President Obama’s program to assist US industries in developing advanced manufacturing technologies would devote as much as $500 million annually to R&D projects at NIST, the Department of Energy, the National Institutes of Health, and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).
In announcing the Advanced Manufacturing Partnership during a speech at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) on 24 June, Obama closely adhered to the recommendations of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST), which called for a cooperative R&D program among government, industry, and academia to address the most pressing technological challenges that are common to US manufacturers. Elements of the partnership program include a $100 million Materials Genome Initiative aimed at cutting in half the time and cost required to identify and mass produce new materials for specific applications, a $70 million National Robotics Initiative to develop robots capable of working safely alongside humans, and up...
