Public Meetings at NIST Will Detail Plans for New Programs Under Advanced Technology Program

The Commerce Department's National Institute of Standards and Technology will hold a public meeting on Oct. 19 to discuss procedures for getting industry ideas and the selection criteria for establishing major program areas under the Advanced Technology Program.

The meeting will be held from 9 a.m. to noon at the NIST facility in Gaithersburg, Md.

The Advanced Technology Program provides funding for industry through agreements to help support development of promising but high-risk technologies with substantial potential for enhancing the nation's economic growth or the competitiveness of its industries. Awards are made to individual companies or to consortia on a cost-sharing basis.

In order to reap the greatest possible benefits for the nation's economy from its investments through the ATP, NIST plans to focus the bulk of ATP funds to competitions in well-defined program areas. To select these program areas, NIST will rely on its established policy of drawing on industry's ideas.

Since 1990, the ATP has selected industrial projects for support through announced competitions open to proposals from any and all areas of technology. Projects are selected on the basis of a rigorous competition evaluating both the technical and business merit of the proposal.

While the ATP will continue to use general competitions to solicit project proposals, NIST intends to devote the bulk of ATP funds to focused competitions centered around specific programs. These program areas will have well-defined technology and economic goals, and generally will require development of an ensemble of complementary technologies. The shift in emphasis will allow the ATP to achieve greater benefits for the nation by concentrating support on suites of interrelated technologies and reaping the benefits of scale and synergism.

Program areas will be selected based on ideas from industry with an eye toward getting the largest possible beneficial impact on the economy. Other key issues will be the quality of the technical ideas, the breadth and depth of industry interest, and opportunities for ATP funding to make the greatest possible difference. Program suggestions will be accepted at any time; a specific solicitation will not be required.

The Oct. 19 meeting is being held to brief the industrial community on the criteria that will be used to evaluate program suggestions and to describe the procedure for submitting program recommendations to the ATP.

To register, or for further information, contact the ATP office at 1-800-ATP-FUND, by electronic mail to atprev [at] micf.nist.gov (atprev[at]micf[dot]nist[dot]gov), or by facsimile at (301) 926-9524. Copies of documents distributed at the meeting may be obtained from these sources after Oct. 19, 1993.

NIST's mission is to promote U.S. economic growth by working with industry to develop and implement technology, measurements and standards. NIST is an agency of the U.S. Commerce Department's Technology Administration.