Name: Manufacturing Innovation Institute for Smart Manufacturing: Advanced Sensors, Controls, Platforms, and Modeling for Manufacturing

Number: DE‐FOA‐0001263

Amount: $2 Million

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), in partnership with the Clean Energy Smart Manufacturing Innovation Institute (CESMII), is announcing $2 million in funding to help manufacturers adopt smart manufacturing technologies and processes that will increase productivity, save energy, and boost competitiveness across energy-intensive industries. Accelerating smart manufacturing technologies – including artificial intelligence, machine learning, and robotics – increases integration and automation, helping manufacturers monitor, evaluate, and improve their operations. 

CESMII is inviting proposals on projects that will demonstrate the application of integrated SM technologies to improve energy productivity and operational efficiencies in the exemplar, end-to-end manufacturing supply chains that include several contributing SMMs.  The supply chains may cover energy-intensive industries and/or industry verticals with a broad reach across the US.  A few guidelines are provided below: 

• Projects may use, augment or extend existing SM building block technologies created from past CESMII projects in energy-intensive industries such as steel, cement, food, chemical, etc. and extend their application to additional participants in the same industry.
• Projects may use and/or contribute to existing CESMII technologies including SM Innovation Platform (SMIP), SM Profiles (information models) and the SM Marketplace and apply them to an industry supply chain that includes several contributing SMMs.  Commercially available hardware or software may be used in conjunction with the CESMII tools.
• Projects must establish a baseline before implementation and demonstrate the impact after implementation of the SM solution on energy efficiency, productivity, waste reduction, quality improvement etc. for the manufacturer during the course of the project.

Projects must support the development of a CESMII SM Playbook for manufacturers.  The playbook is intended to turn project outcomes into broadly-applicable guidelines for small and mid-sized manufacturers (SMMs) in identifying opportunities to leverage SM technology towards achieving higher levels of productivity and capacity, implementing those solutions, and training their workforce to leverage the solutions in their manufacturing jobs.

• Learn more about CESMII
• Download the full RFP
• For RFP-specific support, contact sudarsan.rachuri@ee.doe.gov
• Sign up for the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) email list to get notified of new EERE funding opportunities.