Commerce Department Announces 41 Awards for Advanced R&D in Four Key Technologies

Commerce Secretary Ronald H. Brown today announced some $170 million in awards for ground-breaking research and development under the Advanced Technology Program (ATP), the Clinton Administration's principal civilian technology initiative to stimulate economic growth and job creation through the development of new industries.

The 41 awards announced by Secretary Brown cover four major areas: information technologies for healthcare, advanced diagnostic tools for DNA technologies, new technologies to help automate development of large software systems and computer- integrated manufacturing technologies for the electronics industry.

"The ATP is an example of the public-private partnership that is the hallmark of the Clinton Administration," Brown said.

"We are working with business to make our economy more competitive and create jobs for the American people. Our civilian technology policy has been -- and will continue to be -- a key part of this Administration's economic approach," Brown added.

The four ATP program areas sponsoring today's awards include:

• Information Infrastructure for Healthcare—a five-year, $185 million program to develop critical information infrastructure technologies to enable enhanced, more fully integrated medical information systems across the healthcare industry, greatly reducing costs and errors in handling medical information. Sixteen awards were announced in this program for more than $72 million in ATP funding over five years, matched by over $73 million in private-sector funds.
• Tools for DNA Diagnostics—a five-year, $145 million program to develop compact, low-cost, automated DNA analysis technologies and equipment to enable fast, inexpensive detection and diagnosis of human, animal and plant diseases and for manufacturing of chemicals. Thirteen awards were announced in this program for more than $56 million in ATP funding over five years, matched by over $54 million in private-sector funds.
• Component-Based Software—a five-year, $150 million program to develop the technologies necessary to enable systematically reusable software components -- small, carefully engineered software elements suitable for automated assembly in a broad array of applications. Eleven awards were announced in this program for more than $40 million in ATP funding over five years, matched by over $41 million in private-sector funds.
• Computer-Integrated Manufacturing for Electronics—a five- year, $105 million program to develop a flexible, software- based framework needed to promote greater manufacturability, productivity and product variety in the electronics industry -- allowing U.S. firms to more easily scale up and reconfigure their manufacturing operations. One award was announced in this program for more than $1.5 million in ATP funding over five years, matched by over $1 million in private-sector funds. ATP managers will re-evaluate the scope and approach of this program in discussions with industry.

The ATP provides cost-sharing support to industry to promote promising, but high-risk, enabling technologies that can form the basis for new and improved products, manufacturing processes and services. These awards are the first to be made under a new ATP approach of establishing multiyear R&D; programs focused on particular technology and business goals that the private sector feels offer the best opportunities for major economic returns.

Many of the awards announced today go to joint research ventures. More than 100 companies, universities and research institutions, including many small businesses, will participate in the research.

ATP awards are made by Commerce's National Institute of Standards and Technology on the basis of a rigorous competitive review considering scientific and technical merit of each application and its potential benefits to the U.S. industry. Applicants must include a business plan for bringing the new technology to market once technical milestones have been achieved under ATP support.

Today's awards are contingent on completion of negotiations and the signing of cooperative research agreements between NIST and the applicants.

A list of the awards and fact sheets on the four program areas are available.