[Federal Register Volume 72, Number 86 (Friday, May 4, 2007)]
[Notices]
[Pages 25264-25267]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E7-8611]


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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

National Institute of Standards and Technology

[Docket Number: 070419095-7101-01]


NIST Consortium/Consortia for Post-Complementary Metal Oxide 
Semiconductor (CMOS) Nanoelectronics Research Program; Availability of 
Funds

AGENCY: National Institute of Standards and Technology, Commerce.

ACTION: Notice.

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SUMMARY: The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) 
announces that NIST seeks to work with a consortium or consortia to 
fund basic research in the field of nanoscale electronics focused on 
developing the next logic switch beyond complementary metal oxide 
semiconductor (CMOS).

DATES: All applications, paper and electronic, must be received no 
later that 5 p.m. Daylight Savings Time on June 4, 2007. Late 
applications will not be reviewed nor considered.

ADDRESSES: Application packages may be obtained by contacting Jason 
Boehm, National Institute of Standards and Technology, 100 Bureau 
Drive, Stop 1060, Gaithersburg, MD 20899-1060, phone (301) 975-8678, or 
by downloading them through Grants.gov. Completed application packages 
may be

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sent to Dr. Jason Boehm, National Institute of Standards and 
Technology, 100 Bureau Drive, Stop 1060, Gaithersburg, MD 20899-1060 or 
submitted to Grants.gov.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For complete information about this 
program and instructions for applying by paper or electronically, read 
the Federal Funding Opportunity (FFO) Notice at http://www.grants.gov. 
A paper copy of the FFO may be obtained by calling (301) 975-6328. 
Questions about the program should be addressed to: Dr. Jason Boehm, 
National Institute of Standards and Technology, 100 Bureau Drive, Stop 
1060, Gaithersburg, MD 20899-1060, (301) 975-8678, 
[email protected]. Technical questions should be addressed to: Dr. 
Stephen Knight, Electronics and Electrical Engineering Laboratory, 
National Institute of Standards and Technology, 100 Bureau Drive, Stop 
8101, Gaithersburg, MD 20899-8101, (301) 975-2871, 
[email protected]. Grants Administration questions should be 
addressed to: Hope Snowden, Grants and Agreements Management Division, 
National Institute of Standards and Technology, 100 Bureau Drive, Stop 
1650; Gaithersburg, MD 20899-1650; Tel: (301) 975-6002, 
[email protected]. For assistance with using Grants.gov contact 
[email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance Name 
and Number: Measurement and Engineering Research and Standards--11.609.
    Program Description: The National Institute of Standards and 
Technology (NIST) seeks research and development (R&D) partnerships 
that promote directed basic research at universities focused on the 
long-term research needs of industry in specific technological sectors 
important for U.S. economic competitiveness. NIST seeks to support a 
program of one or more projects that involves an industry-led 
partnership that can include commercial, academic, non-profit, and/or 
government organizations to address the technical challenges 
highlighted in the International Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors 
(ITRS) roadmap, including the characterization and measurement issues 
inherent in the use of nanoscale electronics to develop the next logic 
switch beyond complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) 
technology. The program is expected to leverage Federal financial 
support with that of other partners from industry to fund research at 
universities. Through the formation of a formal competitive process 
within a partnership (hereinafter called ``the consortium''), a funded 
consortium is expected to create a process for the review, selection, 
award and monitoring of research awards to universities to be made by 
the consortium in support of addressing the technical challenges 
associated with nanoscale electronics and the development of the next 
logic switch beyond CMOS technology.
    Funding Availability: Proposals will be considered for cooperative 
agreements with durations up to five years subject to the availability 
