Launched at IMTS 2026, “Invented Here. Made Here.” is a national campaign showcasing how the Manufacturing USA network of institutes ensures that advanced manufacturing technologies invented in America are used to make products successfully and profitably in America.
“Manufacturing USA is all about helping to establish the ecosystem where industry, academia, and the federal agencies and labs can work together to reduce the friction, to speed things up, to get from invention and discovery into something that can be implemented and scaled up with industry,” said NIST Director of Advanced Manufacturing Mike Molnar during a main stage panel at IMTS 2026.
Each of the Manufacturing USA institutes serves as a force multiplier to de-risk technology adoption, connecting manufacturers with the resources, facilities, expertise, partners, and workforce programs needed to adopt and scale advanced technologies. The network also provides access to shared infrastructure and a neutral, precompetitive R&D environment for collaboration on shared challenges that helps companies scale technology from invention to U.S. manufacturing readiness.
As part of the same IMTS main stage panel IACMI CEO Chad Duty described how automaker Volkswagen leveraged Manufacturing USA to scale up a composites liftgate into U.S. production. By partnering with IACMI and its network, Volkswagen was able to redesign the VW Atlas’s liftgate using Purdue University’s simulation software and plug into a scale-up research facility in Michigan to produce functional, scaled-up parts.
This collaboration reduced the Atlas’ composite liftgate’s tooling costs by 77% and the start-to-finish cost by 9% compared with the steel baseline. Manufactured in Chattanooga, Tennessee, the liftgate is now used across a range of the company’s vehicles.
“Everybody’s got a little piece of the answer to the puzzle,” Duty said. “We’ve got…almost 200 companies in our network that can bring different pieces of that solution to bear, as well as the great investments by the government in these unique capabilities across the country.” No single company had all the capabilities needed to bring the composite liftgate to production, which the institute’s collaborative innovation model delivered.
A new Invented Here. Made Here. video highlights additional ways the Manufacturing USA network is turning innovation into commercial impact. By building the capabilities to make it here, the network is making America stronger, safer, and more prosperous.
Read more institute success stories here.