MIT spun out its venture capital arm, The Engine, almost eight years ago to raise more funding for startups seeking to commercialize breakthroughs in “tough tech’’ areas like fusion and quantum computing. Now, The Engine has spun off a new unit to help the earliest startups get off the ground with a deeper level of support, including office and lab space.

Dubbed The Engine Accelerator, the new unit will be run by former chief operating officer Emily Knight and offer rentals to startups at its massive four-story office near Kendall Square that includes wet labs, fabrication space, and machine shops, along with desks and conference rooms. The accelerator also won a three-year, $9.5 million grant from the National Science Foundation to help start 10 new regional startup incubators around the country, which are being funded as part of the 2022 CHIPS Act.

“Real estate is actually a big need of a company that is doing tough tech, but they need different types of real estate,’’ Knight said in an interview at the expansive and light-filled meeting space on the first floor of 750 Main St. in Cambridge, originally built in 1910 and formerly home to Polaroid.

Since its founding, The Engine has gone beyond giving money to startups and also helped with advice and equipment. Knight joined in 2017 and her first role was to look for specialized equipment and lab space around MIT and the local area that might be available for startups to use.

Then in 2019, The Engine leased the 200,000-square-foot building at 750 Main to host its own space and equipment. Renovations were completed and the facility opened in August 2022. The team then realized that it made sense to split the accelerator from the VC fund, Knight said.

“At one point we were up to 50 people, half of them running this building and the programs we run in the building, and the other half running the investment side,’’ she said. “So internally, we actually always operated as two separate groups.’’

The accelerator will offer space at different terms depending on the size of a startup, Knight said. Companies don’t have to be funded by The Engine’s VC fund to rent space in the building, and the accelerator does not invest in the startups, either.

A small startup with two to 10 people could take space on a 30-to-90-day lease, Knight said. A medium-sized startup with 10 to 25 people could sign a two-year lease, and larger startups with up to 100 people might sign for three years, she said. But ultimately the goal is to launch most startups into larger spaces of their own.

“I think if the company in the large suite is still here in five years, it probably means something didn’t go right with funding, and they aren’t on track,’’ Knight said.

Under the NSF grant, the Engine accelerator in Cambridge will support new innovation centers for startups, called NSF Engines, scattered around the country and focusing on a variety of fields.

On Monday, the NSF announced 10 initial locations, including a water sustainability program based at Arizona State University and an aerospace program at The University of Texas at El Paso. Each NSF Engine is getting an initial $15 million from the NSF and additional funds from private sector donors. Over the next decade, the programs will be eligible for up to $2 billion from the CHIPS Act.

White House officials explained the goal of the program is to improve US competitiveness in key areas of technology. “In each region, they can identify the big opportunities that they are particularly suited to pursue,’’ Arati Prabhakar, director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, said on a call with reporters. “And then the engines program gives them the initial funding to get things going.’’

The Engine Accelerator in Cambridge will help the new centers and their startups find skilled employees. So the accelerator is partnering with Boston VC firm Visible Hands, which specializes in backing underrepresented founders, and the Federation of American Scientists, which runs fellowship programs.

“There’s quite a bit of talent that will be needed in each of these ecosystems to build out expertise,’’ Knight said.

Aaron Pressman can be reached at aaron.pressman@globe.com. Follow him @ampressman.