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ANNAPOLIS, MD - Governor Wes Moore and the Maryland congressional delegation today announced that the Maryland Department of Commerce, in collaboration with the Maryland Technology Development Corporation (TEDCO), are once again joining forces to expand Maryland’s Defense Technology Commercialization Center (DefTech). The expansion of the program was made possible through a $585,463 grant from the U.S. Department of Defense Office of Local Defense Community Cooperation and matching funds totaling $183,338 from the Maryland Department of Commerce and TEDCO.
"Maryland is home to some of the best federal and defense assets in the nation. In partnership, we are leveraging these extraordinary institutions to drive economic growth, invest in innovation, and support Maryland entrepreneurs,” said Gov. Moore. "Making Maryland more competitive means ensuring we have a clear strategy to match our rich assets. Today, we write the next chapter in that critical work – and our state is going to be better because of it.”
“Maryland is proud to leverage our unique federal assets and partner with the Department of Defense to spur innovation, entrepreneurship, and educational opportunities. Federal grants like this are critical to helping startup companies develop innovative tools for our service members to defend our nation. The Maryland congressional delegation, Team Maryland, will continue to partner with the Department of Defense and Department of Commerce to secure federal investments in our state’s small businesses and our national security. Maryland is a great place to live and work and programs such as this will continue to support our defense industrial base,” said the lawmakers, U.S. Senators Ben Cardin and Chris Van Hollen and Congressmen Steny Hoyer, Dutch Ruppersberger, John Sarbanes, Kweisi Mfume, Jamie Raskin, David Trone and Glenn Ivey.
Established in 2018, Maryland’s DefTech Center connects startups and entrepreneurs to federal resources or laboratories for further development of commercial products. DefTech was founded to aid economic growth by encouraging small businesses to utilize federal lab and defense resources to develop a product for non-federal commercial market or government consumption, otherwise known as technology transfer.
“Through the DefTech program, dozens of start-ups and entrepreneurs have been given the opportunity to explore pathways of transferring defense technologies into the government and commercial markets,” said Maryland Department of Commerce Secretary Kevin Anderson. "The continuation and expansion of this program across our state directly taps into the growth of Maryland’s innovation-based economy while bolstering our ties with the defense industry.”
With the new grant, the DefTech Center seeks to support 30 active client startups, entrepreneurs, and small businesses with technology transfer and commercialization opportunities. As active members, companies of the DefTech program gain access to the DefTech Academy, an education and training program informing on key topics relevant to working with federal labs; information on research and funding opportunities; introductions to federal lab personnel; and more.?