SOUTH KINGSTOWN – The University of Rhode Island Research Foundation-led consortium called Rhode Island Manufacturing to Accelerate the Defense Ecosystem – or RI MADE – will be given a significant federal financial boost for its launch.
The university announced Thursday that it has received a five-year, $5 million grant from the U.S. Department of Defense Office of Local Defense Community Cooperation. URI says the funding will be used to execute programming through RI MADE, which is a new defense manufacturing community designation to support workforce development and expanding defense manufacturing in the state.
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According to a study from Polaris MEP, the defense industry creates more than $5 billion in economic impact to Rhode Island, URI said.
Through RI MADE, URI said the Assessment to Execution program will offer to more than two dozen small-and medium-sized Rhode Island businesses technical and/or capital assistance and support of up to $50,000 in various areas. Among them are risk mitigation and business practices, cybersecurity and robotics and automation.
URI says RI MADE was last year one of only six applicants designated as a “Defense Manufacturing Community.” Polaris MEP, along with Pittsburgh-based Advanced Robotics for Manufacturing Institute and Chicago-based cybersecurity institute Manufacturing x Digital, will run RI MADE, the university said. The funding will also enable companies to draw on expertise from URI faculty and students, as well as from Polaris MEP, ARM Institute and MxD while also strengthening Rhode Island’s defense manufacturing community.
“Rhode Island manufacturers supporting the defense supply chain have seen an increase in demand and have expressed the need for automation and data analytics,” said URI Research Foundation Executive Director Christian Cowan, who previously led Polaris MEP, in a statement. “We are thrilled to provide this new program to support technology-based programs that will support our ecosystem and national defense.”
The RI MADE program is slated to start this spring, URI said.
James Bessette is the PBN special projects editor, and also covers the nonprofit and education sectors. You may reach him at Bessette@PBN.com. You may also follow him on Twitter at @James_Bessette.
