Dept. of Commerce Invests $22M in Advanced Manufacturing Center

The US Department of Commerce’s Economic Development Administration (EDA) is contributing a $2.2 million grant to the Osceola [FL] County Board of County Commissioners to assist in the construction of the Florida Advanced Manufacturing Research Center, the agency announced Tuesday.

“The growth of the US manufacturing sector is strongly tied to our ability to innovate,” said US Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker in a statement. “The Florida Advanced Manufacturing Research Center will advance the commercialization of smart sensors technology and the next generation of other emerging technologies.”

The Osceola County Board of County Commissioners is working with the University of Central Florida and the Florida High Tech Corridor Council to establish the facility, where state-of-the-art research and incubation for startups will aid in the development of new smart sensors.

The center announced a partnership with Belgian nanotechnology research company Imec last month, according to a Orlando Sentinel report.

“This [grant] reflects the growing confidence in the project that we have been working to build at the federal level,” Chester Kennedy, head of the research center, told the Sentinel.

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