U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick wants the federal government to receive a return on funding awarded for R&D, innovation and economic development. The New Jersey Economic Development Authority has financed a dozen various technology innovation initiatives with the same expectation for the state’s money. Here’s how NJEDA says it's working.
Governor Murphy first announced plans for an innovation hub in New Brunswick in 2018, with the New Jersey Economic Development Authority as an investor. In 2021, while that multi-partnered project—The Health & Life Science Exchange (HELIX NJ)—was still in its earliest stages, the NJEDA learned of an RFP from SOSV, a global venture capital firm that invests in deep tech startups, to locate the worldwide headquarters for HAX, its hard-tech program. The NJEDA, along with Choose New Jersey—a private non-profit economic development agency for New Jersey—responded with an offer for a $25 million equity investment. SOSV accepted that proposal, and the program launched in Newark in 2024.
HELIX NJ and HAX were the initial sparks that led to what is now the Strategic Innovation Center (SIC) platform. The initiative, said NJEDA’a Chief Economic Transformation Officer Kathleen Coviello, was born of a desire to create an identity for innovation in New Jersey. With significant financial support from both the governor and the legislature, the agency committed to investing up to $25 million in each SIC, with the NJEDA serving as an equity partner in each. Coviello noted that this method of supporting innovation is different from how government typically funds projects. “The models we've looked at are usually funded via government grants or real estate,” she said. “But the SICs are specially created entities with like-minded partners.”
The SICs are sector-specific, place-based, public-private partnerships. Coviello believes that past efforts to create an innovation identity for the state lacked sufficient academic and corporate partnerships to help spur innovation. The model of academic-corporate partnerships runs through each SIC.
There are now 12 SICs: they include accelerators, venture studios, incubators, VC investors, and co-working spaces. They focus on three primary sectors: information and high technology, life sciences, and advanced manufacturing. Although the NJEDA is an equity partner in each SIC, each is operated by different entities. These operators are required to bring significant resources to the table: the NJEDA is not looking for one-way funding requests.
“NJEDA has had the chance to roll up our sleeves and get smarter about the companies that we're trying to support,” said Timothy B. Rollender, director, strategic innovation initiatives, at the NJEDA. “There are distinct sectors of technology and life science, and different needs of each of those companies in the sectors. Each SIC was designed uniquely to meet those needs and those objectives.”
HAX, which officially launched in Newark in April 2024, exemplifies the impact the SICs are expected to have on New Jersey’s economy. HAX backs founders tackling hard-tech, including industrial decarbonization, electrification, critical minerals, energy storage, manufacturing, robotics, advanced compute, plasma, and future fuels. They help founders rapidly prototype, de-risk technology, and achieve traction. In addition to up to $550,000 in pre-seed funding, the program provides founders with a six-month residency that includes on-site access to multiple labs, an extensive machine shop, and in-house technical experts.
HAX interior entrance
HAX selected New Jersey partly because of the financial support it got from the NJEDA, but it also saw the benefits the state had to offer the innovation system. “New Jersey was a strategic decision,” said Susan J. Schofer, PhD, partner at SOSV and chief science officer of HAX. “New Jersey is surrounded by a density of world-class universities, technical talent, and research. When you combine that pipeline with its proximity to New York’s capital markets and global industry, you get a uniquely powerful launchpad for hard tech. It’s a great place to build an engine for industrial innovation.” As of the end of Q3 2025, 58 companies have been through the program. There are many success stories to point to—here are two:
Princeton Critical Minerals. This company is a spinout from Princeton University focused on revolutionizing lithium production. They joined HAX due to the team’s experience with prototyping and manufacturing, including in-house engineers who accelerated the build out of the company’s first lithium-extraction prototype. Since HAX invested in this company in 2023 as they were spinning out of Princeton, they have piloted their technology with customers in South America and raised a $3 million seed round.
Still Bright. This company, a spinout from Columbia University, is using electrochemistry to purify copper in the U.S., replacing the smelting process, a toxic process common in China. They joined HAX in search of lab space equipped with enough fume hoods, bench space, and advanced analytics to enable scaling their copper production from grams to kilograms. HAX invested in Still Bright in 2022, and in 2025, the company raised an $18.5 million seed round.
Another example of early SIC success can be found at the New Jersey Innovation Institute (NJII) Venture Studio. NJII is a subsidiary of the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT); the NJII Venture Studio works closely with NJIT to nurture companies based on IP created by its faculty. With the help of the NJEDA, NJII created a $11.6 million investment fund and expects to deploy $9.2 million to ten companies over four years; the rest will be used for operating capital.
Lab space at NJII Venture Studio
NJII Venture Studio launched its first company in October 2025. The company, Pure Trace Labs, will go to market with a PFAS detection tool based on NJIT IP. Homebuyers will be able to use it to detect PFAS in their homes, much like they would use a radon test.
That product is only the beginning. “As the IP matures, we maintain our relationship with the R&D base in NJIT,” said Michael van Ter Sluis, vice president, entrepreneurship. “The inventor, Doctor Hao Chen, will connect his research program to the trajectory of this startup. As his and other NJIT technologies mature, we can absorb them into this new company and bring on new product lines.”
NJII Venture Studio’s goal is to have ten startups based on NJIT IP within 5 years. Other technologies in the pipeline include medical devices and drug discovery tools.
The SIC initiative is still in its inaugural phase. When the SICs are all up and running, the NJEDA expects to see an average of 150 to 200 companies a year going through this platform. According to an independent report conducted by Econsult Solutions Inc., once SICs are fully operational and stabilized, the projected impacts after 10 years include 28,000 direct jobs created by SIC startup companies; $17 billion in total annual economic output triggered by SIC startup business activities in the state; and $427 million in total annual tax revenue generated for New Jersey by SIC startup activities.
On the real estate development side, the report projects that NJEDA’s $68.5 million in capital contributions for the development and build-out of five SICs will leverage additional institutional and private capital, totaling nearly $386 million. These investments will create one-time economic output totaling $667 million, of which $206 million will be employee compensation. This activity is expected to support approximately 590 jobs annually throughout the construction period and generate over $15 million in tax revenue for the state.
“These centers will now be the catalyst and the pins on the map to say, ‘this is where New Jersey is the epicenter of AI, medical devices, or life sciences,’” said Coviello. “We've focused on the unpolished gems in New Jersey.”
This page was prepared by SSTI using Federal funds under award ED22HDQ3070129 from the Economic Development Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce. The statements, findings, conclusions, and recommendations are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Economic Development Administration or the U.S. Department of Commerce.