NIST Centers of Excellence

Visiting Committee on Advanced Technology

October 16-17, 2012

Dr. Jason Boehm

Director, Program Coordination Office, NIST
NIST Partnerships

NIST has a proven record of engagement with academia and industry, and has 

previously demonstrated that leveraging NIST base resources through 

differing venues greatly enhances the value of NIST funding, particularly in 

joint institutes formed with universities.

Industry Driven Consortia
NIST Centers of Excellence (+$20.0M) -- Update

• Create multidisciplinary centers of excellence in critical 

areas of emerging technology leveraging the 

measurement science of NIST with leading researchers 

in academia and industry

• More rapidly meet industrial needs with local presence

• Leverage multidisciplinary capabilities of Centers back 

into NIST core activities

Initiative is supported in both House and Senate 

Report Language for FY13 at the $20M level

Six month C.R. will delay launch of program

Planning is continuing

Proposed Initiative in FY13 -- This initiative will provide support for centers 

focused on emerging areas of research and technology to be determined by 

NIST.

Credit: NIST
Preparation for FY13 Funding

• Working with the IDA’s Science and Technology Policy Institute (STPI)

• Scan research and technology space to identify emerging 

science/technology areas

• Interviews, conference trends, literature, patents, websites, Academy 

reports, other funding activity (NIH, NSF, DOE, foundations, etc)

• Conduct detailed analysis of six to eight priority areas

• Report to NIST in Spring 2013 (timing of report will coincide with end 

of CR)

• Solicited NIST labs to generate potential CoE ideas

• Technical ideas aligned with the NIST mission 

• Potential governance models

• Role of NIST staff

• Other elements which may be critical to success of the Centers
Potential Topic Areas Under Discussion

Only a partial list and not given in any priority order:

• Big Data

• Quantitative Biology

• Complex Systems

• Materials Modeling and Simulation

• Synthetic Biology

• Bioinformatics

• Carbon-based nanomaterials

• Metrological Education

• Clean Energy Systems

• Nondestructive Evaluation

• Disaster Resilience

• Sustainable Engineered Materials
Center Objectives

• Assist NIST in meeting its mission needs in new or expanding 

areas of strategic focus, and provide expanded opportunities 

for NIST to engage with industry and entrepreneurs. 

• Better leverage existing areas of research expertise

• Enhance technical innovation through earlier alignment of 

measurement science in new areas of research and 

technology 

• Foster and facilitate the expanded development of expertise 

in measurement science for students and early-career 

scientists and engineers. 

• Expand NIST’s strategic foot print
Potential Roles of a Center

• Ability to leverage the resources of pre-existing hubs of 

institutional/regional expertise in areas of science and technology that are 

aligned with the long-term strategic needs of NIST. 

• Utilize and leverage existing NIST facilities (including user facilities) and/or 

provide access to a broader range of research facilities

• Provide environments or frameworks for multidisciplinary or multiorganizational collaborations.

• Provides unique opportunities for industrial and entrepreneurial 

engagement either for unique research opportunities or by facilitating 

access to one of a kind capabilities. 

• Enable greater tacit knowledge tranfer through co-localization of 

researchers

• Diversity in topical areas and geography 

• Inclusion of under-represented groups in STEM through partnerships with 

minority serving institutions.
Flexibility Will be Critical

• There is not a silver bullet approach to constructing a center. 

Must be tailored to best address challenge.

• A center maybe:

• A long-term collaboration with an academic institution 

aka JILA

• A more problem focused multi-stakeholder collaborative 

organization (aka the CCOE)

• A user facility model (aka CNST) that provides access to 

unique capabilities or facilities