Incoming Florida Semiconductor Institute could seed state’s growing tech ecosystem

Incoming Florida Semiconductor Institute could seed state’s growing tech ecosystem (Courtesy of the Jacksonville Business Journal) — Meshing the University of Florida’s innovation and academic strengths with Northeast Florida’s urban talent density, Jacksonville could welcome the beginnings of the Florida Semiconductor Institute by end-of-year.

While UF designs a designated facility for the institute, or FSI for short, in Jacksonville, research space for the institute is expected to open as early as the fall, the university announced Monday.

It’s anticipated to be a major draw for the city, and has been touted by local leaders as crucial to boosting Jacksonville and Florida’s economy at-large.

“The Florida Semiconductor Institute is a game changer for Jacksonville’s economy,” Mayor Donna Deegan said in a prepared release. “It will accelerate our efforts to create good-paying, cutting-edge jobs and develop a workforce that is prepared for industries of the future.”

Semiconductors are crucial components for technology like defense systems, consumer electronics and vehicles, among others. Such chips today are manufactured across the globe but FSI hopes to help bring that back stateside, aligning with a national effort to improve its research and development.

“The key is that we’d like to be able to not be reliant on foreign sources,” FSI Director David Arnold said in a recent conversation with the Business Journal, “whether that’s for raw materials or the making of the chips themselves.”

As UF expands its presence into downtown Jacksonville with its $300 million graduate campus, the university hopes the FSI will serve as a global leader in specialty electronics and push the boundaries of semiconductors, expanding Florida’s workforce pipeline in the process.

The institute aims to catalyze 10,000 new, high-wage Florida jobs, create public-private partnerships and accelerate lab-to-fab technology transitions, according to David Norton, UF’s vice president for research.

Florida’s semiconductor and electronics workforce is anticipated to grow 25% by 2030, per an FSI report last fall funded in part by the Florida Department of Education, increasing from 18,000 jobs today to nearly 23,000 jobs by the end of the decade.

Development of the Jacksonville space is funded by $80 million — $35 million appropriated from the state for research operations and $45 million for the Advanced Technology Center, which will co-locate UF research and development with semiconductor companies, per UF.

University leaders hope the technology center will anchor the FSI and potentially serve as the headquarters for UF’s national security applied research enterprise, per a press release.

It aims to augment the College of Engineering’s graduate programs in artificial intelligence, engineering management and computer science, plus workforce development programs, according to the release.

The FSI’s Jacksonville location will join as the third “anchor” for the institute — the core location is UF’s main campus in Gainesville, plus a small satellite facility in Kissimmee — part of a broader dream to span the entire state, Arnold said.

“We envision the FSI is everywhere, ideally,” he said. “And we really want to try to serve the entire state of Florida, because there are bona fide opportunities.”