Worldwide, manufacturers are focusing increasingly on investments in technology advancements that can help them “further 

innovate, automate and advance their processes and, thus, 

remain competitive in the market,” according to a 2015 survey 

of manufacturing executives by Deloitte and the Manufacturers 

Alliance for Productivity and Innovation. The United States can 

leverage strengths in science and technology research and move 

to the head of the pack. But competitors are upping their R&D 

spending with the aim of inventing their way to the top. The U.S. 

must do the same in order to remain competitive.

What NIST Does

At a time of opportunity and challenge for U.S. manufacturing, 

NIST is working with industry and universities to develop essential measurement capabilities and to forge precompetitive 

collaborations that help U.S. manufacturers overcome shared 

technical obstacles. A partner to the U.S. manufacturing sector for more than a century, NIST has a proven track record in 

delivering useful tools and technical assistance that existing 

manufacturers and aspiring start-ups need. Timely technical 

assists from NIST can help the nation’s manufacturers to invent, 

innovate and create new products and services more rapidly and 

more efficiently than their competitors around the world.

NIST’s efforts rely on three major mechanisms:

• Partnerships: NIST’s partnerships with large and small manufacturers, federal agencies and academic institutions help it 

anticipate and meet the needs of rapidly evolving industries.

• Standards: NIST’s technical work underpins the development 

of international standards in areas such as automation, data 

exchange and smart manufacturing.

• Measurements: NIST-enabled measurements in emerging 

technology areas, including nanomanufacturing, protein therapeutics and advanced materials, can lead to transformative 

advances important to industry and government alike.

BY THE 

NUMBERS

70% 

Of private R&D is 

done by manufacturers

(Congressional Research Service)

$2.1 trillion

Was contributed 

to U.S. economy 

in 2014 by manufacturing (Bureau of 

Economic Analysis)

12.1% 

Of the U.S. Gross 

Domestic Product comes from 

manufacturing

(Bureau of Economic Analysis)

42% 

Of U.S. exports in 

2014 were 

manufactured 

goods 

(Census Bureau/

Bureau of Economic Analysis)

www.nist.gov

ADVANCED MANUFACTURING AT NIST
Recent Program Highlights

• In proof-of-concept experiments, agency researchers demonstrated that two emerging technologies pioneered at NIST can 

measure critical features on integrated circuits at nanoscale 

dimensions—crucial for building next-generation chips and 

other products with nanoscale features.

• NIST updated its Guide to Industrial Control Systems (ICS) 

Security, ensuring the continued utility of the tool, which has 

been downloaded more than 3 million times since its first 

release in 2006. 

• Deployed the Materials Data Curation System, which captures, 

shares and transforms manufacturing-relevant materials data 

in a format that is readable on a variety of devices. This system 

is an essential resource for government, academic and industry 

researchers working to realize the vision of the Materials 

Genome Initiative. 

New for FY 2017

NIST will address critical needs in advanced manufacturing by enabling noninvasive sensing and real-time 

process analysis. The request includes a $2 million increase to: 

With the requested funds, NIST will focus on:

• Develop noninvasive sensing and real-time processing for high-value products with micro- and 

nanoscale structures, to improve process performance.

• Establish new standards and measurements to enable new device concepts, logic and materials based 

on semiconductors, metals and ceramics.

0

50

100

150

200

250

Dollars, in millions

FY 2017

Budget

FY 2015 FY 2016

145.3

169.5

195.5

Program Goals

• Support the Materials 

Genome Initiative to 

discover, develop and deploy 

new materials twice as fast as 

today by developing the 

infrastructure for materials 

data and models.

• Keep the United States at the 

forefront of innovations

that support manufacturers in 

diverse areas, including smart 

manufacturing, biomanufacturing and precision 

measurements for improved 

instruments and processes.