Allied Additive Manufacturing Interoperability Program - Project Call

Intent to Submit: April 4, 2025

Application Deadline: May 5, 2025

$1.1 Million in Awards

Application Portal: Allied Additive Manufacturing Interoperability (AAMI) Program - America Makes

Full Request For Proposals: Allied Additive Manufacturing Interoperability (AAMI) Program

America Makes and the National Center for Defense Manufacturing and Machining (NCDMM) are proud to announce a new open project call funded by the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering’s Manufacturing Technology Office (OSD(R&E)), worth a total of $1.1M.? The project call, Allied Additive Manufacturing Interoperability (AAMI) Program, aims to establish additive manufacturing (AM) equivalency and interoperability between the United States Department of Defense (DoD) and United Kingdom (UK) Ministry of Defense (MoD) supply chains, focusing on laser powder bed fusion (L-PBF) of critical parts. The project will also identify barriers to allied interoperability and support the development of international qualification approaches.?Two awards are anticipated.?

Program Description

The U.S. and the UK face shared challenges in adopting AM, including process qualification and certification, intellectual property rights, secure data transmission, and supply chain integration. This initiative, in alignment with the UK Advanced Manufacturing Strategy and the U.S. Regional Sustainment Framework (RSF), aims to overcome these hurdles and build a resilient and globally connected Defense Industrial Base adaptable to complex logistical demands.?

Proposers should reference the specific RFP for additional details: Allied Additive Manufacturing Interoperability (AAMI) Program

Topics and Awards:

National Center for Defense Manufacturing & Machining (NCDMM) will conduct a competitive proposal process, and reserves the right to select one, multiple, or no awards in the topic areas outlined in Section 2. Two awards are anticipated. Proposals in response to this project call must not exceed $550,000 of federal funding. Proposers are welcome to submit multiple proposals.

Additive manufacturing is known to offer substantial lead time reduction in comparison to legacy manufacturing methods. The ability of AM to address product manufacturing demand volumes at scale primarily relies upon the number of machines capable and available. This reality introduces the necessity for manufacturing partnerships which may span the boundaries of single organizations and even borders of nations. In the last four years, the benefits and impacts of regional approaches to distributed manufacturing supply chain development have gained considerable attention. Executing distributed additive manufacturing at scale requires in-depth understanding of supply chain capability and capacity, materials, manufacturing technology, product design intent, specifications, and standards. Hence, qualification of AM processes and components remains a major technoeconomic challenge.

The AAMI project call aims to establish additive manufacturing equivalency and interoperability between international manufacturing organizations. Responses to this project call will demonstrate an approach to qualifying a laser powder bed manufacturing process (operational qualification) and components (performance qualification) additively manufactured by at least one U.S. and one U.K. based organization while under the leadership of a U.S. organization with cognitive engineering authority of a defense-related component.

The maximum allowable period of performance (PoP) is 9 months of technical effort execution followed by 3 months for final report development for a total of 12 months. Proposing a shorter PoP is acceptable

Proposer Eligibility

The lead proposer must be an America Makes member in good standing and paid in full. In addition, the lead proposer shall hold Cognitive Engineering Authority over a defense-related component. Cognitive engineering authority means the entity controls the intellectual property (IP), data, and associated engineering expertise relating to the design intent, technical adequacy, and form, fit, and function requirements of a defense-related component. Hence, the lead proposer shall be able to independently and readily qualify the entire manufacturing process (all steps of a manufacturing workflow including testing and inspection) to deem a material, process, and component qualified. This includes retaining knowledge and understanding of all necessary specifications and standards by which a component shall be manufactured. Paid in full means the organization must have fulfilled its annual dues within the past 12 months. The @Program MOU, on its own, does not satisfy this requirement. This can be done through any of the options below:

1. cash payment of at least $15,000

2. have accumulated a minimum of $15,000 in cost share (any combination of @program and project cost share)

3. any combination of cost share and cash totaling, at minimum, $15,000

While proposal partners are not required to be America Makes members, membership is encouraged. Any non-America Makes members contributing to the proposed effort execution are not permitted to participate in project team discussions until completing a fully executed America Makes Membership Agreement. Non-America Makes members may contribute to contract execution via cost share.

Submission Process

All proposals must be submitted electronically via the “Submit Proposal Here” button below. All submissions will be acknowledged upon receipt with an electronic email confirmation from NCDMM within 24 hours. If a confirmation is not received within 24 hours, please email [email protected].

NCDMM is not responsible for system malfunctions or undeliverable submissions. It is the proposer’s responsibility to ensure that the submission has been received.

Questions? Please email [email protected].

Submit Proposal Here

Important Dates