The National Center for Manufacturing Sciences got its start managing collaborative R&D projects intended to bring new innovations and drive competitiveness for North American Manufacturers. Since 1986, NCMS has attracted the best program and project managers, whose unique expertise and skill with managing collaborative efforts have resulted in more than a dozen national and international awards and recognition around the 
world as the resource for excellence in collaborative project management.
A neutral, technology-agnostic third party, NCMS is set up to protect individual and corporate Intellectual Property, manage communication, ensure that projects remain on task, and drive any activity toward its outcome. With over 300 successfully completed R&D projects under its belt and a standardized, definitive approach to project and program management, NCMS is a world leader in team organization and project oversight.
- Collaborative R&D projects
- Team management
- Consortium and partnership building
- IP protection
- Commercialization support
- Business to business networking and team-building
A History of Success
In over 25-years of existence, NCMS has formed and managed more than 356 multi-participant research and development collaborations, totaling over $618 million and creating an impressive talent pool of experts. These programs have had a direct benefit to the majority of our industrial member companies, while boosting the overall capability of the North American manufacturing base.
Because the primary mission of NCMS is to advance the competitiveness of North American manufacturing, these experts are available to assist companies in solving their manufacturing problems, on the factory floor, at the enterprise level, and throughout the supply chain.
NCMS has expertise in manufacturing materials, composites, manufacturing processes, computer integrated manufacturing, process control and automation, TQM, lean manufacturing techniques, electronics manufacturing, environmental compliance issues, and many more. In addition, NCMS can provide guidance on government contracting, accounting and proposal writing.
Private Collaboration Services
NCMS provides high-quality, full lifecycle project collaboration services on a contract basis. These services are tailored to meet the specific needs of our clients who desire to conduct R&D via private collaborations facilitated by a neutral third party. Our strength lies in providing rapid turn-around of project collaboration services critical for the successful development and management of complex, multi-partner R&D programs. NCMS provides expertise in R&D proposal development, feasibility studies, project administration, legal agreements, accounting, purchasing, contracting and knowledge capture functions, all essential to the successful execution of our clients’ priority research projects.
Clients can receive anti-trust protection (under the National Cooperative Research and Production Act), while retaining all of the intellectual property rights to the technology developed during the project. The advantage of this service is that clients may utilize NCMS’s expertise to conduct proprietary R&D in a safe environment, while sharing resources, pooling talent and spreading the development risks among public and private partners of their choosing.
For more information on NCMS project and program management, and to learn how your organization can benefit from NCMS’s quarter-century of experience managing award-winning projects, please contact
