UCLA: Clean Energy Smart Manufacturing Innovation Institute (CESMII)

The Mission

The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA)‘s primary purpose is the creation, dissemination, preservation, and application of knowledge for the betterment of our global society.

As one of 16 Manufacturing USA institutes in the country, the Clean Energy Smart Manufacturing Innovation Institute (CESMII), housed at UCLA, works to enhance U.S. manufacturing productivity, global competitiveness, and reinvestment by increasing energy productivity, improving economic performance, and raising workforce capacity.

The Challenge

CESMII’s team of Subject Matter Experts are some of the world’s foremost leaders in Smart Manufacturing (SM). Their mandate includes conducting world class research; driving innovation across key “enabling technologies”; and building a unified innovation platform, marketplace, and ecosystem to scale SM to all U.S. manufacturers. Adding the management of comprehensive grant processes to CESMII’s already intensive workload threatened to divert its focus from pioneering advancements in manufacturing. Furthermore, as a manufacturing institute located within a large higher education institution, grant applications require coordination across various layers of internal bureaucracy.

The Journey

Recognizing the nuanced complexities of federal grant applications, UCLA enlisted Grants Plus for comprehensive proposal development services to support CESMII. Grants Plus partnered with CESMII on five applications to federal agencies, including the Department of Energy and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). This partnership enabled CESMII’s experts to remain engrossed on their vital work in SM.

Complementing CESMII’s technical expertise, Grants Plus became the team’s experts in the funding opportunities, providing strategic guidance on how to best align the applications with the funders’ requirements. This advice connected the dots between the technical content and the goals of the funding opportunities.

Grants Plus’s holistic project management approach ensured consistent communication amongst the key stakeholders at multiple institutions, and seamlessly advised administrators to align grants with federal and institutional requirements.