[Federal Register Volume 88, Number 30 (Tuesday, February 14, 2023)]
[Notices]
[Pages 9427-9429]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2023-03022]


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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

Economic Development Administration


Request for Information on Implementation of the Regional 
Technology and Innovation Hub Program

AGENCY: Economic Development Administration, U.S. Department of 
Commerce.

ACTION: Request for information.

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SUMMARY: The Department of Commerce, through the Economic Development 
Administration (EDA), is seeking information to inform the planning and 
design of the Regional Technology and Innovation Hub (Tech Hubs) 
program. Responses to this Request for Information (RFI) will inform 
planning for the implementation of the Tech Hubs program.

DATES: Comments must be received by 5 p.m. Eastern Time on March 16, 
2023. Submissions received after that date may not be considered. 
Written comments in response to this RFI should be submitted in 
accordance with the instructions in the Addresses and Supplementary 
Information sections below.

ADDRESSES: Interested persons are invited to submit written comments by 
email to [email protected]. Do not submit confidential business 
information or otherwise sensitive or protected information.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Eric Smith, Director, Office of 
Innovation and Entrepreneurship, via email at [email protected] or via 
telephone at (202) 482-5081. Please reference ``Tech Hubs RFI'' in the 
subject line of your correspondence. You may find additional 
information on EDA at www.eda.gov.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

Background

    Section 10621 of the Research and Development, Competition, and 
Innovation Act authorizes the Department of Commerce to designate 
geographically distributed regional technology and innovation hubs and 
to award strategy development grants and strategy implementation grants 
to eligible consortia (15 U.S.C. 3722a; Pub. L. 117-167, Division B, 
Title VI, Subtitle C, Sec. 10621(a)(2), 136 Stat. 1642). Tech Hubs will 
focus on technology development, job creation, entrepreneurial 
development, and expanding U.S. innovation capacity. Of the $10 billion 
authorized for the Tech Hubs program from Federal fiscal year 2023 
through Federal fiscal year 2027, $500 million has been made available 
for the Tech Hubs program as of the publication of this RFI.
    Section 10621 of the Research and Development, Competition, and 
Innovation Act provides that the Tech Hubs program shall:
    (A) Encourage constructive collaborations among a wide range of new 
and traditional economic development stakeholders, including public and 
private sector entities;
    (B) Support the development and implementation of regional 
innovation strategies;
    (C) Designate regional technology and innovation hubs and 
facilitate the following implementation activities:
    (i) Enable United States leadership in technology and innovation 
sectors critical to national and economic security.
    (ii) Support regional economic development and resilience, 
including in small cities and rural areas, and promote increased 
geographic diversity of innovation across the United States;
    (iii) Promote the benefits of technology development and innovation 
for all Americans, including underserved communities and vulnerable 
communities;
    (iv) Support the modernization and expansion of United States 
manufacturing based on advances in technology and innovation;
    (v) Support domestic job creation and broad-based economic growth; 
and
    (vi) Improve the pace of market readiness, industry maturation, and 
overall commercialization and domestic production of innovative 
research;
    (D) Ensure that the regional technology and innovation hubs address 
the intersection of emerging technologies and either regional 
challenges or national challenges; and
    (E) Conduct ongoing research, evaluation, analysis, and 
dissemination of best practices for regional development and 
competitiveness in technology and innovation.

[[Page 9428]]

    The Tech Hubs program is an economic development initiative to 
drive technology- and innovation-centric growth that leverages existing 
R&D strengths and technology demonstration and deployment capacities 
(public and private) within a region to catalyze the creation of good 
jobs for American workers at all skill levels equitably and 
inclusively.
    EDA intends to run a rigorous, fair, and evidence-driven 
competition informed by the vision and experiences of all stakeholders, 
technology practitioners, and relevant policy research to guide program 
design, structure, and evaluation, and to aim for the strongest 
geographic and demographic diversity among hubs. This RFI seeks to 
encourage the field of regional innovation and economic development to 
provide evidence-based input that will be used to inform the design and 
implementation of the Tech Hubs program to maximize American 
competitiveness. The following sections provide specific requests for 
information, group into a number of categories.

Specific Request for Information: Tech Hubs Characteristics

    1. What are the indicia of a successful future Tech Hub?
    a. What are the defining features of a region that indicate that a 
Tech Hub will take hold, and how will EDA know if Tech Hubs succeed?
    b. What existing assets and resources that generate, support, and 
enable technology innovation, demonstration, and deployment should Tech 
Hubs have? How does a Tech Hub leverage those assets and resources 
collaboratively?
    c. When designating Tech Hubs, what additional geographic, 
demographic, or other place-specific factors or data should EDA 
consider?
    d. Are there specific metrics that EDA should consider for 
designating Tech Hubs?
    e. What are the technological considerations that EDA should 
consider?
    2. How might EDA determine how the size and timing of investments 
will best accelerate a future Tech Hub's evolution into a global leader 
in an industry of the future that strengthens its region and our 
economic and national security? What data and information are important 
to that determination?
    3. What are historical and existing examples of successful regional 
hub programs and what can be learned from these examples?
    4. How might EDA determine the relative competitiveness of proposed 
Tech Hubs in the context of current and future global competition, in 
addition to domestic competition?

