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DoD Funds Texas Nanotechnology Consortium

The Air Force and several universities are partnering to study and commercialize aerospace technology. DoD will use a $1.4 million appropriation secured by Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison to fund the Consortium for Nanomaterials for Aerospace Commerce and Technology (CONTACT), a consortium of seven leading Texas universities created to develop and commercialize revolutionary nanomaterials for the defense aerospace industry.

CONTACT researchers will partner with the Air Force Research Laboratory's Materials and Manufacturing Directorate in Dayton, Ohio, to develop and rapidly commercialize next-generation composites and smart materials the Air Force needs to ensure U.S. air superiority in the 21st century. The research program aims to establish an industrial partnership for transferring technology to the private sector and transitioning capabilities into Air Force and Department of Defense systems. The program also aims to form an intellectual property management team with at least five key industrial partners with technical transfer and transition experience. Small and medium-sized business will be welcomed into its network of commercialization partners.

CONTACT's activities build upon a four-year federal investment in nanotechnology research infrastructure at the partner institutions. That program, the Strategic Partnership for Research in Nanotechnology (SPRING), was supported with $37.5 million for the purchase of critical equipment and infrastructure at the seven partner schools.

"SPRING and CONTACT are precisely the kind of federal-state partnerships that the U.S. needs in order to ensure that the nation's investment in nanotechnology pays off in the form of better jobs, improved national security, and a stronger economy," said Wade Adams, director of Rice University's Richard E. Smalley Institute for Nanoscale Science and Technology.

The new consortium includes Rice University, The University of Texas at Austin, the University of Texas at Dallas, the University of Texas at Arlington, the University of Texas at Brownsville, the University of Texas Pan American, and the University of Houston.

The consortium's steering committee includes the vice-presidents for research and an executive committee of the directors of nanotechnology centers at each participating university. The consortium executive committee will be chaired by Dr. Paul Barbara, director of the Center for Nano and Molecular Science and Technology at The University of Texas at Austin. CONTACT's day-to-day operations will be based at Rice University and managed by Executive Director Jack Agee.