Last week, the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity (DECO) announced that they will be awarding $7 million to four tech incubators across the state.

The Tech Incubator Enhancement Grant (TIEG) Program allows the state to give capital grants to facilities that focus on a key growth industry as defined in the Illinois Economic Growth Plan. In addition, TEIG plans to focus on industries of the future such as life sciences, clean energy production and manufacturing, and next-generation agriculture, which are also outlined in the 2024 Growth Plan.

The program aims to support incubators that foster innovation, collaboration, and resilience. After a competitive selection process, the grants were awarded to three new projects and one already existing incubator. The grantees and their awards are as follows:

• 518 Collective at Carl Sandburg College- $1,811,907
• Deep Tech Innovation Lab at mHUB- $590,200
• EnterpriseWorks 2.0 at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign- $3,000,000
• SouthernTECH High-Tech Food Incubator at Southern Illinois University- $1,597,893

Senate Republicans say this program will help incubators to continue to play an essential role in innovation and entrepreneurship in Illinois’ economy.