Edited from a New England Council (newenglandcouncil.com) report
“A coalition of New England businesses and institutions have applied to the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) for funding under the recently passed CHIPS and Science Act to establish as Microelectronics Commons hub in the Northeast. The coalition is led by the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative and includes a number of other NEC member businesses and educational institutions.
“In November 2022, the Department of Defense launched its Microelectronics Commons program following the passage of the CHIPS and Science Act in August with the goal of linking U.S. R&D with manufacturing capacity. DOD plans to establish nine regional microelectronics-technology hubs across the nation and has $1.63 billion to invest.
“A main goal of this plan is to ‘bring ideas from the lab to the bench.’ If the coalition’s application for funding is accepted, the new hub in New England would link dozens of research, manufacturing and academic partners to grow a regional defense technology ecosystem, opening doors to major federal grants.
“Our region has an incredible depth of research, talent, and facilities across industry and academia needed to help the DoD deliver on the Microelectronics Commons vision,” said Doug Robbins, vice president, Engineering and Prototyping, at MITRE.
