Applications
Business Oregon released a Request for Grant Applications for CIEs in May 2023, and applications were due in July. Business Oregon received nineteen applications and staff conducted an initial review of the applications. Business Oregon then engaged a review committee to evaluate eligible applications. The applications requested a total of over $40 million.
Evaluation Process and Results
Eligible applications were evaluated by a review committee consisting of seven external members and three Business Oregon staff.
The evaluation criteria included the following:
- Completeness of the application
- Quality of the project description, including fit with the CIE model and level of impact on innovation and economic development in Oregon
- Reasonableness of budget and justification and alignment of budget with proposed activities
- Metrics and targets
- DEI strategy and approach
- Strength of the emerging or established industry sector including evidence of Oregon’s advantages and market opportunities
- Experience and capacity of the lead organization and key individuals
- Level of impact on economic development and start-up/innovation activity in Oregon
- Experience of partners and level of partner commitments, particularly industry partners
- Quality of asset inventory, gap analysis and plans to fill gaps
- Plan for leveraging Oregon InC funding with funding from non-state sources
Award Decisions
The following five lead organizations are being awarded CIE designations for the 2023-2025 biennium. The industry sectors on which they focus, and the grant award amounts are listed below:
- OTRADI (bioscience) – $2.5M
- Pendleton (UAS) – $2.25M
- ONAMI (materials science & chemistry) – $1.75M
- Hillsboro (semiconductors) – $1.5M
- OMIC R&D (additive manufacturing) – $1.0M
Updates on Centers of Innovation Excellence progress and work will be posted as we get them underway.