{"id":400,"date":"2025-10-13T15:06:16","date_gmt":"2025-10-13T15:06:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/400\/"},"modified":"2025-10-13T15:06:16","modified_gmt":"2025-10-13T15:06:16","slug":"el-paso-city-council-to-consider-taking-control-of-40-million-aerospace-grant-after-utep-struggles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/400\/","title":{"rendered":"El Paso City Council to consider taking control of $40 million aerospace grant after UTEP struggles"},"content":{"rendered":"

In an effort to prevent another failure with a massive federal grant to El Paso, the City Council will consider a plan<\/a> Tuesday for the city government to take over administration of a $40 million award from 2022 meant to expand the region\u2019s aerospace manufacturing sector.<\/p>\n

The University of Texas at El Paso was the lead applicant in the original grant<\/a>, with support from the city and other organizations, which was part of the Biden administration\u2019s $1 billion Build Back Better Regional Challenge. El Paso was among 21 recipients of funding from the program.<\/p>\n

But the grant has languished after UTEP President Heather Wilson removed the leader of the grant coalition, Ahsan Choudhuri, from his role as associate vice president of UTEP\u2019s Aerospace Center in 2024. The move came as UTEP raised concerns \u2013 disputed by Choudhuri \u2013 about his successful application for a grant of up to $160 million from the National Science Foundation, which also was focused on developing aerospace manufacturing in the El Paso region. The NSF suspended the grant<\/a> in April 2024, then eliminated the grant in August 2025<\/a>, saying funds were no longer available to support the original award.<\/p>\n

After two months of discussions, UTEP agreed to make the city the co-leader of the project, said Ian Voglewede, the city\u2019s director of strategic and legislative affairs. He said El Paso faced tremendous risks if another major federal grant failed.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hate to put it this way, but we can\u2019t have another NSF because at some point \u2026 we\u2019re going to get a black eye. We\u2019re not going to get funded anymore,\u201d Vogelwede said, referring to El Paso having another major failure with a federal grant.<\/p>\n

City administrators are asking City Council to approve a plan Tuesday that would make the city a co-leader with UTEP on the Build Back Better grant, allowing the city to direct how the grant money is spent and get the program\u00a0 moving.<\/p>\n

\u201cPart of the reason why we proposed taking it over is because when Dr. Choudhuri was there, he was very comfortable with the idea of tackling what is essentially an economic development grant,\u201d Vogelwede said in an interview with El Paso Matters. \u201cWhen we proposed taking it over, UTEP was very open about the fact that with the changes that had happened there, they weren\u2019t as comfortable taking over what is something that they felt was outside of their wheelhouse.\u201d<\/p>\n

City officials told El Paso Matters the changes were the result of two months of negotiations with Shery Welsh, the executive director of UTEP\u2019s Aerospace Center.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But UTEP said the changes reflect their plans all along.<\/p>\n

\u201cTransitioning various aspects of the Build Back Better grant to play to the strengths of our partners has always been part of the plan. Meanwhile, UTEP continues to focus on two areas. First, educating the workforce needed to power economic development in El Paso. Second, generating research that can spin out into companies that positively impact our community,\u201d UTEP officials said in a statement.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are proud to work with the city of El Paso and other economic development partners to do what they do best \u2013\u00a0 focus on the day-to-day economic development and business support functions of this grant,\u201d the statement said.<\/p>\n

UTEP officials declined to respond to specific questions from El Paso Matters, citing ongoing efforts to finalize a contract with the city.<\/p>\n

The grant award called for $15 million to go to UTEP and $25 million to the city government. The item before the City Council would move most of the university\u2019s funding to joint administration with the city, said Omar Martinez, the city\u2019s assistant director of strategic and legislative affairs.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are proposing an interlocal agreement between the city and UTEP, where both parties would jointly implement UTEP\u2019s side of the grant. This is the programming side \u2014 the Innovation Network (for Manufacturers) is what they call it. The original award was $15 million. From that, we would take $10 million and jointly administer it so that we can take the project, the entire vision, to the finish line,\u201d Martinez said.<\/p>\n

The project focuses on supporting growth for early-stage manufacturers, and building an Advanced Manufacturing District<\/a> on 250 acres near El Paso International Airport that would cater to mid-sized to large aerospace companies. The land is owned by the airport. <\/p>\n

In the plan going before the City Council, the nonprofit El Paso Makes would take over responsibility for\u00a0 the Innovation Network for Manufacturers, which was created by Chouduri and his colleague Ryan Wicker and was the focal point of UTEP\u2019s role in the Build Back Better grant.\u00a0<\/p>\n

El Paso Makes is managed by the National Center for Defense Manufacturing and Machining<\/a>, which focuses on innovation in defense manufacturing.\u00a0Several of the leaders of El Paso Makes worked with Choudhuri and Wicker at UTEP. Wicker retired from UTEP in 2024.<\/p>\n

\u201cEl Paso Makes remains fully committed to advancing the Build Back Better Regional Challenge initiative and continuing the strong partnership we\u2019ve built with the city of El Paso,\u201d Randy Gilmore, president of El Paso Makes and vice president and chief development officer of NCDMM, said in a statement to El Paso Matters. \u201cTogether, we\u2019ve made important progress in strengthening the region\u2019s manufacturing base and enabling local manufacturers to compete and grow in the defense and aerospace sectors. We look forward to continuing this momentum and working closely with the city to drive innovation, create quality jobs, and expand opportunities for businesses across the region.\u201d<\/p>\n

UTEP\u2019s Aerospace Center, then led by Choudhuri, was the driving force behind the NSF and Build Back Better grants. But the Aerospace Center has seen its funding and staffing decline substantially since Wilson ousted Choudhuri and replaced him with Welsh, an engineer who spent most of her career in the Defense Department.\u00a0<\/p>\n

LEARN MORE: 1 year later: NSF suspension of UTEP-led aerospace grant remains mystery<\/a><\/p>\n

Chouduri, who declined a request for comment from El Paso Matters on the Build Back Better grant, is on leave from his faculty position at UTEP and plans to retire in December.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In the wake of leadership changes at the Aerospace Center, progress on the Build Back Better grant stalled, making it more difficult to meet a May 2027 deadline to spend the grant money, Martinez said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe just knew that we needed to accelerate this. With leadership transitions (at UTEP), we feel like the city team can bring in city programs, city staff, just really accelerate the expenditures, accelerate the metrics, accelerate outreach to different local manufacturers, do more incubation, faster incubation services, and then bring additional partners into the fold so that we spend all of the money and essentially meet the 500 job requirements and deliver effectively\u201d to the Economic Development Administration, which oversees the grant for the federal government, Martinez said.<\/p>\n

He said the EDA supports the change in the original grant plan.<\/p>\n

Martinez said the city initially explored taking the grant over completely from UTEP, but backed off that idea.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe EDA told us, look, if we try to de-obligate it from UTEP to give it over to the city, there is a strong chance that this administration will pull the funding. And so the best path forward that they advised is for us to be co-leads,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Vogelwede said he believes increasing the city\u2019s role in the grant will enhance its chance of success.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think we would be going through the Herculean effort that we\u2019re going through if we thought it was a lost cause. I think that it\u2019s absolutely going to be high pressure to get there. But every single partner that we\u2019ve talked to is also pretty confident that we can get to the finish line. It just became very clear that something needed to change,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Related<\/p>\n

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