Baltimore Tech Hub skipped for millions in federal funding, will reapply in second round

BALTIMORE -- The Baltimore Tech Hub, one of 31 federal "Tech Hubs" designated last year, was skipped for a cut of $504 million in the first round of funding for the program. 

The Biden Administration on Tuesday announced the first 12 hubs to receive funding, with allotments ranging from $19 million to $51 million. 

The Greater Baltimore Committee, a consortium that heads the Baltimore Tech Hub, will get a $500,000 grant to support its reapplication in the next round of funding in the five-year, $10 billion project. 

"[The U.S. Department of] Commerce announced in April that the hubs collectively submitted 182 projects representing $2 billion in requests," Mark Anthony Thomas, president and CEO of the Greater Baltimore Committee, said in a statement. "The White House and Commerce have requested $4 billion in funding for Phase 3 requests, a substantial increase." 

Baltimore was designated out of nearly 400 applicants in October 2023 to become a Tech Hub, making it eligible to apply for funding.  The consortium pitched a plan focused on the intersection of Artificial Intelligence and biotechnology. aimed at improving health outcomes by developing new medicines and therapies.

The Tech Hubs program was authorized by the Biden Administration's CHIPS and Sciences Act to accelerate and grow industries in underinvested regions. 

"These Tech Hubs will ensure that the benefits of innovation and technology development, which for too long have been concentrated in a few coastal cities, reach rural, industrial, and disadvantaged communities, growing regional economies from the bottom-up and the middle-out," the White House said in a statement Tuesday.