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Technology
Partnerships
ATP 2002 Competition
Announced; E-Proposals Acceptable
The
National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Advanced Technology
Program (ATP) has announced a new competition for cost-sharing awards
to support high-risk R&D projects that accelerate the development
of path-breaking new technologies important to the U.S. economy. The
competition announcement will appear in the April 18, 2002, Federal
Register.
NIST
will accept proposals for the 2002 competition from April 22, 2002,
until 3 p.m. Eastern time on Sept. 30, 2002. The proposals will be
grouped and evaluated in three batches, and only those postmarked
by 3 p.m. Eastern time on June 10, 2002, will be considered for funding
in the current fiscal year ending Sept. 30, 2002. However, all proposals
received before the Sept. 30 deadline will be evaluated and considered
for future funding. Details of the deadline rules are in the Federal
Register notice. This year, for the first time, NIST is offering
all ATP applicants the option of submitting proposals electronically
through digitally signed documents.
NIST will host
a Proposers Conference to review general information on the 2002 competition,
the selection process, and ATP rules and procedures on May 2, 2002,
in Gaithersburg, Md. Additional meetings at other locations may be
announced.
The Federal
Register notice announcing this competition, the ATP Proposal
Preparation Kit (dated April 2002), and details on the Proposers Conference
and the ATP Electronic Submission System may be found on the ATP Web
site at www.atp.nist.gov/www/press/2002comp.htm.
The ATP has an
FY 2002 appropriation of $60.7 million for new awards. Because ATP
is now funding applications on a rolling basis, some portion of this
may be used for new awards to outstanding proposals submitted to the
FY 2001 competition, or for applications submitted under a FY 2003
competition.
Detailed competition
rules and the current ATP Proposal Preparation Kit also are available
by sending e-mail to atp@nist.gov,
by calling 800-ATP-FUND (800-287-3863), or by faxing a request to
(301) 926-9524 or (301) 590-3053.
Media
Contact:
Michael
Baum, (301) 975-2763
Computer Security
Study Says: Role-Based
Access Control Yields Big Benefits
T
aking the right approach to computer security can save a companyand
the American economya bundle.
One approach,
using a new technology for controlling access to computer networks
known as role-based access control (RBAC), has been championed by
NISTs Information Technology Laboratory. Over the 1992-2006
period for which impacts were estimated, NISTs RBAC work is
projected to generate economic benefits of about $292 million, according
to a study conducted for NIST by the Research Triangle Institute (RTI)
of North Carolina. This estimate translates into a benefit-to-cost
ratio of 109 to 1.
Based on interviews
with software developers and companies that use RBAC products, the
RTI study estimates that by 2006, between 20 and 50 percent of employees
in the service sector and between 10 and 25 percent of other organizations
will be managed by RBAC systems.
Computer security
specialists at NIST began working on RBAC in the early 1990s after
an examination of federal agencies showed the need to develop better
ways to manage large networked systems and complex access issues.
Electronic copies
of the study may be downloaded from www.nist.gov/director/prog-ofc/report02-1.pdf.
Paper copies may be requested from dherbert@nist.gov.
Media
Contact:
Philip
Bulman, (301) 975-5661
Information
Technology
June Conference
to Focus on State of the Art for DVD
The
National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) will showcase
the latest innovations in DVD technology when it hosts a significant
industry conference in June.
The
DVD 2002: Standards, Applications, Technology conference
will allow industry professionals to see firsthand how DVD technologythe
premier format for video, audio and data storageis influencing
fields as diverse as data storage and interactive training. Topics
to be discussed include the role of DVD in homeland security; the
uses of DVDs outside the entertainment industry; communications and
training with DVDs; the politics of DVDs; and technical strategies
and best practices in the use of DVDs.
Conference
speakers will feature individuals who are spearheading a variety of
innovative DVD uses in the public and private sectors. Among those
scheduled to present are Rich Harada, executive director of the High
Density Storage Association; Jim Clark, chief of the Electronic Products
Development Branch at the Bureau of the Census; and NISTs Victor
McCrary, chief of the agencys Convergent Informations Systems
Division.
The
two-day conference begins June 3, 2002, and will be held at NISTs
campus in Gaithersburg, Md. The DVD Association is co-sponsoring the
conference with NIST.
More information,
including a detailed conference agenda and online registration, is available
at www.nist.gov/DVD2002. Due
to increased security at federal facilities, conference participants
must register in advance. NIST does not accept on-site registrations
as it did in the past, and participants must present photo identification
to be admitted to the campus.
Media
Contact:
Philip
Bulman, (301) 975-5661
Standards
NIST Reaffirms
Commitment to Cement Industry with Updated SRMs
Portland
cement standard reference materials (SRMs) from the National Institute
of Standards and Technology (NIST) have underpinned product quality
for the cement industry for nearly 50 years. The cement SRM 1880 series
has been essential to laboratories that certify concrete products
for performance and evaluate mechanisms for concrete corrosion and
failure. To ensure the continued success of its cement standards,
NISTs Chemical Science and Technology Laboratory and Standard
Reference Materials Program recently completed certification of renewals
for all 10 SRMs in the 1880 series.
