What is the Future-Ready Manufacturing Grant?

​As competition intensifies and the rapid rise of AI and automation challenges even the most established operations, Catawba County’s 400+ manufacturers face a critical moment.  The Catawba County Economic Development Corporation understands that embracing new technologies can be overwhelming, especially when you are unsure where to start. That’s why we are here – to support our existing businesses and industries as they navigate the path toward innovation.

The Catawba Future-Ready Manufacturing Grant—aligned with the Catawba County Industrial Growth Analysis (2024) and the EDC’s Plan of Work—provides targeted financial and technical support to help Catawba County’s legacy industries adopt novel operational technologies.  Many small to medium-sized companies recognize the need to adopt advanced technologies to stay competitive, yet they often face barriers—including limited capital, insufficient awareness of available tools and resources, and a lack of internal expertise.

The Catawba Future-Ready Manufacturing Grant tackles these challenges by offering targeted support to help companies with no more than 500 employees understand, fund, plan, and implement advanced technologies such as sensor technology, collaborative robots, big data analytics, and autonomous robots.  The grant is intended to help companies shorten the implementation time for these projects.​​ 

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​The Catawba Future-Ready Manufacturing Grant is the only program of its kind in North Carolina and one of only two such local programs in the country.  To date, four grants have been awarded.  We hope to continue the program in the future, along with scaling the program to a regional or statewide program.

Funding for this program is provided by the Catawba County Board of Commissioners, and we appreciate their continued support of Catawba County's existing industries and manufacturers.