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Posted on: 1/24/2013 12:00:00 AM... The U.S. National Science and Technology Council (NSTC) has released a report that describes an approach to implementing and managing a National Network for Manufacturing Innovation (NNMI)—a proposed national network of up to 15 manufacturing institutes around the country that would serve as regional hubs of innovation. The NNMI was announced by President Barack Obama last March and is designed to accelerate the development and adoption of cutting-edge manufacturing technologies.

The report includes a framework for the competitive process and criteria for selecting the initiative’s Institutes of Manufacturing Innovation (IMI). The report stated that each of the IMIs be led by U.S. nonprofit organizations and have diverse funding sources and an independent board of directors composed predominantly of industry representatives. IMI partners would include private industry, academic and technical training organizations, and government agencies and unions, among others. Federal matching funds for IMIs would be disbursed over a five-to-seven-year period, after which the institutes would be self-sustaining.

In addition to input from nearly 900 stakeholders who participated in four regional workshops, the report builds on best practices from the August 2012 launch of the National Additive Manufacturing Innovation Institute in Youngstown, Ohio—a pilot institute that has brought together 80 private companies, nine research universities, six community colleges, and 18 not-for-profit institutions.

For More Information:

• Read National Network for Manufacturing Innovation: A Preliminary Design

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