Kansas City region designated tech hub from U.S. Dept. of Commerce

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (KCTV) - The Kansas City region, from Columbia to Manhattan, is officially a tech hub beating more than 400 applications from across the country.

The city will be working towards becoming a hub for vaccine production as the federal government sees the region with a lot of potential. The area as a whole will be focused on a large section of eastern Kansas and western Missouri from Manhattan to Columbia.

The U.S. Department of Commerce received nearly 200 applications for the inaugural tech hub designation and more than 400 for related grants. Kansas City’s BioHub was accepted among just 31 others.

The application was submitted by BioNexus KC which is a local non-profit focused on collaboration in animal and human health. Their selling points involve existing vaccine manufacturing facilities and research institutions, including those at UMKC, Kansas State, Kansas University, University of Missouri, and various research hospitals.

This was a big topic of discussion during a roundtable with representative Sharice Davids and plenty of leaders in our communities back in August. Monday, Senator Jerry Moran said it’s been a long time coming but it’s a realization that hard work and having the assets necessary allow for great things to follow.

The 31 winning applicants are now eligible to apply to receive investment funds of up to $75 million. The money will be awarded to only five to ten of the applicants.

“The Kansas City BioHub will be able to move onto phase two while that will also be a moment of celebration because with it comes dollars,” said Moran. “We need to set the stage for us to compete with 31 other tech hubs around the country to make sure that phase two also brings good news to this region.”

Research is underway already but so is production so KC could stand out enough to get the funding necessary from the federal government.

Pfizer has a plant in McPherson, Kansas which began manufacturing the COVID-19 vaccine in 2021 when supply was short. Ceva produces vaccines for poultry and swine in a 300,000-square-foot Lenexa space. Scorpius Biomanufacturing announced plans for a facility to make an antitoxin for anthrax near Manhattan last year.

“This is really a recognition of our region’s excellence in the life sciences, and our willingness to collaborate to compete on both a national and a global scale and it’s a reason for our entire community to celebrate,” said BioNexus KC President and CEO Dennis Ridenour.

The designation is part of the novel tech hubs program authorized by the CHIPS and Science Act. KC BioHub won in the category of advanced biotechnology: drugs and devices. Other categories included quantum computing and clean energy.