The region is teasingly close to winning some significant funding.
“Akron is one of 31 hubs designated from a pool of nearly 500 applicants being considered for an implementation award, the final round of funding,” Sykes said in a news release she issued in support of the effort. “Around five-10 hubs will be selected with awards of $20-$70 million each to carry out their missions."
It’s also still in the running for up to $35 million in state funding, designated for innovation hubs around Ohio. The state is expected to make those allocation decisions this year.
Brown was an architect of the federal hub program, which comes from the federal CHIPS Act that Brown sponsored and helped pass in 2022. The act authorizes approximately $280 billion in new funding for domestic research and manufacturing related to semiconductors, which rely on polymers for development and manufacturing.
In a call on Feb. 29, Brown told Crain's Cleveland Business, a sister publication of Plastics News, he thinks Akron’s chances this time around are good.
“I’m optimistic because we’ve gone this far and we’re the only one in Ohio,” he said.
The senator said he also thinks the project will be favored by U.S. Commerce Deputy Secretary Don Graves, a Cleveland area native whom Brown said is targeting Ohio for support.
“Someone said to me ‘Can you tell Don there are 49 states in addition to Ohio?’ and I said, ‘Why would I tell him that?’” Brown quipped.
Akron previously was awarded a $400,000 strategy development grant for the consortium to aid local coordination and planning efforts to pursue the grant and now local backers are hopping for the big prize. The Greater Akron Chamber, which has been applauded for corralling local backers of the effort into collaboration, confirmed it had sent its grant application to the feds by the deadline, Thursday, Feb. 29.
The chamber said via email, "The proposal requests a total of $70 million for this work, matched by over $11 million in public and private investment” from local agencies and corporations.
That money would be used to implement eight “Sustainable Polymers Tech Hub” projects that will be designed to reinvigorate the ecosystem for polymer startups in the region, add workforce capacity, invest in new technologies and further build partnerships and innovation in the sector.
Brown and others contend Akron is the natural site for such a hub to be based.
“Akron, famously known as the ‘Rubber Capital of the World,’ has been a leader in the polymer industry since the early 1900s. The city’s history, paired with the state’s rich manufacturing history, makes Northeast Ohio the obvious location to invest in a Tech Hub focused on polymers and advanced materials manufacturing and research & development,” wrote the region’s bipartisan federal lawmakers, including Brown, Sykes and also Reps. Max Miller, Shontel Brown, Mike Carey, Joyce Beatty and David Joyce.
The group’s letter was sent Feb. 29 to U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo and the U.S. Economic Development Administration.
Now comes what might be the toughest part of the process: the waiting.
That might be especially true in this case as Akron and the local polymer industry have come close to winning federal funding before, only to lose out in the end.
The group was one of 60 finalists, out of 529 applicants, for up to $17 million in funding in 2022, but ultimately did not win.
But there is more up for grabs this time, and local backers are hopeful that the close finish in 2022 will improve their chances this year.
There’s plenty of other local support, and input, into the effort, the chamber stated in a release.
“Each of the eight projects are being led by a Polymer Industry Cluster partner, each making a direct funding request to EDA under the Sustainable Polymers Tech Hub umbrella,” the chamber stated. “Partners leading component projects include Bioverde Tech L.L.C., Bounce Innovation Hub, Flexsys, Full Circle Technologies/Tyromer (co-leads), Huntsman Corp., The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co., The Greater Akron Chamber and The University of Akron. Legislators pledge their continued support."
Sykes in a statement added, “Polymers touch every industrial sector, and this Tech Hub will help ensure that Northeast Ohio remains a global leader in innovation, while also boosting our local economy and creating good-paying jobs right here at home. As a member of the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee, I’ll keep advocating to bring this Tech Hub to Akron and Northeast Ohio.”
