Commerce
Business Daily Announcement
Focused Program Competition 97-05
Technologies for the Integration
of Manufacturing Applications
REQUEST
FOR PROPOSALS
AND NOTICE OF PUBLIC MEETING
REQUEST FOR
PROPOSALS AND NOTICE OF PUBLIC MEETING: The NIST
Advanced Technology Program (ATP) is soliciting
proposals under its focused program competition 97-05, Technologies for
the Integration of Manufacturing Applications (TIMA), and announces a
public meeting (Proposers' Conference) for all interested parties. This
notice provides general information for this focused program competition
97-05.
An estimated $15
million in first-year ATP funding is available under this focused program
competition. The ATP reserves the right to utilize for this competition
more or less funding than the amount stated above. The actual number of
proposals funded will depend on the quality of the proposals received
and the amount of funding requested in the highest ranked proposals. Outyear
funding is contingent on the approval of future Congressional appropriations
and satisfactory project performance.
This is the second
of three competitions planned for this ATP focused program. One additional
competition is planned. There are related focused program competitions
in information technologies. ATP reserves the right to transfer a full
proposal received under one focused program competition to another focused
program competition underway in the same general timeframe if the subject
matter of the proposal is deemed to be more appropriately aligned with
the scope of the other focused program competition. Proposers will be
notified if and when a proposal is transferred.
Award recipients
will be required to share non-proprietary information at workshops to
be held throughout the duration of the project. The ATP operates under
program procedures published at Part 295, Title 15, of the Code of Federal
Regulations. The ATP Proposal Preparation Kit dated November 1996 (containing
proposal cover sheets, other required forms, background material, and
instructions for submission of proposals) and the 97-05
focused program booklet (containing a paper describing the scope of
the this focused program) may be requested by phone: 1-800-ATP-FUND; fax:
301-926-9524 or 301-590-3053; e-mail: atp@nist.gov;
or letter at the address shown below. Note that those individuals whose
names are currently on the ATP mailing list should have already received
the new November 1996 version of the ATP Proposal Preparation Kit. The
97-05 focused program booklet is available
on our World Wide Web site (http://www.atp.nist.gov),
and printed copies are available upon request from ATP.
Abbreviated
proposals (pre-proposals) are allowed but are optional for this focused
program competition 97-05. Pre-proposals for this competition
are intended to provide intermediate feedback as to whether the proposer
is on track in gathering and articulating some of the key information
required for a successful project proposal. Responses to pre-proposals
will have no effect on the review of full proposals. Pre-proposals under
this focused program competition must follow the instructions included
in the 97-05 focused program booklet. Pre-proposals are due no
later than 3:00 p.m. Eastern time on Friday, March 14, 1997,
at the address shown below. Written feedback can be expected by April
7, 1997. No other form of debriefing will be provided for pre-proposals.
The body of pre-proposals will generally include proprietary information
and should be so marked.
Full proposals must
follow the instructions in the ATP Proposal Preparation Kit (see above).
Proposals and pre-proposals submitted by facsimile or electronic mail
WILL NOT be accepted. If a proposer's full proposal is judged to be of
high enough quality to be invited in for an oral review, ATP reserves
the right to submit a list of questions to the proposer that must be addressed
at the oral review. The due date for submission of full proposals
is 3 p.m. Eastern time on Wednesday, May 28, 1997.
Should the NIST facility be closed on the specified due date, ATP proposals
will be due at 3 p.m. Eastern time on the next business day that the NIST
facility is open. Proposals received after this deadline WILL NOT be considered.
Send
proposals to:
The technical goal
of the TIMA focused program is to develop and demonstrate the technologies
needed to create affordable, integrable manufacturing software applications--those
that can be rapidly integrated, reconfigured, and automatically adjust
their performance in response to changing conditions and requirements.
The intent of this program is to ease the flow of real-time manufacturing
execution data among shop-floor software systems, as well as upstream
to executive information systems and enterprise resource planning systems,
laterally to design and engineering systems, and downstream to equipment
control systems.
The business goals
of this program are to: 1) reduce manufacturing costs and cycle time;
2) reduce time-to-market for new products; 3) reduce the time and cost
of starting up new factories and of changing existing factories; and 4)
reduce inventories and raise levels of capacity and resource utilization.
This program is open to proposals that develop software interoperability
solutions applicable to any or all manufacturing sectors.
The scope of this
year's competition is enlarged from the previous competition (95-12) to
encompass all manufacturing domains including process industries, which
were excluded before. This program will support the development of software
infrastructure; software development environments; and factory integration.
It will not support the development of stand-alone manufacturing applications
that do not contribute to the overall goal of an adaptable "plug and play"
manufacturing environment.
For more details
on the scope of this program, please refer to the information provided
in the, "Technologies for the Integration of Manufacturing
Applications, Supplemental Information Focused Program Competition 97-05."
A public meeting (Proposers' Conference) for potential proposers
and other interested parties under this focused program competition 97-05
will be held on Monday, March 17, 1997, at the Holiday Inn, 2 Montgomery
Village Avenue, Gaithersburg, MD. The conference will begin at
9:30 a.m. Eastern time and end at approximately 3:00 p.m. and will provide
general information regarding the ATP, hints on preparing good proposals
(covering the same material presented at previous ATP Proposers' Conferences),
and will provide an opportunity for attendees to ask questions on the
scope and technical and business goals of this focused program. Attendance
at this public meeting is not required. No registration fee will be charged.
To register for this public meeting or for further information, contact
ATP, by phone: 1-800-ATP-FUND; fax: 301-926-9524 or 301-590-3053; or e-mail:
atp@nist.gov.
In addition to the
focused program proposers' conference in Gaithersburg, ATP is considering
additional proposers' conferences in other locations. Should any additional
conferences be arranged, that information will be published in the CBD
and on our Web site.
Date created: February
12, 1997
Last updated:
April 12, 2005
|
