The FPC has begun working with OIDA to help advance the cause of the optics, photonics, and optoelectronics industries. Advanced manufacturing technologies are a key element of our campaign, and we will be communicating with various government agencies to help secure new manufacturing programs for the benefit of our member companies.
In this context, we want to draw your attention to a recent request for information (RFI) from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) seeking input on how to best structure a new public-private Advanced Manufacturing Technology Consortia (AMTech) partnership program. The goal of the AMTech program is to provide federal financial assistance to leverage existing or newly created industry-led consortia to develop precompetitive enabling manufacturing technologies. The consortia’s goal is to develop roadmaps of critical long-term industrial manufacturing research needs, and issue sub-awards to fund research by universities, government laboratories, and U.S. businesses. This initiative will support research and development in advanced manufacturing, with the goal of strengthening long-term U.S. leadership in the development of critical technologies that lead to sustainable economic growth and job creation. The following is the link to this announcement: http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2011-07-22/pdf/2011-18580.pdf
The FPC will be working with OIDA to respond to this RFI on behalf of our respective member companies and the larger technical community engaged in optics, photonics, and optoelectronics manufacturing. While OIDA will take the lead in responding to this RFI, we need input from your company to help strengthen our response. This could be either in the form of a letter of support, answers to the questions that NIST has posed in their RFI (see above link) or comments on the planned structure of the program (see above link). The final response to NIST is due by 20 September, so we need your inputs as soon as possible so we can integrate them with responses from OIDA members. Please send your response to one of the addresses below. And please do make an independent input from your company directly to NIST if possible.
We also envisage that other agencies will soon be announcing their own manufacturing initiatives, which we hope to respond to as well. Additionally, OIDA is planning workshop in the fall on advanced optoelectronics manufacturing and invites participation from all FPC members. We shall share the details once they become available.
Thank you in advance for your support of this effort, and for your continued support of the FPC.
Alex Fong, FPC President Jim Pearson, FPC Executive Director
afong @ goochandhousego . com jpearson @ creol . ucf . edu
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