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The U.S. Department of Commerce recently announced that the Economic Development Administration (EDA) intends to award $169 million across six selected Tech Hubs. The competition for this funding was open to the 19 designated Hubs that had not yet received EDA Tech Hubs Implementation Awards. 

The selected Tech Hubs are: 

While repeatedly writing about VC investment trends over the past year can feel a little like the movie Groundhog Day, like the film, the story is more nuanced than it would first appear. Sure, the overall message of high-dollar deals driving headlines and boosting investment levels to record heights persists, but there are some emerging trends deeper in the data that bear exploring to see if there are issues or opportunities that impact how TBED investors allocate resources going forward.  

When a new TBED project comes to town, the TBED practitioners inside know the long-term benefits of technology-based economic development: they can see and understand their progress in building a strong economic foundation for their host region. But for community-based and workforce development organizations and K-12 education systems in the surrounding area, the TBED project might appear to be an opaque operation that operates independently of its neighbors. 

Ask most university leaders how their institution contributes to the regional economy and the answer is likely to include research expenditures, patents, startups, and jobs. Those measures remain important, but they overlook one of the university's most valuable contributions. In today’s economy, where innovation, talent, and technology shape how regions grow, universities are helping communities adapt, connect, and compete. 

Every week, SSTI members receive the Funding Supplement, an exclusive members-only electronic publication with information on applications, eligibility criteria, and submission deadlines for funding opportunities offered by federal government agencies, foundations, and other organizations. Expanding this benefit, SSTI has released a Funding Supplement Search for members, including over 200 active and 5,700 total opportunities to reference. Every week, new opportunities are added and updated. 

There’s a lot of churn in state budgets this year, but the bottom line is clear: tighter budgets are ahead for most states. As a result, governors and legislatures—with a few exceptions—are approaching Fiscal Year 2027 (FY 27) with cautious or constrained funding priorities. 

This week's joint meeting of the Lab-to-Market and Entrepreneurship Development subcommunities of SSTI's TBED Community of Practice focused on how the NSF I-Corps and DOE Energy I-Corps programs help researchers move discoveries beyond the lab and toward real-world use. A central theme was the importance of engaging potential customers early, testing market assumptions, and confirming the existence of a real need before investing significant resources in technology development.