(NIST: Gaithersburg, MD) -- The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has announced a new competition for high-risk, high-reward research funding under the Technology Innovation Program (TIP). The new TIP competition offers cost-shared funding for innovative research on “Manufacturing and Biomanufacturing: Materials Advances and Critical Processes.” Approximately $25 million is available for first-year funding for an expected 25 new TIP projects.

New materials have the potential to open whole new markets for novel or dramatically-improved manufactured products, but efficiently moving new materials from the lab into production and the market remains a major challenge for manufacturers, according to a new TIP white paper.

Improvements in critical manufacturing processes that reduce costs, save time, increase quality, or reduce waste can dramatically improve the competitiveness of process-based industries, including biomanufacturing—the sector that produces vaccines and other biopharmaceuticals—chemical production and fuel producers, among others.

The 2010 TIP competition is open to research proposals in three areas:

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