Continued U.S. leadership in advanced manufacturing requires new technologies, processes, and skills, especially in the emerging fields of biomanufacturing, cyber-manufacturing and eco-manufacturing. To address that need, the U.S. National Science Foundation is announcing investments in 24 new projects to drive future manufacturing.
The award of more than $40 million in the form of seed grants, research grants and network grants will support research and education at 44 unique institutions in 18 states and the District of Columbia, including four jurisdictions eligible for the Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research.
"Our investment provides industry with manufacturing tools that currently live only in the laboratory, or the imagination," said NSF Director Sethuraman Panchanathan. "Through the convergence of such fields as robotics, artificial intelligence, biotechnology and materials research, future manufacturing will create revolutionary products with unprecedented capabilities, produced sustainably in facilities across the country by a diverse, newly trained workforce."