Encouraging purposeful collaboration between rural businesses, research institutions and industry partners
COLUMBIA, Md. (March 25, 2021) –TEDCO, Maryland’s economic engine for technology companies, announced today its request for applications for the Agriculture and Rural Rebuild (ARR) Challenge, created to assist Maryland’s rural and agricultural businesses that have been detrimentally impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic and associated economic downturn. TEDCO will award grants up to $200,000 per project.
“The ARR Challenge encourages purposeful collaboration between rural businesses, research institutions and industry partners,” stated Dr. Arti Santhanam, MII executive director. “Examples of a successful project may include, but is not limited to, the development of an innovative product or a novel application of an existing technology applicable to agriculture or other rural industry sectors.”
The ARR Challenge is supported by funds provided by the Maryland General Assembly and The Governor through the Recovery for the Economy, Livelihoods, Industries, Entrepreneurs, and Families (RELIEF) Act of 2021. This Challenge grant will specifically fund technology-empowered initiatives that will help our rural and agricultural businesses recover, rebuild and pivot from the current crisis and help build future economic resilience in these communities.
“Maryland has a breadth of agtech, and other related technology sectors such as clean energy, that reflects our strength and diversity,” said Troy LeMaile-Stovall, TEDCO’s CEO and executive director. “While the recently launched TEDCO RUBRIC program is focused on providing economic relief to businesses hard hit by the pandemic, the ARR Challenge is meant to spur innovation during this critical time in agriculture and other technologies that would result in lasting economic impact to both the agtech sector in general and our Maryland rural regions in particular.”
The ARR Challenge applications are due May 14, 2021; and the request for application details can be found online by clicking here. For questions, contact the ARR staff at ARRChallenge@tedco.md.