1.1: Focus Areas
Define Focus Areas Other Information:
Defining Focus Areas -- Each Institute will have a unique and well-defined focus area, such as a manufacturing process, an
enabling technology, manufacturing processes for new advanced materials, or an industry sector (see Section 3.1.2). There
was broad consensus among the workshop participants and RFI respondents that the emergent focus areas should be defined by
the proposing teams. The proposing teams will be driven by the needs of industry, the opportunities created by new technologies,
and the programmatic needs of the AMNPO partners. Many respondents cautioned against the tendency to pre-select trendy topics
that don't serve this essential balance. This concept, strongly supported from public input, is to allow open solicitations
with clear selection criteria rather than government-selected topics. Good ideas come from unexpected places. The government
view is included as the agencies will make the selections. The focus area for each Institute will be defined by the proposing
team, and the AMNPO partners will evaluate the efficacy of the proposal in meeting a national need as part of an overall portfolio.
Proposing teams will need to demonstrate that their focus area is appropriate for an Institute, including the potential to
deliver regional and national improvements in advanced-manufacturing capabilities, and to meet national needs. IMIs will provide
a comprehensive and detailed plan to accomplish institute objectives and impacts. Each Institute should leverage existing
regional or national innovation ecosystems or catalyze the formation and sustainability of new innovation clusters. Each Institute
will have a specific physical location or locations and a clear lead organization, rather than existing as a "virtual" or
distributed organization. At the same time, the Institute will collaborate with organizations in any location that have relevant,
complementary expertise. It is expected that Institutes will take advantage of technology clusters, and will draw talent and
resources from across the nation and around the world to their site... Illustrative Focus Areas -- For the purpose of illustration
only, the following are examples for each of the categories of Institute focus areas:
Indicator(s):
|
