America Makes announces project call

America Makes, in cooperation with the Manufacturing Innovation Institutes and OSD ManTech, is offering a project call of up to $1.5 milliom to fund multiple projects under the MII Point of Need (PoN) Challenge from the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD). Individual project budgets are not to exceed $500,000.

The DOD PoN Manufacturing Challenge Project Call addresses dual-use applications that are responsive to specific needs of the DOD and the domestic manufacturing industry. This project call is focused on a single Special Topic Area (STA) derived from the DOD advanced manufacturing community and contains 7 challenges on PoN manufacturing applications of interest to the DOD.

As additive manufacturing continues to play a role in technological advances within the aerospace and defense industry, America Makes members are encouraged to submit innovative manufacturing solutions that can be deployed close to the warfighter. Solutions must be designed to operate within challenging operational environments as the reach of U.S. forces is global. Technologies will be demonstrated at a location chosen by the DOD within the continental United States that represents one of two operational environments – cold weather (i.e., arctic-type) or hot/humid.

Project teams can propose against one or more of the 7 challenges and must include America Makes as an execution partner. Please note this is a two-step proposal process. Step 1 includes a five-page concept paper and a quad chart, and Step 2 is an invitation-only overview of presentations. The deadline for submission of the concept packet is Monday, February 6, 2023.

The 7 challenges include:

• Build the Forward Operating Base (FOB) Challenge
• Unmanned Ground Vehicle (UGV) Challenge
• Warfighter Medical, Health, and Nutrition Challenge
• Power Challenge
• Cyber Challenge
• Staying in the Fight Challenge
• Other

Each challenge is based on a Class of Supply. Projects shall demonstrate the technology that could address the scenario and be deployed and performed in the required operational environment.

The project call timeline is as follows:

Launch: January 12, 2023
Eligibility: All participants must be America Makes members
Submission Deadline for Concept Papers: February 6, 2023
Submission Deadline for Presentations/Supporting Docs: February 28, 2023
Team Presentations: March 8-9, 2023
Anticipated Awards Announcement: On or about March 30, 2023
Target Project Start Date: May 15, 2023
Project Completion: Prior to December 15, 2023

America Makes will host a webinar at 11 a.m. Eastern on Tuesday, January 17, to discuss the project call and answer any questions. Registration is not necessary. Join the webinar HERE.

More information, details, and participant guidelines for the DOD PoN Manufacturing Challenge can be found on the America Makes website.