The Department of Labor recently announced awards totaling $183.8 million in Scaling Apprenticeships Through Sector-Based Strategies grants. Funded through H-1B visa fees, the grants will support the training of more than 85,000 apprentices. The grantees include 23 academic institutions and grant-matching industry consortia representing 18 states, and includes three SSTI members — the University of Cincinnati, Lorain County Community College and the State University of New York Research Foundation.

The National Science Foundation (NSF) has announced awards for Conceptualization Grants (CG) for Quantum Leap Challenge Institutes, which are large-scale interdisciplinary research projects that aim to advance the frontiers of quantum information science and engineering.

NSF is issuing its first set of awards from the Convergence Accelerator Pilot. The new program is intended to accelerate use-inspired, convergence research in areas of national importance through partnerships between academic and non-academic stakeholders. The Convergence Accelerator (C-Accel) pilot program focuses on two of the NSF’s “10 Big Ideas” and emphasizes the importance of deliverable-oriented, multidisciplinary teams.

The Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC) announced $44.4 million in 54 awards to help expand and diversify the economy in Appalachia’s coal-impacted communities through the Partnerships for Opportunity and Workforce and Economic Revitalization (POWER) Initiative. One third (more than $14.6 million) of these investments will develop business incubators, increase access to capital, and provide other services to advance entrepreneurship in Kentucky, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, and West Virginia.

Just days after the first reported US death from COVID-19, federal grant recipients capable of performing essential research and services related to COVID-19 were provided with additional flexibilities to the terms of their contracts and supplied with additional administrative resources to pivot their efforts towards combatting the virus.

The New Mexico Economic Development Department is launching a new grant program to facilitate the transfer and commercialization of technologies developed in New Mexico national labs and universities to business startups. The New Mexico Technology Transfer Assistance Grants (NM-TAG) are designed to help offset the risk associated with licensing new technologies and assist the transfer and deployment of new innovative technologies.

The Massachusetts Life Sciences Center (MLSC) plans to launch a seed fund to support the development of life sciences startups outside of the Greater Boston area. These areas, many already rich in major research university and medical center anchor institutions, should be bolstered by this early-stage funding currently concentrated in Boston.

The U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has awarded almost $54 million in grants to 13 projects to conduct research and develop testbeds in response to challenges from the COVID-19 pandemic. The American Rescue Act provided the funding for these awards, which will support projects at eight manufacturing institutes within the Manufacturing USA network.

A total of $29 million in grants will be awarded to 44 organizations across the country as part of the Scaling Pandemic Resilience through Innovation and Technology (SPRINT) Challenge provided by the Economic Development Administration. The SPRINT Challenge, with grants ranging from between $200,000 to $750,000, was developed last year with the goal of addressing the health and economic risks brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic through investments in entrepreneurship and innovation.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has announced a new competition for awards to support industry-driven consortia in developing technology roadmaps that will address high-priority research challenges to grow the advanced manufacturing sector in the U.S. and is inviting applications to its Manufacturing USA Technology Roadmap (MfgTech) grants program.

The EDA University Center Economic Development Program Competition recently announced $2.5 million in grants awarded to 25 colleges and universities in the Chicago and Philadelphia EDA regions to leverage assets, promote innovation and strengthen regional economies. The goal of these awards is “to boost innovation, create good-paying jobs and ensure American competitiveness in the global economy” while funding research as well as innovation economy development services.

The U.S. Economic Development Administration today announced the 50 organizations that will share in grants totaling $36.5 million to support programs that fuel innovation and tech-based economic development as part of the Build to Scale program.

The Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC) recently announced its largest POWER (Partnerships for Opportunity and Workforce and Economic Revitalization) grant package to date, investing nearly $46.4 million into 57 projects across 184 counties. The award aims to leverage entrepreneurship, workforce development, and infrastructure to bolster re-employment opportunities, create jobs in existing or new industries, and attract new sources of investment.

A new $113 million grant program intended to strengthen and modernize the Registered Apprenticeship Program (RAP) will designate up to $50 million for equity partnerships and pre-apprenticeship activities. The U.S. Department of Labor announced the new grant program to enable more workers to earn while they learn and find reliable pathways to the middle class. Using a coordinated investment strategy, the Apprenticeship Building America grant program will bring the RAP model to new sectors and industries.

Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont launched the Community Investment Fund 2030 (CIF), a five-year grant program of up to $875 million to foster economic development in historically underserved communities across Connecticut.

The Economic Development Administration (EDA) has announced the seven recipients of the inaugural STEM Talent Challenge, awarding a total of $2 million in grants through the inaugural STEM Talent Challenge, which aims to boost local science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) talent.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has announced its selections for $20 billion in grant awards under two competitions within the $27 billion Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund (GGRF).

Technologies developed by West Virginia University and the University of North Dakota in Grand Forks that extract and separate rare elements and critical minerals from acid mine drainage and coal waste, will each receive $8 million in funding from the U.S. Department of Energy.

A new $73.5 million grant opportunity using funding from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law is aimed at growing and supporting the development of new economic opportunities across multiple states in Appalachia.

A group of seven researchers analyzed upwards of one million National Science Foundation (NSF) proposals over a 23-year period (1996-2019) and found patterns of racialized disparities where white principal investigators (PIs) were consistently funded at higher rates (8+ percent) than most non-white PIs.

Taking what Gov.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) announced last week that it is adopting modified criteria in its grant review process beginning on January 25, 2024. The new system will continue to focus on the scientific merit of proposals (i.e., importance, rigor, and feasibility), while de-emphasizing criteria that may introduce bias into the review.

The U.S. Department of Commerce recently launched the Capital Readiness Program grant competition, which will provide $93.5 million to help minority and other underserved entrepreneurs grow and scale their businesses and be administered by the Minority Business Development Agency.