Centers of Excellence

The Centers are awarded for five years with the potential for one five-year renewal. These Centers:

• Enable collaborations between NIST and leading research institutes in emerging technology areas to help NIST meet mission needs in new or expanding areas of strategic focus. The Centers provide an interdisciplinary environment in which NIST, academia, and industry can collaborate in pursuing research in measurement science and technology development focused on emerging areas of national need.
• Enhance technical innovation through earlier alignment of measurement science with emerging and innovative fields of research. The Centers accelerate progress in critical areas of science by enabling the best experts in technical fields and focusing them on measurement science at critical times on the innovation curve.
• Provide new opportunities for training of students and postdocs in measurement science. The Centers foster development of expertise in measurement science and its role in innovation by educating and training scientists and engineers.
• Provide greater opportunities for NIST to engage with entrepreneurs and industry. Industry can easily and efficiently engage with the regional Centers of Excellence, increasing their competitiveness through more integrated use of measurements in their industrial processes. Further, the Centers facilitate new approaches for accelerating commercialization and transfer of innovative processes and technologies.

Announcements of the topic areas for future Centers of Excellence will be found on this webpage and at www.grants.gov.

PLEASE NOTE: The National Cybersecurity Center of Excellence (NCCOE) is not part of the NIST Centers of Excellence program described on this website. Please visit the NCCOE website for more information about that program.