Specific Request for Information: Tech Hubs Program Design

Models for Program Design

    5. Please share specific examples of evidence-based or evidence-
informed investments, interventions, or policies, including those 
implemented in other countries, that would support technology-based 
economic development, particularly at the scale required to enable U.S. 
leadership in technology and innovation sectors critical to economic 
and national security.
    a. What limitations currently prevent EDA from investing, 
intervening, or making policies in these ways? For example, are there 
statutory, regulatory, policy, design, or implementation issues with 
current EDA programs or operations that inhibit or prohibit EDA in some 
way? Are there other Federal organizations that have overcome these 
issues?
    6. Are there specific workforce and labor development, business and 
entrepreneurial development, technology development and maturation, or 
infrastructure activities that EDA should emphasize through the 
program?
    7. How should EDA consider worker and community input in Tech Hub 
design?
    8. What are some of the most innovative approaches to 
commercialization at research institutions (e.g., universities, 
national labs) and what evidence exists on the effectiveness of these 
approaches?
    9. What are some of the most innovative approaches to ensuring the 
growth of globally competitive industries occurs in an inclusive and 
equitable manner? Where possible, please provide examples of evidence-
based and/or evidence-informed investments, interventions, or policies 
that drive inclusive and equitable outcomes.

Funding and Support

    10. Please share best-in-class ideas for inclusive and accessible 
competition processes for the Tech Hubs program, including examples of 
best-in-class regional competitions in the United States or 
internationally.
    11. How should EDA evaluate the extent to which certain technology 
and innovation sectors are critical to national and economic security? 
How should EDA take into account whether a consortium would help 
promote increased geographic diversity of innovation?
    12. How can Federal designations and Federal grants be structured 
to maximize the desired impacts of the Tech Hubs program?
    13. What other existing Federal programs can complement Tech Hubs?
    14. In addition to existing Federal programs, what types of 
benefits or support could be helpful for ``designated'' regional Tech 
Hubs?
    15. What should EDA consider in designing the program for its 
current appropriation of $500 million given the $10 billion vision in 
the program's statutory authorization? How should those considerations 
affect EDA's design of the program now and potentially into future 
years?
    16. How should EDA evaluate the effectiveness and return on public-
private partnerships or other collaborative arrangements that may 
emerge from the Tech Hubs?
    17. What criteria should EDA use to shift investments within or 
between Tech Hubs to maximize the impact of the program?
    18. What else should EDA consider when building this program, 
including but not limited to alignment with other Federal programs?

Specific Request for Information: Tech Hubs Program Administration

    19. How should EDA measure whether the Tech Hubs program has been 
successful in achieving these outcomes, and how might EDA capture those 
data?
    a. What are the indicia of successful investments under the Tech 
Hubs program? What, if any, earlier-in-time proxies are predictive of 
those indicia?
    b. What is a realistic time horizon over which to evaluate the 
economic development, national security, and global competitiveness 
impacts of Tech Hubs? Which measures are meaningful over which time 
horizons (e.g., five, ten, fifteen years)?
    20. What desirable organizational and institutional changes within 
and among tech hubs' participants, beneficiaries, and other 
stakeholders could the Tech Hubs program competition incentivize? How 
could those changes be incentivized, and how could those changes be 
measured?
    21. How can EDA ensure input from, and engagement with, community 
members in the administration of the Tech Hubs program, particularly 
for underserved community members?
    22. What are unique challenges faced by Established Program to 
Stimulate

[[Page 9429]]

Competitive Research (EPSCoR) \1\ state-based consortia or rural 
consortia that EDA should be aware of and account for in program 
administration?
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    \1\ EPSCoR states are determined annually by the National 
Science Foundation (NSF) based on the proportion of NSF funding each 
state receives within certain periods of time. See 42 U.S.C. 
13503(b)(3) (2021); Nat'l Sci. Found., EPSCoR Criteria for 
Eligibility, https://beta.nsf.gov/funding/initiatives/epscor/epscor-criteria-eligibility (last visited Jan. 26, 2023).

    Dated: February 8, 2023.
Eric Smith,
Director, Office of Innovation and Entrepreneurship.
[FR Doc. 2023-03022 Filed 2-13-23; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510-24-P