Tuesday, July 8, 2008

NSF ponies up $12.4M for nanomanufacturing center

By Mass High Tech Staff

The National Science Foundation has given the NSF Center for High-rate Nanomanufacturing $12.4 million in continued funding.

The center, a collaboration among the University of Massachusetts Lowell, Northeastern University and the University of New Hampshire, was established in 2004 with another $12.4 million grant from the NSF.

The center said it is collaborating with two companies to develop manufacturing processes using nanotechnology — computer memory chips with Nantero Inc., and biosensors with Triton Biosystems Inc., which recently merged with Oncologic to form Berkeley, Calif.-based Aduro Biotech.

Last fall, UMass Lowell announced plans for the Emerging Technologies and Innovation Center, which will house the Center for High-rate Nanomanufacturing. The project, which UMass Lowell estimated to cost from $80 million to $85 million, is expected to open with a gold LEED certification in the fall of 2011.