U.S. Economic Development Administration officials advised local tech industry leaders to develop a stronger strategic focus during a visit Wednesday that came about a month after the region lost out on a round of federal grant money.

The Greater Baltimore Tech Hub Consortium, comprised of 38 partners, including the Greater Baltimore Committee and Johns Hopkins University, was one of 31 communities across the country to receive the federal designation last year as a “Tech Hub.” But its application for a $70 million grant was rejected.

In feedback to the attendees, Eric Smith, deputy director of the EDA’s Tech Hubs program, said that his department and Baltimore’s consortium are “very much aligned” on the overall vision and approach they’ve proposed. Baltimore and other Tech Hubs, however, are struggling to find a strategic focus, he said.

“The broad vision totally aligns with the assets and resources you have on the ground,” Smith said. “It’s the specifics about the various pathways through that.”

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Baltimore will have more opportunities to secure federal funding, and during Wednesday’s visit, members of the tech consortium pressed their case to federal officials, saying they want to make biomanufacturing Baltimore’s next big industry. Yet, they acknowledged, the region doesn’t have the workforce available to support it.

Training the workforce for biotech

Baltimore can’t meet the demands of biotechnology without a workforce to support it.

The consortium’s goal is to help 10,000 people in the region find careers over the next decade. Doing so would have a $4 billion impact on the region, said Curt Schwab, president of Catalyte, a tech hiring and talent company.

The state has struggled to increase, and even retain, the number of biotech workers. The COVID-19 pandemic worsened Maryland’s employment situation, with an estimated loss of 181,000 workers who still have not returned to the labor market.

Many of the jobs being promoted require training. Consortium members aim to provide it through the Baltimore biotech jobs initiative, a plan to create pathways to biotech jobs without a four-year degree requirement.

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Kelly Schulz, CEO of the Maryland Tech Council, said tech companies around the state have long felt that something is missing: entry-level positions in biomanufacturing that don’t require a degree.

“We have wonderful access to talent from our community colleges and our four-year universities, but what we don’t have is that new pool of individuals that may not have ever thought in a million years that they would go into life sciences at all,” she said.

Representatives from the Greater Baltimore Committee, the U.S. Economic Development Administration, the Maryland Department of Labor, university presidents and local business owners met Wednesday, Aug. 28, 2024, to discuss next steps in Baltimore’s Tech Hub initiative. (Bria Overs/The Baltimore Banner)

Schultz believes training is the path forward. Catalyte, the Maryland Tech Council, local community colleges and Maryland’s Department of Labor have programs that can train and develop a biotech workforce.

Edwina Manyeh, deputy director of the EDA’s Tech Hubs program, said she appreciated the group’s focus on recruitment, development and training — but had concerns about retention.

Bringing back manufacturing

Ken Malone of Early Charm, Robert Storey of The LaunchPort and David Fidler, a plant manager for Bora Pharmaceuticals represented the biomanufacturing industry at the meeting with the EDA.

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Malone, co-founder and executive officer of Early Charm Ventures, which is based in Pigtown and helps companies bring new biomedical products to market, said there is a “common desire to see manufacturing as a core part of equitable growth.”

It’s “a historic wealth creator in our communities,” he said. “And it needs to be again.”

Malone and others suggested building a stronger working relationship with the U.S. Department of Defense’s Aberdeen Proving Ground to build upon that vision.

The U.S. Army has used the 107-year-old proving ground for research, development, testing and the evaluation of military weapons, chemical and biological defense, and public health. According to the U.S. Army, it is an “economic and technology resource for the region” and is Harford County’s largest employer.

In the past, there have been concerns about whether Baltimore has the technology and customer base to be a center for biotechnology, said Rajiv Goel, deputy director of Harford County’s Office of Economic Development. Goel said he believes the Baltimore region is simply missing the ecosystem to support its existing strengths.

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“It just needs to be scaled, and we need to have the right partners on the private side to develop it,” adding that the private sector could “support military preparedness and commercial applicability,” he said.

Next steps

When the announcement came in July that Baltimore was not selected for funding, no one knew why. The loss shocked Mark Anthony Thomas, CEO of the Greater Baltimore Committee.

During the Wednesday visit, Smith and others helped answer that question.

“I think what we want to understand is, what’s the path to [global] economic competitiveness? How do the economics of these particular industries’ focus areas work?” Smith said. “You have the assets, and figuring out how to align those and tell that story around the economic competitive piece will be really key in the future.”

Baltimore intends to apply for the next round of tech grant funding — which has not yet been announced.

The Biden administration authorized the Economic Development Administration to grant a total of $10 billion for Tech Hubs, but it was only able to award 5% in the first round of funding, Smith said. A dozen Tech Hubs received $504 million in total.