The Maryland Department of Commerce is committing an additional $11 million toward two state programs for businesses looking to take on certain advanced manufacturing or innovation projects amid sustained private sector demand for those services.
Maryland Gov. Wes Moore announced these investments Aug. 6 during a tour of Beltsville-based Ion Storage Systems' solid-state battery production site.
In May, with the help of a $1 million grant from Maryland, Ion opened its 30,000-square-foot manufacturing facility to accelerate the production of a type of battery that can used in everything from smartwatches to electrified ferries. The company expects to have this site churn out 1 megawatt of battery cells — enough to power the average U.S. home for a little over a month — by the end of this year and it could reach 10 megawatts of battery cell production by early 2025.
As part of an effort to replicate that growth among other Maryland companies, the state's Build Our Future Grant program will receive $7 million in new capital, to be used via grants to offset costs from the acquisition, construction, rehabilitation, installation, improvement or equipping of certain innovation infrastructure projects. The projects must be designed to enhance and grow sectors of the economy like aerospace and defense, biotechnology, life sciences, quantum computing or cybersecurity.
The initiative was launched as part of a $9 million pilot program in July 2023 that fell under Moore's Innovation Economy Infrastructure Act. It went on to fund 11 projects throughout the state and is getting additional funding "given the significant private sector demand and interest," according to the governor's office.
Of those 11 grants, three went to Prince George's County-based companies, Ion being one of them. QC82, a quantum computing company, received $200,000 to construct a 1,000-square-foot testing facility. And the University of Maryland Advanced Quantum-Centered Experience for Startups and Students (AQCESS) landed a $118,600 grant to build a shared-lab concept for quantum technology startups based out of the Quantum Startup Foundry in College Park.
The remaining $4 million of new funding is being allocated to support the Maryland Manufacturing 4.0 Program, which will provide grants to small and mid-sized manufacturers that invest in Industry 4.0-related technologies, such as automation and robotics, predictive maintenance, simulation, additive manufacturing and cloud computing. Nearly 50 businesses in Maryland have obtained about $2 million worth of total grant funding from this program since its launch in 2023.
"These programs are two of the sharpest and most innovative tools in Maryland Commerce’s toolbox, allowing the department to give a critical boost to strategic industry sectors in the state," Maryland Secretary of Commerce Secretary Kevin Anderson said in a statement.
