [in the application] on that. It’s for upskilling workforce training catalyst programs that started with Build Back Better. You’re not putting capital equipment in, but you’re building up the stuff that goes around it to operate the tools to give you seed capital for workforce development, to get training curriculums in the universities.”

Among the goals, SkyWater Florida will go up to 220 jobs and, in another year, be operational 7 days a week, 24 hours per day, he said. Then, another facility could bring 5,000 more jobs to NeoCity, Vandevere said. “You could look at this region over the next 10 years and see that anywhere between 10,000 and 25,000 jobs are created.”

Highlighted commitments in the application include:

A needed boost

The creation of more tech jobs is important because Osceola County’s economy is rooted in traditionally low-paying industries: agriculture, construction and hospitality.

As a result, the average per-capita income is about $8,260 lower than in neighboring Orange County. Osceola is behind the state average by about $10,700.

To improve those numbers, high-paying tech jobs are needed, area leaders said — and that’s where NeoCity comes in. NeoCity has plenty of shovel-ready space for development, along with a burgeoning semiconductor manufacturing network incrementally outfitting itself with more of the needed pieces and parts — like the acoustic microscope delivered to the hub in June — that can attract more on-site advanced packaging activity.

Advanced packaging, a delicate and highly detailed manufacturing activity, merges multiple microelectronics onto a single electronic device.

National strides

Semiconductors were invented in the U.S., but American companies sent production off shore for low-cost labor.

The U.S. share of semiconductor manufacturing fell from 37% in 1990 to 12% in 2021 — and even more importantly, in 2019, 100% of the world’s most advanced logic semiconductors were produced overseas, according to the Semiconductor Industry Association.

Now that semiconductor production is guaranteed to fuel economies for the foreseeable future, the federal government wants to bring production back home and develop local economies around this industry. The CHIPS & Science Act funds the NSF Engines award that Bridg is seeking, which is only a slice of the $52.7 billion pie the federal government has served up for semiconductor research, development and production support.

The government has established many grants to fuel the industry, and the Central Florida coalition — with Bridg CTO John Allgair as chief grant writer— is applying for several it is eligible for, Vandervere said.

“Like most companies, nonprofits apply for grants, which is what we need to do to be manufacturing in the United States.”

NSF Engines payout process

Source: National Science Foundation

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