of funds, satisfactory progress, and the continuing relevance to 
national and NIST priorities. Applicants should submit scopes of work 
and budgets for each proposed project year. The anticipated level of 
funding is potentially up to $3 million per year. NIST will determine 
whether to fund one award for the full amount; to divide funds into 
multiple awards; or not to select any proposal for funding, upon 
completing the selection process described in this notice. One award is 
likely.
    Statutory Authority: 15 U.S.C. Sec. 3704(c)(11) and (12), and Sec. 
3706.
    Eligibility: The NIST Consortium/Consortia for Post-CMOS 
Nanoelectronics Research Program is open to any industry-led consortium 
consisting of any number of commercial organizations; institutions of 
higher education; nonprofit organizations; and/or units of State, 
local, and/or Indian tribal governments. Tax exempt organizations 
formed under 26 U.S.C. section 501(c)(4) are ineligible for this 
program if they engage in lobbying as defined in the Lobbying 
Disclosure Act of 1995, 2 U.S.C. sections 1601-1607.
    The managing entity of the consortium must be a legal entity based 
in the United States.
    Review and Selection Process: All applications received in response 
to this announcement will be reviewed to determine whether or not they 
are complete and responsive to the scope of the stated program 
objectives. Incomplete or non-responsive applications will not be 
reviewed for technical merit. The Program will retain one copy of each 
non-responsive application for three years for record keeping purposes 
and destroy all other copies.
    Responsive proposals will be evaluated by an independent, objective 
panel composed of professionally and technically qualified NIST 
employees using the evaluation criteria in this notice. The reviewers 
will reach a consensus score resulting in a rank order of applicants.
    The Director of the NIST Program Office, acting as the Selecting 
Official, will make the award selection. In making the award selection, 
the Selecting Official will take into consideration the panels' 
technical evaluation. The Selecting Official may choose a proposal out 
of rank order based upon one or more of the following factors: (1) 
Availability of funds, (2) Redundancy, (3) Program objectives described 
in the Funding Opportunity Description section of the Federal Funding 
Opportunity Notice for this program, and (4) Logistical concerns that 
would be detrimental to the success or timely completion of the 
proposal objectives. Therefore, the highest scoring proposal(s) may not 
necessarily be selected for an award. If an award is made to an 
applicant that deviates from the scores of the reviewers, the Selecting 
Official shall justify the selection in writing based on selection 
factors described above. The Selecting Official may select all, none, 
or some of the applications for funding.
    The final approval of selected applications and award of financial 
assistance will be made by the NIST Grants Officer based on compliance 
with application requirements as published in this notice, compliance 
with applicable legal and regulatory requirements, whether the 
application furthers the objectives of the Department of Commerce, and 
whether the recommended applicants appear to be responsible. Applicants 
may be asked to modify objectives, work plans, or budgets and provide 
supplemental information required by the agency prior to award. The 
award decision of the Grants Officer is final. Applicants should allow 
up to 90 days processing time.
    Unsuccessful applicants will be notified in writing. The Program 
will retain one copy of each unsuccessful application for three years 
for record keeping purposes. The remaining copies will be destroyed.
    Evaluation Criteria: For the NIST Consortia for Post-CMOS 
Nanoelectronics Research Program, proposals will be evaluated upon the 
following three equally weighted criteria:
    Composition of Consortium and Technical Expertise: Proposals must 
provide a detailed description of the consortium. The breadth of the 
consortium in terms of the involvement of multiple industry partners, 
institutions of higher learning, non-profit organizations, and/or the 
participation of State and/or local governments will be evaluated. The 
proposal must illustrate the technical

