1: Innovation & Scale-Up
Accelerate manufacturing innovation and scale up by investing in industrially-relevant, cross-cutting product and process
technologies.
Other Information:
The IMIs will bring together industry, universities and community colleges, Federal agencies, States, and localities to accelerate
manufacturing innovation and scale up by investing in industrially-relevant, cross-cutting product and process technologies.
These stakeholders will co-invest with the Federal Government in each IMI, forming a strong partnership between industrial
and other stakeholders to catalyze a renaissance in advanced manufacturing activity.
Stakeholder(s):
- Institutes for Manufacturing Innovation: IMIs will be long-term partnerships between industry and academia (including universities and community colleges) enabled
by Federal, State, and local governments. In order to advance American domestic manufacturing, they will have a sustained
focus on manufacturing technology innovation with a strong brand identity and reputation. They will identify critical manufacturing
processes and technologies with potential transformational impact, and through their member companies, they will have the
capacity to translate these technologies into market-relevant private-sector manufacturing production. IMIs will facilitate
the formation of effective teams of industrial and academic experts from multiple disciplines to solve difficult problems,
from pre-competitive industrially relevant research to proprietary technology development for product manufacturing. Through
dual appointment of faculty and students in both research universities and Institutes, they will develop leaders familiar
with research applications, new technologies, and production systems. They will engage and assist SMEs in applying and adapting
new process technologies by providing technical assistance, highly trained personnel, and access to shared equipment and infrastructure.
IMIs will provide education and training opportunities to build and enhance the skills of the manufacturing workforce.
- National Additive Manufacturing Innovation Institute: National Additive Manufacturing Innovation Institute -- the Pilot Institute In March 2012, when President Obama unveiled his
proposal to build the NNMI, he also initiated steps to jumpstart the NNMI with a Pilot Institute. The Pilot Institute would
serve as a proof-of-concept for the NNMI Institutes. A collaborative interagency team was convened and determined that the
topic of Additive Manufacturing would garner the most benefit for the defense, energy, space, and commercial sectors of the
nation, and should be the focus of the Pilot Institute. Additive Manufacturing, also commonly known as 3D printing, is an
emerging and evolving collection of manufacturing processes that build metal, plastic, or ceramic parts using layer-by-layer
build-up techniques, precisely placing material as directed, based on a software representation of the three-dimensional part
geometry... While NAMII is the Pilot Institute, it differs from the proposed IMIs in several important ways. The focus area
was pre-defined based on agency needs, funding was obtained from multiple agencies, and the partner agencies set the capitalization
at a significantly lower level than is envisioned for an IMI... summary, NAMII was formed in parallel with the ongoing effort
to architect the broader NNMI and hence is technically not part of a yet-to-be-formed network. However, it represents a critically
important seeding of the concept and its construction and early activities are helping to inform the design and development
of the full NNMI enterprise.
- DOD: The competition for the Pilot Institute was launched through a DOD Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) in May 2012. Proposals
for the Pilot Institute were due on June 16, and the award to the National Additive Manufacturing Innovation Institute (NAMII)
was announced on August 16, 2012 [36]. NAMII is headquartered in Youngstown, Ohio, and it is comprised of a broad coalition
of more than 80 companies, 9 research universities, 6 community colleges, and 18 not-for-profit institutions.
- Interagency Advisory Council of Technical Experts: Proposal evaluations were conducted by an interagency advisory council of technical experts from the DOC, DOD, DOE, NASA,
and NSF. Based on the evaluation process stated within the BAA, the advisory council selected the National Center for Defense
Manufacturing and Machining (NCDMM) to manage the Pilot Institute. This public-private partnership between NCDMM and the Government
was awarded as a cooperative agreement using $30 million of Federal funding and an additional $39 million provided as cost
share, mostly from industry and the states of Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia.
- DOC
- DOE
- NASA
- NSF
- National Center for Defense Manufacturing and Machining (NCDMM)
- State Governments: This long-term, public-private partnership between State and local governments, industry, and academia (including research
universities and community colleges) is enabled by the Federal Government and, as such, DOD and other partnering agencies
used cooperative agreements (rather than grants or contracts) to fund the government portion. A governance board along with
an executive committee and technical advisory board comprised of industry, academia, and government representatives oversee
the Institute's activities. Using a cooperative agreement also allows for substantial involvement by the Federal Government,
and is consistent with the broad interest in additive manufacturing across the multiple agencies that collaborated to launch
the pilot initiative.
- Local Governments
- Industry
- Academia
- IMI Partners & Members: The acceleration of innovation for advanced manufacturing in order to advance American domestic manufacturing requires bridging
a number of gaps in the present U.S. innovation system. Each Institute will be based upon concepts of open innovation and
partnerships.
- U.S. Not-for-Profit Institutions: Institutes should be led by an independent, U.S. not-for-profit institution with the capacity to lead an industry-wide technology,
workforce development, and infrastructure agenda.
- Universities: Although other lead organizations (such as universities) are not prohibited, many workshop participants and RFI respondents
expressed concern about the treatment of intellectual property, confidentiality, tax-exempt status, and timely responses if
universities were allowed to lead Institutes.
- States: Partners in the Institute should include the full range of national, State, and local stakeholders.
- Local Governments
- Manufacturing Enterprises: This includes manufacturing enterprises of all sizes including startups.
- Institutions of Higher Education: In addition, a diverse set of institutions of higher education including both research universities and community colleges
should be included.
- Community Colleges
- Research Organizations: Other partners may include research organizations (including Federally Funded Research and Development Centers, subject to
statutory or regulatory restrictions); national laboratories or government agencies (subject to funding restrictions); career
and technical institutions; State, regional, and local public and private entities that support industrial clusters and associated
economic development partnerships; unions; professional and industry associations; other not-for-profit organizations; and
the general public. To help ensure a broad impact, Institutes should openly encourage the addition of new partners and participants
wherever relevant through well-defined mechanisms.
- Federally Funded Research and Development Centers
- National Laboratories
- Government Agencies
- Career Institutions
- Technical Institutions
- State Entities: that support industrial clusters and associated economic development partnerships
- Regional Entities: that support industrial clusters and associated economic development partnerships
- Local Public Entities: that support industrial clusters and associated economic development partnerships
- Private Entities: that support industrial clusters and associated economic development partnerships
- Professional Associations
- Industry Associations
- The General Public
- Research Centers: To effectively leverage existing national capabilities and centers of excellence, Institutes are envisioned to be hubs that
link the national and international resources that exist within the area of focus of the Institute. To this end, Institutes
should seek to benefit and leverage the various centers and research institutions funded through existing Federal programs,
such as the NSF Engineering Research Centers (ERC) and Industry/University Cooperative Research Centers (I/UCRC) programs.
These programs focus teams of faculty and students on research that provides opportunities to advance technology for their
member firms through formalized partnerships with industry.
- Research Institutions
- NSF Engineering Research Centers (ERC)
- Industry/University Cooperative Research Centers (I/UCRC)
- Pre-College Students: The ERCs have education programs that create pathways to engineering for pre-college students.
- Pre-College Teachers: These programs also support pre-college teachers to learn engineering concepts at the centers and develop course materials
to bring engineering to pre-college classrooms.
- Non-Domestic Organizations: Participation in an Institute by a non-domestic organization will be allowed only when in the economic interest of the United
States. This would be demonstrated by that organization's investments in the United States in research, development, and manufacturing;
significant contributions to employment in the United States; and commitment that any technology arising from or assisted
by the Institute be used to promote domestic manufacturing activities. Participation restrictions for non-domestic organizations
may exist in some circumstances.
Objective(s):
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