The U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has awarded a total of $1.2 million to four organizations to develop technology roadmaps aimed at strengthening U.S. manufacturing and innovation across industries. The projects span a wide variety of industries and technologies, from microelectronics to biomanufacturing to building a resilient U.S. manufacturing supply chain.
The grants, awarded to universities, a nonprofit and a consortium, are the first conferred by NIST's Advanced Manufacturing Technology Roadmap Program (MfgTech). The individual awards of up to $300,000 will fund projects for a period of up to 18 months to address national priorities for microelectronics competitiveness and vaccine manufacturing capabilities. NIST plans to make additional awards under different categories.
“The MfgTech awards build collaborative partnerships to set strategic technology objectives and develop a shared vision of how an industry can achieve transformational goals,” said NIST Office of Advanced Manufacturing Director Mike Molnar. “These grants will enable essential first steps toward building the research infrastructure necessary to sustain a healthy, innovative advanced manufacturing sector — one that invents, demonstrates, prototypes and produces, here in the United States.”