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expertise of the consortium members relevant to the application of 
nanoscale electronics towards the development of fundamentally new 
approaches to circumvent the inherent thermal limitations for switches 
based on charge transfer to research on nanoscale electronics.
    Support for Research: Proposals must provide a detailed description 
of resources that the consortium is willing to apply towards research 
on post-CMOS nanoelectronics. Proposals must detail the nature of the 
25% or more recipient contribution. The total amount of recipient 
contribution and its application to R&D will be evaluated. For example, 
proposals that demonstrate support for R&D in terms of (in order of 
priority) direct grants for research, salary support for scientists, or 
access to equipment will receive a higher ranking than proposals that 
count overhead or other administrative costs as a part of the 
consortium's contributions.
    Quality of Proposal: Proposals will be evaluated on the breadth and 
quality of the process used to implement the program. Proposals should 
describe how the consortium will manage the funds to support R&D in the 
area of post-CMOS nanoelectronics. Specifically, proposals must 
describe: how the availability of funds will be announced, who is 
eligible to receive funding, how proposals will be evaluated in terms 
of merit and relevance to industry needs, a willingness to fund 
research on multiple alternative state variables, mechanisms for 
avoiding conflict of interest, and plans and metrics for evaluating the 
outputs of the funded proposals. If the proposed consortium contains 
university members, a university consortium member may not be involved 
in selecting itself for a subaward. If the consortium contains 
university members and non-consortium-member universities are eligible 
for subawards, the proposal must describe how the consortium will 
fairly evaluate research proposals from university researchers outside 
the original membership of the consortium.
    Cost Share Requirements: The Consortium members must provide a 
minimum of a 25 percent match of NIST funds.
    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 notice. On the form SF-424, the 
applicant's 9-digit Dun and Bradstreet Data Universal Numbering System 
(DUNS) number must be entered in the Applicant Identifier block (68 FR 
38402).
    Collaborations with NIST Employees: All applications should include 
a description of any work proposed to be performed by an entity other 
than the applicant, and the cost of such work should ordinarily be 
included in the budget.
    If an applicant proposes collaboration with NIST, the statement of 
work should include a statement of this intention, a description of the 
collaboration, and prominently identify the NIST employee(s) involved, 
if known. Any collaboration by a NIST employee must be approved by 
appropriate NIST management and is at the sole discretion of NIST. 
Prior to beginning the merit review process, NIST will verify the 
approval of the proposed collaboration. Any unapproved collaboration 
will be stricken from the proposal prior to the merit review.
    Use of NIST Intellectual Property: If the applicant anticipates 
using any NIST-owned intellectual property to carry out the work 
proposed, the applicant should identify such intellectual property. 
This information will be used to ensure that no NIST employee involved 
in the development of the intellectual property will participate in the 
review process for that competition. In addition, if the applicant 
intends to use NIST-owned intellectual property, the applicant must 
comply with all statutes and regulations governing the licensing of 
Federal government patents and inventions, described at 35 U.S.C. sec. 
200-212, 37 CFR part 401, 15 CFR 14.36, and in section B.20 of the 
Department of Commerce Pre-Award Notification Requirements published on 
December 30, 2004 (69 FR 78389). Questions about these requirements may 
be directed to the Counsel for NIST, 301-975-2803.
    Any use of NIST-owned intellectual property by a proposer is at the 
sole discretion of NIST and will be negotiated on a case-by-case basis 
if a project is deemed meritorious. The applicant should indicate 
within the statement of work whether it already has a license to use 
such intellectual property or whether it intends to seek one.
    If any inventions made in whole or in part by a NIST employee arise 
in the course of an award made pursuant to this notice, the United 
States government may retain its ownership rights in any such 
invention. Licensing or other disposition of NIST's rights in such 
inventions will be determined solely by NIST, and include the 
possibility of NIST putting the intellectual property into the public 
domain.
    Collaborations Making Use of Federal Facilities: All applications 
should include a description of any work proposed to be performed using 
Federal Facilities. If an applicant proposes use of NIST facilities, 
the statement of work should include a statement of this intention and 
a description of the facilities. Any use of NIST facilities must be 
approved by appropriate NIST management and is at the sole discretion 
of NIST. Prior to beginning the merit review process, NIST will verify 
the availability of the facilities and approval of the proposed usage. 
Any unapproved facility use will be stricken from the proposal prior to 
the merit review. Examples of some facilities that may be available for 
collaborations are listed on the NIST Technology Services Web site, 
http://ts.nist.gov/.
    Initial Screening of all Applications: All applications received in 
response to this announcement will be reviewed to determine whether or 
not they are complete and responsive to the scope of the stated program 
objectives. Incomplete or non-responsive applications will not be 
reviewed for technical merit. The Program will retain one copy of each 
non-responsive application for three years for record keeping purposes. 
The remaining copies will be destroyed.
    Paperwork Reduction Act: The standard forms in the application kit 
involve a collection of information subject to the Paperwork Reduction 
Act. The use of Standard Forms 424, 424A, 424B, SF-LLL, and CD-346 have 
been approved by OMB under the respective Control Numbers 0348-0043, 
0348-0044, 0348-0040, 0348-0046, and 0605-0001.
    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 subject to the requirements of 
the Paperwork Reduction Act, unless that collection of information 
displays a currently valid OMB Control Number.
    Research Projects Involving Human Subjects, Human Tissue, Data or 
Recordings Involving Human Subjects: Any proposal that includes 
research involving human subjects, human tissue, data or recordings 
involving human subjects must meet the requirements of the Common Rule 
for the Protection of Human Subjects, codified for the Department of 
Commerce at 15 CFR part 27. In

