The Iowa Economic Development Authority approved a $250,000 grant for a Digital Manufacturing Deployment Facility project at Iowa State University. The funding will help ISU/CIRAS address the current gap in small- and medium-sized manufacturing companies adopting new automation technology. The flexible facility ISU plans to build and staff will offer Iowa manufacturing companies the opportunity to experience new digital manufacturing technologies, bring in their own equipment for trial product runs and experiment with advanced data analysis tools.
The Strategic Infrastructure Program supports projects that develop foundational assets with a goal of providing a competitive advantage to the private sector or creating needed physical infrastructure in Iowa. Award recommendations for these funds are made by the Iowa Innovation Council to the IEDA board for approval.