Case Studies

EDA Tech Hubs Program - Securing $180 Million for Three Diverse Consortia

Challenge:
The U.S. Economic Development Administration’s (EDA) Tech Hubs grant program aimed to invest in regions with potential to become globally competitive technology hubs. GTC 360° Advisors supported three consortium applications: Elevate Quantum in Colorado and New Mexico, Heartland BioWorks in Indiana, and Advanced Manufacturing of Critical Materials Consortium in Utah. The challenge was to develop compelling applications in a highly competitive environment to secure substantial funding for these regions to lead in quantum technology and sustainable biotechnology.

Our Solution:
GTC 360° Advisors played a critical role in strategic planning, consortium development, and comprehensive proposal writing and management for all three Consortia:

Elevate Quantum: GTC 360° Advisors led full scope grant strategy and writing for a consortium of 70+ organizations across multiple states. Our team helped recruit key partners and crafted a strategy that focused on accelerating lab-to-market technologies, establishing quantum labs, and fostering a diverse workforce.
Heartland BioWorks: We spearheaded the workforce development-focused application, highlighting the consortium’s ability to build a sustainable biotechnology supply chain.
Advanced Manufacturing of Critical Materials Consortium: Our team developed a strategy to strengthen the domestic supply chain of critical materials that are essential to produce clean energy technologies and support U.S. national security objectives.

Results:
GTC 360° Advisors secured $180M in total funding for these transformative projects.

Elevate Quantum: The consortium, consisting of stakeholders from Colorado, New Mexico, and the Mountain West, secured $128M, including $41M from the EDA, $77M from Colorado, and $10M from New Mexico. The project is expected to create 10,000 jobs, provide skills training for 30,000 workers, and reduce time-to-market for quantum technologies.
Heartland BioWorks: Heartland BioWorks received $51M from the EDA for four key projects, including workforce development and entrepreneurial ecosystem building. The Consortium will develop a robust biotechnology supply chain in Indiana, connecting under-resourced workers to high-quality jobs and fostering innovation in bioproducts.
Advanced Manufacturing of Critical Materials Consortium: The Critical Materials Consortium received $491,710 to develop a regional strategy to advance the production and manufacturing of critical minerals needed for clean energy technologies, many of which lack any domestic production presence.

These hard-fought successes showcase GTC 360° Advisors’ expertise in navigating complex grants, forming strategic partnerships, and delivering impactful results.

GTC 360° Advisors Secures $20 Million in EDA Recompete Funding for the City of Birmingham, Alabama

Challenge: The City of Birmingham, AL – particularly the communities of North Birmingham, Northside, Pratt, and Smithfield – has faced deep-rooted economic distress due to racial inequality, segregation, and industrial pollution. These challenges have contributed to employment barriers and low education attainment, leaving prime-age employment rates below the national average. Birmingham’s Mayor sought assistance to secure funding through the competitive U.S. Economic Development Administration’s (EDA) Recompete Pilot Program.
Our Solution: GTC 360° Advisors, in partnership with Delivery Associates through the Community Funding Accelerator, assisted the Birmingham Mayor’s Office in developing a robust grant strategy over a year-long, two-phase submission process. Our team conducted in-depth analyses of economic conditions in the affected areas, recruited key partners to join the coalition and commit to hiring trainees from the program, developed a unique contract-to-hire workforce pathways program in collaboration with key stakeholders, helped forge a black-owned business entrepreneurship center program, and created a compelling grant narrative that spoke directly to EDA’s funding goals and priorities. Partnerships with Lawson State Community College, the Birmingham-Jefferson County Transit Authority, and local employers played a key role in addressing workforce training, childcare, and transportation issues. GTC 360° Advisors also represented the City in critical EDA meetings and presentations.
Results: GTC 360° Advisors shepherded Birmingham through two highly competitive application Phases to secure $20 million in EDA Recompete funding – only one of six awardees overall. GTC 360° Advisors’ win for Birmingham represents the top 1% out of 565 total applicants, marking the most competitive grant program in EDA’s history. GTC 360° Advisors is proud that this funding will support five critical initiatives: workforce training, transportation access, expanded childcare services, effective governance, and support for Black-owned businesses.

