Posted: Sep 16, 2015 | |
$81 million to support new National Nanotechnology Coordinated Infrastructure in the U.S.(Nanowerk News) To advance research in nanoscale science, engineering and technology, the National Science Foundation (NSF) will provide a total of $81 million over five years to support 16 sites and a coordinating office as part of a new National Nanotechnology Coordinated Infrastructure (NNCI). |
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The NNCI sites will provide researchers from academia, government, and companies large and small with access to university user facilities with leading-edge fabrication and characterization tools, instrumentation, and expertise within all disciplines of nanoscale science, engineering and technology. | |
The NNCI framework builds on the National Nanotechnology Infrastructure Network (NNIN), which enabled major discoveries, innovations, and contributions to education and commerce for more than 10 years. | |
"NSF's long-standing investments in nanotechnology infrastructure have helped the research community to make great progress by making research facilities available," said Pramod Khargonekar, assistant director for engineering. "NNCI will serve as a nationwide backbone for nanoscale research, which will lead to continuing innovations and economic and societal benefits." | |
The awards are up to five years and range from $500,000 to $1.6 million each per year. Nine of the sites have at least one regional partner institution. These 16 sites are located in 15 states and involve 27 universities across the nation. | |
Through a fiscal year 2016 competition, one of the newly awarded sites will be chosen to coordinate the facilities. This coordinating office will enhance the sites' impact as a national nanotechnology infrastructure and establish a web portal to link the individual facilities' websites to provide a unified entry point to the user community of overall capabilities, tools and instrumentation. The office will also help to coordinate and disseminate best practices for national-level education and outreach programs across sites. | |
Funding for the NNCI program is provided by all NSF directorates and the Office of International Science and Engineering. | |
New NNCI awards: | |
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Source: National Science Foundation | |
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