Stories of Technology, Innovation, & Entrepreneurship in the Southeast

Just days after alerting interested individuals that a Notice of Funding Opportunity for its “Recompete Pilot Program” (RPP) was pending, the U.S. Economic Development Administration (EDA) has released the document.

The RPP will invest $200 million toward projects that spur economic activity in geographically diverse and persistently distressed communities across the country. Specifically, the program targets areas where the employment of prime-age (25 to 54-year-old) individuals significantly trails the national average. The program’s goal is to close this gap by utilizing EDA’s place-based approach and delivering large, highly flexible grants based on community-driven strategies to address the unique workforce and economic development needs of individual communities or regions.

According to the news release accompanying the announcement, Recompete program will be run through two phases. Initially, EDA is launching the first phase which invites applicants to apply for strategy development grants, approval of a Recompete Plan, or both. In Phase 2, regions with approved Recompete Plans will be invited to apply for significant implementation funding.

Eligible applicants include local and state governments, Tribal governments, political subdivisions of a State or other entity, non-profits, Economic Development Districts, and coalitions of any of these entities that serve or are contained within an eligible geographic area.

To support applicants in determining if they are in an Eligible Area, EDA, in partnership with Argonne National Laboratory, has released the Recompete Eligibility Mapping Tool. We previously reported (see teknovation.biz article here) that most of East Tennessee, with the exception of Blount County, other than Friendsville, and Loudon County, appears to be eligible. Knox County is partially eligible.

 

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