Obtaining 8(a) and NHO Certifications: The Kālaimoku Group

Challenge: The Kālaimoku Group (TKG), a Native Hawaiian-owned professional communications firm specializing in assisting the Native Hawaiian Pacific Islanders (NHPI) community, faced a significant challenge: obtaining their Small Business Administration (SBA) 8(a) certification and transforming into a Native Hawaiian Organization (NHO). Both programs were created by Congress to assist organizations owned and operated by socially- and economically-disadvantaged entities, enabling them to obtain federal contracting preferences and benefits.
Our Solution: GTC 360° Advisors worked closely with TKG to navigate the arduous process of obtaining its 8(a) certification and incorporating it under a nonprofit umbrella organization to achieve NHO status. GTC 360° Advisors’ relationship changed from vendor/client to a true partnership, with close collaboration with TKG every step of the way, helping TKG to determine its determining eligibility, prepare both personal and business documentation for the applications, navigating through the entire registration and renewal process, and interacting directly with SBA on TKG’s behalf.
Results: With GTC 360° Advisors support, TKG is now eligible to pursue sole-source contracts with the Department of Defense for up to $100 million, and $4.5 million with all other federal agencies. In addition, the Kalaimoku Foundation can create perpetual 8(a) companies to benefit all native Hawaiians. GTC 360° is proud to have supported TKG through this process and is excited to continue to assist TKG as it pursues government contracting opportunities and strategic teaming relationships.

Federal Government
Capture Campaign

Challenge: A large Norwegian client needed assistance with entering the complex food subsistence marketplace across the Department of Defense (DoD).
Our Solution: We built a tailor-made, multi-partner team to match our client’s unique needs and executed an integrated capture campaign that included congressional lobbying, outreach to multiple federal agencies, and private sector partnerships with several emulsion companies.
Results: Over the span of just a few months, we successfully closed the gap between DoD’s deficiencies and requirements by developing important relationships with the Combat Capabilities Development Command in Natick, MA, and inserting key language in the FY21 National Defense Authorization Act.

State Government
Capture Campaign

- Challenge: A connected vehicle data client needed assistance with developing a strategy to encourage more cities, metropolitan planning organizations (MPO), and state departments of transportation (DOT) to purchase our client’s vehicle data.
- Our Solution: GTC 360° Advisors worked very closely with our client’s public sector sales team, marketing team, and SDR team to create targeted outreach campaigns focused on multiple state DOT offices and third-party validators. We also focused on key transportation-related grant programs, with an eye towards identifying and recommending grant funding (both formula and competitive) from which to fund purchases of our client’s vehicle data. We created a multi-touch point process by which specific team members would engage with customer targets depending on the maturity stage of a particular funding stream.
- Results: Through our work, the client successfully obtained a $7.5 million state-wide contract with the Texas Department of Transportation, the third largest DOT in the country, with more on the way. Our team also partnered with multiple cities, MPOs, and DOTs to insert purchases of its vehicle data inside application budgets for several grant programs pre-submission, and now those grants are being awarded and several more on the way with pending budgets pre-baked for our client. In addition, we deepened relationships with the eligible entities (cities, MPOs, and DOTs), which have resulted in direct purchases of our client’s vehicle data for additional applications.

Developing Innovative Carbon Credits for Indoor Agriculture

Challenge: The U.S. Congress and U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) identified a need for more climate-smart agricultural commodities across the United States. USDA issued a competitive grant funding announcement for climate-smart commodities across a range of agricultural products.
Our Solution: GTC 360° Advisors teamed with an innovative indoor hydroponic produce company to form a consortium of minority producers and a historically black university (HBCU) to develop and submit a proposal for the USDA Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities Funding Opportunity
Results: Our consortium was awarded a $5 million grant in 2023 to engage in a three-year pilot project to create a sustainable market for climate-smart commodities and carbon credits by implementing production practices that reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions through advanced indoor farming techniques in food deserts with a focus on participation from minority universities and underserved/minority producers. GTC 360° Advisors serves as a project partner and will develop a baseline of climate-smart practices and resulting GHG reductions, and then manage the development and approval of a carbon reduction methodology with an established carbon registry to generate and trade carbon credits.