Federal Register, Volume 77 Issue 87 (Friday, May 4, 2012)

[Federal Register Volume 77, Number 87 (Friday, May 4, 2012)]
[Notices]
[Pages 26509-26511]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2012-10809]

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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

National Institute of Standards and Technology

[Docket No. 120418419-2419-01]

Request for Information on Proposed New Program: National Network
for Manufacturing Innovation (NNMI)

AGENCY: National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST),
Department of Commerce.

ACTION: Request for information.

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SUMMARY: The NIST-hosted Advanced Manufacturing National Program Office
(AMNPO) invites interested parties to provide input on a new public-
private partnership program, the National Network for Manufacturing
Innovation (NNMI or Network). The proposed Network will be composed of
up to fifteen Institutes for Manufacturing Innovation (IMIs or
Institutes) around the country, each serving as a hub of manufacturing
excellence that will help to make United States (U.S.) manufacturing
facilities and enterprises more competitive and encourage investment in
the U.S. This program

[[Page 26510]]

was proposed in the President's fiscal year (FY) 2013 budget \1\ and
was announced by the President on March 9, 2012.\2\ The NNMI program
will be managed collaboratively by the Department of Defense,
Department of Energy, Department of Commerce's NIST, the National
Science Foundation, and other agencies. Industry, state, academic and
other organizations will co-invest in the Institutes along with the
NNMI program. For purposes of this notice, ``co-invest'' means that
non-federal entities will contribute financial and other resources to
the Institutes to complement federal investments.
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\1\ See http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/omb/budget/fy2013/assets/budget.pdf, page 217.
\2\ See http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2012/03/09/remarks-president-manufacturing-and-economy.

DATES: Comments are due on or before 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time on October
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25, 2012.

ADDRESSES: Comments will be accepted by email only. Comments must be
sent to nnmi_comments@nist.gov with the subject line ``NNMI
Comments.''

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Dr. Michael Schen, 301-975-6741,
michael.schen@nist.gov, or Mr. Prasad Gupte, 301-975-5062, prasad.gupte
@nist.gov.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

The Challenge

Numerous recent reports have highlighted the critical role of
manufacturing to innovation,\3\ jobs,^{4 5} the economy,\6\
exports,^{7 8} and national security.\9\ Current global trends
raise serious concerns about U.S. competitiveness in manufacturing,
including advanced manufacturing.\10\ The Nation's trade balance for
advanced technology products has deteriorated precipitously over the
past decade, adding to the overall U.S. trade deficit in
manufacturing.\11\ One key source of the competitiveness challenge is a
gap between research and development (R&D) activities and the
deployment of technological innovations in domestic production of
goods.\12\ Many technologies fail to move to commercialization or reach
full scale-up in the U.S. because the domestic private sector,
particularly small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), finds that the
risks of such investments are too great for an individual entity to
make. The private sector also reports challenges in accessing key
skills and technical infrastructure for demonstration and prototyping
purposes.
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\3\ President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology
(2011) Report to the President on Ensuring Leadership in Advanced
Manufacturing.
\4\ Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2011 Employer Costs for Employee
Compensation, Table 6.
\5\ National Science Board, Science and Engineering Indicators
2012, Appendix Table 4-14 and Table 3-32.
\6\ Bureau of Economic Analysis, 2010 U.S. Economic Accounts by
Industry, see http://www.bea.gov/industry/index.htm.
\7\ Bureau of Economic Analysis, Industry-by-Industry Total
Requirements Table, see http://www.bea.gov/industry/iotables/prod/.
\8\ Bureau of Economic Analysis and Census, U.S. International
Trade in Goods and Services.
\9\ National Science and Technology Council (2012) A National
Strategic Plan for Advanced Manufacturing, http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/microsites/ostp/iam_advancedmanufacturing_strategicplan_2012.pdf.
\10\ R. Atkinson and S. Andes, The Atlantic Century II:
Benchmarking E.U. and U.S. Innovation and Competitiveness.
Washington, DC: Information Technology and Innovation Foundation,
2011.
\11\ NSTC (2012) Advanced Manufacturing.
\12\ Deloitte Consulting LLP, Manufacturing Institute (2011),
Boiling Point? The skills gap in U.S. manufacturing.
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The Response

To meet this challenge, the U.S. must build on its strengths,
leverage its unique research, innovation, and workforce capabilities,
and create an infrastructure for manufacturing innovation to ensure
that the next generation of processes and products not only will be
invented in the U.S., but scaled up and manufactured in the U.S. as
well. The President has proposed that the federal government catalyze
the creation of a NNMI as a central element of the U.S. response to the
manufacturing competitiveness challenge.\1\ In doing so, the President
is building on recommendations made by his Council of Advisors on
Science and Technology and a wide range of other experts and
organizations.^{3 9 10}
The NNMI will be composed of up to fifteen IMIs located around the
country. The Institutes will bring together large companies, small and
medium enterprises (SMEs), academia, federal agencies, and the states
to accelerate innovation through co-investment in industrially relevant
manufacturing technologies with broad applications. They will take full
advantage of existing infrastructure by integrating current
capabilities and building new ones where needed to foster innovation
that can impact the manufacturing sector on a large scale.
The objectives of the NNMI are to bridge the gap between applied
research and product development, provide shared assets to help
companies gain access to cutting-edge capabilities and equipment, and
create an unparalleled environment to continuously educate and train
students and workers in advanced manufacturing skills. Each Institute
will become a self-sustaining technical center of excellence, providing
and integrating innovation resources that will help to make U.S.
manufacturing facilities and enterprises more competitive and encourage
investment in the U.S.
The NNMI program will be managed collaboratively by the Department
of Defense (DoD), the Department of Energy (DOE), the Department of
Commerce's NIST, the National Science Foundation (NSF), and other
agencies. Industry, state, academic and other partners will co-invest
in the Institutes. Should the NNMI be funded in FY2013, the federal
government will make a $1 billion, one time investment through the NNMI
program in a series of competitive solicitations staged over several
years. This start-up investment will help support initial expenses for
up to 15 Institutes. Participating agencies will oversee the
solicitations, select award recipients, provide technical assistance to
applicants, and manage the awards from the NNMI program funding.

