About CCI

Creating Advanced Manufacturing Jobs in Chicago

The Chicago Composite Initiative (CCI) is a community partnership that works to establish Chicago as a center for advanced manufacturing and composite materials like carbon fiber. Through this work we will create new and enduring advanced manufacturing jobs in Chicago as well as a workforce trained in these specialized areas. This goal of creating jobs in Chicago will be reached through the development of four crucial areas: 

1. Providing customized learn-by-doing Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) programming for high school, college and graduate level students, designed to introduce and develop an understanding of advanced manufacturing and composite materials like carbon fiber.
2. Mobilizing Chicago’s workforce by providing the necessary training in advanced manufacturing and composite materials demanded by technologically advanced global industries.
3. Coordinating an incubational hub that start-ups, entrepreneurs, businesses use to accelerate their manufacturing goals in Chicago.
4. Securing the foundational infrastructure required for large-scale advanced manufacturing, including products made of carbon fiber, within Chicago, in order to meet the diverse needs of industries worldwide.

This concept is the first industry-wide advanced manufacturing and composite materials incubator/accelerator of its kind and will position Chicago as a center for the future of manufacturing.