The Obama Administration’s National Science and Technology Council (NSTC) has released a report that describes an approach to implementing and managing a National Network for Manufacturing Innovation (NNMI)—a proposed national network of up to 15 manufacturing institutes around the country that would serve as regional hubs of innovation. The NNMI was announced by President Obama last March and is designed to accelerate the development and adoption of cutting-edge manufacturing technologies.

This report, National Network for Manufacturing Innovation: A Preliminary Design, includes the framework for the competitive process and the criteria for selecting the Institutes of Manufacturing Innovation (IMI). The report recommends that each of the IMIs be led by US nonprofit organizations and have diverse funding sources and an independent Board of Directors composed predominantly of industry representatives. IMI partners would include private industry, academic and technical training organizations, government agencies, and unions among others. Federal matching funds for IMIs would be disbursed over a five-to-seven-year period, after which the institutes would be self-sustaining. □