[Federal Register Volume 72, Number 68 (Tuesday, April 10, 2007)]
[Notices]
[Pages 17838-17841]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E7-6650]


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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

National Institute of Standards and Technology

[Docket No.: 070320063-7064-01]


Advanced Technology Program Notice of Availability of Funds and 
Announcement of Public Meetings (Proposers' Conferences)

AGENCY: National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), 
Department of Commerce.

ACTION: Notice.

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SUMMARY: NIST's Advanced Technology Program (ATP) announces that it 
will hold a single fiscal year 2007 ATP competition and is soliciting 
proposals for financial assistance. ATP also

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announces that it will hold public meetings (Proposers' Conferences) 
for all interested parties. ATP is soliciting proposals in all 
technology areas (Competition Number 2007-A) as well as the following 
four broad Crosscutting Areas of National Interest: (1) Technologies 
for Advanced and Complex Systems (Competition Number 2007-B), (2) 
Challenges in Advanced Materials and Devices (Competition Number 2007-
C), (3) 21st Century Manufacturing (Competition Number 2007-D), and (4) 
Nanotechnology (Competition Number 2007-E). Details regarding these 
four broad Crosscutting Areas of National Interest are included in the 
Federal Funding Opportunity announcement available at http://www.grants.gov. ATP provides cost-shared multi-year funding to single 
companies and to industry-led joint ventures to accelerate the 
development and dissemination of challenging, high risk technologies 
with the potential for significant commercial payoffs and widespread 
benefits for the nation. This unique government-industry partnership 
aids companies in accelerating the development of emerging or enabling 
technologies that lead to revolutionary new products and industrial 
processes and services that can compete in rapidly changing world 
markets. ATP challenges the research and development (R&D) community to 
take on higher technical risk with commensurately higher potential 
payoffs for the nation than they would otherwise pursue.

DATES: The due date for submission of all proposals is 3 p.m. Eastern 
Time, Monday, May 21, 2007. This deadline applies to any mode of 
proposal submission, including hand-delivery, courier, express mailing, 
and electronic. Do not wait until the last minute to submit a proposal. 
ATP will not make any allowances for late submissions, including 
incomplete Grants.gov registration.

ADDRESSES: Proposals must be submitted to ATP as follows:
    Paper submission: Send to National Institute of Standards and 
Technology, Advanced Technology Program, 100 Bureau Drive, Stop 4701, 
Gaithersburg, MD 20899-4701.
    Electronic submission: http://www.grants.gov.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Barbara Lambis at 301-975-4447 or by 
e-mail at [email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
    Additional Information: The full Federal Funding Opportunity (FFO) 
announcement for this request for proposals is available at http://www.grants.gov. The full FFO announcement text can also be accessed on 
the ATP Web site at http://www.atp.nist.gov/atp/helpful.htm. To request 
a copy of the April 2007 ATP Proposal Preparation Kit submit an 
electronic request at http://www.atp.nist.gov/atp/atpform.htm or call 
ATP at 1-800-ATP-FUND (1-800-287-3863). The Kit is also available at 
http://www.atp.nist.gov/atp/helpful.htm. Note that ATP is mailing the 
Kit to all individuals whose names are currently on the ATP mailing 
list. Those individuals need not contact ATP to request a copy.
    Meetings: ATP is holding several public meetings (Proposers' 
Conferences) at several locations around the country. These public 
meetings provide general information regarding the program, tips on 
preparing proposals, and the opportunity for questions and answers. 
Proprietary technical or business discussions about specific project 
ideas with NIST staff are not permitted at these conferences or at any 
time before submitting the proposal to ATP. Therefore, you should not 
expect to have proprietary issues addressed at proposers' conferences. 
NIST/ATP staff will not critique proprietary project ideas while they 
are being developed by a proposer. However, NIST/ATP staff will, at any 
time, answer questions that you may have about our project selection 
criteria, selection process, eligibility requirements, cost-sharing 
requirements, and the general characteristics of a competitive ATP 
proposal.
    ATP Proposers' Conferences are being held from 9 a.m.-12:30 p.m. 
local time on the following dates and locations:

April 13, 2007: NIST Red Auditorium, 100 Bureau Drive, Gaithersburg, MD 
(301-975-2776)
April 16, 2007: Hyatt Regency Dearborn Fairlane Town Center, Dearborn, 
Detroit, MI (313-593-1234)
April 18, 2007: Hyatt Harborside at Boston's Logan International 
Airport, 101 Harborside Drive, Boston, MA (617-568-1234)
April 18, 2007: Los Angeles Airport Marriott, 5855 West Century Blvd., 
Los Angeles, CA (310-641-5700)
April 20, 2007: Hilton Austin Airport, 9515 Hotel Drive, Austin, TX 
(512-385-6767)

    No registration fee will be charged. Presentation materials from 
proposers' conferences will be made available on the ATP Web site.

