SRC, NIST, Notre Dame form Midwest nano R&D center

Mar. 26, 2008 – The Semiconductor Research Corp. (SRC) and National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), along with partners including IBM and the U. of Notre Dame and Purdue U., are collaborating on a new $61M R&D center to explore atomic-scale technologies and “drive future breakthroughs in computing.”

The center, dubbed the Midwest Academy for Nanoelectronics and Architectures (MANA) and located at Notre Dame’s campus in South Bend, IN, will link Notre Dame and Purdue to a network of other Midwest universities (U. of Illinois, Penn State U., and the U. of Michigan) with development resources in US national labs and industry, the groups explained in a statement. A team incorporating researchers and students from all groups will begin work later this year.

In terms of divvying up the funding pie, Notre Dame will invest up to $40M in the new center, with the state providing up to $15 million. IBM and the NRI have committed to investing $5M, plus another $1M promised by the City of South Bend.

“For Indiana, this means national leadership in a central technology of the future,” said Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels, in a statement. The Indiana center is one of four nanoelectronics R&D sites sponsored by the SRC’s Nanoelectronics Research Initiative (NRI), joining centers in CA, TX, and NY.

Besides pursuing discoveries and achievements in nanoelectronics R&D, the NIST-SRC agreement also showcases a collaborative model of public-private partnerships “to accelerate and promote innovation,” stated Richard Kayser, NIST acting deputy director.

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