A Corvallis-centered technology consortium will receive $45 million to develop, scale and manufacture microfluidics technologies critical for artificial intelligence computing, manufacturing of advanced semiconductors and new approaches to disease research and treatment.
The Corvallis Microfluidics Tech Hub, or CorMic, is a collaboration of more than 60 organizations including Oregon State University, HP, the University of Oregon, and Oregon Health & Science University. The funding announced yesterday is from the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Economic Development Administration.
“CorMic is an example of how OSU brings together our state’s large, public universities, industry and government to provide essential momentum to economic development,” said Oregon State President Jayathi Murthy. “State leadership, the support of our congressional delegation, state and federal legislation and the future Jen-Hsun Huang and Lori Mills Huang Collaborative Innovation Complex at Oregon State all are critical to this effort.”
Microfluidics also harbors significant promise for advancing key sectors vital to national security and economic resiliency and prosperity including biotechnology, advanced energy technologies, and advanced materials and manufacturing.
The $45 million in funding will allow CorMic to renovate, build out and equip three spaces on the HP campus in Corvallis for different types of microfluidics research and development: silicon microfluidics, materials and continuous flow processing and biotechnology applications of microfluidics.
Startups and small companies ready to scale up and manufacture their technologies will be able to use the facilities and equipment. Those companies will also be able to leverage the expertise of companies such as Thermo Fisher Scientific, NVIDIA, Analog Devices, Intel and HP, all of which are part of CorMic.
CorMic partners also include startups, governments, venture capitalists and community groups.
“This collaborative ecosystem positions CorMic as a global leader in microfluidics research that is essential for next generation biomedicine, computing and manufacturing,” said Tom Weller, the Michael and Judith Gaulke Chair in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at Oregon State who is leading the CorMic effort. “The funding will stimulate and support commercialization of microfluidics-connected technologies and drive economic growth.”
This is the third award CorMic has received from the Economic Development Administration. In October 2023, President Biden designated CorMic one of the 31 inaugural Tech Hubs and granted it $500,000. CorMic received a second $500,000 award in August 2024.
The announcement of the $45 million award comes the same week HP’s facility in Corvallis was awarded $53 million from the Department of Commerce.
Do you have a story for The Advocate? Email editor@corvallisadvocate.com