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Federal Grants Aim To Boost Advanced Manufacturing

Obama administration officials on Thursday announced the recipients of funding from a second round of competition for advanced manufacturing grants.

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Obama administration officials on Thursday announced the recipients of funding from a second round of competition for advanced manufacturing grants.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology — part of the Commerce Department — approved 16 advanced manufacturing projects for $7.8 million.

The grants will range from $413,000 to $500,000 and support more than 40 organizations in developing research plans for "high-priority technology challenges" over a two-year period. Thirteen of the awards will launch new research consortia.

“Partnerships like these are needed to tackle shared technical obstacles and, ultimately, to capture the practical and economic benefits of new knowledge, new technologies and new capabilities," said NIST Director Willie E. May.

The projects, which stretch across 11 states and the District of Columbia, will also include more than 250 businesses, trade groups and universities as unfunded partners. The grant winners were selected from 118 original applicants for the latest round of Advanced Manufacturing Technology Planning Grants.

Commerce Department officials highlighted plans to bolster data collection, pioneer new chemical separation techniques, improve gas turbines and advance biomedical devices.

"These roadmaps will be platforms from which to mount pre-competitive R&D efforts that will reach for technological advances and leading-edge manufacturing capabilities," wrote NIST Advanced Manufacturing Director Mike Molnar.

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