Elevate Rapid City was one of 29 communities awarded a $500,000 Strategy Development Grant
Elevate Rapid City was one of 29 community applicants awarded a $500,000 Strategy Development Grant (SDG) from the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Economic Development Administration’s (EDA) Tech Hubs Program.
The Tech Hubs Program is an economic development initiative designed to drive regional innovation and job creation by strengthening a region’s capacity to manufacture, commercialize, and deploy technology that will advance American competitiveness.
The Strategy Development Grant (SDG) enables increased local coordination and planning activities to further develop technology-based regional economic development strategy. “Each of these consortia will help us ensure the industries of the future—and their good-paying jobs—start, grow, and remain in the United States,” said U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo.
Elevate Rapid City will lead the region’s consortium, which will include the City of Rapid City, South Dakota Mines, South Dakota Department of Labor, and industry partners like Sanford Underground Research Facility and others.
“This grant empowers us to showcase Rapid City’s ingenuity, creativity, and potential to the world,” said Tom Johnson, president and CEO of Elevate Rapid City. “By enhancing our regional workforce capacity and embracing diverse perspectives, we are not just innovating for the future; we are ensuring that the benefits of innovation are shared by all members of our community.”
Through this grant, Elevate and partners will collaborate regionally to develop an innovation district and long-term workforce development strategy. Garth Wadsworth, Elevate Rapid City public policy director added, “The Tech Hubs program will invest in a workforce development strategy all the way from early education through university in research and development activities to make sure that we’re producing the people necessary to fill these jobs in ten years from now.”
Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Economic Development Alejandra Y. Castillo said: “As each region develops its own strategy to catalyze innovation and job creation, the entire nation grows more secure and more competitive.”
ABOUT TECH HUBS
The Tech Hubs Program was enacted as part of the CHIPS and Science Act of 2022 (as the Regional Technology and Innovation Hubs program). The statute authorized $10 billion for the program over five years. As part of the FY 2023 Consolidated Appropriations Act, Congress appropriated EDA $500 million to launch the program. This program invests in U.S. regions that are focused on technologies within or across the key technology focus areas outlined in the statute.
