innovate arkansas

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) recently announced the opening of its 2008 Technology Innovation Program (TIP) solicitation. The due date for proposal submission is 3 p.m. EDT on September 4, 2008. Electronic submission via Grants.gov is encouraged.

The solicitation just released seeks proposals in one area of critical nation need: Civil Infrastructure. The solicitation states that the objective of this area is to address two elements of a Civil Infrastructure Structural Integrity societal challenge. The two elements are inspection and monitoring of the U.S. Civil Infrastructure Structural Integrity as outlined in a white paper titled Advanced Sensing Technologies for the Infrastructure: Roads, highways, bridges and Water Systems. Solutions to this challenge require advancement beyond the state-of-the-art of sensing technologies that will assess the structural integrity and/or deterioration processes of bridges, roads, water mains, and wastewater collection systems, that are more accurate, easier to use, and more economically feasible. Proposals are being sought to create and validate new advanced, robust, network capable, nondestructive evaluation and test sensing systems or system components, to cost effectively and quantitatively inspect and evaluation the structural integrity of the civil infrastructure.

NIST estimates that approximately 9 awards will be made, with an anticipated start date of January 1, 2009. The performance period allowed will depend on the research and development activity that is proposed. A single company can receive up to $3 million with a performance period of up to 3 years. A joint venture may receive up to $9 million with a performance period of up to 5 years. Continued funding is dependent on satisfactory performance, continued relevance to program objectives, and funds availability. The awards require cost sharing of at least 50 percent of the yearly total project costs.

TIP was established as part of the America COMPETES Act in 2007, and is the successor to the NIST Advanced Technology Program (ATP) about which some of you may be familiar. TIP is not restricted to small businesses, but small firms are encouraged to compete alone or as a member of a joint venture. TIP's mission is to support, promote and accelerate technically challenging research and innovation in transformative technologies to meet areas of critical national need.

For complete information, visit www.nist.gov/tip.

(This article was originally published in the Arkansas Small Business Development Center's Tech Track e-newsletter.)