Helping Communities Shine

Whether researching and implementing ways to shape a community's economic development plan or partnering to create ways to put people to work, CREC connects researchers and policymakers with:

• Data training
• Custom portfolios that aid regional competitiveness

Project Profile

Assessing the Advanced Manufacturing Jobs and Innovation Accelerator Challenge (AMJIAC) Initiative

National Institute of Standards & Technology – Manufacturing Extension Partnership
Start Date: Oct 2015 — End Date: Oct 2016

CREC worked with NIST MEP to develop a survey instrument and conduct phone and in-person interviews with AMJIAC awardees. The questions covered the life of the grant, from development of proposals to the completion of projects. CREC then synthesized findings from these interviews—as well as a document review of project proposals, integrated work plans, and quarterly progress reports—to convey a narrative about each region’s strategies, accomplishments, and efforts moving forward resulting from the AMJIAC initiative. The report aimed to capture insights about the MEP Center’s role in each AMJIAC award, including how the project helped to advance the initiative’s NIST MEP-related objectives, accomplishments that resulted from the MEP Center’s involvement, and any lasting influence the AMJIAC activities are anticipated to have on the region’s future efforts to support manufacturing.

About the Client

National Institute of Standards & Technology – Manufacturing Extension Partnership

The Hollings Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) is a program of regional centers that assist, smaller, U.S.-based manufacturing companies in identifying and adopting new technologies. MEP operates under the auspices of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) – a non-regulatory measuring standards laboratory housed within the U.S. Department of Commerce.