LIFT – Lightweight Innovations For Tomorrow, a Detroit-based Manufacturing USA institute, celebrating the 5th anniversary of its founding, today announced that the Department of Defense has extended its cooperative agreement for another year while negotiations are underway for a new long-term partnership.
The American Lightweight Materials Manufacturing Innovation Institute (ALMMII), which operates LIFT, signed the original cooperative agreement with the Department of Defense, through the Office of Naval Research, in February 2014, as one of the founding members of the Manufacturing USA network. LIFT is a public-private partnership committed to the development and deployment of advanced lightweight material manufacturing technologies and implementing education and training initiatives to better prepare the workforce today and in the future.
“The first five years of our institute have been a tremendous success, moving from an idea on paper to creating a world-class facility in Detroit and building an ecosystem of experts across the country,” said Nigel Francis, LIFT CEO and executive director. “The value we have shown the Department of Defense, together with our industry and academic partners, enabled this extension and we are now working towards a new long-term agreement to be in place in the near future.”