The
SRM 1880a renewal series reflects the newer cement types now being
used. Ordinary and blended Portland cement products from around the
world were selected, including blends with limestone, slag and fly
ash; low-iron white cement; and two calcium aluminate cements.
A
key development of the project was a matrix-independent X-ray fluorescence
method in which calibration standards are prepared from primary reference
materials using borate fusion. Major, minor and trace constituents
can be determined without corrections for matrix effects, which typically
lead to uncertainties in the final results.
For
technical information on the SRM certification process, contact John
Sieber, (301) 975-3920. For information on the SRM 1880 series,
including details on ordering, call (301) 975-6776 or send an e-mail
to srminfo@nist.gov.
Media
Contact:
Michael
E. Newman, (301) 975-3025
Strategic
Planning
Expert Panel
Helps NIST Plan for the Future
An
expert panels advice to the National Institute of Standards
and Technology (NIST) as it charts its future course echoes an observation
once made by scientist and author Isaac Asimov: To succeed,
planning alone is insufficient. One must improvise as well.
A new National
Research Council (NRC) report, commissioned by NIST to aid its strategic
planning, sets out a range of possible directions that science
and its technological applications may take over the next 10
years. Prepared by a 10-member committee of industry and university
leaders, the report on future research and development environments
does not venture predictions of specific technology developments.
Rather, it identifies key factors likely to steer the direction of
science and technology and to influence the behavior of R&D-performing
organizations.
The committee
focused on three sets of factors. Push factors stem from
progress in research, which, it said, can come from any direction.
The report examines likely developments in three broad fields considered
especially ripe for rapid advances: biology, materials, and computers
and information. Each field, the report says, will deliver widely
useful benefits and spawn advances that propel efforts in others.
Concerns about domestic security, environmental protection and personal
privacyalong with widely shared cultural and personal valuesare
among key pull factors that will encourage (or discourage)
certain science and technology activities.
Organizational,
economic, legal and regulatory issues pervade the entire science and
technology landscape. Such contextual factors will include
the continued outsourcing and globalization of R&D activities
by large corporations and further blurring of distinctions between
research and development and between disciplines.
Uncertainty
about the future remains very high, the report says. Yet, there
are ways to develop plans that are adaptive in their design
and more robust against a range of alternatives. NIST currently
is developing a long-range strategic plan with these very attributes
in mind.
For more information
on NISTs strategic planning effort, contact Paul Doremus, (301)
975-3750, paul.doremus@nist.gov. The NRC report, Future R&D
Environments: A Report for the National Institute of Standards and
Technology, can be read on-line at the National Academy Press
Web site at www.nap.edu/catalog/10313.html.
A limited number of paper copies are available from the NRCs
Maria Jones, (202) 334-2200.
Media
Contact:
Mark
Bello, (301) 975-3776
ATP
Partnership
First
Global-Scale, Corn-to-Plastics Plant
This
newly opened Blair, Neb., chemical plant is turning corn into
fabrics and plastics using technology developed with support
of the NIST Advanced Technology Program.
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Worlds
First Corn-to-Plastics Plant Opens
Standing
in the middle of a former Nebraska cornfield, the worlds first
major chemical plant dedicated to turning corn into fabrics and food
packaging materials has just opened its doors for business. The new
Blair, Neb., facility of Cargill Dow LLC exploits a new technology
for producing commercially useful polymers from corn-derived dextrose
that was developed with support from the National Institute of Standards
and Technologys (NIST) Advanced Technology Program (ATP).
The Cargill Dow
plant that opened on April 2, 2002, has the capacity to produce up
to 140,000 metric tons annually of polylactide polymer (PLA), a polymer
resin that is derived from natural plant sugars. PLA is the first
polymer entirely derived from a renewable resource to compete head-to-head
in the market with polymers made from oil. Recently recognized by
the Federal Trade Commission as a generic class of fiberjust
like cotton, silk and polyesterPLA can be used for clothing,
carpets, bedding, packaging and other products. PLA also is fully
compostable at the end of its product life.
The Cargill-Dow
PLA technology was developed in part under a 1994 ATP award. The ATP
co-funded research led to enabling processing methods that helped
PLAs gain important new properties without losing the environmentally
friendly traits that made them attractive in the first place. In 2001,
the PLA development received environmental innovation awards from
the magazines Discover, Popular Mechanics and Industry Week.
Further information
on Cargill Dow and PLA can be found on the Web at www.cargilldow.com.
More information on the Advanced Technology Program is available at
www.atp.nist.gov.
Go back to NIST News Page
Editor: Michael E. Newman
Date
created: 4/15/2002
Last updated: 4/15/2002
Contact: inquiries@nist.gov
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