In July, the Northeast Ohio Strengthening Manufacturing for American Resilience through Technology (NEO-SMART) Engine, led by Case Western Reserve University, received a National Science Foundation (NSF) investment of up to $160 million over the course of the next decade. This includes $15 million over the first two years, with a continued investment toward the $160 million if its intended milestones are reached and its goals appear viable.
As one of the 12 engines onboarded in the second cohort this past summer, NEO-SMART is intended to bolster domestic manufacturing production in Northeast Ohio. These cities include Akron, Canton, Cleveland and Youngstown.
NEO-SMART is made up of more than seventy partners from different sectors, including industry, with major companies such as Goodyear Tire & Rubber and NVIDIA, and higher education such as Cleveland State University, Cuyahoga Community College and Kent State University. NEO-SMART’s CEO and Principal Investigator Nick Barendt, in particular, has deep roots with CWRU as a proud alum and the assistant vice president for research. At the same time, Michael Oakes, CWRU’s executive vice president for research and economic development, helps lead NEO-SMART as one of their governing board members.
In an interview with the University of Akron, CWRU’s president, Eric Kaler expressed his thoughts on the funding, saying, “we are tremendously grateful for the extraordinary support and advocacy we received from federal, state and local elected officials that led to this funding opportunity. Together, we will advance the region’s growth and prosperity.”
Other sectors include philanthropy, non-profit organizations and economic development hubs.
NEO-SMART’s main focus is to drive innovation in AI-enabled manufacturing across a wide range of materials, such as polymers, chemicals, coatings and metals. Alongside this, they’ll create pathways for training workers for manufacturing careers. According to their statistics, 8,000 manufacturing jobs go unfilled in Northeast Ohio each year due to a “lack of alignment,” but NEO-SMART hopes to assist workers in receiving more training and allowing educational resources to be optimized to what the industry needs. Lastly, the project turns these research projects into marketable products.
NEO-SMART is part of the bigger picture of the NSF’s Innovation Engines, reducing the country’s reliance on imported goods and services and bringing back manufacturing, while also strengthening the economy of these regions.
As stated by Brian Stone, the chief of staff who currently performs the duties of the NSF director, “these new NSF Engines will be transformational for America’s innovation infrastructure, helping secure our national competitiveness in technologies and future industries that will be critical to our economic and national security for decades to come.”