On Wednesday, U.S. Secretary of Commerce, Penny Pritzker, announced 12 communities across the U.S. that will receive federal funding to help attract manufacturing companies and create jobs. Among them is a Utah initiative.
The Utah Advanced Materials Manufacturing Initiative has been working for years to align local manufacturing communities with state and federal funding programs. The director of the group, Greg Jones, said federal funding will continue to support Utah as a manufacturing state.
“It will help us train more people into this industry to support the industry in growing,” Jones said. “It will also help us explore and create new methods of manufacturing and new materials to manufacture with. So that innovation and workforce development are really critical.”
The funding will give each community access to 11 federal agencies and more than $1 billion in federal economic development assistance. Jones said the funding will help the U.S. and Utah compete in the international market.
“We’re in a competition with the world’s markets right now,” Jones said. “So how to involve the universities in helping the companies research new methodologies, new materials, how to get that workforce ready. That’s what these programs will line up and do is really help the state compete at the international level, even better than it does already.”
Jones said the initiative is using state money to plan solution centers which will create workforce development and research opportunities. Once the plans are finished, the group will ask for federal funding to build the centers.