ACADEMIA

The U.S. Commerce Department's National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) announced today that it is awarding grants totaling more than $55.5 million to four universities to provide cost-shared support for the construction of new scientific research facilities.

“These awards mean four major construction projects in these local areas, with the jobs and economic benefits they bring,” U.S. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke said, “but even more important, these four projects provide a major boost to scientific research at four respected universities, enhancing innovation, public safety and environmental protection for many, many years to come.”

The cost-shared awards include:

• $15 million to the University of Miami (Miami, Fla.) for a Marine Technology and Life Sciences Seawater Research Building, matched by $28.8 million;
• $14.4 million to Auburn University (Auburn, Ala.) for a Center for Advanced Science, Innovation and Commerce, matched by an equal amount;
• $11.1 million to the William Marsh Rice University (Houston, Texas) for the new Brockman Hall for Physics, matched by $33.4 million; and
• $15 million to the University of North Carolina Wilmington (Wilmington, N.C.) for a new facility for the Marine Biotechnology in North Carolina (MARBIONC) program, matched by an equal amount.

The new research buildings will provide state-of-the-art laboratory facilities supporting academic research across a broad range of topics affecting the Commerce Department's mission, including fundamental physics research, nanotechnology, aquaculture and marine ecology.

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 provided funding for the competitive program to help support the construction of new or expanded research science buildings. NIST allocated up to $60 million of its construction grant funding to meritorious but unfunded project proposals that were received in a 2008 research construction grant competition in order to move the Recovery Act dollars as quickly as possible. (See "NIST Awards $24 Million in Grants For New Research Facilities Dedicated to Quantum Measurement, Marine Ecology," Nov. 24, 2008.)

That competition provided cost-shared funding for the construction of new buildings or the expansion of existing science buildings as they related to the mission of the Department of Commerce and its agencies, including NIST, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA). The competition was open to institutions of higher education and nonprofit organizations. Proposals were evaluated on the scientific and technical merits of the proposal, the quality of the design of the proposed facility and the adequacy of a project execution plan.

NIST expects to award approximately $120 million in additional research construction grants under a new competition announced in May. (See "NIST Announces Competition for Research Construction Grants," May 27, 2009.) Those awards will be announced by March 2010.

As a non-regulatory agency of the U.S. Department of Commerce, NIST promotes U.S. innovation and industrial competitiveness by advancing measurement science, standards and technology in ways that enhance economic security and improve our quality of life.