CHIPS’ Place-based Tech Hub Investments Create Opportunities for HBCUs

Shalin Jyotishi

This article was produced as part of New America's Future of Work and the Innovation Economy Initiative. Subscribe to our Future of Work Bulletin newsletter to stay current on our latest research, events, technical assistance, and storytelling.

In July 2024, the U.S. Economic Development Administration (EDA) announced $504 million in funding for twelve Regional Technology and Innovation Hubs (Tech Hubs). Nineteen other Tech Hubs also recieived $500,000 in funding and ongoing technical assistance from the EDA.

Authorized under the CHIPS & Science Act of 2022 as one of the bill's signature place-based industrial policy programs, EDA Tech Hubs bring together regional consortia of companies, universities, community colleges, nonprofits, and state and local governments to promote technology-based economic development, including by:

• Progressing the maturation and deployment of emerging technologies into industry
• Supporting tech entrepreneurs and startups built around those technologies
• Building technology testbeds, prototyping facilities, and manufacturing facilities to test and scale the production of the technologies
• Expanding workforce development relating to the jobs stemming from technological advances

Tech Hubs aim to support regions across the country with assets and resources that have the potential to become globally competitive economic leaders in advanced and emerging technologies, particularly across eight technology themes:

1. Safe and Effective Autonomous Systems
2. Maintaining Our Quantum Edge
3. Advancing Biotechnology: Drugs and Devices
4. Advancing Biotechnology: Precision and Prediction
5. Accelerating Our Energy Transition
6. Strengthening Our Critical Minerals Supply Chain
7. Regaining Leadership in Semiconductor Manufacturing
8. Growing the Future of Materials Manufacturing

EDA Tech Hubs-alongside other federal programs like U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF)'s Regional Innovation Engines program and the U.S. Defense Department's Microelectronic Commons Hubs program-are carrying out Congress' CHIPS and Science Act's vision of expanding the innovation economy into overlooked parts of the nation. Over the next decade, TechHubs and broader place-based programs hope to promote economic growth beyond the traditional coastal tech enclaves like Silicon Valley.

Aligning emerging technology and workforce development will be essential to achieving the CHIPS Act's including global leadership and staving off competition from China, increasing productivity through technological innovation, promoting inclusive growth, and spurring job creation in underserved or overlooked communities.

In that mission, Tech Hubs and Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) have new opportunities to partner and realize the promise of inclusive science- and technology-driven economic growth. New and existing funding opportunities from the U.S. National Science Foundation can especially augment Tech Hub resources to ensure workforce needs are met and that opportunity is maximized.

Mapping HBCU partners across Place-based Tech Hubs

If Tech Hubs are to be successful in growing inclusive innovation ecosystems that look more like the nation than Silicon Valley and the high-tech sector do today, they'll need to engage a broad coalition of diverse education and training providers to broaden pathways to good jobs in the innovation economy.

New America's Future of Work and Innovation Economy initiative has documented how America's 1,200+ community colleges are critical to CHIPS' place-based, tech-driven investments given the number of students from underrepresented, working-class families who enroll at these institutions-and the sheer volume of skilled technical workforce needs in emerging industries.

However, HBCUs also have a key role in achieving TechHubs' multi-prong mission. In addition to a deep bench of community college partners, Tech Hubs include several HBCU partners.

Tech Hubs aren't the only part of CHIPS that has emphasized HBCU partnerships. In February 2024, coinciding with Black History Month, the U.S. Commerce Department announced the HBCU CHIPS Network, a collaboration between several HBCUs and Georgia Tech.

The HBCU CHIPS Network will coordinate resources across participating higher education institutions to foster a skilled and diverse workforce in the semiconductor industry, which has been the most visible focus of the CHIPS Act.

Tech Hubs' HBCU partnerships can complement such activities beyond the semiconductor sector and into other advanced technology areas.

NSF funding for HBCUs in Tech Hubs and Place-based investments

Beyond the workforce mission, Tech Hubs and HBCUs likely have collaboration potential across the other three mission pillars of the program, including supporting high-potential entrepreneurs, research, and technology development efforts.

In addition to creating programs like TechHubs, the CHIPS Act also enabled the NSF to undergo a notable evolution that is especially timely.

CHIPS created the first new arm at the agency in over thirty years - the Technology, Innovation, and Partnerships Directorate - which is responsible for supporting technology development, economic growth, and workforce development around emerging technology areas synergistic to Tech Hubs.

The technology directorate, often in partnership with other divisions of NSF or with companies like Micron and Global Foundries, has expanded funding opportunities for institutions that normally get less attention from the agency, including community colleges and HBCUs.

NSF funding programs to support HBCUs in innovation ecosystems include but are not limited to:

• Experiential Learning for Emerging and Novel Technologies (ExLENT): Supports partnerships that provide hands-on or work-based learning opportunities for students focused on emerging technology fields. Florida A&M University is using NSF ExLENT funding to expand immersive learning opportunities for students in digital agriculture and plant phenotyping technologies.
• Enabling Partnerships to Increase Innovation Capacity (EPIIC): Provides capacity-building funding for partnerships around emerging technology-related research or innovation ecosystems. Tuskegee University won an NSF EPIIC grant to partner with community colleges to improve employer partnerships and workforce training relating to emerging technologies.
• Growing Research Access for Nationally Transformative Equity and Diversity (GRANTED): Funds efforts to build research capacity at minority-serving institutions. Virginia State University won an NSF GRANTED award to enhance its research infrastructure, including streamlining administrative procedures and fortifying a strategic plan to enhance research policies and systems upgrades. GRANTED also supports regional convenings that support place-based capacity-building.
• NSF's Historically Black Colleges and Universities - Undergraduate Program (HBCU-UP): Funds improvements for undergraduate STEM education and research opportunities at HBCUs. Central State University is using NSF HBCU-UP funding to develop an interdisciplinary forensic studies minor that would integrate curriculum across chemistry and social and behavioral science departments to improve cultural diversity and understanding in the forensics and criminal justice workforce.

These programs represent only a snapshot of NSF funding opportunities Tech Hubs and HBCUs can consider to bolster their collaborations.

Tech Hub implementation has only just begun, but as governors, mayors, and ecosystem builders advance their work to grow the innovation economy in left-behind regions, HBCU partnerships are poised to accelerate regional transformation.

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