Pre-Registration Required By April 9, 2007 for All Proposers' 
Conferences as Follows

    NIST Gaithersburg Conference: Due to increased security at NIST, NO 
on-site registrations will be accepted and all attendees MUST be pre-
registered. Photo identification must be presented at the NIST main 
gate to be admitted to the April 13, 2007 conference. Attendees must 
wear their conference badge at all times while on the NIST campus. Same 
day registration will be allowed at the other locations.
    Electronic Registration: At https://rproxy.nist.gov/CRS/. Please 
select the ATP Proposers' Conference and appropriate data to register 
for the meeting of your choice.
    Telephone Registration: Call 301-975-2776.
    Fax Registration: Provide the following and fax to 301-948-2067: 
last name, first name; title; organization; room or mail code, city, 
state, zip code, country; telephone; facsimile; e-mail; any special 
needs; and the meeting date and location.
    Funding Availability: Fiscal year 2007 appropriations include funds 
in the amount of approximately $60 million for new ATP awards. 
Approximately 60 awards are anticipated.
    Statutory Authority: 15 U.S.C. 278n.
    CFDA: 11.612, Advanced Technology Program (ATP).
    Eligibility: U.S.-owned, single, for-profit companies and industry-
led joint ventures may apply for ATP funding. In addition, companies 
incorporated in the United States that have parent companies 
incorporated in another country may apply. The term company means a 
for-profit organization, including sole proprietorships, partnerships, 
limited-liability companies (LLCs), and corporations (15 CFR 295.2).
    Cost Sharing Requirements: Small (as defined at 15 CFR 295.2) and 
medium sized companies applying as single-company proposers are not 
required to provide cost sharing of direct costs; however, they may 
propose to pay a portion of the direct costs in addition to all 
indirect costs throughout the project. Large companies applying as 
single-company proposers must cost share at least 60 percent of the 
yearly total project costs (direct plus all of the indirect costs). A 
large company is defined as any business, including any parent company 
plus related subsidiaries, having annual revenues in excess of $3.960 
billion. (Note that this number will likely be updated annually and 
will be noted in future annual announcements of availability of funds

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and revised editions of the ATP Proposal Preparation Kit.) Joint 
ventures must cost share more than 50 percent of the yearly total 
project costs (direct plus indirect costs).
    Selection Procedures: All proposals are selected based on a multi-
stage peer-review process, as described in 15 CFR 295.4. All proposals 
are carefully reviewed by technical and business experts against the 
established ATP evaluation/selection criteria. A Source Evaluation 
Board (SEB) (a committee made up of nine Federal employees) reviews 
proposals and makes recommendations for funding to a Selecting Official 
based on the technical and business evaluations and the selection 
criteria. The SEB ratings shall provide a rank order to the Selecting 
Official for final recommendation to the NIST Grants Officer. NIST/ATP 
reserves the right to negotiate the cost and scope of the proposed work 
with the proposers who have been selected to receive awards. For 
example, NIST/ATP may require that the proposer delete from the scope 
of work a particular task that is deemed by NIST/ATP to be product 
development or otherwise inappropriate for ATP support. All funding 
decisions are final and cannot be appealed.
    Evaluation Criteria: The evaluation criteria used to select a 
proposal for funding and their respective weights are found in 15 CFR 
295.6.
    Selection Factors: The Selecting Official shall recommend for award 
in rank order unless a proposal is justified to be selected out of rank 
order based upon the availability of funds, the adherence to ATP 
selection criteria, or the appropriate distribution of funds among 
technologies and their applications. NIST reserves the right to deny 
awards in any case where NIST determines that a reasonable doubt exists 
regarding a proposer's ability to comply with ATP requirements or to 
handle Federal funds responsibly.

