The selection process for awards is a multi-step process based on the criteria listed in § 295.6. Source evaluation boards (SEB) are established to ensure that all proposals receive careful consideration. In the first step, called “preliminary screening,” proposals may be eliminated by the SEB that do not meet the requirements of this Part of the annual Federal Register Program announcement. Typical but not exclusive of the reasons for eliminating a proposal at this stage are that the proposal: is deemed to have serious deficiencies in either the technical or business plan; involves product development rather than high-risk R&D; is not industry-led; is significantly overpriced or underpriced given the scope of the work; does not meet the requirements set out in the notice of availability of funds issued pursuant to § 295.7; or does not meet the cost-sharing requirement. NIST will also examine proposals that have been submitted to a previous competition to determine whether substantive revisions have been made to the earlier proposal, and, if not, may reject the proposal.

In the second step, referred to as the “technical and business review,” proposals are evaluated under the criteria found in § 295.6. Proposals judged by the SEB after considering the technical and business evaluations to have the highest merit based on the selection criteria receive further consideration and are referred to as “semifinalists.”

In the third step, referred to as “selection of finalists,” the SEB prepares a final ranking of semifinalist proposals by a majority vote, based on the evaluation criteria in § 295.6. During this step, the semifinalist proposers will be invited to an oral review of their proposals with NIST, and in some cases site visits may be required. Subject to the provisions of § 295.6, a list of ranked finalists is submitted to the Selecting Official.

In the final step, referred to as “selection of recipients,” the Selecting Official selects funding recipients from among the finalists, based upon: the SEB rank order of the proposals on the basis of all selection criteria (§ 295.6); assuring an appropriate distribution of funds among technologies and their applications; the availability of funds; and adherence to the Program selection criteria. The Program reserves the right to deny awards in any case where information is uncovered which raises a reasonable doubt as to the responsibility of the proposer. The decision of the Selecting Official is final.

NIST reserves the right to negotiate the cost and scope of the proposed work with the proposers that have been selected to receive awards. For example, NIST may request that the proposer delete from the scope of work a particular task that is deemed by NIST to be product development or otherwise inappropriate for ATP support.