NIST Issues Notice of Intent to Launch Competition for AI-Focused Manufacturing USA Institute

In an effort to accelerate the use of AI to strengthen the resilience of U.S. manufacturing, the Office of Advanced Manufacturing within the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has published a Notice of Intent (NOI) to open a competition for a new Manufacturing USA institute.

The new AI institute will join Manufacturing USA’s national network of 17 linked manufacturing institutes: public-private collaborations focused on technology, supply chain, and education and workforce development. While each institute focuses on a unique technological concentration, they function to achieve the same goal in bolstering U.S. global leadership in advanced manufacturing.

NIST reports that approximately $70 million in federal funds will be invested in a new institute over five years, with an equal or greater contribution from private and other nonfederal funding sources.

Through its planned competition, expected to be formally announced in early Spring 2024, NIST seeks to select an applicant team “most capable of establishing and leading a Manufacturing USA institute to accelerate the use of AI for strengthening resilience of manufacturing processes for the nation's manufacturers.” The agency’s NOI is intended to allow potential applicants sufficient time to develop meaningful collaborations among industry, academia, federal laboratories, and state/local government.

NIST will roll out a two-phase competition process. Applicants with the best concept papers selected from phase one will be invited to submit full proposals for the final phase.

As noted in the agency’s Federal Register NOI, NIST anticipates the institute to achieve “time-bound outcomes for technical applications that support manufacturing resilience,” such as, but not limited to:

• accelerating qualification of new production technologies, facilities, or processes;
• performing predictive maintenance of structures and equipment to eliminate down-time due to equipment failure;
• optimizing manufacturing processes to reduce resource inputs and quality failures;
• optimizing working capital to predict inventory needs; and/or
• predicting and mitigating risks from manufacturing supply chain network disruptions stemming from factors such as extreme climate events, while increasing visibility of potential domestic suppliers.

“AI is an accelerator of our productivity and of human abilities—it can make us better, faster, and stronger in so many ways. I’m particularly excited about the potential for AI to supercharge manufacturing and the ways it can strengthen American workers and businesses and make our country more competitive in the global economy,” said U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo. “This new Manufacturing USA AI-focused institute will build on the Biden-Harris administration’s extensive work to revitalize American manufacturing, invest in innovation, and ensure American workers are ready to meet the challenges of the future.”

In a recently uploaded video, Dr. Kelley Rogers and Lisa Fronczek, of the NIST Office of Advanced Manufacturing, discuss the NOI to award a new Manufacturing USA institute focused on the topic of Artificial Intelligence for Resilient Manufacturing.

Access more information via the Federal Register and NIST’s news.

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