Commerce
Business Daily Announcement
Focused Program Competition 98-09
Adaptive Learning Systems
REQUEST
FOR PROPOSALS
AND NOTICE OF PUBLIC MEETING
REQUEST FOR
PROPOSALS AND NOTICE OF PUBLIC MEETING: The NIST Advanced Technology
Program (ATP) is soliciting proposals under its focused program competition
98-09, Adaptive Learning Systems, and announces public meetings (Proposers'
Conferences) for all interested parties. A total estimated $82 million
in first year funding is available for new awards for all of the fiscal
year 1998 ATP competitions (approximately eight to ten). The actual number
of proposals funded under each competition will depend on the quality
of the proposals received and the amount of funding requested in the highest
ranked proposals. Outyear funding beyond the first year is contingent
on the approval of future Congressional appropriations and satisfactory
project performance.
The Adaptive Learning
Systems focused program aims to promote U.S. economic growth and competitiveness
by supporting high-risk research to accelerate the development of net-centric,
Web-based instructional systems. The overarching goal is to make education
and training more affordable, accessible, and better adapted to the requirements
of educators and learners. This program anticipates the emergence of a
nationwide infrastructure in educational technology, the development of
which poses many complex research challenges. ATP-sponsored projects will
concentrate narrowly on systems for the development, production, and delivery
of interactive, multimedia instruction. The program seeks comprehensive
solutions which recognize that, in order to properly address user requirements,
instructional technologies must be more flexible and scalable with respect
to all fundamental aspects of net-centric, Web-based instruction -- content,
delivery, search, and quality of service. Research funded through this
program is expected to yield significant advances in authoring systems,
multi-sensory interfaces, search technology, instructional system frameworks,
and network middleware (including software reusability and interoperability)
as applied to support diverse training and education tasks. The scope
of the Adaptive Learning Systems program excludes (a) single-point, stand-alone,
or unscalable solutions, (b) technologies incompatible with collaboration
and distributed access, or (c) projects that fail to support and demonstrate
measurable gains in affordability, accessibility, time-to-market, usability,
and scalability. Particularly welcome are proposals of high technical
merit which (a) apply instructional paradigms of proven effectiveness,
(b) address the training and/or self-development requirements of the American
workforce, or (c) offer innovative business models for the delivery of
education and training. The success of the Adaptive Learning Systems focused
program will be judged by the extent to which the resulting technologies
render instruction more accessible, affordable, and adapted to end-user
requirements; likewise proposals must demonstrate a path to previously
unknown technology solutions which, as the result of high-risk research
to be funded by ATP, can yield measurable benefits in any or all of these
areas.
Abbreviated proposals
(pre-proposals) are allowed but are optional for this 98-09 focused program
competition. Pre-proposals are intended to provide intermediate feedback
as to whether the proposer is on track in formulating and articulating
key information required for a successful project proposal. Responses
to pre-proposals will have no effect on review of full proposals, but
must follow the instructions included in the 98-09 program booklet.
Pre-proposals
under 98-09 are due no later than 3:00 p.m. Eastern time on Wednesday,
March 11, 1998 at the address shown below. Written feedback can
be expected from ATP within two weeks of receipt. No other form of pre-proposal
debriefing will be provided.
The due date
for submission of 98-09 FULL proposals is 3 p.m. Eastern time on Wednesday,
May 13, 1998. Should NIST 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 pre-proposals
and full 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 98-09. Pre-proposals or full 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 for an oral
review, ATP reserves the right to submit questions to the proposer that
must be addressed at the oral review. The ATP operates under program procedures
published at Part 295, Title 15, of the Code of Federal Regulations. The
provisions of the 12/15/97 Federal Register notice announcing the availability
of funding for ATP competitions, are incorporated by reference in this
notice. The ATP Proposal Preparation Kit dated December 1997 (containing
proposal cover sheets, other required forms, background material, and
instructions for submission of proposals) and the 98-09 program booklet
(containing a paper describing the focused program scope) 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 above address. The Kit is also available on the ATP World
Wide Web site http://www.atp.nist.gov under
Publications. ATP has mailed the new Kit to all individuals whose names
are currently on the ATP mailing list. Those individuals need not contact
ATP to request a copy unless they have not received a copy to date. The
98-09 program booklet is also available on ATP web site under the heading
Competitions and printed copies are available upon request from ATP.
Public meetings (Proposers'
Conferences) for potential proposers and other interested parties will
be held on
- Thursday,
February 19, 1998
San Jose Hilton
300 Almaden Boulevard
San Jose, CA 95110
Tel. 408-287-2100
- Wednesday,
March 4, 1998
NIST
Administration Bldg. (101), Green Auditorium
Quince Orchard & Clopper Roads
Gaithersburg, MD 20899-0001
The conferences will
begin at 9:30 a.m. local time and end at approximately 3:00 p.m. These
meetings will provide general information regarding the ATP, tips on preparing
good proposals, and an opportunity for audience questions on the scope,
technical, and business goals of this 98-09 focused program. The general
format and content of each of the public meetings will be the same. Multiple
locations for the public meetings are being offered for the convenience
of the public. Attendance at these public meetings is not required. No
registration fee will be charged. To register for a public meeting or
for further information, contact ATP as noted above.
Date created: December
16, 1997
Last updated:
April 12, 2005
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