Manufacturing Innovation Institute (MII)
How it works
An institute is run by a nonprofit organization and anchors a consortium of members: companies (from large enterprises to SMEs), research universities, community colleges, and nonprofits. The federal government provides an initial seed investment that must be matched by industry and partner cost-share, leveraging existing resources and forcing co-investment. Work concentrates at mid-range TRLs: it connects proven basic research to applied research, demonstration projects, and shared pilot facilities that reduce the cost and risk of commercializing new technologies or that solve generic industrial problems. In parallel, the institute develops the workforce (education and training), builds supply-chain integration methodologies, and engages small and medium-sized manufacturers, transferring technology into domestic production.
Problem solved
Breakthrough manufacturing technologies often stall in the "valley of death": the technology readiness level (TRL) is too high for purely academic funding, yet too low and too risky for any single company to finance scale-up to production. Innovators also fail to capture the full economic benefits of their innovations, depressing private R&D investment. An MII shares the risk and cost of scale-up across industry, universities, and government, lowering the barrier to commercialization for domestic production.
Components
An independent, nonprofit-led institute binding industry, universities, and federal agencies into a joint venture with shared risk and co-investment.
Each institute concentrates on a single advanced manufacturing technology (e.g., robotics, 3D printing, photonics), forming a regional center of competence.
Work at mid-range technology readiness levels: demonstrating and de-risking technologies between basic research and commercial production.
Members — large firms, SMEs, research universities, community colleges, and nonprofits — contribute resources, facility access, and shared projects.
A one-time federal investment (DoD, DOE, NSF, NIST) matched by mandatory consortium cost-share, with the goal of reaching self-sufficiency.
Commercializing technologies for domestic production, integrating supply chains, and training the manufacturing workforce at all skill levels.
Evolution
The President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) recommended launching an advanced manufacturing initiative based on public–private partnerships.
In March 2012 the National Network for Manufacturing Innovation was unveiled; in August 2012 the pilot institute America Makes (NAMII) for additive manufacturing was founded in Youngstown, Ohio, with roughly $30M in federal investment.
The RAMI Act (H.R. 2996, introduced 2013, enacted December 2014) established the Network for Manufacturing Innovation Program within NIST, giving the network a statutory basis.
In September 2016 the program adopted the name "Manufacturing USA", unifying the brand of the network of manufacturing innovation institutes.