The Polis administration says it’s all-in on the national competition for 20 new innovation centers that could boost American advanced manufacturing. Local manufacturers stand to benefit – or not.
By Bart Taylor, Moss Adams
Science and technology influencers gathered in Denver in late May to parse ideas in support of a Colorado bid to land a new Regional Innovation Hub, or RIH. The meeting, organized by Energize Colorado, was convened per the TechHubsNow initiative launched by the Polis administration to put Colorado’s best foot forward in the national competition. Twenty new centers are planned – across the U.S. but excluding major coastal industrial centers. $10 billion in funding is on the line.
Facilitated by the U.S. Economic Development Administration (EDA), “The Tech Hubs Program is an economic development initiative designed to drive regional technology- and innovation-centric growth by strengthening a region’s capacity to manufacture, commercialize, and deploy critical technologies. This program will invest directly in regions with the assets, resources, capacity, and potential to transform into globally competitive innovation centers in approximately 10 years.”
The genesis of the RIH framework is the sprawling CHIPS & Science Act – legislation that in part, seeks to fuel a new, more globally-competitive U.S. manufacturing ecosystem – including a new semiconductor workforce. The need for manufacturing employees was underscored last week by news that TSMC’s new Arizona fab will be delayed by a year because of lack of qualified manufacturing-related talent. A year. This news alone may work to sharpen the national RIH competition’s focus on manufacturing outcomes.
Six teams from across Colorado were invited to pitch “innovation” concepts to a dozen or so blue-chip panelists – from technology, government, education, and economic development. Presenters pitched six ideas for a Regional Innovation Hub that would develop broadly around:
- Security in Space
- Advanced Manufacturing
- Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning
- Quantum Computing
- Transitional Energy
- Cyber Security and Natural Disaster Prevention
Today, we know the Polis team is supporting two of the entries – the Colorado Cleanrange Consortium (aka, Transitional Energy); and Elevate Quantum.
The selections mean that the Polis admin reads “innovation economy” to mean “technology economy”, with any connection to the ambitions outlined in CHIPS to supercharge America’s advanced manufacturing economy, tangential at best. Manufacturers were also largely absent from the panel evaluating the pitches.
It was left to the presenters to make a connection to advanced manufacturing, and two did so forcefully – the Security in Space group anchored by the Colorado Space Business Roundtable; and Advanced Manufacturing’s RAMP: Readiness Accelerated Manufacturing and Production idea. These groups have since joined forces. RAMP has also attracted a blue-chip roster of Colorado aerospace manufacturers, Colorado community colleges, and a contingent of Wyoming manufacturing interests in a true regional entry.
The official Polis press release states that “two strategic proposals” from Colorado would be applying; RAMP is actually a third, but is not included in the Polis communication. The dissonance is eye-opening, and for Colorado manufacturing, disappointing.
EDA plans to announce designees later this fall. (Editor’s note and update: review the Colorado outcome here.)
Bart Taylor develops business for Moss Adams in Manufacturing Consumer Products and Food Beverage and Agribusiness, and is founder and former publisher of CompanyWeek manufacturing media. Reach him at bart.taylor@mossadams.com.
