(NIST: Gaithersburg, MD) -- The National Institute of Standards and Technology’s (NIST) Hollings Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) has announced that it will hold two separate competitions in 2016 for MEP centers in 21 states and Puerto Rico. The upcoming competitions are part of a multiyear effort to make the most of MEP’s federal investment in U.S. manufacturing, and to allocate additional funds to areas with higher concentrations of manufacturers.

NIST MEP, through a state-federal network of 60 centers and 1,200 manufacturing experts, helps small and medium-sized manufacturers across the country improve their production processes, upgrade their technological capabilities, and bring new products to market, improving their competitiveness and increasing employment and investment across the country.

Every dollar of federal investment in the MEP translates into $19 of new sales for small and medium-sized manufacturers, or almost $2.5 billion annually across the 30,000 small and medium-sized manufacturers that typically use MEP services in a given year.

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