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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

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Computer Security

Study Says: Role-Based Access Control Yields Big Benefits

T aking the right approach to computer security can save a company—and the American economy—a bundle.

One approach, using a new technology for controlling access to computer networks known as role-based access control (RBAC), has been championed by NIST’s Information Technology Laboratory. Over the 1992-2006 period for which impacts were estimated, NIST’s 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. PDF Symbol-Link to Adobe Acrobat Free Download Paper copies may be requested from dherbert@nist.gov.

Media Contact:
Philip Bulman, (301) 975-5661

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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 technology—the premier format for video, audio and data storage—is 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 NIST’s Victor McCrary, chief of the agency’s Convergent Informations Systems Division.

The two-day conference begins June 3, 2002, and will be held at NIST’s 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

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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, NIST’s 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

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Strategic Planning

Expert Panel Helps NIST Plan for the Future

An expert panel’s 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 privacy—along with widely shared cultural and personal values—are 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 NIST’s 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 NRC’s Maria Jones, (202) 334-2200.

Media Contact:
Mark Bello, (301) 975-3776

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ATP Partnership

First Global-Scale, Corn-to-Plastics Plant

Blair, Neb. chemical 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.

World’s First Corn-to-Plastics Plant Opens

Standing in the middle of a former Nebraska cornfield, the world’s 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 Technology’s (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 fiber—just like cotton, silk and polyester—PLA 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.

Media Contact:
Michael Baum, (301) 975-2763

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Editor: Michael E. Newman

Date created: 4/15/2002
Last updated: 4/15/2002
Contact: inquiries@nist.gov