Phase I and II Contracts Awarded
NASA HAS SELECTED
RESEARCH PROPOSALS for negotiation of both Phase I and Phase II
contract awards for its 1999 Small Business Innovation Research
(SBIR) program. In Phase I contract awards, NASA has selected 290
of 2,260 research proposals from small, high-technology businesses
located throughout the United States, as part of its mission to
encourage the development of new and advanced technologies. The
total value is expected to be more than $20 million and will be
conducted by 220 firms in 34 states.
NASA's field centers reviewed proposals for technical merit, feasibility
and relevance toward NASA research and technology requirements.
The selected firms will be awarded fixed-price contracts worth up
to $70,000 to perform a six-month Phase I feasibility study.
In Phase II contract awards, NASA has selected 103 of 319 research
proposals submitted, in an attempt to stimulate the development
of new technologies. The selected projects have a total value of
approximately $62 million and will be conducted by 90 small, high-technology
firms in 27 states.
Phase II continues the development of the most promising Phase
I projects. Selection criteria included technical merit, innovation,
value to NASA, commercial potential and company capabilities. Funding
for Phase II contracts may amount to $600,000 for over a two-year
period.
In addition to stimulating innovation, the SBIR program aims to
increase the number of small businesses, including women-owned and
disadvantaged firms, conducting federal research and commercializing
the results of federally funded research. NASA evaluated the proposals
to determine whether they successfully met the respective SBIR Phase
I and Phase II objectives and represented feasible research innovations
that could meet agency needs.
The NASA SBIR Program Management Office is located at NASA's Goddard
Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, with executive oversight
by NASA's Office of Aero-Space Technology at NASA Headquarters in
Washington, D.C. Individual SBIR projects are managed by NASA's
10 field centers.
For more information, visit http://sbir.nasa.gov
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BIOLOGY-INSPIRED
TECHNOLOGY PROJECT BEGINS
NASA
is starting a new research effort in biology-inspired technologies
that could open new areas of technological development, greatly
enhancing the quality of life on Earth. Fourteen researchers
have been selected to receive grants to conduct research in
biology-inspired technologies. These new research efforts,
sponsored by NASA's Office of Life and Microgravity Sciences
and Applications, open a new area of technological development
that could have tremendous impact on the future of NASA's
human exploration program. Also, the technologies could have
a beneficial effect on the quality of life on Earth through
the development of noninvasive medical monitoring, safer automobiles
and aircraft and other uses only imagined today.
The results
of this work will enable more efficient exploration of the
near-Earth environment in which the International Space Station
operates. The research will develop these technologies so
they can be used to explore other parts of the solar system.
Biologically inspired research involves smaller systems or
machines with lower power requirements and much greater capability.
NASA will issue a cooperative agreement notice for a virtual
center in advanced biotechnology that will tie together "ongoing"
results and research and provide a broader distribution of
results from this research.
Ten grants
are for innovative technologies in early conceptual stages
and based on biological materials or concepts inspired by
biological functions found in nature. Four grants look at
extending the capabilities of human interactions with machines
through enhanced computational capabilities or improved sensor
and data-handling capabilities.
NASA received
123 proposals in response to this research announcement. The
proposals were peer-reviewed by scientific and technical experts
from academia, government and industry. In addition to technical
and scientific merit, relevancy to NASA programs also was
one of the selection criteria.
For more
information, visit ftp://ftp.hq.nasa.gov/pub/pao/pressrel/1999/99-089a.xt
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