Secure Up To $3M for Infrastructure Tech Innovation!

The America Creating Opportunities to Meaningfully Promote Excellence in Technology, Education, and Science (COMPETES) Act, Pub. L. 110-69 (August 9, 2007), 15 U.S.C.A. §278n (2008), was enacted to invest in innovation through research and development and to improve the competitiveness of the United States.

Section 3012 of the COMPETES Act established TIP for the purpose of assisting United States businesses and institutions of higher education or other organizations, such as national laboratories and nonprofit research institutions, to support, promote, and accelerate innovation in the United States through high-risk, high-reward research in areas of critical national need. High-risk, high-reward research is research that has the potential for yielding transformational results with far-ranging or wide-ranging implications; addresses areas of critical national need that support, promote, and accelerate innovation in the United States and is within NIST’s areas of technical competence; and is too novel or spans too diverse a range of disciplines to fare well in the traditional peer review process. The TIP implementing regulations are published at 15 C.F.R. Part 296, 73 Fed.

Reg. 35,913 (June 25, 2008), and included in the TIP Proposal Preparation Kit as Appendix B.TIP is soliciting proposals under this fiscal year 2008 competition in one area of critical nation need entitled “Civil Infrastructure” as described below.Civil Infrastructure: The objective of this area of critical national need is to address two elements of a Civil Infrastructure Structural Integrity societal challenge. The two elements are inspection and monitoring of the United States’ Civil Infrastructure Structural Integrity as outlined in the white paper “Advanced Sensing Technologies for the Infrastructure: Roads, Highways, Bridges and Water Systems” (http://www.nist.gov/tip/helpful.html). The solutions to this societal challenge require advancement beyond the state-of-the-art of sensing technologies that will assess the structural integrity and/or deterioration processes of bridges, roads, water mains, and wastewater collection systems, that are more accurate, easier to use, and more economically feasible.

The need for advanced sensing technologies is of national importance because nearly all municipalities and states in the nation face infrastructure management challenges. The need for TIP’s investment is justified because portions of infrastructure are reaching the end of their life spans and there are few cost effective technical means to monitor infrastructure integrity and to prioritize the renovation and replacement of infrastructure elements. Transformational research beyond incremental advancements is required to achieve the objectives for this area of critical national need. Incremental improvements of current technologies will not meet the challenges of providing cost-effective, widely deployable solutions to the problems of sensing structural integrities and/or deterioration processes widely across infrastructure systems.Proposals are being sought to create and validate new advanced, robust, network capable, nondestructive evaluation and test sensing systems, or system components, to cost effectively and quantitatively inspect and evaluate the structural integrity of the civil infrastructure.

The targeted system should be capable of, but not limited to, detection of corrosion, cracking, and delamination or failure of critical infrastructure elements and the materials of which they are made. Solutions are needed for improved inspection systems for roads, highways, bridges, drinking and wastewater systems that provide real-time understanding of the integrity and service life through the use of portable, mobile or remote sensing capabilities.Innovations are being sought in all aspects of a system to provide an advanced, cost effective, networked system, either fixed or mobile, that is easily deployable, self powered, and self monitoring. A complete system could include all system components, hardware, and software.Proposals that include validation by potential end users will be considered as having strong potential.Also within scope are:1. Systems that provide new and advanced methodologies for the detection of fluid leaks from water piping systems; and2.

Single components of a system solution that include a demonstration of the component in a system setting. Ineligible projects under this competition are: 1. Advancements in a system component without a prototype demonstrating that the component is functional within a system solution, as part of the proposed technical plan; 2. Integration projects using only existing state-of-the-art components;3.

Straightforward improvements to existing components without the potential for a transformational increase in performance to the technical requirements; and4. Software development that is predominantly straightforward, routine data gathering using applications of standard software development practices. In addition to the competition-specific ineligible projects, the following are ineligible projects:1. Straightforward improvements of existing products or product development.2.

Projects that are Phase II, III, or IV clinical trials. TIP will rarely fund 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 Evaluation Criterion (a)(1) addressing the scientific and technical merit of the proposal. The trial results must be essential for completion of a critical R&D task of the project.

The definitions of all phases of clinical trials are provided in the TIP Guidelines and Documentation Requirements for Research Involving Human & Animal Subjects located at http://www.nist.gov/tip/helpful.html. 3. 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 and is high-risk, high-reward.4. Projects that TIP determines would likely be completed without TIP funds in the same time frame or nearly the same time frame, or with the same scale or scope.5.

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.6. Projects in which the predominant risk is market oriented—that is, the risk that the end product may not be embraced by the marketplace.7. Projects with software work, that are predominantly about final product details and product development, and that have significant testing involving 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 eligible for funding and contain eligible costs within a TIP award when the testing is critical to meeting Evaluation Criteria and/or Award Criteria and the testing results are essential for completion of a critical task in the proposed research.

This type of testing in projects may also be considered to involve human subjects in research.Fiscal year 2008 appropriations include funds in the amount of approximately $9 million for new TIP awards. Approximately 9 awards are anticipated. The anticipated start date is January 1, 2009. The period of performance depends on the R&D activity proposed.

A single company can receive up to a total of $3 million with a project period of performance of up to 3 years. A joint venture can receive up to total of $9 million with a project period of performance of up to 5 years.Continuation funding is based on satisfactory performance, availability of funds, continued relevance to program objectives, and is at the sole discretion of NIST. The funding instrument used in TIP awards is a cooperative agreement. Through the use of the cooperative agreement, TIP fosters public/private partnerships to accomplish a public purpose to support, promote, and accelerate innovation in the United States through high-risk, high-reward research in areas of critical national need.

TIP plays a substantial role beyond the levels required normally for program stewardship of grants. This includes but is not limited to providing technical assistance and monitoring of the technical progress against established milestones, and maintaining fidelity against the TIP award and evaluation criteria; review and approval of key personnel, including the Principal Investigator (PI) and designated staff other than the PI; significant changes in project participants that impact the technical approach; and tracking impact statements for use in the TIP Annual Report.