Manufacturing USA, the National Network for Manufacuring Innovation, is an initiative focused on coordinating public and private investment in emerging advanced manufacturing technologies. NNMI brings together industry, academia, and government partners to leverage existing resources, collaborate, and co-invest to advance manufacturing innovation and accelerate commercialization. NNMI creates a competitive, effective, and sustainable research-to-manufacturing infrastructure for U.S. industry and academia. The network consists of multiple linked Institutes for Manufacturing Innovation with common goals but unique technological concentrations.
MFG USA
Each institute accelerates U.S. advanced manufacturing by catalyzing the development of new technologies, educational competencies, production processes, and products via shared contributions from the public and private sectors and academia. The institutes provide shared facilities to local start-ups and small manufacturers to help them scale up new technologies, accelerate technology transfer to the marketplace, and facilitate the adoption of innovation developments across supply chains. Each institute acts as a ‘teaching factory’ to build workforce skills at multiple levels and to strengthen business capabilities in large and small companies.
Individual institutes serve as technology hubs, benefitting both regional and national interests. By bridging the gap between applied research and product development with a focus on key technology areas, the institutes encourage even further investment and production in their region and across the United States. As nodes in the NNMI, the institutes complement each other’s capabilities and benefit from shared approaches to matters such as intellectual property, contract research, and performance metrics. While the institutes each carry a particular regional focus, the network is truly national, integrated, and dynamic, aiming to foster innovation and deliver new capabilities that can stimulate the U.S. manufacturing sector on a large scale.
Manufacturing USA’s Innovation Institutes
Governing Bodies
Who is in charge of the Network?
The Advanced Manufacturing National Program Office (AMNPO) is charged with convening the network of institutes, as passed in the Revitalize American Manufacturing and Innovation Act of 2014. The AMNPO is staffed by representatives from federal agencies with manufacturing-related missions as well as fellows from manufacturing companies and universities. The office includes NASA, the National Science Foundation, and the departments of Commerce, Defense, Education, and Energy. By coordinating federal resources and programs, the AMNPO will enhance technology transfer in U.S. manufacturing industries and help companies overcome technical obstacles to scaling up production of new technologies.
Who is in charge of each Institute?
Currently, the Department of Defense (DoD) and Department of Energy (DOE) are each leading institutes on behalf of the US Government, and additional lead agencies may be announced in the future.
The DoD, through the Manufacturing and Industrial Base Policy (MIBP) is currently leading six of the eight established institutes found here. There are two additional DoD-led institutes currently in the competition process. Besides providing federal funding, the DoD incorporates lessons learned by previous institute cycles, identifies a lead service for each institute, assembles technical teams, and provides the acquisition strategy to support cooperative agreement.
The DOE is leading two of the eight established institutes, one additional institute is in the negotiation phase, and two additional topics are in the competition process. Although very similar in nature to DoD institutes, the DOE institutes have a focus on clean energy.
