Center for Nanoscale Science and Technology Grants and Cooperative Agreements Program

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Department of Commerce (DOC)

National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)

Program Description: The program

will offer financial assistance in the field of nanotechnology specifically aimed at developing essential measurement and fabrication methods and technology in support of all phases of nanotechnology development, from discovery to production; conducting collaborative research with NIST scientists, including research at the CNST NanoFab, a national shared resource for nanofabrication and measurement; and supporting researchers visiting the CNST. Financial support may be provided for conferences, workshops, or other technical research meetings, or fellowships that are relevant to the mission of the CNST. In proposals for fellowships, applicants and team members must possess the education, experience, and training to effectively pursue and advance the proposed field of research. In addition, the applicant and team members must possess a demonstrated record of excellence in the proposed field of research. In some cases one or more scientific staff members, including undergraduate or graduate students, may be stationed at NIST in order to work in collaboration with NIST and other visiting scientists.

The primary program objectives of the financial assistance program in the CNST are to develop new measurement and fabrication methods and instrumentation for nanotechnology; and to explore a variety of new areas of nanoscale science and technology. Broad areas of interest include post-complementary metal oxide semiconductor electronics; nanofabrication and nanomanufacturing; energy transport, storage, and conversion; and bionanotechnology. Specific areas of interest include atomic-scale characterization and manipulation; scanning and transmission electron microscopy; focused ion beams; laser-atom manipulation; nanophotonic; nanoplasmonics; optical micro- and nanoelectromechanical systems (MEMS and NEMS); nanomagnetic imaging and dynamics; nanolithography; nanofabrication process development; directed self-assembly; nanoscale properties of soft matter; nanoscale stochastic processes; nanoscale control theory; nanoscale electronic and ionic transport; light-matter interaction, charge and energy transfer processes, catalytic activity, and interfacial structure in energy-related devices (including photovoltaics, thermoelectric, photoanodes, fuel cells, batteries, supercapacitors, and field emitters); nanobiosensors; nanofluidics; nanomedicine; and theory, modeling, and simulation of nanostructures. Additional objectives of this program are to assist and train CNST collaborators and NanoFab users in their research; and to conduct other outreach and educational activities that advance the development of nanotechnology by U.S. university and industrial scientists. These objectives will entail collaborative research among the selected financial assistance recipients and the CNST research staff

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