WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — The US administration will build an innovation institute in California’s Silicon Valley and invest $171 million in wearable electronics, the US Defense Department said in a press release on Friday.
The new venue, dubbed the Manufacturing Innovation Institute for Flexible Hybrid Electronics, "will bring the best minds from government, industry and academia together to advance US leadership in manufacturing flexible hybrid electronics," the release read.
The new institute will produce a number of products, including wearable devices and health monitoring technology.
"The technologies promise dual use applications in both the consumer economy and the development of military solutions for the warfighter," the press release read.
The US government will award the institute to a consortium of 162 companies, universities, and non-profits led by the FlexTech Alliance that includes such entities as FujiFilm Dimatix and National Research Council Canada. Other participants include Apple, Lockheed Martin and Stanford University.
The Manufacturing Innovation Institute for Flexible Hybrid Electronics, designed to revitalize and strengthen US manufacturing, will be based in San Jose, California, according to the Defense Department.