Three agencies within the Department of Commerce have commenced a contest on disaster response and public safety technologies. The First Responder Network Authority said Thursday it joined the Economic Development Administration and the National Institute of Standards and Technology to launch the Accelerate R2 Network Challenge.
Stakeholders from across the U.S. would use their technologies to address disaster response challenges under the $1 million program. EDA and NIST provide $750K and $250K, respectively, to finance grants under the program. The effort seeks technologies that address the innovation areas of disaster response and resiliency.
“NIST conducts extensive research focusing on both disaster response and resiliency, so we are very excited about the potential for the R2 Network to support America’s strong innovation base and decrease the time for these technologies to transition from lab to market,†said Walter Copan, undersecretary of commerce for standards and technology and NIST director.
Those interested to participate may refer to the grants.gov website for information on eligibility, submission deadlines, matching-fund requirements and other funding-related policies.
