National Institue of Standards and Technology, Acquistion and Assistance Division, Procurement Office, Bldg. 301, Room B158, Gaithersburg, MD 20899

A -- REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS AND NOTICE OF PUBLIC MEETING SOL 97-05 DUE 052897 POC Customer Representative 1-800-ATP-FUND; Fax (301) 926-9524 E-MAIL: Advanced Technology Program, atp@nist.gov. Department of Commerce Technology Administration National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Advanced Technology Program Administration Building 101, Rm. A407 Gaithersburg, MD 20899-0001 February 12, 1997 REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS AND NOTICE OF PUBLIC MEETING: The NIST Advanced Technology Program (ATP) is soliciting proposals under its focused program competition 97-05, Technologies for the Integration of Manufacturing Applications (TIMA), and announces a public meeting (Proposers' Conference) for all interested parties. This notice provides general information for this focused program competition 97-05. An estimated $15 million in first-year ATP funding is available under this focused program competition. The ATP reserves the right to utilize for this competition more or less funding than the amount stated above. The actual number of proposals funded will depend on the quality of the proposals received and the amount of funding requested in the highest ranked proposals. Outyear funding is contingent on the approval of future Congressional appropriations and satisfactory project performance. This is the second of three competitions planned for this ATP focused program. One additional competition is planned. There are related focused program competitions in information technologies. ATP reserves the right to transfer a full proposal received under one focused program competition to another focused program competition underway in the same general timeframe if the subject matter of the proposal is deemed to be more appropriately aligned with the scope of the other focused program competition. Proposers will be notified if and when a proposal is transferred. Award recipients will be required to share non-proprietary information at workshops to be held throughout the duration of the project. The ATP operates under program procedures published at Part 295, Title 15, of the Code of Federal Regulations. The ATP Proposal Preparation Kit dated November 1996 (containing proposal cover sheets, other required forms, background material, and instructions for submission of proposals) and the 97-05 focused program booklet (containing a paper describing the scope of this focused program) may be requested by phone: 1-800-ATP-FUND; fax: 301-926-9524 or 301-590-3053; e-mail: atp@nist.gov; or letter at the address shown below. Note that those individuals whose names are currently on the ATP mailing list should have already received the new November 1996 version of the ATP Proposal Preparation Kit. The 97-05 focused program booklet is available on our World Wide Web site (http://www.atp.nist.gov), and printed copies are available upon request from ATP. Abbreviated proposals (pre-proposals) are allowed but are optional for this focused program competition 97-05. Pre-proposals for this competition are intended to provide intermediate feedback as to whether the proposer is on track in gathering and articulating some of the key information required for a successful project proposal. Responses to pre-proposals will have no effect on the review of full proposals. Pre-proposals under this focused program competition must follow the instructions included in the 97-05 focused program booklet. Pre-proposals are due no later than 3:00 p.m. Eastern time on Friday, March 14, 1997, at the address shown below. Written feedback can be expected by April 7, 1997. No other form of debriefing will be provided for pre-proposals. The body of pre-proposals will generally include proprietary information and should be so marked. Full proposals must follow the instructions in the ATP Proposal Preparation Kit (see above). Proposals and pre-proposals submitted by facsimile or electronic mail WILL NOT be accepted. If a proposer's full proposal is judged to be of high enough quality to be invited in for an oral review, ATP reserves the right to submit a list of questions to the proposer that must be addressed at the oral review. The due date for submission of full proposals is 3 p.m. Eastern time on Wednesday, May 28, 1997. Should the NIST facility be closed on the specified due date, ATP proposals will be due at 3 p.m. Eastern time on the next business day that the NIST facility is open. Proposals received after this deadline WILL NOT be considered. Send proposals to: Advanced Technology Program, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Administration Building 101, Rm. A407, Quince Orchard & Clopper Roads, Gaithersburg, MD 20899-0001. Mark envelope Focused Program 97-05. The technical goal of the TIMA focused program is to develop and demonstrate the technologies needed to create affordable, integrable manufacturing software applications those that can be rapidly integrated, reconfigured, and automatically adjust their performance in response to changing conditions and requirements. The intent of this program is to ease the flow of real-time manufacturing execution data among shop-floor software systems, as well as upstream to executive information systems and enterprise resource planning systems, laterally to design and engineering systems, and downstream to equipment control systems. The business goals of this program are to: 1) reduce manufacturing costs and cycle time; 2) reduce time-to-market for new products; 3) reduce the time and cost of starting up new factories and of changing existing factories; and 4) reduce inventories and raise levels of capacity and resource utilization. This program is open to proposals that develop software interoperability solutions applicable to any or all manufacturing sectors. The scope of this year's competition is enlarged from the previous competition (95-12) to encompass all manufacturing domains including process industries, which were excluded before. This program will support the development of software infrastructure; software development environments; and factory integration. It will not support the development of stand-alone manufacturing applications that do not contribute to the overall goal of an adaptable "plug and play" manufacturing environment. For more details on the scope of this program, please refer to the information provided in the, "Technologies for the Integration of Manufacturing Applications, Supplemental Information Focused Program Competition 97-05." A public meeting (Proposers' Conference) for potential proposers and other interested parties under this focused program competition 97-05 will be held on Monday, March 17, 1997, at the Holiday Inn, 2 Montgomery Village Avenue, Gaithersburg, MD. The conference will begin at 9:30 a.m. Eastern time and end at approximately 3 p.m. and will provide general information regarding the ATP, hints on preparing good proposals (covering the same material presented at previous ATP Proposers' Conferences), and will provide an opportunity for attendees to ask questions on the scope and technical and business goals of this focused program. Attendance at this public meeting is not required. No registration fee will be charged. To register for this public meeting or for further information, contact ATP, by phone: 1-800-ATP-FUND; fax: 301-926-9524 or 301-590-3053; or e-mail: atp@nist.gov. In addition to the focused program proposers' conference in Gaithersburg, ATP is considering additional proposers' conferences in other locations. Should any additional conferences be arranged, that information will be published in the CBD and on our Web site. (0043)

Loren Data Corp. http://www.ld.com (SYN# 0004 19970214\A-0004.SOL)