At a Glance

• The NSF and EDA will lead efforts to couple technological advancement with economic development and growth across the country
• The announcement highlights the two agencies’ commitment to a “regional” strategy of leveraging local, existing assets and resources to spur economic development.
• This announcement follows the EDA’s launch last month of the Recompete Pilot Program that also emphasized geographic diversity as core element of its priorities.

On July 26, the National Science Foundation (NSF) and Economic Development Administration (EDA) signed a memorandum of understanding to formally initiate their coordination on regional innovation programs funded through the CHIP and Science Act. This announcement — coming nearly one year after the law’s enactment — is seen as a precursor to additional funding opportunities and announcements through these two agencies that are at the center of funding for the underlying law.

These two agencies will lead efforts to couple technological advancement with economic development and growth across the country. Areas of collaboration highlighted by the announcement include:

• Implementing pathways for sustained growth of regional innovation ecosystems.
• Training and educating diverse technicians, researchers, practitioners and entrepreneurs based on regional workforce needs.
• Forming trusted partnership networks across industry, academia, government, nonprofits, civil society and communities of practice to foster scientific innovation and the exchange of proposals or personnel.

The announcement highlights the two agencies’ commitment to a “regional” strategy of leveraging local, existing assets and resources to spur economic development. The two primary programs — the NSF’s Regional Innovation Engines and the EDA’s Regional Technology and Innovation Hubs — emphasize this strategy of spreading federal investments broadly to maximize impact. To underscore this approach, the two agencies produced a map that details investments already made by the two agencies through the CHIPS and Science Act. Building on this work, this MOU formally enables coordination across these two programs through, “research and education activities, facilities, centers, data infrastructure and outreach.”

More information and potential funding opportunities are expected from the two agencies in the coming weeks and months as the Biden administration works to implement this major legislative initiative enacted by Congress as quickly as possible. The announcement of this MOU follows the EDA’s launch last month of the Recompete Pilot Program that also emphasized geographic diversity as core element of its priorities.