PCAST Releases Report on Advanced Manufacturing. (July 26, 2012)

(From the American Association for the Advancement of Science)

The President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) released a report, "Capturing Domestic Competitive Advantage in Advanced Manufacturing," which makes recommendations aimed at maintaining the U.S.'s leading position in advanced manufacturing [70-page report found here]. The recommendations fall into three areas:

(1) enabling innovation,

(2) securing the talent pipeline, and

(3) improving the business climate.

They include a call to establish a national network of manufacturing innovation institutes; an emphasis on investment in community college training of the advanced manufacturing workforce; an approach to evaluate platform manufacturing technologies for collaborative investment; a plan to reinvigorate the image of manufacturing in America; and proposals for trade, tax, regulatory, and energy policies that would level the global playing field for domestic manufacturers.