The New River Valley Regional Commission was pleased to serve as the lead applicant on behalf of a coalition of partners in pursuit of a strategy development grant and regional designation to establish Virginia's Additive Manufacturing and Applied Materials Tech Hub through the US Economic Development Administration (US-EDA). The consortium consists of the counties, city, higher education institutions (VT, RU, NRCC), workforce development board, Onward NRV, industry partners: MELD, Print Works, Volvo Trucks, 2c Innovation Commons, Hollingsworth & Vose, FasTech LLC, the Institute for Advanced Learning and Research, along with several other collaborators. If selected, the strategy development grant would provide resources to hire a regional innovation officer and prepare a regional playbook for expanding the industry sector. The designation would allow the region to pursue implementation funds in the $50M to $75M range following development of the strategy. The US-EDA will make decisions on proposals in the coming months.
For more information, contact Kevin Byrd kbyrd@nrvrc.org.