The National Institute of Standards and Technology intends to award up to $140 million in federal funds for the establishment of additional two institutes that will demonstrate advanced manufacturing processes.
The Commerce Department said Tuesday that NIST will seek applications from consortia of government, academic and industrial organizations in January 2016 for the National Network for Manufacturing Innovation institutes.
The agency is interested in receiving proposals that can help improve methods to produce robotic systems and biopharmaceutical drugs.
Each winning project will receive $70 million from the department over a period of five to seven years.
Seven institutes have been established through the NMMI program and are backed by the departments of Energy and Defense.