This annual report to Congress provides updates on the Manufacturing USA network response to COVID-19, as well as manufacturing technology development and workforce impacts from across the manufacturing innovation institutes.
Manufacturing USA represents a “whole-of-government” approach towards the innovation and development of advanced manufacturing technologies to ensure U.S. global leadership in advanced manufacturing.
In this fiscal year, three federal agencies within the Manufacturing USA network managed manufacturing innovation institutes: the Department of Commerce with one institute, the Department of Defense with eight institutes (with a ninth established early in FY 2021), and the Department of Energy with five institutes (and a sixth established in late FY 2020). The Advanced Manufacturing National Program Office at DOC’s National Institute of Standards and Technology oversees the coordinated activities of Manufacturing USA. Other participating federal agencies are: the Departments of Agriculture, Education, Health and Human Services, and Labor; the National Aeronautics and Space Administration; and the National Science Foundation.
Each institute advances a different manufacturing technology, such as biopharmaceutical manufacturing, integrated photonic manufacturing, or wide-bandgap power electronics manufacturing. Other institute topics such as smart manufacturing and cybersecurity in manufacturing serve to improve the integration and security of advanced technologies used in all fields of manufacturing. The institutes advance technologies through collaborative pre-competitive research by their membership of organizations from across industry, academia, and government. Institutes provide members shared access to capital-intensive infrastructure that equips U.S. innovators of all sizes to bring their ideas to reality. The institutes also partner with organizations to educate and train workers in the manufacturing skills needed by U.S. manufacturers in these new fields.
