Forum focuses on improving manufacturing innovation

President Barack Obama has proposed a $1 billion federal investment in advanced manufacturing and a group of congressmen from Rhode Island and Connecticut would like to see even more spent on boosting the sector in southern New England.
Filling the gap between scientific research and the commercialization needed to produce new products and industries was the theme of an Aug. 7 New England Council forum at Rhode Island School of Design.
Michael F. Molnar, chief manufacturing officer of the National Institute of Standards and Technology, said there is a “missing middle” in the United States’ research and development infrastructure that prevents American manufacturing from taking full advantage of the country’s exceptional academic science.
Molnar is leading a new partnership between nine federal agencies to boost American advanced manufacturing and his organization is running a program that aims to create 15 Institutes for Manufacturing Innovation, facilities with state-of-the art metrology and manufacturing equipment that companies can use to develop new technologies.
The hope is that these centers will spur regional research and manufacturing clusters; $45 million has already been authorized to set up the first pilot institute and Obama has proposed $1 billion ultimately be invested in the program.
But Reps. David Cicilline, D-R.I., and John Larson, D-Conn., have their own ideas to grow the advanced-manufacturing sectors in their states.
Cicilline supports a Make It in America Block Grant bill that would provide money for the Commerce Department to distribute to small and medium-size manufacturers to retrofit their plants, diversify, improve energy efficiency and train employees. “After we have seen substantial decline in the last decade in manufacturing employment, we are realizing that during the same time our economic competitors all over the world have been sharpening their manufacturing abilities,” Cicilline told those gathered for the RISD event. “There has never been a more critical time for investment in resources – both human, technical and financial – from federal and state government, research institutions and the private sector. This is our Apollo moment.”
Cicilline cited a 2009 finding that Rhode Island had a higher percentage of science and technology-based businesses, as a percentage of all businesses, than any other state, as evidence of its potential as an advanced manufacturer.
Larson, chairman of the House Democratic Caucus, called for a return to the earmark system of congressional spending that he feels could help bring resources to local manufacturers but which has fallen out of favor in recent years.
“We can call them congressionally directed funding, but when you have 12 U.S. senators and 22 members of [the House] who represent this region – to be able to come together and direct funding in a manner should not be left up to any executive branch,” Larson said.
Continuing his focus on narrowing the “skills gap” in manufacturing and other industries, Rep. Jim Langevin, D-R.I., called for more public workforce training and for manufacturers to practice “interpreneurship,” an active connection with students and other young people interested in hands-on learning.
“If any of you are in a position to offer hands-on experience to a promising student, I encourage you to reach out to educators or job trainers here today, or in your community, and help jump-start a young person’s career while bringing in some fresh ideas and a new perspective into your business,” Langevin said. But while the congressmen spoke glowingly of current federal policy, the only private-sector member of the panel, Ximedica co-founder and Chairman Stephen Lane, warned that the 2.3 percent medical-device tax included in the Affordable Care Act and set to go into effect next year is already driving manufacturers out of the country.
Based in Providence, Ximedica has recently decided to invest in a new facility in Singapore instead of in Southern California, because research and development investments are moving to Asia out of concern about the tax, Lane said.
“The last time the federal government put a tax on devices was televisions and we know where those are made today,” Lane said. “We are doing it again with med devices. For the last three years people in my industry have been trying to figure out how they are going to offset that percentage of their growth and figure out where those research-and-development dollars are going to go.
“R&D spend is moving out of the country, because we are taxing an industry that was able to invest and stay ahead of the rest of the world in R&D spending,” he added. “I call this the leak below the economic waterline.”
A strong supporter of the Affordable Care Act, Cicilline defended the medical-device tax as a necessary way to pay for all of the benefits in the health care reform law.
“On balance, it makes sense to me as a funding mechanism,” Cicilline said about the device tax. “I don’t think you can just take it out.” •

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