Accelerating Technology Transition: Bridging the Valley of Death for Materials and Processes in Defense Systems (NMAB, BMED)

Accelerating the transition of new technologies into systems and products will be crucial to the Department of Defenses development of a lighter, more flexible fighting force. Current long transition times—ten years or more is now typical—are attributed to the complexity of the process. To help meet these challenges, the Department of Defense asked the National Research Council to examine lessons learned from rapid technology applications by integrated design and manufacturing groups. This report presents the results of that study, which was based on a workshop held to explore these successful cases. Three key areas emerged: creating a culture for innovation and rapid technology transition; methodologies and approaches; and enabling tools and databases.

Report Summary

Capturing the Full Power of Biomaterials for Military Medicine: Report of a Workshop (BMED, NMAB)

Recent results in biomaterials R&D suggest that there are exceptional opportunities for these emerging materials in military medicine. To facilitate this possibility, the National Research Council convened a workshop at the request of the Department of Defense to help create a technology development roadmap to enhance military R&D into biomaterials technology. The workshop focused primarily on identifying useful near- and mid-term applications of biomaterials including wound care, tissue engineering, drug delivery, and physiological sensors and diagnostics. This report presents a summary of the workshop. It provides a review of biomaterials and their importance to military medicine, the roadmap, and a discussion of ways to enable biomaterials development. Several important outcomes of successful capture of potential benefits of these materials are also discussed.

Summary of the Power Systems Workshop on Nanotechnology for the Intelligence Community (NMAB)

The emergence of nanotechnology as a major science and technology research topic has sparked substantial interest by the intelligence community. In particular the community is interested both in the potential for nanotechnology to assist intelligence operations and threats it could create. To explore these questions, the Intelligence Technology Innovation Center asked the National Research Council to conduct a number of activities to illustrate the potential for nanotechnology to address key intelligence community needs. The first of these was a workshop to explore technology opportunities and challenges in power systems that could be addressed by nanotechnology. This report presents a summary of that workshop. It includes an overview of power technologies and discussions on nanoscale properties of energy storage materials, device experience, manufacturing and material handling considerations, and natural power.

Summary of the Sensing and Positioning Technology Workshop on Nanotechnology for the Intelligence Community (NMAB)

The second activity performed by the NRC for the Intelligence Technology Innovation Center was a workshop to explore how nanotechnology might enable advances in sensing and locating technology. Participants at this workshop focused on tagging, sensing, and tracking applications of interest to the intelligence community. This report presents a summary of that workshop. In includes an overview of security technologies, and discussions of systems, natural chemical/biological tags, passive chemical/biological tags, and radio/radar/optical tags.

Advanced Energetic Materials (BMED)

Advanced energetic materials—explosive fill and propellants—are a critical technology for national security. While several new promising concepts and formulations have emerged in recent years, the Department of Defense is concerned about the nation’s ability to maintain and improve the knowledge base in this area. To assist in addressing these concerns, two offices within DOD asked the NRC to investigate and assess the scope and health of the U.S. R&D efforts in energetic materials. This report provides that assessment. It presents several findings about the current R&D effort and recommendations aimed at improving U.S. capabilities in developing new energetic materials technology.

Report Summary

Science-Based Assessment: Accelerating Product Development of Combination Medical Devices (NMAB)

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has established testing centers for assessment of three categories of medical products; devices, biologics, and drugs. Increasingly, however, medical products are appearing that are combinations of more than one of those categories. The FDA is just beginning to develop procedures for evaluating such combination products, which pose new challenges for assessing efficacy and safety. The Roundtable on Biomedical Engineering Materials and Applications (BEMA) is an NRC activity that brings together relevant parties to discuss R&D, applications, and regulation of biomedical materials and devices. In 2003, BEMA held a workshop to discuss science-based assessment for evaluation of combination products. This report and accompanying CD present abstracts and viewgraphs of the talks given at that workshop. The workshop focused on three specific types of combination products: orthopedic repair using morphogenetic protein, drug-eluting stents, and cell-matrix cartilage implants. In addition, context-setting discussions of science-based assessment and experimental design were presented at the workshop.

Review of (AFOSR) Mechanics Research Proposals and Review of Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR) Materials Research Proposals (NMAB)

These two letter reports provide technical evaluations of research proposals submitted to the Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR) in the areas of mechanics and materials. They are part of a project to provide these evaluations in the areas of materials, solid and structural mechanics, fluid mechanics, and propulsion. Each research proposal was reviewed by at least four reviewers, typically two panel members and two outside reviewers. For each report, a panel met to examine and discuss all review comments to define a consensus assessment for each proposal.