Southern Indiana microelectronics effort lands $9.5M DoD workforce contract
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The Department of Defense has awarded Bloomington-based economic development group Regional Opportunity Initiatives a $9.5 million, three-year contract to develop and grow its microelectronics workforce initiative in 11 Indiana counties, ROI announced last week.
The contract can be extended to five years, adding nearly $5.5 million to the contract value.
Funding was provided through the defense department’s Industrial Base Analysis and Sustainment program, which seeks to improve supply chain resilience and workforce readiness. The contract also supports the department’s National Imperative for Industrial Skills initiative, which seeks to shore up workforce talent deficits and support workforce development proposals.
ROI CEO Tina Peterson said the financial support will help ROI build on its workforce development strategy, which focuses on collaboration with K-12 schools.
“How do we ensure those educators and students are aware of the opportunities that exist in microelectronics within our region?” Peterson said.
Introducing students to working in a manufacturing “clean room” through the use of mobile facilities will be one of the ways to develop those skills, Peterson said.
Peterson said two other highlights of the contract will be partnering with Ivy Tech Community College to build certification opportunities, youth apprenticeship programming, and a regional education and training hub at the WestGate@Crane Technology Park.
Several similar initiatives are starting up or ongoing. ROI is implementing a network called Scalable Asymmetric Lifecycle Engagement, known simply as SCALE, locally to alert and prepare K-12 students for careers in microelectronics. And, Ivy Tech is growing its microelectronics certificate program, including an expansion to the Bloomington campus.
To Peterson, the new DOD grant is just one piece of the larger puzzle that is the microelectronic and semiconductor landscape in Indiana. While huge projects like SK Hynix getting federal grants and Purdue University continuing to pour resources into research, Peterson said ROI’s role is of developing a talent pipeline for such projects is just as important.
“One of the things I appreciate about this opportunity and others that we’ve seen in our region is that we seem to be taking a relatively wholistic approach to this as a country. There’s been multiple sources of funding that seem to be aligned across the federal government that support all aspects of successfully onshoring and growing our microelectronic capacity as a country.
“I think talent is probably the biggest thing. We’ve got to have the people to be able to do the work. I appreciate we’re making opportunity accessible no matter where you live,” Peterson said.
ROI concentrates its efforts on the Indiana Uplands region, consisting of Brown, Crawford, Daviess, Dubois, Greene, Lawrence, Martin, Monroe, Orange, Owen and Washington counties
The Indiana Uplands region is home to the Naval Surface Warfare Center-Crane Division and the 750-acre WestGate@Crane Technology Park, which often partner on defense-related research and collaboration. ROI estimates the operation has an economic impact of over $3 billion in the region.
The location of the military site, the recent growth of the tech park and a flood of federal financial support have propelled Indiana forward as a contender for large-scale investments and job creation.
Indiana is also home to the Silicon Crossroads Microelectronics Commons Hub, one of eight federal microelectronics hubs aimed at moving the military away from using chips made outside the United States. The initiative is funded by the CHIPS and Science Act (CHIPS stands for Creating Helpful Incentives to Produce Semiconductors) and is meant to fund the innovation, research and manufacturing needed to ensure that the United States can supply its own defense equipment.