Last year, President Obama launched a major, new initiative focused on strengthening the innovation, performance, competitiveness, and job-creating power of U.S. manufacturing called the National Network for Manufacturing Innovation (NNMI). Key design elements for the NNMI are captured within National Network for Manufacturing Innovation: A Preliminary Design, a report issued by the White House National Science and Technology Council on January 16, 2013. The NNMI is comprised of Institutes for Manufacturing Innovation (IMIs). The President has proposed up to 45 IMIs around the country. Congress is currently considering bills in both houses similar to the President’s proposal.
A Request for Information (RFI) was published June 2, 2014 on FedBizOps. Responses were originally due October 24, 2014 but that deadline has been moved up to October 10, 2014. The RFI seeks information about the following Technical Focus Areas:
- Flexible Hybrid Electronics
- Photonics
- Engineered Nanomaterials
- Fiber and Textiles
- Electronic Packaging and Reliability
- Aerospace Composites
IMIs will bring together industry, academia (four- and two-year universities, community colleges, technical institutes, etc.), and federal and state agencies to accelerate innovation by investing in industry-relevant manufacturing technologies with broad applications. Each Institute will have a specific technology or market focus and will serve as a regional hub of manufacturing excellence in that focus area, providing the critical infrastructure necessary to create a dynamic, highly collaborative environment spurring manufacturing technology innovations and technology transfer leading to production scale-up and commercialization. When established, each IMI will be a public-private partnership via a Cooperative Agreement and key part of the NNMI network of institutes.