Manufacturing USA was formally established in 2014 as the National Network for Manufacturing Innovation.
Manufacturing USA institutes bring together industry, academia and federal partners within a growing network of advanced manufacturing institutes to increase U.S. manufacturing competitiveness and promote a robust and sustainable national manufacturing R&D infrastructure.
The Need
Substantive improvements in the health, robustness and innovative capacity of the U.S. manufacturing sector have an unrivaled ability to boost the nation’s global economic competitiveness. For the United States to remain a step ahead of the competition and thrive, we need a cutting edge manufacturing sector.
Manufacturing USA is the catalyst, connecting people, ideas and technology to advance our industry and our nation. The national network of institutes engages the entire manufacturing community with partners in government and academia.
Together, we breathe life into promising research innovations and enable manufacturers to produce their new products quicker and cheaper by using the community to develop new manufacturing processes. U.S. manufacturing is no longer dark, dirty and dangerous. Instead, we lead the world with clean, safe, visionary manufacturing technology and success.
Background
In June 2011, the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology recommended the formation of the “Advanced Manufacturing Partnership” (AMP) (report). The partnership was led by Dow Chemical Company President, Chairman, and CEO Andrew Liveris, and MIT President Susan Hockfield. The Advanced Manufacturing Partnership was charged with identifying collaborative opportunities between industry, academia and government that would catalyze development and investment in emerging technologies, policies and partnerships with the potential to transform and reinvigorate advanced manufacturing in the United States. In 2012 it issued its first set of recommendations, “Report to the President on Capturing Domestic Competitive Advantage in Advanced Manufacturing.”
After a nationwide outreach and engagement effort, “The National Network for Manufacturing Innovation: A Preliminary Design,” was issued in January 2013.
In September 2013, an AMP 2.0 final report focused on a renewed, cross-sector, national effort to secure U.S. leadership in the emerging technologies that will create high-quality manufacturing jobs and enhance the United States' global competitiveness. The steering committee, whose members are among the nation’s leaders in industry, academia, and labor, was a working group of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology.
In December, 2014, Congress passed the Revitalize American Manufacturing and Innovation Act (RAMI Act) into law, which gave Congressional authorization to the Advanced Manufacturing National Program Office and authorized the Department of Commerce to hold “open-topic” competitions for manufacturing innovation institutes where those topics of highest importance to industry could be proposed.
In February 2016, the 2015 Annual Report and the first 3-year Strategic Plan were released. An Annual Report and/or Manufacturing USA Highlights Report have been subsequently released each year since.