FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Press Contact:
Kim Blomquist
Senior Director, Marketing and Communications
kim@mhub.org
mHUB Launches National Innovation Challenge to Source the Next Generation of Energy and Infrastructure Solutions for Urban Manufacturing Revitalization
Cash prize competition seeks breakthrough technologies, business models, and infrastructure concepts to join in the creation of a national blueprint for sustainable manufacturing.
(CHICAGO, IL | August 24, 2026) — mHUB, the nation’s leading hardtech and manufacturing innovation center, today announced the launch of the mHUB Powered Challenge. The national innovation competition, in partnership with The Grainger Foundation, will identify bold ideas capable of reimagining how urban manufacturing districts generate power, manage modern infrastructure, and operate more sustainably.
America is reindustrializing at the same moment emerging technologies are redefining industry itself, creating a rare opportunity to rethink manufacturing’s next chapter. That future won’t be built on the old model of centralized, carbon-intensive infrastructure and isolated retrofits. It will require integrated, at-scale districts that generate and store clean energy, manage resources in closed loops, and reduce dependence on legacy grids, infrastructure, and capital systems.
To redefine what’s possible during this crucial juncture, mHUB is setting out to build one of the most sustainable districts in the world for manufacturing innovation. The mHUB Powered Challenge is seeking practical solutions that enable manufacturing to become cleaner, smarter, and more resilient.
The open competition invites startups, researchers, entrepreneurs, universities, national laboratories, corporations, and innovators from across the country to submit technologies, pilot concepts, operating models, and infrastructure solutions. Selected concepts will have a pathway to engage with mHUB as it advances a new, large-scale urban manufacturing district, creating an opportunity for innovators to shape a new industrial environment from the ground up.
“Sustainable manufacturing is the future. And it won’t be built by one technology but by thousands of innovations working together, and doing so at scale,” said Haven Allen, CEO of mHUB. “This challenge is about bringing together the nation’s best thinkers to imagine what the next generation of manufacturing districts can become and identifying ideas with the potential to move from concept to implementation.”
As communities work to capture the economic benefits of manufacturing while reducing environmental impacts, the challenge will surface the ideas capable of defining a new manufacturing model, providing opportunities for development and deployment.
Applicants may submit proposals across three challenge tracks:
Energy
- Energy generation and storage technologies
- Grid modernization and microgrid solutions
- Building energy systems
- District-scale pilot concepts
Infrastructure
- Smart district technologies and data systems
- Industrial decarbonization solutions
- Water, waste, and circular economy infrastructure
- Transportation and logistics innovations
Management & Operations
- Innovative ownership and financing models
- Sustainable district operating strategies
- Workforce development and talent solutions
- New approaches to managing advanced manufacturing ecosystems
Following a national application period, a review committee will evaluate submissions on innovation, feasibility, cost effectiveness, impact, and alignment with the vision for a future sustainable urban manufacturing district. Finalists will present concepts before one winner from each track is selected.
More than a prize competition, the mHUB Powered Challenge gives winners access to the infrastructure, expertise, industry relationships, capital networks, and potential pilot opportunities that can help advance promising solutions toward real-world deployment.
Each winning team will receive:
- A $20,000 unrestricted cash award
- A one-year membership to mHUB’s incubator ecosystem, engineering resources, expert mentors, and prototyping facilities
- Opportunities to explore future pilot projects, strategic partnerships, and commercialization pathways within a real-world proving ground
- Inclusion in the 10th annual HardTech Summit and other marketing opportunities
“The technologies needed to strengthen America’s manufacturing competitiveness already exist in research labs, startups, universities, and companies across the country,” said John Howard, President and Chairman, The Grainger Foundation. “We’re proud to partner with mHUB to help identify promising innovations and accelerate the ideas that could shape the future of industrial infrastructure.”
Applications open August 24, 2026, and will be accepted through September 27, 2026.
Additional competition details, eligibility requirements, and application materials are available at mhub.org/mhub-powered-challenge
mHUB is an innovation platform that drives the commercialization of hard tech, helping companies build, scale, and innovate with speed and purpose. The platform includes a Chicago-based incubator and prototyping lab; venture and real estate investment company, mHUB Ventures; and an engineering and product consulting arm. Together, infrastructure, capital, and expertise combine to enable emerging technologies, create new manufacturing businesses, and strengthen U.S. industry. To date, mHUB has worked with over 200 public and private partners and supported over 500 startups and 250 manufacturers that have collectively generated $5B in economic activity. Learn more at mhub.org.
The Grainger Foundation, an independent private foundation based in Lake Forest, Illinois, provides substantive support to a broad range of organizations including educational, medical, cultural, and human services institutions. In recent years, the Foundation has undertaken the Lake County Initiative to provide support for a number of worthy causes in Lake County, Illinois, and in addition, has supported efforts to promote entrepreneurship and to preserve the environment. The Grainger Foundation was established in 1949 by William Wallace Grainger, founder of W.W. Grainger, Inc., the leading broad line distributor of maintenance, repair, and operating products.
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