Programs

It is the mission of the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) to enhance and protect the health and well-being of all Americans. They fulfill that mission by providing for effective health and human services and fostering advances in medicine, public health, and social services. HHS does this through Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority’s (BARDA) whose overarching vision is of a Nation with the capability to respond quickly and effectively to deliberate, natural, and emerging threats. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) which is responsible for promoting and protecting the public health by assuring the safety and efficacy of human and veterinary drugs, vaccines, blood, and other biological products, medical devices and radiation-emitting products and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) which provides leadership and direction to programs designed to improve the health of the Nation by conducting and supporting research in harnessing new technologies to improve health.

The Department of Labor's mission is to foster, promote, and develop the welfare of the wage earners, job seekers, and retirees of the United States; improve working conditions; advance opportunities for profitable employment; and assure work-related benefits and rights. In alignment with its mission, the Department of Labor administers several grant programs that seek to increase the number of skilled workers in the high-demand manufacturing field.

MEP is a public-private partnership with Centers in all 50 states and Puerto Rico dedicated to serving small and medium-sized manufacturers.  Through its collaborations at the federal, state, and local level, MEP Centers work with manufacturers to develop new products and customers, expand and diversify markets, adopt new technology, and enhance value within supply chains. The MEP Program serves as a bridge to other organizations and federal research labs that share a passion for enhancing the manufacturing community.

Manufacturing USA was created in 2014 to secure U.S. global leadership in advanced manufacturing by connecting people, ideas, and technology. Manufacturing USA institutes convene business competitors, academic institutions, and other stakeholders to test applications of new technology, create new products, reduce cost and risk, and enable the manufacturing workforce with the skills of the future. Key initiatives include Future Manufacturing Supply Chains Manufacturing, Manufacturing Workforce Development, Advanced Manufacturing Technology Leadership, Covid 19 Manufacturing Recovery, and Clean Energy Manufacturing.

The Materials Genome Initiative is a federal multi-agency initiative for discovering, manufacturing, and deploying advanced materials twice as fast and at a fraction of the cost compared to traditional methods. The initiative creates policy, resources, and infrastructure to support U.S. institutions in the adoption of methods for accelerating materials development.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) depends on manufacturing innovation to enhance its technical and scientific capabilities in aeronautics and space exploration. NASA leverages the Manufacturing USA program to support advanced manufacturing technology research and development as a critical means of addressing improved affordability, enhanced performance, and improved safety and reliability for NASA’s aerospace research and development efforts.

The Department of Commerce’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is the only research laboratory in the U.S. government specifically focused on enhancing industrial competitiveness, including a robust research portfolio concentrated on the technical challenges associated with advanced manufacturing. NIST oversees the Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) and is home to the Advanced Manufacturing National Program Office which oversees Manufacturing USA.

The National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI) is a U.S. Government research and development (R&D) initiative. Over thirty Federal departments, independent agencies, and commissions work together toward the shared vision of a future in which the ability to understand and control matter at the nanoscale leads to ongoing revolutions in technology and industry that benefit society.

Recognizing that the competitiveness and job-generating ability of a nation is determined by its desirability as a place for businesses to operate, SelectUSA was created at the federal level to showcase the United States as the world’s premier business location and to provide easy access to federal-level programs and services related to business investment. SelectUSA is designed to complement the activities of our states—the primary drivers of economic development in the United States.

The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) was created in 1953 as an independent agency of the federal government to aid, counsel, assist, and protect the interests of small business concerns, to preserve free competitive enterprise and to maintain and strengthen the overall economy of our nation. The SBA helps Americans start, build, and grow businesses. Through an extensive network of field offices and partnerships with public and private organizations, SBA delivers its services to people throughout the United States, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Guam.

The Advocacy Center can help exporters of U.S. goods and services compete for and win foreign government procurements. Assistance is available to U.S. businesses across industry for projects ranging from small contracts to large multi-year efforts. Each year, trillions of dollars in foreign government procurement opportunities are put out for competitive bidding.

The Antidumping and Countervailing Duty Operations program enforces the U.S. trade laws by conducting investigations, administrative reviews, new shipper reviews, sunset reviews, changed circumstances reviews, and scope and anticircumvention inquiries. The program also assists in the defense of determinations made by the Enforcement and Compliance office in U.S. courts, the World Trade Organization, and in North American Free Trade Agreement dispute settlement panels, according to program officials. The program conducts investigations in response to U.S. industry petitions alleging that imports are being dumped or unfairly subsidized and that those imports are materially injuring, or threatening material injury to, competing U.S. industry. 

Whether you are new to exporting or expanding to new markets, the U.S. Commercial Service (CS), part of the U.S. Department of Commerce’s International Trade Administration, offers companies a full range of expertise in international trade. Companies can find assistance locally in more than 100 U.S. Commercial Service offices nationwide and in more than 70 international offices.