Institute Objectives and Attributes

Each Institute will integrate capabilities and facilities required
to reduce the cost and risk of commercializing new technologies and to
address relevant manufacturing challenges on a production-level scale.
Each will have a well-defined technical focus and will be selected
through a competitive process.
Additional attributes will include:
Long-term partnership between industry (including small,
medium, and large firms), educational institutions, non-government
organizations, and state, regional, and local economic development
authorities;
Flexibility to form integrated teams of industrial and
academic experts from multiple disciplines to solve difficult problems
and to develop the future workforce;
Adaptability for education and workforce development at
multiple levels, including K-12, professional credentialing,
undergraduate and graduate education, and mentoring and professional
development;
Involvement of industry associations, professional
societies, and economic development organizations for validation and
linkages to broader industry and regional activities;
Analytical capability to identify critical emerging
technologies with transformational impact and operational capacity in
translating these technologies into products and businesses for the
market;

[[Page 26511]]

Ability to engage and assist SMEs to effectively deploy
technologies; and
A sustained focus on innovation with a strong reputation
for quality and success.

Examples of Potential Focus Areas

Each Institute will have a clear focus area that does not overlap
with those of the other Institutes. The focus area could be an advanced
material, a manufacturing process, an enabling technology, or an
industry sector. The federal government does not intend to create or
provide a complete list of focus areas for the NNMI. The NNMI
solicitation will invite applicants to propose such areas. The
following examples are meant only to be suggestive of focus areas that
might serve national needs and improve the competitiveness of a broad
base of domestic manufacturers.

Example 1 (Manufacturing Process): Refining standards,
materials, and equipment for additive manufacturing to enable low-
cost, low-volume production using digital designs that can be
transmitted from designers located anywhere.
Example 2 (Advanced Materials): Developing lightweight
materials, such as low-cost carbon fiber composites (CFCs), that
will improve fuel efficiency and performance of the next generation
of automobiles, aircraft, ships, and trains.
Example 3 (Enabling Technology): Creating a smart manufacturing
infrastructure and approaches that integrate low-cost sensors into
manufacturing processes, enabling operators to make real-time use of
``big data'' flows from fully instrumented plants in order to
improve productivity, optimize supply chains, and reduce wastage of
energy, water, and materials. Creating technology platforms for
manufacturing Spintronics (spin-based electronics) devices and
systems for next-generation electronics, and for new paradigms for
manufacturing photonic assemblies for future all-optical networks
and wireless communications.
Example 4 (Industry Sector): Improving biomanufacturing
processes to enhance safety, quality, and consistency of
bioproducts, such as pharmaceuticals or chemicals, by enabling rapid
on-line sensing and analytical capabilities and creating new tools
for process optimization, control and improvement to enable cost-
effective production methods.

Request for Information: The objective of this request for
information is to assist the NIST-hosted AMNPO in the development of
the new program should the NNMI be funded in FY 2013. The questions
below are intended to assist in the formulation of comments, and should
not be construed as a limitation on the number of comments that
interested persons may submit or as a limitation on the issues that may
be addressed in such comments. Comments containing references, studies,
research, and other empirical data that are not widely published should
include copies of the referenced materials. All comments will be made
publicly available.
The NIST-hosted AMNPO is specifically interested in receiving input
pertaining to one or more of the following questions:

Technologies With Broad Impact

1. What criteria should be used to select technology focus areas?
2. What technology focus areas that meet these criteria would you
be willing to co-invest in?
3. What measures could demonstrate that Institute technology
activities assist U.S. manufacturing?
4. What measures could assess the performance and impact of
Institutes?

Institute Structure and Governance

5. What business models would be effective for the Institutes to
manage business decisions?
6. What governance models would be effective for the Institutes to
manage governance decisions?
7. What membership and participation structure would be effective
for the Institutes, such as financial and intellectual property
obligations, access and licensing?
8. How should a network of Institutes optimally operate?
9. What measures could assess effectiveness of Network structure
and governance?

Strategies for Sustainable Institute Operations

10. How should initial funding co-investments of the Federal
government and others be organized by types and proportions?
11. What arrangements for co-investment proportions and types could
help an Institute become self-sustaining?
12. What measures could assess progress of an Institute towards
being self-sustaining?
13. What actions or conditions could improve how Institute
operations support domestic manufacturing facilities while maintaining
consistency with our international obligations?
14. How should Institutes engage other manufacturing related
programs and networks?
15. How should Institutes interact with state and local economic
development authorities?
16. What measures could assess Institute contributions to long term
national security and competitiveness?

Education and Workforce Development

17. How could Institutes support advanced manufacturing workforce
development at all educational levels?
18. How could Institutes ensure that advanced manufacturing
workforce development activities address industry needs?
19. How could Institutes and the NNMI leverage and complement other
education and workforce development programs?
20. What measures could assess Institute performance and impact on
education and workforce development?
21. How might institutes integrate R&D activities and education to
best prepare the current and future workforce?

Dated: April 30, 2012.
Phillip Singerman,
Associate Director for Innovation & Industry Services.
[FR Doc. 2012-10809 Filed 5-3-12; 8:45 am]
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