As the manufacturing sector rebounds, it is expected to need over two million new workers over the next decade to meet supply shortages and increasing demand in sectors such as infrastructure, energy efficiency, and medical equipment.

NIST’s Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) is working with the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities (APLU) to support projects partnering universities and MEP centers to encourage adoption of advanced technologies by small- and medium-sized manufacturers (SMMs). APLU is working with Innovation Associates and Jim Woodell & Company to select three collaborative university-MEP pilot projects to develop and test different models of technology transitioning. APLU is currently soliciting two-page, pre-proposals from university-MEP applicant teams by April 16.

More than 40 percent of Indiana’s manufacturing companies successfully implemented Industry 4.0 technologies in 2021, more than doubling the number that had reported that a year earlier, according to a recent Conexus Indiana report. The advanced manufacturing and logistics (AML) industries are considered the backbone of Indiana’s economy. Indiana manufacturers account for more than $100 billion of the state’s economy and employ 17 percent of the state’s workforce.

Implementing innovative policies is necessary for driving the manufacturing industry forward in Illinois, according to a recent report from the Illinois Manufacturing Excellence Center (IMEC). Nearly 600,000 Illinoisans are employed directly in manufacturing, and the manufacturing industry accounts for 12 percent of Illinois’s annual GDP. The findings of the state report, however, are adaptable and can be utilized across the United States in regions that seek to encourage innovation in manufacturing and promote job growth in an increasingly competitive globalized economy.

This week marks the 10th anniversary celebration of National Manufacturing Week. National Manufacturing Week celebrates the role of the manufacturing sector within the United States. With roughly 12.1 million employees, the manufacturing sector is the fifth largest employer relative to other industries, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Office of Local Defense Community Cooperation revealed the awardees from its second round of the Defense Manufacturing Community Support Program this week. The office awarded $5 million to each of five organizations to lead partnerships that will strengthen defense manufacturing and related supply chains. The five awards are listed below and available on the office’s website:

The U.S. Department of Commerce’s Minority Business Development Agency (MBDA) awarded $3.7 million total in federal funding across nine grant recipients to establish MBDA Advanced Manufacturing Centers, Export Centers, and a Federal Procurement Center.

The U.S. Department of Energy announced a request for information (RFI) to help inform the creation of a new Clean Energy Manufacturing Institute focused on industrial decarbonization.

Manufacturing activity has rebounded sharply from the depths of last year’s slowdown due to the pandemic and global recession, according to the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) first quarter outlook survey. The survey marked the third straight quarter of increased optimism among respondents, with 87.6 percent of manufacturers saying they felt either somewhat or very positive about their company’s outlook.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced $60 million in funding for its largest-ever cohort of university-based Industrial Assessment Centers (IACs) to assist small- and medium-sized manufacturers in reducing their carbon emissions and lowering energy costs.

Manufacturers in the U.S. have been facing workforce shortages despite nearly six years of recent job gains in the sector. Those gains and more have been wiped out by the Covid-19 pandemic, compounding the labor shortage problem for a sector that has often struggled to keep pace with the changing demands of technology. However, this exacerbated labor shortage shows that robots are not taking all the jobs, only increasing the level of tech skills workers need to do their jobs.

A recent project from the National Bureau of Economic Research used data from the Annual Survey of Manufactures to study the characteristics and geography of investments in robots across U.S. manufacturing establishments and find whether it revealed any impact on the economy. The team found that robotics adoption and intensity is more closely related to the size of the establishment than it is to its age. The study presents results on the distribution of robots in U.S.

Those who gather data know that the results collected in 2020 during pandemic shutdowns do not reveal actual trends. This phenomenon was the case for a recent survey by Babson College researchers for the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor Adult Population Survey (GEM APS). They found that rates of entrepreneurship, which had been on the rise since 2015, dropped in 2020. However, their newest research shows an upward trend in 2021 and 2022, when the U.S.

The Department of Defense announced yesterday that it issued $238 million from "Creating Helpful Incentives to Produce Semiconductors (CHIPS) and Science Act" funding for the establishment of eight Microelectronics Commons (Commons) regional innovation hubs. With $2 billion in funding for Fiscal Years 2023 through 2027, the Microelectronics Commons program aims to leverage these hubs to accelerate domestic hardware prototyping and "lab-to-fab" transition of semiconductor technologies.

A Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) for a new artificial intelligence-focused Manufacturing USA institute is now available on Grants.gov. The U.S.

Three pieces of federal legislation enacted in 2021 and 2022—the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), CHIPS and Science Act (CHIPS Act), and Inflation Reduction Act (IRA)—collectively authorize nearly $1.5 trillion to reshape America’s industrial landscape. But will this money help the 107 Black-owned and 151 Hispanic-owned companies in the manufacturing supply chains that the legislation is designed to support? 

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has issued a Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) seeking proposals to establish and operate a CHIPS Manufacturing USA institute focused on digital twins for the semiconductor industry. The CHIPS for America Program anticipates up to approximately $285 million in funding will be awarded to the institute.

The inaugural Manufacturing Momentum Summit is an opportunity for federal, state, regional, and local leaders to share their efforts to prepare the workforce required for the advanced defense manufacturing supply chain. Held in conjunction with several partners, including the DoD Manufacturing Technology Program, the Center for Regional Economic Competitiveness, and the American Manufacturing Communities Collaborative, the Summit will be held from September 12 - 14, 2023, in Arlington, VA.

On August 14, 2023, OMB issued final guidance on requirements for all infrastructure projects using federal financial assistance. The final guidance requires preferences for American-made steel and iron products, manufactured products, and construction materials. The release of the final guidance follows the signing in November 2021 of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL), which includes the Build America, Buy America Act (BABA).

The 2021 BERD dataset reveals the highest level of business R&D spending on record. Since 2015, R&D expenditures have increased by 69% from $356 to $602 billion, representing an average annual growth of $41 billion or 9%. But what industries are contributing the most to this trend?

The CHIPS and Science Act (Act) established guardrails to prevent funding recipients from using the money to support the development of semiconductor manufacturing and technology in foreign countries of concern, including North Korea, China, Russia, and Iran. On September 25, 2023, the CHIPS Program Office CPO published the final rules for preventing improper use of CHIPS Act funding.

Manufacturing in the U.S. accounts for 90% of private-sector R&D, employs 80% of the nation’s engineers, and contributes trillions to the economy—according to Deloitte—with every dollar spent in manufacturing leading to an additional $1.81 added to the economy. However, despite its key importance, the U.S.

A bipartisan report from the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party says the People’s Republic of China (PRC) has failed to live up to the foundational principles of the World Trade Organization—open, market-oriented, non-discriminatory treatment.

Despite a $4.1 trillion increase in annual output since 1987, manufacturing industries in the United States have been declining in both their labor productivity and share of output. The Bureau of Labor Statistics’ labor productivity (output per hour) index, tied to 2012 values, for manufacturing industries has dropped by nearly five points since its all-time high of over 101 in Q2 2013.

Activity to build the U.S. semiconductor industry picked up steam on Monday, December 11. On that day, New York State, Gov.