Words by: Holly Quinn, @harlequinn823
On Aug. 15, the first EDA Tech Hubs application deadline will hit, ending Phase 1 of one of the United States’ biggest tech-focused economic development initiatives in decades.
Phase 1, as it turns out, is much more exploratory than it may have seemed when the announcement and call for applications came from the US Economic Development Administration in May. Since then, it’s been compared to the frenzied call for proposals for Amazon HQ2 back in 2018, when cities pitched themselves as the ideal place for the Big Tech company’s second home, complete with offers of tax breaks and other perks offered.
But the Tech Hubs program is not that. Instead, it’s an effort by the federal government to help regions beyond Silicon Valley and Boston become global competitors as the US expands into high-tech manufacturing.
In Phase 1, it’s all about identifying existing and potential hubs of innovation. About 20 regions will be officially designated as Tech Hubs and eligible to apply for strategy implementation funding — between $50 million and $75 million from the CHIPS and Science Act — in Phase 2, starting this fall.
Two big questions have been circling in Delaware, which, at least from the outside, is not often thought of as a particularly tech-forward state: How will Delaware and its entities align with the federal Tech Hubs program? Will they go forward alone (as with Amazon HQ2), or join forces with Philadelphia?
They’re good questions, but they also simplify the situation into a binary that doesn’t exist. It’s not a matter of Delaware choosing Greater Philly or choosing to be an island, not least of all because Philly isn’t the only region Delaware’s three counties belong to. Considering the EDA’s focus on rural communities, writing off Kent and Sussex counties to stick with Delaware’s northern neighbor isn’t necessarily the best idea.
Delaware — or, more accurately, Delaware entities like universities and economic development groups — won’t need to choose one or the other. More to the point, Delaware entities are involved in consortiums with various geographic configurations.
Technical.ly spoke to several people involved with technology in Delaware, including some directly involved with EDA Tech Hub consortiums and some involved tangentially, to get an idea of how the state fits in this massive federal project.
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