Ineligible Projects

    a. Straightforward improvements of existing products or product 
development.
    b. Projects that are basic research.
    c. Projects that are Phase II, III, or IV clinical trials. ATP 
rarely funds Phase I clinical trials and reserves the right not to fund 
a Phase I clinical trial. The portion of a Phase I trial that may be 
funded must be critical to meeting the scientific and technological 
merit selection criterion and the trial must be essential for 
completion of the study. The definitions of all phases of clinical 
trials are provided in the ATP Guidelines and Documentation 
Requirements for Research Involving Human & Animal Subjects located at 
http://www.atp.nist.gov/atp/helpful.htm.
    d. Pre-commercial-scale demonstration projects where the emphasis 
is on demonstrating that some technology works on a large scale or is 
economically sound rather than on R&D that advances the state of the 
art.
    e. Projects that ATP believes would likely be completed without ATP 
funds in the same time frame or nearly the same time frame, or with the 
same scale or scope.
    f. Predominantly straightforward, routine data gathering (e.g., 
creation of voluntary consensus standards, data gathering/handbook 
preparation, testing of materials, or unbounded research aimed at basic 
discovery science) or application of standard engineering practices.
    g. Projects that are simply a follow-on or a continuation of tasks 
previously funded in ATP projects from essentially the same proposing 
team.
    h. Projects in which the only risk is market oriented--that is, the 
risk that the end product may not be embraced by the marketplace.
    i. Projects with software work, that are predominantly about final 
product details and product development, and that have significant 
testing that involve users outside the research team to determine if 
the software meets the original research objectives, are likely to be 
either uncompetitive or possibly ineligible for funding. However, R&D 
projects with limited software testing, involving users outside of the 
research team, may be considered eligible costs within an ATP award 
when the testing is critical to meeting the scientific and 
technological merit selection criterion and the testing is essential 
for completion of the proposed research. These types of projects may 
also be considered to involve human subjects in research.
    Unallowable/Ineligible Costs. The following items, regardless of 
whether they are allowable under the federal cost principles, are 
unallowable under ATP:
    a. Bid and proposal costs unless they are incorporated into a 
federally approved indirect cost rate.
    b. Construction costs for new buildings or extensive renovations of 
existing laboratory buildings. However, costs for the construction of 
experimental research and development facilities to be located within a 
new or existing building are allowable provided that the equipment or 
facilities are essential for carrying out the proposed scientific and 
technical project and are approved by the NIST Grants Officer.
    c. For research involving human and/or animal subjects, any costs 
used to secure Institutional Review Board or Institutional Animal Care 
and Use Committee approvals before the award or during the award.
    d. General purpose office equipment and supplies that are not used 
exclusively for the research, e.g., office computers, printers, 
copiers, paper, pens, and toner cartridges.
    e. Indirect costs for single-company recipients, which must be 
absorbed by the company. (Note that with large businesses submitting 
proposals as single-company proposers, indirect costs absorbed by the 
large business may be used to meet the cost-sharing requirement.)
    f. Marketing, sales, or commercialization costs, including 
marketing surveys, commercialization studies, and general business 
planning, unless they are included in a federally approved indirect 
cost rate.
    g. Office furniture costs, unless they are included in a federally 
approved indirect cost rate.
    h. Patent costs and legal fees, unless they are included in a 
federally approved indirect cost rate.
    i. Preaward costs.
    j. Profit, management fees, interest on borrowed funds, or 
facilities capital cost of money.
    k. Relocation costs, unless they are included in a federally 
approved indirect cost rate.
    l. Subcontractor expenses such as those for office supplies and 
conferences/workshops.
    m. Subcontracts to another part of the same company or to another 
company with identical or nearly identical ownership. Work proposed by 
another part of the same company or by another company with identical 
or nearly identical ownership should be shown as funded through 
interorganizational transfers that do not contain profit. 
Interorganizational transfers should be broken down in the appropriate 
budget categories.
    n. Tuition costs. However, a university participating in an ATP 
project as a subcontractor or as a joint venture partner may charge ATP 
for tuition remission or other forms of compensation in lieu of wages 
paid to university students working on ATP projects but only as 
provided in OMB Circular A-21, Section J.41. In such cases, tuition 
remission would be considered a cash contribution rather than an in-
kind contribution.
    Intellectual Property Requirements: Title to any inventions arising 
from an ATP-funded project must be held by a for-profit company, or 
companies,

