LIFT and DoD Agree to Continue Advanced Manufacturing Technology & Talent Development

LIFT, the Detroit-based Department of Defense manufacturing innovation institute, announced it has signed a new Cooperative Agreement with the Department of Defense Manufacturing Technology (ManTech) Program to continue to operate the public-private partnership and national manufacturing innovation institute (MII) for the next five years.

ManTech is overseen by the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering and the contract will be managed through the Office of Naval Research (ONR). The new agreement’s total value is $49.4 million, including industry cost-share, funded annually through 2028.

LIFT, a nonprofit public-private partnership whose mission is to Drive American Advanced Manufacturing into the Future Through Technology and Talent Development and operated by the American Lightweight Materials Manufacturing Innovation Institute (ALMMII), signed its original cooperative agreement with the Department of Defense when it was established in February 2014.

The institute moved into its Detroit headquarters in 2015, opened its state-of-the-art high bay in 2017 and the LIFT Learning Lab in 2019. The institute then opened a satellite location in Sterling Heights, Michigan in 2021 to support its partnership with the U.S. Army and announced at the end of 2022 that it plans to open another satellite facility in Puerto Rico this year.

The new agreement enables LIFT to continue its work as a Department of Defense Manufacturing Innovation Institute and participate in the Manufacturing USA network, focused on “materials and manufacturing technologies to advance the systems engineering approach needed for the design, build, test, and manufacture of components.” It also requires that LIFT continue its focus on advanced materials, manufacturing process, systems engineering and the integration of materials characterization, captured through computational tools, such as Integrated Computational Materials Engineering (ICME) across different materials applications to benefit the DoD and the national industrial manufacturing base.