WASHINGTON, D.C., October 16, 2024 -- Today, Maryam Janani-Flores, Chief of Staff at the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Economic Development Administration (EDA), visited The Bloch Tech Hub, a Tech Hub that serves Illinois. The Biden-Harris Administration, through the EDA, designated The Bloch Tech Hub, a coalition led by Chicago Quantum Exchange, as a Tech Hub in October 2023.

The Bloch Tech Hub highlights the region’s role as an emerging global leader in quantum information science and technology (QIST). While there, Ms. Janani-Flores and the Tech Hubs Program leadership worked with the Tech Hub to strengthen their strategy to advance the region as a leader in QIST through fostering collaboration, developing a framework for industry adoption, building innovation-focused office and lab space, and creating a publicly-usable commercial-grade quantum network testbed.

The Tech Hubs Program is a flagship initiative aimed at advancing U.S. leadership in technologies and industries critical to national security. The designation of The Bloch Tech Hub as a Tech Hub is a strong endorsement of the region’s plan to supercharge its critical technology ecosystem and become a global leader in quantum computing and communications over the next decade, advancing U.S. national security and global competitiveness.  

“The Bloch Tech Hub embodies the spirit and potential of the Tech Hubs Program to take centers of excellence and make them world-class tech ecosystems through targeted investments,” said Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo. “That’s precisely why I’ve asked Maryam Janani-Flores to travel to Chicago with a team to meet with leadership and provide technical assistance on their strategy. The Tech Hubs Program is crucial to ensuring tech industries vital to U.S. economic and national security start, stay, and grow in the U.S., and that’s why I’m committed to future rounds of funding and working with lawmakers to support additional federal resources to support all of our designees.”

The Tech Hubs Program, authorized for $10 billion in the bipartisan CHIPS and Science Act, is designed to increase the capacity and pace with which Americans make, deliver, and deploy innovative technologies, creating new, growing companies and new, good jobs.