| The Baker administration recently awarded $11.3 million to UMass Lowell to fund the creation of future technologies that will revolutionize the way fabrics are made and reinvent the textile industry in Lowell.
A $10 million grant go toward the creation of a new Fabric Discovery Center, a testing and development facility. The facility will serve Massachusetts and the region in rapidly transforming textile product concepts into functional prototypes, serving as an end-to-end innovation ecosystem for researchers and private sector partners as they work towards commercialization of revolutionary technologies.
UMass Lowell will also receive a total of $1.3 million to support three projects with private industry partners, SI2 Technologies in Billerica and Raytheon in Waltham. Funding will allow UMass Lowell to acquire new equipment to develop new materials and polymers that can be used in hybrid electronics.
The two grants are designed to benefit two manufacturing innovation institutes in Massachusetts: the Revolutionary Fiber and Textile Manufacturing Innovation Institute and the Manufacturing Innovation Institute for Flexible Hybrid Electronics. These institutes are both members of the Manufacturing USA network, previously known as the National Network for Manufacturing Innovation. The network of competitively awarded public-private innovation institutes focuses on advanced manufacturing. Manufacturing USA funds private-public partnerships to increase American manufacturing competitiveness and catalyze new advanced manufacturing technologies.
