FlexTech Alliance, San Jose, Calif., announces that the U.S. Department of Defense has awarded it $75 million over five years in a Cooperative Agreement to establish and manage a Manufacturing Innovation Institute (MII) for Flexible Hybrid Electronics (FHE MII). The award is being matched by more than $96 million in cost-sharing from non-federal sources, including the City of San Jose, private companies, universities, several U.S. states, and some not-for-profit organizations.
FlexTech Alliance, a research consortium and trade association, proposed a San Jose-based hub and node approach to create the FHE MII. It comprises 96 companies, 11 laboratories and non-profits, 42 universities, and 14 state and regional organizations. It will be the first of seven MIIs to be headquartered on the West Coast. The DoD’s Manufacturing Technology Program Office (ManTech) oversees the institutes.
The Institute’s activities will benefit a wide array of markets beyond defense, including automotive, communications, consumer electronics, medical devices, health care, transportation and logistics, and agriculture. While the Institute will be headquartered in San Jose, existing nodes around the country already have in place an infrastructure ready to solve some of the known manufacturing challenges. The Institute will distribute R&D funds via competitively bid project calls. Industry-generated technology roadmaps will drive project calls, timelines, and investments.