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incorporated or organized in the United States. A university, 
government laboratory, independent research organization, or other 
nonprofit organization cannot retain title to patents, although such 
organizations can receive mutually agreeable payments (either one-time 
or continuing) from the company or companies holding title to the 
patent. However, a for-profit corporation organized by a university can 
be considered a for-profit company for the purpose of retaining title 
to patents arising from an ATP award. In such a case, documentation of 
the for-profit status must be provided in the proposal. If your 
organization is not a for-profit company but plans to be involved in an 
ATP project, you will not be able to retain title to any patentable 
inventions arising from the ATP project. Please make sure your legal 
department is aware that ATP cannot waive this mandated provision (15 
U.S.C. 278n(d)(11)(A) and 15 CFR 295.2 and 295.8). Title to any such 
invention shall not be transferred or passed, except to a for-profit 
company organized in the United States, until the expiration of the 
first patent obtained in connection with such invention.
    The United States reserves a nonexclusive, nontransferable, 
irrevocable, paid-up license to practice or have practiced for or on 
behalf of the United States any patentable invention arising from an 
ATP award. The federal government shall not, however, in the exercise 
of such license, publicly disclose proprietary information related to 
the license. The federal government also has march-in rights in 
accordance with 15 CFR 295.8. Since its inception in 1990, ATP has not 
exercised its march-in rights nor has it used its nontransferable, 
irrevocable, paid-up license.
    Projects Involving Human Subjects: Research involving human 
subjects must be in compliance with applicable Federal regulations and 
NIST policies for the protection of human subjects. Human subjects 
research involves interactions with live human subjects or the use of 
data, images, tissue, and/or cells/cell lines (including those used for 
control purposes) from human subjects. Research involving human 
subjects may include activities such as the use of image and/or audio 
recording of people, taking surveys or using survey data, using 
databases containing personal information, testing software with 
volunteers, and many tasks beyond those within traditional biomedical 
research. A Human Subjects Determination Checklist is included in the 
April 2007 ATP Proposal Preparation Kit as Exhibit 2 (http://www.atp.nist.gov/atp/helpful.htm) to assist you in determining whether 
your proposal has human subjects involvement, which would require 
additional documents with your proposal. Detailed information regarding 
the use of human subjects in research projects and required 
documentation is available in the ATP Guidelines and Documentation 
Requirements for Research Involving Human & Animal Subjects located at 
http://www.atp.nist.gov/atp/helpful.htm or by calling 1-800-287-3863.
    Projects Involving Animal Subjects: Research involving animal 
subjects must be in compliance with applicable federal regulations and 
NIST policies for the protection of animal subjects. Vertebrate animal 
research involves live animals that are being cared for, euthanized, or 
used by the project participants to accomplish research goals or for 
teaching or testing. The regulations do not apply to animal tissues 
purchased from commercial processors or tissue banks or to uses of 
preexisting images of animals (e.g., a wildlife documentary or pictures 
of animals in newscasts). The regulations do apply to any animals that 
are housed and cared for by a project participant and used for custom 
collection of biological samples or observation data of health and 
behavior. Detailed information regarding the use of animal subjects in 
research projects and required documentation is available in the ATP 
Guidelines and Documentation Requirements for Research Involving Human 
& Animal Subjects located at http://www.atp.nist.gov/atp/helpful.htm or 
by calling 1-800-287-3863.
    Administrative and National Policy Requirements: The Department of 
Commerce Pre-Award Notification Requirements for Grants and Cooperative 
Agreements: The Department of Commerce Pre-Award Notification 
Requirements for Grants and Cooperative Agreements contained in the 
Federal Register notice of December 30, 2004 (69 FR 78389) is 
applicable to this announcement. On the form SF-424 (R&R), the 
applicant's 9-digit Dun and Bradstreet Data Universal Numbering System 
(DUNS) number must be entered in the Organizational DUNS line.
    Paperwork Reduction Act: This notice contains collection of 
information requirements subject to the Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA). 
The use of Forms NIST-1262 and NIST-1263, SF-424 (R&R), Research and 
Related Other Project Information, SF-424B, SF-LLL, CD-346, and Budget 
Narrative form has been approved by OMB under the respective control 
numbers 0693-0009, 4040-0001, 4040-0001, 4040-0007, 0348-0046, 0605-
0001, and 0693-0009. Notwithstanding any other provision of the law, no 
person is required to respond to, nor shall any person be subject to a 
penalty for failure to comply with, a collection of information, 
subject to the requirements of the PRA, unless that collection of 
information displays a currently valid OMB Control Number.
    Executive Order 12866: This notice has been determined to be not 
significant for purposes of Executive Order 12866.
    Executive Order 12372 (Intergovernmental Review of Federal 
Programs): ATP does not involve the mandatory payment of any matching 
funds from state or local government and does not affect directly any 
state or local government. Accordingly, the Department of Commerce has 
determined that Executive Order 12372 is not applicable to this 
program.
    Executive Order 13132 (Federalism): It has been determined that 
this notice does not contain policies with Federalism implications as 
that term is defined in Executive Order 13132.
    Administrative Procedure Act/Regulatory Flexibility Act: Notice and 
comment are not required under the Administrative Procedure Act (5 
U.S.C. 553) or any other law, for notices relating to public property, 
loans, grants, benefits or contracts (5 U.S.C. 553(a)). Because notice 
and comment are not required under the Administrative Procedure Act, a 
Regulatory Flexibility Analysis is not required and has not been 
prepared for this notice, 5 U.S.C. 601 et seq.

    Dated: April 3, 2007.
William Jeffrey,
Director, NIST.
[FR Doc. E7-6650 Filed 4-9-07; 8:45 am]
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