Osceola County’s NeoCity receives $15M from National Science Foundation
It’s the latest big federal grant for the semiconductor manufacturing hub
Osceola County’s semiconductor manufacturing hub NeoCity received a $15 million award from the National Science Foundation on Monday, bringing its total to more than a half-billion dollars in funding over the last 18 months.
The award comes from the NSF’s Regional Innovation Engines program, which was funded by the CHIPS and Science Act and aims to establish technology hubs across the country. The award of $15 million across two years is for a coalition that includes Osceola County, the nano-electronics design firm imec, the Orlando Economic Partnership and others.
NeoCity, the county’s vehicle to diversify its economy of agriculture and tourism, continues to seek tenants for its over 500-acre technology campus. Currently, the campus is home to BRIDG, a nonprofit research and development company, which focuses on the semiconductor industry, and SkyWater Technology, the only U.S.-owned and U.S.-based semiconductor foundry.
The $15 million award follows closely NeoCity’s latest award from the Department of Defense. In November, the DOD awarded Osceola County and its partners $120 million.
“This win represents a pivotal moment for our region’s efforts to become a national hub for semiconductor and microelectronics research, development, and manufacturing,” said Tim Giuliani, President and CEO of the Orlando Economic Partnership. “With over half a billion dollars in state and federal investments in the past year and a half alone, Osceola County’s NeoCity is on the verge of transitioning from what once was just an idea to an economic engine anchoring a critical industry cluster.”
The federal program made awards to ten other technology
and research hubs in various states: Colorado for climate resilience, the Great Lakes region for water innovation, Louisiana for energy transition, North Carolina for textile innovation and sustainability, North Dakota for advanced agriculture technology, New Mexico and Texas for defense and aerospace innovation, North Carolina and South Carolina for medicine innovation, Arizona, Nevada and Utah for water sustainability, and upstate New York for energy storage technology.
Teams that demonstrate progress toward well-defined milestones could potentially receive up to $160 million each from NSF over 10 years, according to a press release.