Elevate Quantum, a consortium of organizations promoting quantum technology in the U.S. Mountain West (Colorado, New Mexico, and Wyoming) has won a Tech Hub Phase 2 grant of $40.5 million from the U.S. US Department Of Commerce’s Economic Development Administration (EDA) as part of a $504 million program that designated 12 tech hubs in a variety of different technical areas throughout the United States. In addition, the state of Colorado is providing funding of $77 million broken as $44 million for a Rapid Prototyping and Low-Volume Manufacturing Lab and $30 million state loan guarantee program. Also, the state of New Mexico is providing $10 million to support the construction of a photonics packaging facility and local workforce development.
Of the $40.5 million in Federal money, $22 million has been allocated to build a rapid prototyping, low-volume manufacturing, and deployment capability for quantum technologies in New Mexico and Colorado, $13.5 million has been allocated for workforce development, and $5 million allocated for governance and operational management. Originally, the consortium had requested additional funding for an ACCELERATE pillar for startup incubation and acceleration, but it was not included in this grant. However, the members of the consortium are optimistic that work to obtain funding for this activity through the private sector and other government grants. The consortium has disclosed they have already received commitments across the quantum value chain to invest over $300 million into the hub.
The region already has substantial quantum activity with 17 quantum-related companies, three federal labs, and 17 institutions of higher education. The consortium’s goal is to substantially expand this and create over 10,000 jobs in the Mountain West quantum economy and obtain over $2 billion in quantum startup funding for as many as 50 quantum companies by 2030. Details on how the funds will be allocated to specific organizations will need to be worked out by consortium with specific budget allocations approved by the EDA.
The Elevate Quantum consortium in Colorado was in competition for the Phase 2 award with the Block Tech Hub located in Illinois. Both organizations had participated in Phase 1 of the Tech Hub program. However, Illinois received a different Phase 2 Tech Hub award for its iFAB Tech Hub lead by the University of Illinois to research precision fermentation and biomanufacturing . So it’s possible that the EDA sought to achieve some geographic diversification and didn’t want to make more than one Tech Hub designation to any single state.
For additional information, you can access a press release provided by Elevate Quantum here along with associated FAQ available on their website here. You can also view a fact sheet with additional information that Elevate Quantum submitted to the EDA last November here. A press release posted by the EDA describing all 12 of the Phase 2 awards can be seen on their website here. You can also see previous articles that we have written about the earlier Phase 1 awards here and the Colorado tax credits for quantum tech here.
July 2, 2024
