Small and medium-sized manufacturers in Ohio will once again receive federal support for improving their operations through the Manufacturing Extension Partnership program.

The Ohio Manufacturers' Association, a trade organization, will administer the $6,077,000 grant, taking over that role from the Ohio Department of Development. The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has oversight of the MEP program at the federal level.

Ohio’s more than $6 million in annual federal MEP funding was suspended in December 2025 pending the results of three-year U.S. Inspector General audit of the Ohio MEP. The audit found no evidence of fraud, but it uncovered lax oversight of financial reporting at both the federal and state levels.

Ryan Augsburger, president of the OMA, called the end of the federal suspension “a major moment for Ohio’s small and medium-sized manufacturers."

“We now have the opportunity to rebuild this program around the needs of manufacturers, with stronger accountability, better coordination and a clear expectation that every dollar should produce value on the plant floor,” he said.

Six Ohio MEP centers—in Toledo, Dayton, Cincinnati, Columbus, Cleveland and the Mahoning Valley—have historically shared the award as subrecipients. Augsburger said the OMA has not yet determined the number of centers—or the regional boundaries and subrecipients—for its grant; that will be determined through a competitive process.

The grants require 1-1 nonfederal matching funds, which the state of Ohio has already committed to contributing.

Carrie Hines, president of the American Small Manufacturers Coalition, the MEP trade group, said ASMC is “pleased that manufacturers across Ohio will once again have access to the MEP services … Small and medium-sized manufacturers are vital to our nation’s industrial base, and helping them strengthen operations, adopt new technologies, grow, and remain competitive benefits both Ohio and U.S. manufacturing.”

MEPs in 48 states and Puerto Rico share $175 million in federal funds annually.

Delays in funding in the past 18 months have plagued other state MEPs. Twelve September 2026 grants, however, were awarded on time.

• Alabama Training Network: $2,191,702
• Arkansas Division of Workforce Services: $1,291,618
• Georgia Tech Research Corporation: $3,227,001
• Louisiana Department of Economic Development: $1,537,719
• Massachusetts Manufacturing Extension Partnership: $2,959,870
• The Curators of the University of Missouri: $2,656,601
• Montana State University: $839,900
• The Ohio Manufacturers Association (OMA) Educational and Industrial Development Institute: $6,076,983
• Pennsylvania IRC Network: $6,110,684
• Puerto Rico Manufacturing Extension Inc.: $939,133
• University of Utah: $1,492,598
• Vermont State Colleges: $812,300

History of MEP Funding

The federal MEP program has recevied bipartisan support from Congress since its inception in 1988, during the Reagan administration. Support from the White House has been less consistent. President Donald Trump and in the early 2000s, former President George W. Bush, have tried to eliminate the program.

However, the view from the White House may be changing. In the July 2026 report Science: A New Golden Age, Michael Kratsios, White House director of Science and Technology Policy, named MEPs among the “place-based production ecosystems” that “further incentivize industry partnerships, open shared R&D insfrastructure and drive industry-led workforce training.”

The bipartisan Defend American Manufacturing Act, currently working its way through Congress, would:

• Require the Department of Commerce to fund the program
• Continue funding for a center placed on probation if it is actively remedying issues 
• Require NIST to select and replace canceled center contracts with new operators within 150 days and transfer unspent funds to the new operators.
• Formalize the process for conducting MEP financial-management assessments in federal code.