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President Obama will announce Tuesday the opening of two new "manufacturing innovation instititues" in the Detroit and Chicago areas that pair research universities with private sector firms.
The administration will provide $140 million for the two centers, and non-federal sources will provide an additional $140 million, according to a White House official. The goal of the institutes, the White House said, is to bridge the gap between applied research and manufacturing product development.
One of the institutes will be headquartered in the Detroit area and will focus on lightweight and modern metals manufacturing. The center will pair 34 companies with nine universities and labs: Colorado School of Mines, Michigan State University, Michigan Tech University, The Ohio State University, University of Kentucky, University of Michigan, University of Notre Dame, University of Tennessee, and Wayne State University. Columbus State Community College, Ivy Tech, Macomb Community College, and Pellissippi State Community College are also involved in the partnership.
A second institute for digital manufacturing and design innovation will be based in Chicago and led by UI Labs, a nonprofit research organization at the University of Illinois. The consortium includes 41 companies and 23 universities and labs: University of Colorado Boulder, Illinois Institute of Technology, Indiana University, Iowa State University, Missouri University of Science and Technology, Northern Illinois University, Northwestern University, Notre Dame, Oregon State, Purdue University, Rochester Institute of Technology, Southern Illinois University, University of Chicago, University of Illinois at Chicago, University of Illinois at Urbana - Champaign, University of Iowa, University of Louisville, University of Michigan, University of Nebraska- Lincoln, University of Northern Iowa, University of Texas – Austin, University of Wisconsin – Madison, and Western Illinois University.
The administration has proposed federal funding to create a network of 45 similar institutes, but Congress has not approved that plan. Last year, the Obama administration used its executive authority to use existing funding across five federal agencies in order to provide $200 million to establish three institutions. The first institute, an electronics manufacturing center in Raleigh, N.C., was announced last month, and the administration previously set up a pilot site in Youngstown, Ohio.
