Skip to main content

Secretary of Commerce Submits to Congress First-Ever Legislative Reports Required of NNMI

On February 19, 2016, in conjunction with the Executive Office of the President, National Science and Technology Council, today U.S. Secretary of Commerce submitted to Congress the first-ever legislative reports required of the National Network for Manufacturing Innovation (NNMI).

The history and status of the program and its partners is outlined in detail in the NNMI Annual Report, which complements the NNMI Strategic Plan. The institutes included in the report are those launched by the end of September 2015:

  • America Makes, the National Additive Manufacturing Innovation Institute, Youngstown, Ohio, focusing on additive manufacturing and 3D Printing technologies.
  • Digital Manufacturing and Design Innovation Institute, Chicago, Illinois, focusing on integrated digital design and manufacturing.
  • PowerAmerica-The Next Generation Power Electronics Manufacturing Innovation Institute, Raleigh, North Carolina, focusing on wide bandgap semiconductor based power electronics.
  • Lightweight Innovations for Tomorrow, Detroit, Michigan, focusing on lightweight metals manufacturing technology.
  • Institute for Advanced Composites Manufacturing Innovation, Knoxville, Tennessee, focusing on advanced fiber-reinforced polymer composites.
  • AIM Photonics-American Institute for Manufacturing Integrated Photonics, Rochester, New York, focusing on integrated photonic circuit manufacturing.
  • NextFlex, America’s Flexible Hybrid Electronics Manufacturing Institute, San Jose, California, focusing on the manufacturing and integration of semiconductors and flexible electronics.

The outline for NNMI’s planned growth is outlined in The National Network for Manufacturing Innovation Strategic Plan 2016, as follows:

  • Goal 1: Increase the competitiveness of U.S. manufacturing.
  • Goal 2: Facilitate the transition of innovative technologies into scalable, cost-effective, and high-performing domestic manufacturing capabilities.
  • Goal 3: Accelerate the development of an advanced manufacturing workforce.
  • Goal 4: Support business models that help institutes to become stable and sustainable.

Informed by feedback and recommendations from a broad array of stakeholders, the strategic plan represents the consensus of the participating agencies and industry leaders regarding the goals that should be pursued for at least the next three years in order to achieve the NNMI Program’s purposes. The strategic plan identifies the methods by which these goals will be achieved and the metrics by which the program will be assessed.

As the first such reports for the NNMI, these documents cover the program’s history from its inception. Future reports will include an annual fiscal-year review of program activities and a three-year review and update of the strategic plan.