Manufacturing USA – the National Network for Manufacturing Innovation

We are proud to announce that the National Network for Manufacturing Innovation has a public name: Manufacturing USA. Over the past four years of the program, nine manufacturing innovation institutes have been established or announced, with six more planned by 2017. These manufacturing institutes are public-private partnerships that each have distinct technology focus areas but work towards a common goal: to secure America’s future through manufacturing innovation, education, and collaboration.

Through Manufacturing USA, industry, academia, and government partners are leveraging existing resources, collaborating, and co-investing to nurture manufacturing innovation and accelerate commercialization.  Each institute is designed to be a public-private membership organization that provides vision, leadership, and resources to its members.

Manufacturing USA connects people, ideas, and technology to solve industry-relevant advanced manufacturing challenges. Its goals are to enhance industrial competitiveness, increase economic growth, and strengthen U.S. national security. Reaching across industries, Manufacturing USA brings members of the manufacturing community together to overcome technical hurdles and to enable innovative new products.  It seeks to restore American preeminence in manufacturing by addressing shared manufacturing technology and workforce challenges.

Manufacturing USA institutes focus on moving promising, early-stage research into proven capabilities ready for adoption by U.S. manufacturers. Their diverse membership includes small, mid-sized, and large manufacturers, as well as researchers from universities and government laboratories.  The institutes provide members with access to state-of-the-art facilities and equipment, as well as workforce training and skills development customized to support new technology areas. Collaboration at institutes, and now through the network, creates an innovation community ushering in the next generation manufacturing supply chains located in America and employing Americans.

The Manufacturing USA network is operated by the interagency Advanced Manufacturing National Program Office, which is headquartered in the National Institute of Standards and Technology, in the Department of Commerce. The office is staffed by representatives from federal agencies with manufacturing-related missions as well as fellows from manufacturing companies and universities.

The office operates in partnership with the Department of Defense, the Department of Energy, NASA, the National Science Foundation, the Department of Education and the Department of Agriculture.

The office began as a pilot, recommended by the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, but the overarching mission has not changed:

• To convene and enable industry-led, private-public partnerships focused on manufacturing innovation and engaging U.S. universities.
• To design and implement an integrated whole-of-government advanced manufacturing initiative to facilitate collaboration and information sharing across federal agencies.

By coordinating federal resources and programs, the Advanced Manufacturing National Program Office enhances technology transfer in U.S. manufacturing industries and helps companies overcome technical obstacles to scale up of new technologies and products.

History

In June 2011, U.S. President Barack Obama launched the Advanced Manufacturing Partnership (AMP) on the recommendation of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) in a report issued that same month. The partnership was led by Dow Chemical Company President, Chairman, and CEO Andrew Liveris, and MIT President Susan Hockfield. AMP was charged with identifying collaborative opportunities between industry, academia and government that will catalyze development and investment in emerging technologies, policies and partnerships with the potential to transform and reinvigorate advanced manufacturing in the United States. Its first set of recommendations, “Report to the President on Capturing Domestic Competitive Advantage in Advanced Manufacturing,” was issued in July 2012.

Subsequently, after a nationwide outreach and engagement effort, the White House National Science and Technology Council and the AMNPO issued “The National Network for Manufacturing Innovation: A Preliminary Design,” in January 2013.

In September 2013, the President launched the Advanced Manufacturing Partnership Steering Committee 2.0 (AMP 2.0). AMP 2.0 focused oa a renewed, cross-sector, national effort to secure U.S. leadership in the emerging technologies that will create high-quality manufacturing jobs and enhance America’s global competitiveness. The steering committee, whose members are among the nation’s leaders in industry, academia, and labor, was a working group of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology. Its final report on accelerating U.S. advanced manufacturing was issued in October 2014[1].

In his 2013 and 2014 State of the Union Addresses, the President called for the creation of a Nationwide Network for Manufacturing Innovation (now known as Manufacturing USA) to scale up advanced manufacturing technologies and processes. He asked Congress to authorize investment—to be matched by private and non-federal funds to create an initial network of up to 15 institutes. Over 10 years, he proposed that the Manufacturing USA network encompass 45 institutes.

On December 16, 2014, the President signed the Revitalize American Manufacturing and Innovation Act into law, which gave Congressional authorization to the AMNPO and authorized the Department of Commerce to hold “open-topic” competitions for manufacturing innovation institutes where those topics of highest importance to industry could be proposed.