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NIST in Virginia

$281M

in financial awards from NIST to organizations in the state of Virginia since 2022.

NIST supports key sectors in Virginia

Cybersecurity and IT

  • Virginia has the second-largest cybersecurity workforce in the country. NIST supports the sector with highly regarded standards and guidelines that are adopted by every industry and civilian federal agency.
  • NIST’s NICE program advances cybersecurity education, training and workforce development to increase the number of skilled cybersecurity professionals working in Virginia. NICE is funding cybersecurity training programs in the state for a total of nearly $800,000 in 2023 and 2024 to prepare students for high-paying jobs in the sector, which has thousands of open positions.
  • An additional $500,000 in funding from NIST (total from 2022 to 2023) is helping an Alexandria small business create network resilience for critical infrastructure like power and water utilities.

Biotechnology, life sciences and health care

  • Nearly $1 million in grants from NIST in FY 2024 support biotech business development in Virginia and a Life Sciences Innovation Center in Richmond.
  • Biotech organizations in Virginia rely on NIST reference materials to ensure:
    • Quality assurance for makers of pharmaceuticals and medical devices
    • Accuracy in state and federal laboratories, including for criminal investigations 
    • Accuracy for common clinical tests for cholesterol and other markers of health and disease
    • Validity of monitoring for water quality and pollutants in the environment

Advanced manufacturing

  • NIST's CHIPS for America program is growing the semiconductor industry in Virginia with $275 million in planned incentives for a Micron Technology facility in Manassas.
  • Since FY 2020, GENEDGE, part of the NIST Manufacturing Extension Partnership, has received over $10.4 million in federal funds from NIST, with over $8.6 million matched in nonfederal funds, to enhance operational performance and productivity and drive new product development to help companies expand, diversify, improve top- and bottom-line results, create jobs and sustain employment.

With the help of GENEDGE, Lynchburg’s Electronic Design and Manufacturing streamlined processes, eliminated waste, reduced cycle times and defects, and more than tripled production. Customer satisfaction and loyalty has improved along with sales — an increase of $12 million.

  • Virginia manufacturers rely on NIST products and services to check the purity of materials and gases, the efficiency of production processes, and the quality of products made with advanced manufacturing methods. For example, our Nanofabrication Facility gives researchers from industry and academia access to state-of-the-art fabrication and measurement tools with applications to nanoelectronics, photonics, microelectromechanical systems and nanobiotechnology.
  • Virginia aerospace and defense manufacturers rely on NIST reference materials for aluminum, titanium, glass, fuels, solders, thermal analysis, polymers, hydraulic systems and more to ensure small engineering tolerances and the highest quality control for parts where failure would cause catastrophic losses.
  • NIST has awarded nearly $1 million to the Commonwealth Center for Advanced Manufacturing in Prince George County in FY 2024 to develop advanced manufacturing capabilities. Virginia Tech received $600,000 from NIST in FY 2024 for metal additive manufacturing R&D and workforce development.
  • NIST reference materials help grocery manufacturers detect allergens and contaminants in products and comply with the Nutrition Labeling and Education Act.

Public safety, health and resilience

  • NIST’s test methods support training and credentialing of Virginia’s first responders in the use of uncrewed aerial systems. NIST also provides tests for evaluation of ground robots used by first responders, and to train operators.
  • From 2012 to 2022, the NIST Public Safety Communications Research Division invested more than $16 million through prize challenges, grants and contracts to Virginia companies and universities to increase the safety of first responders and their communities. This investment also resulted in:

$36.1M

in economic activity

$19.9M

in household earnings

270

jobs

  • A FY 2024 grant from NIST to Virginia Tech for nearly $400,000 will support development of a model to assess the risk to structures from fires in the wildland-urban interface, where communities abut undeveloped land.
  • NIST awarded nearly $1 million to George Mason University in FY 2024 to enhance emergency communications resiliency through artificial intelligence.

CHIPS Funding

Micron (Virginia)

Proposed Award Amount
up to $275 million in proposed funding
CHIPS Organization
CHIPS Program Office
The proposed CHIPS for America investment would advance U.S. supply chain resiliency because the legacy DRAM memory chips that would be made in Virginia are important components for the automotive and industrial markets.

Laser Thermal Analysis, Inc.

Award Amount
$289,830
CHIPS Organization
CHIPS SBIR
Develop hybrid atomic force microscopy instrument that will automatically generate maps of the thermal resistance, thermal boundary interface resistance, and temperature profiles of microprocessors and wide bandgap semiconductor materials and devices. This project will benefit devices with thermal management challenges and materials development needs on length scales smaller than 100 nanometers.

MEP Success Stories

Expanding Filtration Business Through Strategic Collaboration with GENEDGE

Reported Year
2024
As Porvair sought to expand its business, it faced a significant challenge - expanding its aerospace line while transitioning to a more predictable revenue model. To compound this, the company grappled with a workforce barrier, particularly in technical staffing for design systems and mechanical engineering. These workforce gaps hindered their

News & Updates

Blog Posts

Learn how NIST improves the lives of all Americans by conducting research and fostering collaborations that make possible everything from reliable vaccine storage and fair fuel transactions to next-generation MRIs and fair stock trades. Check out NIST Works for You.

Featured Video

Heroes of American Manufacturing: Capewell

Heroes of American Manufacturing: Capewell

Research Projects

The Nanotechnology Xccelerator

The Nanotechnology Xccelerator is a pilot program to develop a powerful new family of foundry platforms and test vehicles for academics to do scientific

Single-molecule biosensors

Nanopores offer the potential to study a wide range of protein-related phenomena that includes unfolding kinetics, differences in unfolding pathways, protein