The University of Notre Dame will be leading a Midwest wireless technology consortium and partnering with a life sciences tech hub.
The university was awarded a grant to lead the Midwest Wireless Innovation Strategy Development Consortium, part of the Tech Hub programs launched by the U.S. Department of Commerce and its Economic Development Administration.
The university will also partner with Heartland BioWorks, a group of Indiana biomanufacturing stakeholders that the Economic Development Administration designated as a 2023 Regional Technology and Innovation Hub.
“These initiatives will spur local economic growth through the new innovations being developed by our faculty, staff and students in our physical and virtual laboratories, and will further accelerate the great things happening in our region,” said Jeffrey Rhoads, vice president for research and professor of aerospace and mechanical engineering at Notre Dame, in a press release.
Sen. Todd Young spearheaded the concept of regional Tech Hubs as part of the 2022 CHIPS and Science Act, which provides funding for domestic research and manufacturing of semiconductors.
“My goal was to spur more innovation in technologies of the future in places like Indiana, rather than just Silicon Valley and a few coastal cities,” Young said. “I’m pleased to see Notre Dame receive a strategy development grant to further plans for a Midwest Wireless Innovation Hub.”
The consortium is working to grow a network of centers specializing in advanced technology innovation, commercialization and workforce training.
Nick Laneman, professor of electrical engineering and co-director of the Wireless Institute at Notre Dame, will lead the consortium.
“As advanced wireless technologies and applications continue to transform modern society, they have become critical to economic development, national security and global competitiveness,” said Laneman in the release. “In addition to improving people’s everyday lives, there are tremendous opportunities for career development in this high-tech area of national need.”
Notre Dame is also a partner with Heartland BioWorks, a collaboration of Indiana stakeholders ensuring that bioproducts invented in America are produced domestically. Heartland BioWorks will support entrepreneurs and small business owners developing new biotechnologies.
“Designating Heartland BioWorks as a Tech Hub is a recognition of Indiana’s leadership in biotechnology and synthetic biology research and manufacturing, and Notre Dame is a critical partner in this effort,” Young said.
