Advanced Manufacturing Grant

The Illinois Community College Board administers the Advanced Manufacturing Grant as a competitive state-funded opportunity supporting Illinois community colleges. The program makes approximately $4.5 million available to support the development, scaling, and innovation of Advanced Manufacturing programs throughout the Illinois community college system. The initiative is modeled on the IMWE proposal and emphasizes system collaboration, flexible pathways for learners, and programming responsive to manufacturing industry needs. The funding is intended to help Illinois develop a sustainable skilled manufacturing pipeline while expanding access to education and training that builds mechanical skills, digital fluency, systems thinking, adaptability, and other competencies needed in a technology-driven manufacturing workforce. Priority programming includes areas aligned with industry certifications and the development and maintenance of Advanced Manufacturing infrastructure, safety, and quality assurance. Identified areas include production and automation, industrial and production technologies and technicians, industrial machinery, heavy and industrial equipment maintenance technologies and technicians, precision metal working and machining, manufacturing engineering technology, mechatronics engineering, and semiconductor manufacturing. Applicants are expected to address all three required priority areas: building regional and institutional capacity, program development and expansion, and adoption of a wraparound student support service model. Allowable activities include institutional and regional collaboration, industry partnerships, faculty and instructor training, curriculum development and mapping, construction and equipment modernization, pathway development, hiring or upskilling faculty, testing and assessment preparation, instructional technology, academic advising, career guidance, supplemental instruction, barrier reduction, community needs assessments, non-credit short-term training, innovative instructional models, and career exploration activities. All costs must be reasonable and necessary to achieve program goals. Indirect costs are allowed without restrictions, and no cost sharing or matching is required. Eligible applicants are community college districts in the State of Illinois. A district may submit one individual application, or college districts may apply as a regional consortium. A consortium must contain at least three college districts and designate one college as the lead institution responsible for administrative and fiduciary responsibilities. A college participating in a consortium application may not also apply individually. ICCB aims to fund at least three consortium projects and four individual proposals, provided those proposals score above 80 points, and the two application types will be scored separately. Grantees must also participate in systemwide collaborative activities, which may include statewide competency-based curriculum development, meetings, learning communities, conferences, and approximately one or two instances of travel during the grant period. The required application package includes a completed GATA-Exempt Grant Application, an Application Narrative, and a State of Illinois Uniform Budget under the NON-GATA section. The narrative is limited to eight pages, including charts and graphs, must be double-spaced in 12-point font, and must follow the required sequence using headers for each numbered section. Required narrative content includes Project Implementation and Context, covering program identification, regional context and need, and target population; a Project Work Plan addressing employer and community engagement, pathway mapping, capacity and infrastructure, program development or revision, student support, program accountability, and other grant activities; anticipated Performance Metrics; Partnerships; and a Contingency Plan. Applicants must identify anticipated metrics including students engaged, students enrolled, dual credit students, completers, programs developed, programs revised or expanded, employers engaged, and education partners engaged. Applications were required to be submitted electronically by 5:00 p.m. on February 13, 2026, to ICCB.cte@illinois.gov. Paper applications were not permitted. Applicants were responsible for ensuring that every required component was attached to the submission email. Questions were also required to be submitted electronically to ICCB.cte@illinois.gov, with the subject line identifying the college and the Advanced Manufacturing Grant question; phone questions were not accepted. An optional bidder's conference was scheduled for December 16, 2025, at 3:00 p.m., with a recording to be made available on the ICCB Grant Opportunities webpage. The NOFO was posted December 2, 2025. No mandatory LOI, concept paper, pre-proposal, notice of intent, or other pre-application gating requirement is identified. ICCB staff review applications using the requirements and criteria stated in the NOFO. Award decisions and funding levels are determined by each application's compliance with the NOFO and the submitted grant proposal, and all application components must be submitted for the proposal to be scored. High-demand manufacturing areas, a sound labor-market argument supporting the selected focus, the ability to accelerate training effectively, required partnerships, and responsiveness to the stated priorities are important considerations. The grant period is April 1, 2026 through June 30, 2027, a 15-month performance period. Recipients must carry out their approved scope of work, submit quarterly programmatic and fiscal reports, report performance metrics, participate in required collaboration and learning activities, submit at least one student success story at the end of the grant period, and provide ICCB with copies of grant-funded curriculum, documents, toolkits, modules, press releases, and similar materials. Up to 15 awards are anticipated. Individual college district applications may request $100,000 to $350,000, while consortium applications may request $250,000 to $750,000. The total estimated program funding is $4,500,000. Annie Fisher, Director for Career and Technical Education, is identified as the agency contact at anne.fisher@illinois.gov, while application submissions and program questions are directed to ICCB.cte@illinois.gov. The NOFO does not provide an award notification date and does not state that the opportunity recurs annually, biennially, or according to another regular schedule. Accordingly, no future application cycle is inferred from the FY2026 solicitation.

Address all three required priority areas: capacity building, program development or expansion, and wraparound student supports; provide a sound labor-market argument for high-demand Advanced Manufacturing programs; demonstrate the ability to accelerate training; follow the required narrative cadence and use headers because points may be deducted otherwise; clearly identify employer, high school district, labor organization, and local workforce board partnerships; connect activities to measurable accountability indicators; submit every required component because incomplete applications cannot be scored and ICCB will not notify applicants of missing items