New Agreement Signifies the Continued Success and Enormous Impact of the Institute
America Makes, the National Additive Manufacturing Innovation Institute, proudly announced a new, seven year Cooperative Agreement (CA) with the Department of Air Force, Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL). The CA is a Cost-Reimbursement/Cost Share agreement with a total funding value worth up to a combined $322 million of government cost and America Makes cost share.
The mission of America Makes directly supports the Office of the Secretary of Defence (OSD) Manufacturing Technology (ManTech) program. In particular, the Institute looks to directly support the manufacturing technology needs for the OSD Research & Engineering modernization priorities, including hypersonics, cyber, and AI/machine learning.
The agreement with AFRL was finalized on Tuesday, 26th November, 2019 and announced on the opening day of the Defence Manufacturing Conference (DMC) i.e. 2nd December, 2019, the nation’s premier defence manufacturing and industrial base conference, in Phoenix, Ariz.
Speaking on the new Cooperative Agreement America Makes Executive Director John Wilczynski said, “For America Makes, this new CA with AFRL marks a monumental milestone. We have worked tirelessly together with the America Makes membership community during the last seven years and two previous Cooperative Agreements with AFRL to execute our mission of advancing the adoption of additive manufacturing. We have moved well beyond our initial pilot start-up phase and a project phase driven by consortium developed roadmaps to become the recognized voice of our industry.
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He continued, “The new CA certainly signifies a high level of confidence by AFRL in America Makes, our collaborations, and the additive R&D projects whose outcomes are beginning to make real industry impact, especially for the defence industry and its supply chain. Much of this success is directly related to what I believe is our biggest accomplishment to date and that’s overcoming the direct business competitiveness amongst our membership community. The Intellectual Property (IP) policy that we established as part of the membership agreement into the Institute to share IP has been vital to what our membership community has been able to accomplish together. That’s an aspect to our success as a collaborative consortium that I cannot stress enough.”
Driven by the National Center for Defense Manufacturing and Machining (NCDMM), America Makes is the nation’s leading and collaborative partner in AM technology research, discovery, creation, and innovation. Established in 2012, it is the first of eight Manufacturing Innovation Institutes established and managed by the U.S. Department of Defense as public-private partnerships. America Makes is also a member of the Manufacturing USA® network, which seeks to secure U.S. global leadership in advanced manufacturing. America Makes is comprised of member organizations from industry, academia, government, non-government agencies, and workforce and economic development resources.
Under the terms of this new CA during the next seven years, America Makes will continue to employ the successful collaborative public-private model and to make continuous improvements to strengthen and further refine the Institute’s mission effectiveness and business resilience. The goal will be to create a more robust and capable manufacturing base to provide AM solutions to private and defense industries.
Moving forward and using the developed roadmaps as its guide, America Makes has identified specific areas that it will be focusing on in the immediate future, including the AM materials space, design for AM (DfAM), education and workforce, its membership community and AM ecosystem, and its Satellite Center model expansion.
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