(a) To begin a competition, the Program will solicit proposals through an announcement in the Federal Register, which will contain information regarding that competition, including the areas of critical national need that proposals must address. An Evaluation Panel(s) will be established to evaluate proposals and ensure that all proposals receive careful consideration.

(b)(1) A preliminary review will be conducted to determine whether the proposal:

(i) Is in accordance with § 296.3;

(ii) Complies with either paragraph (a) or paragraph (c) of § 296.5;

(iii) Addresses the award criteria of paragraphs (a) through (c) of § 296.22;

(iv) Was submitted to a previous TIP competition and if so, has been substantially revised; and

(v) Is complete.

(2) Complete proposals that meet the preliminary review requirements described in paragraphs (b)(1)(i) through (v) of this section will be considered further. Proposals that are incomplete or do not meet any one of these preliminary review requirements will normally be eliminated.

(c) The Evaluation Panel(s) will then conduct a multi-disciplinary peer review of the remaining proposals based on the evaluation criteria listed in § 296.21 and the award criteria listed in § 296.22. In some cases NIST may conduct oral reviews and/or site visits. The Evaluation Panel(s) will present funding recommendations to the Selecting Official in rank order for further consideration. The Evaluation Panel(s) will not recommend for further consideration any proposal determined not to meet all of the eligibility and award requirements of this part and the Federal Register notice announcing the availability of funds.

(d) In making final selections, the Selecting Official will select funding recipients based upon the Evaluation Panel's rank order of the proposals and the following selection factors: assuring an appropriate distribution of funds among technologies and their applications, availability of funds, and/or Program priorities. The selection of proposals by the Selecting Official is final.

(e) NIST reserves the right to negotiate the cost and scope of the proposed work with the proposers that have been selected to receive awards. This may include requesting that the proposer delete from the scope of work a particular task that is deemed by NIST to be inappropriate for support against the evaluation criteria. NIST also reserves the right to reject a proposal where information is uncovered that raises a reasonable doubt as to the responsibility of the proposer. The final approval of selected proposals and award of assistance will be made by the NIST Grants Officer as described in the Federal Register notice announcing the competition. The award decision of the NIST Grants Officer is final.

A proposal must be determined to be competitive against the Evaluation Criteria set forth in this section to receive funding under the Program. Additionally, no proposal will be funded unless the Program determines that it has scientific and technical merit and that the proposed research has strong potential for meeting identified areas of critical national need.

(a)(1) The proposer(s) adequately addresses the scientific and technical merit and how the research may result in intellectual property vesting in a United States entity including evidence that:

(i) The proposed research is novel;

(ii) The proposed research is high-risk, high-reward;

(iii) The proposer(s) demonstrates a high level of relevant scientific/technical expertise for key personnel, including contractors and/or informal collaborators, and have access to the necessary resources, for example research facilities, equipment, materials, and data, to conduct the research as proposed;

(iv) The research result(s) has the potential to address the technical needs associated with a major societal challenge not currently being addressed; and

(v) The proposed research plan is scientifically sound with tasks, milestones, timeline, decision points and alternate strategies.

(2) Total weight of (a)(1)(i) through (v) is 50%.

(b)(1) The proposer(s) adequately establishes that the proposed research has strong potential for advancing the state-of-the-art and contributing significantly to the United States science and technology knowledge base and to address areas of critical national need through transforming the Nation's capacity to deal with a major societal challenge(s) that is not currently being addressed, and generate substantial benefits to the Nation that extend significantly beyond the direct return to the proposer including an explanation in the proposal:

(i) Of the potential magnitude of transformational results upon the Nation's capabilities in an area;

(ii) Of how and when the ensuing transformational results will be useful to the Nation; and

(iii) Of the capacity and commitment of each award participant to enable or advance the transformation to the proposed research results (technology).

(2) Total weight of (b)(1)(i) through (iii) is 50%.

NIST must determine that a proposal successfully meets all of the Award Criteria set forth in this section for the proposal to receive funding under the Program. The Award Criteria are:

(a) The proposal explains why TIP support is necessary, including evidence that the research will not be conducted within a reasonable time period in the absence of financial assistance from TIP;

(b) The proposal demonstrates that reasonable and thorough efforts have been made to secure funding from alternative funding sources and no other alternative funding sources are reasonably available to support the proposal;

(c) The proposal explains the novelty of the research (technology) and demonstrates that other entities have not already developed, commercialized, marketed, distributed, or sold similar research results (technologies);

(d) The proposal has scientific and technical merit and may result in intellectual property vesting in a United States entity that can commercialize the technology in a timely manner;

(e) The proposal establishes that the research has strong potential for advancing the state-of-the-art and contributing significantly to the United States science and technology knowledge base; and

(f) The proposal establishes that the proposed transformational research (technology) has strong potential to address areas of critical national need through transforming the Nation's capacity to deal with major societal challenges that are not currently being addressed, and generate substantial benefits to the Nation that extend significantly beyond the direct return to the proposer.