President lays out plan for 15 sites as part of National Network for Manufacturing Innovation starting with initial pilot program

Detroit, MI - Today, after President Obama announced a proposal to invest $1 billion in grant money to establish a national network of 15 regional Institutes of Manufacturing Innovation starting with a pilot program initiated by executive order, U.S. Rep. Gary Peters called on the President to choose the metro Detroit area as the site for a vehicle technology focused Institute for Manufacturing Innovation. As the President explained, each of these proposed institutes would have a well defined technology focus to ensure that America is leading the way in developing the 21st century technologies of the future. Making an investment in an auto technology institute in Detroit would be an important step in developing a public-private partnership to help our growing auto manufacturers reduce the costs and risks associated with researching, developing and commercializing new technologies for the cars and trucks of tomorrow while creating and protecting good paying middle class manufacturing jobs.

Highlighting the Detroit area’s history as America’s manufacturing center and resurging auto industry, Peters issued the following statement:

“President Obama is right, we must invest in American manufacturing and that's why I am going to work with stakeholders in metro Detroit to make sure we make the strongest case possible for our region to be the site for an Institute of Manufacturing Innovation that's focused on 21st century vehicle technology development,”said U.S. Rep. Gary Peters. “Three years after I worked with President Obama to ensure the survival of our auto industry, Michigan's economy is growing and jobs are being created, but we must continue working to ensure long-term success for our region. I’ve been a leader in the fight to develop public-private partnerships to help our auto manufacturers research and develop new vehicle technologies right here in Michigan, and by working together, we'll make sure that Detroit will always be the Motor City.”

Background on U.S. Rep. Gary Peters record of fighting to invest in new vehicle technologies:

U.S. Rep. Gary Peters authored the Advanced Vehicle Technology Act, which passed the House in 2009 on a bipartisan basis.  The bill would strengthen the Department of Energy’s current vehicle programs by authorizing the department to partner with a diverse group of automakers, suppliers, academic institutions, and non-profits to conduct critical research and development activities that will lead to high volume commercialization of next generation technologies. 

Peters is also leading the fight in the House to increase the budget for the DOE’s existing Vehicle Technologies program to ensure that new auto technologies are developed and built in America.

Background on the President’s proposal from today:

Over the past two years, the U.S. manufacturing sector has added more than 400,000 jobs, the first period of sustained job growth since the 1990s. The President’s proposals to revitalize American manufacturing build on that momentum and recognize that a growing and vibrant manufacturing sector is central to our ability to innovate, to export, and to create good-paying American jobs. Over the previous decade manufacturing production and investment stalled, and we lost ground to our competitors. To create an economy that is built to last, we must ensure that the next generation of products are not only invented here, but manufactured here as well.

To meet this challenge the President announced a new $1 billion proposal, the National Network for Manufacturing Innovation. The President’s proposal will catalyze a network of up to fifteen Institutes for Manufacturing Innovation around the country. The Institutes will bring together industry, universities and community colleges, federal agencies, and our states to accelerate innovation by investing in industrially-relevant manufacturing technologies with broad applications to bridge the gap between basic research and product development, provide shared assets to help companies – particularly small manufacturers – access cutting-edge capabilities and equipment, and create an unparalleled environment to educate and train students and workers in advanced manufacturing skills. Each Institute will serve as a regional hub of manufacturing excellence, providing the innovation infrastructure to support regional manufacturing hubs and ensuring that our manufacturing sector is a key pillar in an economy that is built to last. This model has been successfully deployed in other countries and represents a gap in the U.S. manufacturing innovation infrastructure that the President’s proposal will address.

The Institutes will each have a well-defined technology focus to address industrially-relevant manufacturing challenges on a large scale and to provide the capabilities and facilities required to reduce the cost and risk of commercializing new technologies. While the Institutes would be competitively selected, several areas of innovation illustrate the opportunities that this proposal could help to realize:

• Developing lightweight materials, such as low-cost carbon fiber composites (CFC's), that will improve fuel efficiency, performance, and corrosion resistance of the next generation of automobiles, aircraft, ships and trains.
• Refining standards, materials, and equipment for “3-D printing”(also known as additive manufacturing) to enable low-cost, small batch production using digital designs that can be transmitted from designers located anywhere.
• Creating a smart manufacturing infrastructure and approaches that lets operators make real-time use of “big data” flows from fully-instrumented plants in order to improve productivity, optimize supply chains, and improve energy, water, and materials use.

The new National Network for Manufacturing Innovation will work to leverage new investment from industry, state and local government, and the research community. This initiative will be a collaboration between Commerce’s National Institute of Standards and Technology, the National Science Foundation, the Department of Defense, and the Department of Energy.

The President also announced the launch of a pilot institute with an initial federal investment of $45 million from the Department of Defense, Department of Energy, Department of Commerce, and the National Science Foundation. The pilot will demonstrate the type the collaboration planned for the National Network for Manufacturing Innovation. The pilot will be selected through a competitive process that uses existing resources and fits within the agencies’ statutory missions, using current funding and authorities, while addressing key challenges faced by the U.S. manufacturing sector.

The pilot institute will address a focused technology area to reduce the risk and cost of commercializing and scaling-up new manufacturing products and processes. At least $30 million in total funding from the Departments of Defense, Energy and Commerce will support investments in advanced manufacturing equipment and research activities, $5 million in funding from NSF will support basic research in advanced manufacturing and the workforce development component of the pilot, in part under the NSF Advanced Technological Education program, and $10 million in funding from the Department of Defense will support scaling-up production of technologies developed from the pilot institute in support of critical national defense needs. This approach reflects a unique degree of inter-agency coordination around a shared goal to promote the President’s manufacturing agenda without need for Congressional action.

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