At EcoChem and through the Clean Fuels for Schools initiative, we’ve been advocating the benefits of advanced energy technology like our HPCD fuel that will improve our communities and environment.
So you can imagine our excitement when our president, Joshua Koch, was invited to participate in a conference where the U.S. Departments of Energy and Commerce announced a pilot program that initially will make the federal agencies’ experts and resources more accessible to Ohio’s small and medium-sized manufacturing and advanced energy companies through the DOE’s national research laboratories.
The agencies will partner with Manufacturing Extension Partnership centers in Ohio, Michigan, Georgia and Virginia to roll out the program that if successful could get expanded to other states and their MEP centers. MEPS are public-private entities dedicated to assisting small to medium-sized manufactures grow and create and expand jobs.
Koch, who also is the Industry Partner Board Chairman for the seven Ohio MEP centers, said the pilot is a huge step forward for technology manufacturers like his.
“To get invited to the conference was an honor all by itself. This is going to help us improve and explore further what we have built already and continue to grow.”
It’s a big step, Koch said, that will speed up the development process and open the multitude of resources found within the national research laboratories.
The program has the potential to level the competitive playing field between larger manufacturers with deeper R&D capabilities and everyone else, said Mary Collins with American Jobs Prospects, which is affiliated with the Department of Energy. Checkout the link-
http://energy.gov/eere/articles/energy-and-commerce-departments-announce-lab-partnership-opportunities-us-small
