The Office of the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Defense – Materiel Readiness is pleased to announce the return of the Maintenance Innovation Challenge (MIC) with live presentations from the finalists at the DoD Maintenance Symposium in San Diego, CA.

The competition is open to new innovations that include novel technologies, unique collaborative business relationships, resourcing strategies, business processes, production processes, and any other transformative capability that has the potential to make maintenance and sustainment more agile, effective, efficient, and affordable. The review and selection process provides great exposure as the top six innovations and the final winner are determined by senior DOD sustainment leaders.

The top six finalists will present their solutions in person at the always popular and heavily attended MIC breakout session at the 2023 DoD Maintenance Symposium.  Audience members at the MIC session will have the opportunity to select the MIC People’s Choice Award winner from the six finalists based on their presentations.

In addition to the top MIC winner and “People’s Choice” winner receiving high-profile DOD-wide recognition and striking trophies at the plenary session the following day, the National Center for Manufacturing Sciences has offered to provide $50,000 of in-kind support to both the MIC winner and the “People’s Choice” winner.

The online submission process involves only a quad chart and 500 words or less abstract.  Submissions are encouraged from the government, academia, and industry.  The submission period is now open! The deadline for submissions is Friday, October 6th, 2023.