Economic Development Administration helping Advanced Manufacturing Institute, Kansas Department of Commerce with innovation, growth efforts
Tuesday, Oct. 9, 2018
MANHATTAN — The U.S. Economic Development Administration has designated the Advanced Manufacturing Institute of Kansas State University as part of its University Center Program. This designation is a collaborative initiative of the university and the Kansas Department of Commerce to boost development of new products and technologies in the state.
The initiative will provide $1.6 million over five years to assist entrepreneurs and existing businesses in Kansas with strategic planning efforts to identify and overcome the technical challenges faced in new product and technology development.
"The Economic Development Administration's support helps our efforts to more deeply engage with organizations across the region to provide a new level of technology development services," said Jeff Tucker, executive director of the Advanced Manufacturing Institute. "As technologies continue to evolve and prototyping processes improve, our organization is assuming a lead role in assisting companies, entrepreneurs and researchers in the front-end development of new products and technologies. Our staff can significantly reduce the cost and time required to develop and launch new technologies."
This new public-private partnership focuses on providing an integrated innovation-based economic development approach to help Kansas entities become more competitive by engaging applied research and development, supplying technology scouting/management, and streamlining the technology development process, Tucker said. Rural communities and regions will also directly benefit from several new regional innovation ecosystem development services, thus strengthening critical innovation ecosystem elements and building new regional collaborations.
These efforts will advance regional strategies, assist technology-based specific businesses, generate investment in the regional innovation infrastructure, increase job creation and close skill gaps to rebuild an industrial commons infrastructure, Tucker said.
"We are pleased about the collaborative effort and economic impact this grant will have on the state, including opportunities for Kansas businesses to develop new products, expand their businesses and increase the size of their skilled workforce," said Wade Wiebe, director of workforce innovation, Kansas Department of Commerce. "The collaboration between our agency and Kansas State University will help continue the modernization and growth of businesses in Kansas."
The Advanced Manufacturing Institute provides a broad range of engineering and business development services to both private industry and university researchers to advance the commercial readiness of new products or technologies. Additional information can be found at k-state.edu/ami.
