The vision of the National Network for Manufacturing Innovation is U.S. global leadership in advanced manufacturing. It is a vision of a network of institutes that bring U.S. industry, academia, and government together to solve cross-sector manufacturing challenges that each sector simply cannot solve alone. Each institute is the manufacturing technology development and workforce training leader for a specific technical area. The institutes focus on transforming promising early-stage research into proven manufacturing capabilities that are ready for adoption by U.S. manufacturers. The institutes provide small, mid-sized, and large manufacturers with access to state-of-the-art facilities and equipment. In addition, each institute provides critical workforce training and skills development in these new technologies. By bringing to the table the entire supply chain associated with a particular developing technology, an innovation community emerges that will later form the basis of mature larger-scale manufacturing supply chains located within the United States. This is the first strategic plan for the National Network for Manufacturing Innovation (NNMI) Program. It describes the vision of the program and its goals. The plan identifies the methods by which these goals will be achieved, including the program's investment strategy, the mechanisms by which investments made by federal agencies will be coordinated, and the metrics by which the program will be assessed.

This report provides an overview of the origin, primary goals, and early progress of the NNMI Program in the first year since the passange of the Revitalize American Manufacturing and Innovation (RAMI) Act of 2014. Working together, the NNMI partners have undertaken a historic effort to support industry in establishing the ecosystems or industrial commons that will better enable innovators to develop the specific manufacturing technologies, processes, and capabilities needed to advance promising early stage technological inventions that continually arise in America's unparalleled basic research sector such that they can be scaled-up and commercialized by U.S. manufacturers.

Manufacturing plays an important role in the nation's economy, employment, and national defense. Accordingly, Congress has maintained a strong interest in the health of the U.S. manufacturing sector. The Obama Administration has undertaken a number of initiatives intended to support U.S. manufacturing, including establishment of the Advanced Manufacturing Partnership, Advanced Manufacturing National Program Office (AMNPO), Advanced Manufacturing Technology Consortia program, National Robotics Initiative, and Materials Genome Initiative. In his FY2013 budget, President Obama proposed the creation of a National Network for Manufacturing Innovation (NNMI) to help accelerate innovation by investing in industrially relevant manufacturing technologies with broad applications, and to support manufacturing technology commercialization by bridging the gap between the laboratory and the market. This book describes the National Network for Manufacturing Innovation while providing guidance on intellectual property rights for it, as well as institute performance metrics for NNMI.

The Manufacturing USA initiative seeks to reinforce U.S.-based advanced manufacturing through partnerships among industry, academia, and government. Started in 2012 and established with bipartisan support by the Revitalize American Manufacturing and Innovation Act of 2014, the initiative envisages a nationwide network of research centers for manufacturing innovation. As of May 2017, 14 manufacturing innovation institutes had been established to facilitate the movement of early-stage research into proven capabilities ready for adoption by U.S. manufacturers. To better understand the role and experiences of the Manufacturing USA institutes to date, a committee of the Innovation Policy Forum of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine convened a workshop on May 23, 2017 drawing together institute directors and manufacturing policy experts along with leaders from industry, academia, and government. Participants addressed the role of the manufacturing institutes in increasing advanced manufacturing in the United States, examined selected foreign programs designed to support advanced manufacturing, and reviewed recent assessments of existing institutes. This publication summarizes the presentations and discussions from the workshop.

The Manufacturing USA initiative seeks to reinforce U.S.-based advanced manufacturing through partnerships among industry, academia, and government. Started in 2012 and established with bipartisan support by the Revitalize American Manufacturing and Innovation Act of 2014, the initiative envisages a nationwide network of research centers for manufacturing innovation. Some 14 manufacturing innovation institutes have been established to facilitate the movement of early-stage research into proven capabilities ready for adoption by U.S. manufacturers. To better understand the role and experiences of the Manufacturing USA institutes, a committee of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine convened a workshop on May 23, 2017 drawing together institute directors and manufacturing policy experts along with leaders from industry, academia, and government. Given the continued prominence of enhancing domestic manufacturing and international competitiveness in public policy discussions, the National Academies convened a second workshop on November 14, 2018, to monitor the progress of the Manufacturing USA institutes. This publication summarizes the presentations and discussions from this second workshop.