COOPERATIVE RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT AGREEMENT (CRADA) POC: Frederick T. Knickerbocker, 301/457-2112. The U.S. Census Bureau believes its extensive industry databases are resources with significant potential value for American business. The databases make it possible to develop many summary measures of industry performance, including the distributions of industry performance around average company performance. The databases also permit analyses of industry performance from cross-sectional and longitudinal perspectives. The Bureau would like to collaborate with a private sector organization in the development of data that could be used by companies to benchmark their performance against various summary measures of performance by other companies engaged in the same line of business, within the limits set by the Bureau's confidentiality protection requirements. The Census Bureau previously published a general notice of its availability to enter into CRADAs on June 20, 1996, and hopes to enter into several CRADAs in response to that notice. This notice supplements the June 20, 1996 notice. All CRADAs will be undertaken pursuant to the Federal Technology Transfer Act of 1986, as amended, now codified at 15 U.S.C. 3710a, which allows Federal laboratories to enter into cooperative research agreements with qualified parties. Under this law, the Census Bureau may provide personnel, service, facilities, equipment or other resources, with or without reimbursement, but not funds. CRADA partners may share in the revenues generated by the products developed and marketed under the CRADA arrangement. For further information, contact Frederick T. Knickerbocker, Associate Director for Economic Programs (303)457-2112, U.S. Census Bureau, Federal Building 3, Rm. 2061, Washington, DC 20233-0160.

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