New initiatives leverage University strength, advance U.S. manufacturing leadership
OUR UD | When it comes to innovation, UD is both nimble and rapid in its two new initiatives that ensure the United States remains a world leader in advanced manufacturing.
The first is the new National Institute for Innovation in Manufacturing Biopharmaceuticals (NIIMBL). Led by Professor Kelvin Lee, a collaborative team at UD secured the largest federal grant in institutional history—$70 million from the U.S. Commerce Department—to create NIIMBL. Working with 150 partners nationwide, UD will help develop ways to make the next generation of medicines and patient therapies.
The Newark-based NIIMBL will be the 11th Manufacturing USA Institute, a network of research institutes across the country focused on developing and commercializing advanced manufacturing technologies. Delaware’s institute leverages UD strengths in chemical engineering and materials sciences, most prominently exemplified by the late Richard Heck’s Nobel Prize-winning work that revolutionized pharmaceutical manufacturing.
“The awarding of NIIMBL signals affirmation on the national scale of the excellence in research and innovation at the University of Delaware,” said Charlie Riordan, UD’s vice president for research, scholarship and innovation.
In addition, a team led by Professor Dion Vlachos is playing a key role in another newly founded manufacturing institute dedicated to the Rapid Advancement in Process Intensification Deployment (RAPID), an initiative of the U.S. Department of Energy.
“Our goal is to work in partnership with industry to make better, smaller, more energy-efficient, lower cost chemical manufacturing processes and technologies,” Vlachos said. “Our work will have application in such areas as clean water, the paper industry, and the conversion of wood waste and other biomass into fuels and other useful chemicals.”
Through the collaboration, University expertise in catalysis and reactors will help researchers discover less expensive, more energy-efficient ways to manufacture chemicals.