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addition, any proposal that includes research on these topics must be 
in compliance with any statutory requirements imposed upon the 
Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) and other federal 
agencies regarding these topics, all regulatory policies and guidance 
adopted by DHHS, FDA, and other Federal agencies on these topics, and 
all Presidential statements of policy on these topics.
    NIST will accept the submission of human subjects protocols that 
have been approved by Institutional Review Boards (IRBs) possessing a 
current registration filed with DHHS and to be performed by 
institutions possessing a current, valid Federal-wide Assurance (FWA) 
from DHHS. NIST will not issue a single project assurance (SPA) for any 
human subjects protocol proposed to NIST.
    On August 9, 2001, the President announced his decision to allow 
Federal funds to be used for research on existing human embryonic stem 
cell lines as long as prior to his announcement (1) The derivation 
process (which commences with the removal of the inner cell mass from 
the blastocyst) had already been initiated and (2) the embryo from 
which the stem cell line was derived no longer had the possibility of 
development as a human being. NIST will follow guidance issued by the 
National Institutes of Health at http://ohrp.osophs.dhhs.gov/humansubjects/guidance/stemcell.pdf for funding such research.
    Research Projects Involving Vertebrate Animals: Any proposal that 
includes research involving vertebrate animals must be in compliance 
with the National Research Council's ``Guide for the Care and Use of 
Laboratory Animals'' which can be obtained from National Academy Press, 
2101 Constitution Avenue, NW., Washington, DC 20055. In addition, such 
proposals must meet the requirements of the Animal Welfare Act (7 
U.S.C. 2131 et seq.), 9 CFR parts 1, 2, and 3, and if appropriate, 21 
CFR part 58. These regulations do not apply to proposed research using 
pre-existing images of animals or to research plans that do not include 
live animals that are being cared for, euthanized, or used by the 
project participants to accomplish research goals, teaching, or 
testing. These regulations also do not apply to obtaining animal 
materials from commercial processors of animal products or to animal 
cell lines or tissues from tissue banks.
    Limitation of Liability: In no event will NIST or the Department of 
Commerce be responsible for proposal preparation costs if these 
programs fail to receive funding or are cancelled because of other 
agency priorities. Publication of this announcement does not oblige the 
agency to award any specific project or to obligate any available 
funds. Funding of any award under any program announced in this notice 
is subject to the availability of funds.
    Executive Order 12866: This funding notice was determined to be not 
significant for purposes of Executive Order 12866.
    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.
    Executive Order 12372: Applications under this program are not 
subject to Executive Order 12372, ``Intergovernmental Review of Federal 
Programs.''
    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 rules relating to public property, 
loans, grants, benefits or contracts (5 U.S.C. 553(a)). Because notice 
and comment are not required under 5 U.S.C. 553, or any other law, for 
rules relating to public property, loans, grants, benefits or contracts 
(5 U.S.C. 553(a)), a Regulatory Flexibility Analysis is not required 
and has not been prepared for this notice, 5 U.S.C. 601 et seq.

    Dated: May 1, 2007.
William Jeffrey,
Director, NIST.
 [FR Doc. E7-8611 Filed 5-3-07; 8:45 am]
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