UT secures $1 million in CARES Act funding for “Tennessee Manufacturing Resiliency Initiative”

Originally posted by on March 7, 2021 by Teknovation.Biz

The U.S. Economic Development Administration (EDA) has awarded a $1 million grant to the University of Tennessee’s Center for Industrial Services (UT CIS) to implement a business continuity planning program.

The funding will support the “Tennessee Manufacturing Resiliency Initiative,” a statewide effort to enhance the resiliency of manufacturers to mitigate pandemic-related losses and to bounce back from disruptions to the economic base.

“We’ve been wanting to do more to help manufacturers with business resiliency and now we have the opportunity,” Paul Jennings, UT CIS Executive Director, told us in an email Sunday afternoon. “In addition to mitigating pandemic losses, the grant also includes funding to help manufacturers prepare for cybersecurity, supply chain disruptions, and other emergency response issues. From a CIS perspective, it’s exciting because it will involve every CIS program area. I guess you can tell I’m a little excited about it.”

The project, matched with $255,960 in local funds, is being awarded under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, which provided EDA with $1.5 billion for economic assistance programs to help communities prevent, prepare for, and respond to coronavirus.

The funding was part of $5.5 million in CARES Act funding for Tennessee outlined  in this press release.