EDA Programs for Communities
The U.S. Economic Development Administration’s investment policy is designed to establish a foundation for sustainable job growth and the building of durable regional economies throughout the United States. This foundation builds upon two key economic drivers – innovation and regional collaboration. Innovation is key to global competitiveness, new and better jobs, a resilient economy, and the attainment of national economic goals. (EDA mission)
EDA American Rescue Plan programs have closed, due to the tremendous response.
Find information on previous EDA programs on the EDA website.
Looking for current EDA news? Sign up for newsletters at www.eda.gov.
Northwest Indiana EDA Economic Development District (EDD)
NIRPC is the administrator of the EDA Economic Development District for Northwest Indiana. Communities and organizations in Lake, Porter, and La Porte counties interested in seeking funding from the EDA are encouraged to contact:
Denarie Kane, Economic Development District Coordinator
dkane@nirpc.org / (219) 985-3368
EDA Funding Programs
Empowers distressed communities to revitalize, expand, and upgrade their physical infrastructure to attract new industry, encourage business expansion, diversify local economies, and generate or retain long-term, private sector jobs and investment.
Economic Adjustment Assistance Program
Assists state and local interests in designing and implementing strategies to adjust or bring about change to an economy. The program focuses on areas that have experienced or are under threat of serious structural damage to the underlying economic base.
Supports local organizations with short and long-term planning efforts.
Local Technical Assistance Program
Helps fill the knowledge and information gaps that may prevent leaders in the public and nonprofit sectors in distressed areas from making optimal decisions on local economic development issues.
Research and Evaluation Program
The RNTA program funds research, evaluation, and national technical assistance projects that promote competitiveness and innovation in distressed rural and urban regions throughout the United States and its territories.
The Build to Scale (B2S) Program builds regional economies through scalable startups and includes three competitions supporting entrepreneurship, acceleration of company growth and increased access to risk capital across regional economies.
EDA’s Coal Communities Commitment allocates funding to support coal communities as they recover from the pandemic and to help them create new jobs and opportunities, including through the creation or expansion of a new industry sector.
Equity Impact Investments provides technical assistance to enable organizations serving underserved populations and communities to participate in economic development planning and projects.
This program is a network of Economic Recovery Corps fellows to add human capital to local organizations focused on improving economic resilience and competitiveness in distressed regions across the country.
Investment Priorities
EDA’s investment priorities provide an overarching framework to ensure its grant investment portfolio – ranging from planning to infrastructure construction – contributes to local efforts to build, improve, or better leverage economic assets that allow businesses to succeed and regional economies to prosper and become more resilient. Competitive grant applications will be responsive to the evaluation criteria listed under each individual funding announcement, including at least one of the investment priorities.
- Equity
- Recovery & Resilience
- Workforce Development
- Manufacturing
- Technology-based Economic Development
- Exports & Foreign Direct Investment
