Assistance program
Cluster Grants
$77.5 Million committed in FY2018–FY2024
- Agency
- Economic Development Administration, Commerce, Department of
- Assistance
- Project Grants;Project Grants (Discretionary)
- CFDA number
- 11.020
- What it does
- EDA’s Office of Innovation & Entrepreneurship is committed to furthering technology-based economic development initiatives that accelerate high quality job growth, create more economic opportunities, and support the future of the next generation of industry leading companies. To advance these goals, EDA awards grants through the Build to Scale Program (formerly the Regional Innovation Strategies Program) for activities designed to develop and support regional innovation initiatives.1 EDA thereby advances the growth of connected, innovation-centric economies that increase job growth, enable the workforce of tomorrow, enhance global competitiveness, and foster global competitiveness through technology commercialization and entrepreneurship as described in Stevenson-Wydler Technology Innovation Act of 1980 (hereafter “Section 27â€). The Build to Scale Program invites organizations who are aiding companies in developing the next generation of technologies to apply for funding. These organizations may be operating initiatives to unlock investment capital across a region or sector, operating programs to accelerate company growth, empowering the next generation of entrepreneurs, and/or enabling technology commercialization. Under the Build to Scale Program, EDA is soliciting applications for three separate competitions: (1) the Venture Challenge, (2) the Capital Challenge, and (3) the Industry Challenge. Applicants may apply to all three challenges but may only submit one application per competition. As discussed further below, these activities are designed to develop and support regional innovation initiatives.
- Who benefits
- None
- Who applies
- None
- Authorized by
- The statutory authority for the Build to Scale Program is Section 27 of the Stevenson-Wydler Technology Innovation Act of 1980, as amended (most recently by the National Defense Authorization Act for 2020, Pub. L 116-92, sec. 1742, 133 Stat. 1837 (December 20, 2019)), 15 U.S.C. Â…
Committed by fiscal year
Top recipients
By dollars committed.
How to read these numbers
- Committed through this program
Money committed under this assistance listing (its CFDA program), counted in the year each action happened.
- How it's paid
Most programs pay out one way — a grant, or a direct payment to individuals; the flow bar only appears when a program genuinely mixes types.
- Some recipients aren't itemized
For entitlement programs like Social Security and Medicare, the government reports one aggregate instead of naming tens of millions of people, so the recipient roster isn't part of the public record.
- Awards, counted once
An award count is the number of distinct awards with at least one action that year — each counted once, however many times it was amended.
- The colored bars
Every bar on this page splits by how the money moves:
Direct payments