SP -- NASA ESTABLISHMENT OF BUSINESS INCUBATOR NOTICE Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), Langley Research Center (LaRC), and the NASA Management Office (NMO) at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) jointly with the Dryden Flight Research Center (DFRC), plan to issue a Cooperative Agreement Notice (CAN) on or about April 13, 1998 for the purposes of inviting proposals for the establishment of three new business incubators, one incubator associated with each of GSFC, LaRC, and NMO at JPL/DFRC, respectively. This NASA program is in accordance with Congressional direction and funding in the total amount of $5M over FY 98 and FY 99. Approximately half of this funding is planned for the three new incubators; the remaining amount is planned as additional funding of NASA's six existing incubators associated with NASA's other field centers. Accordingly, it is planned that each new business incubator will be funded by NASA in the amount of approximately $400K/yr for FY 98 and FY 99, and that each of NASA's six existing business incubators will receive additional funding in the amount of approximately $200K/yr for FY 98 and FY 99. Planned funding levels will be adjusted based on the incubator's ability to generate dollar-for-dollar matching cash and/or in-kind contributions from non-federal sources. In the case of the existing incubators, funding levels may also be adjusted based on other programmatic considerations. The CAN's will invite proposals from any state or local government, any U.S. university, or U.S. private for-profit or non-profit entity, or teaming of any combination thereof. However, the new incubator entities must be not-for-profit at least until the end of the USG fiscal year corresponding to the NASA funding. Generally, the business incubators should be designed to provide U.S. start-up or small existing high technology firms with a wide array of critical business development support services for the primary purpose of commercially applying NASA technology. In the effort to most effectively leverage NASA technical expertise and other NASA capabilities, the new business incubators will be physically located within an approximate 30 mile radius of the sponsoring NASA field center. The CAN will contain specific criteria to be applied for the purposes of NASA's evaluating proposals for new incubators. In general, the criteria will require a demonstration of a strong likelihood of the incubator's independence of all federal funding after a two to three year period starting at receipt of NASA funding. The CAN will also require a well-supported written business plan for each new incubator which demonstrates, among other attributes, a high level of competency, credibility, preparedness, and a strong likelihood of success. Each NASA field center sponsoring an existing incubator will request a proposal from that incubator regarding the additional funding. Those proposals will be evaluated according to criteria similar to that for the new incubators. In addition, all proposals should demonstrate that the incubator can facilitate and foster partnerships between educational institutions and small U.S. high-technology businesses. Some criteria may be endemic to the particular NASA field center. Proposals regarding new incubators will be due to the corresponding NASA field centers on or about May 29, 1998, with announcement of awards by approximately July 1, 1998. It is anticipated that each winning proposer of a new incubator will enter into a cooperative agreement with the corresponding NASA field center soon thereafter. Requests for proposals regarding additional funding under this program for existing NASA incubators will be issued on or about April 13, 1998 by the corresponding NASA field centers. The proposals will be due to the NASA field centers on or about May 15, 1998 with announcement of awards by approximately June 1, 1998. Additional information regarding this program will be accessible via the Internet at: "http://www.nctn.hq.nasa.gov/incubate/ ". Point of Contact Name: Mr. Michael Battaglia E-mail: mbattagl@hq.nasa.gov WEB: Click here for the latest information about this notice, http://nais.nasa.gov/EPS/HQ/date.html#HQ-00-0001. E-MAIL: Michael Battaglia, mbattagl@hq.nasa.gov.

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