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PORTLAND, Ore., July 1, 2004 — Oregon appears to be getting its wish for a heated-up nanotech sector as more money begins to flow toward nano research and a conference in Portland is ready to roll this month.
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A month after celebrating a grand opening, executives at ONAMI (Oregon Nanoscience and Microtechnologies Institute) learned they are in the running for $10 million in federal defense grants for 2005.
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Skip Rung, ONAMI’s executive director, said other competitive grant applications are also in the works, but the institute is not ready to announce the awards.
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For the past two or three years, Oregon’s private, academic and political sectors have been working on upgrading the state’s university science and engineering departments to undergird Oregon’s high-tech sector and remake the state into a national nano center.
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ONAMI’s function is to put a roof over work currently going on at Oregon State University (OSU), University of Oregon and Portland State University, as well as projects undertaken by private industry in partnership with Battelle, which manages Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL).
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In 2003, ONAMI received $21 million in initial funding from the Oregon Legislature to get off the ground, plus Hewlett-Packard in Corvallis has donated the use of a building on the HP complex.
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Oregon’s small tech priorities are twofold:
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- Federal funding for a nanotech center under the 21st Century Nanotechnology Research and Development Act (PDF, 56.1 KB): The act has a suggestion that funding should include a nano-micro convergence element, the very niche that Oregon is fitting itself into with its current academic research projects.
- To obtain additional funding for two current federal defense projects that link nanotechnology with microscale systems: That assumes those projects remain in the $103 million defense spending bill as it works its way through Congress.
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Included in that bill is ONAMI’s application for $5 million from the U.S. Army to continue development of miniaturized tactical energy systems, including portable power systems for military use in the field and power systems for remote, autonomous sensors.
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Also in the bill is ONAMI’s request for $5 million from the U.S. Air Force to develop nanomaterials and manufacturing methods to meet the military’s need to protect human health and minimize harm to the environment.
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Another part of the defense spending bill awards $9 million to Flir Systems in Portland to upgrade two separate MEMS-enabled imaging thermal imaging and stabilized camera systems.
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To get private sector dollars flowing, Oregon State University has named Craig Sheward director of its 20-year-old technology transfer office.
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Sheward comes from Vanderbilt University in Tennessee, where he was senior licensing executive in the Office of Technology Transfer and Enterprise Development. He previously held a similar position at Sandia National Laboratories in New Mexico, focusing on commercialization of products from the microelectronics, photonics and materials centers.
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OSU’s technology transfer program makes agreements with private industry, bringing results from university researchers into public business use. It works with faculty on patent, copyright and licensing issues to protect and develop inventions and intellectual property.
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Since OSU began its technology transfer program in 1980, 21 startup companies have evolved from university research, and the university has more than 70 active patents generating royalty revenues. In 2003, OSU faculty had 47 invention disclosures and six new U.S. patents issued. So far in 2004, there have been 23 new license/option agreements.
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Finally, there will be yet another nanotech event, Micro Nano Breakthrough Conference 2004, scheduled for July 28-29 at the Sheraton Portland Airport.
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The meeting is sponsored by the Microproducts Breakthrough Institute, a project of OSU and PNNL.
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Organizers hope to attract scientists, engineers, entrepreneurs, business developers, government officials, students, investors, and other professionals interested in nano- and microtechnology.