The US is increasing small-contractor set-asides from 20% to 23% of federal contracts, or an increase of $6B/year (on $200B in government spending). All solicitations over $25K are now posted on the Web as well as in Commerce Business Daily, and contractors can register on the Web for the Small Business Administration's database of firms seeking government work. The government also holds regional seminars on how to become a federal contractor. . [Dallas Morning News. SJM, 16Oct97, 4C.]

NASA is creating a biocomputation center at the Stanford University School of Medicine, to apply virtual reality and other advanced computational techniques to medical domains. Jody Sumrall, (650) 723-7897. [Educom Update, 01Nov97.]

Stanford is also getting $3.2M from Intel, as part of a $90M Technology for Education 2000 grant program. This is in addition to $41M/year that Intel gives to higher education. The company is looking for innovative applications that will take computers beyond the engineering and computing labs. [Michelle Levander, SJM, 30Oct97, 1B.] (An advantage of industry grants is that they need not be limited to US institutions.)

NSF's Major Research Instrumentation Program (MRI) will distribute about $50M this coming year, for new state-of-the-art, high-cost research instrumentation and for development of next-generation instrumentation. Proposals are due 30Jan98. . [Maria Zemankova , dbworld, 31Oct97.]

NSF's Division of Information, Robotics & Intelligent Systems (IRIS), within the Directorate of Computer and Information Sciences and Engineering (CISE), will soon be renamed the Division of Information and Intelligent Systems (IIS). Its Database and Expert Systems program will become Information and Data Management (IDM), and the Information Technology and Organizations (ITO) program will be renamed Computation and Social Systems (CSS). [Maria Zemankova , dbworld, 29Oct97.]

This year's NSF deadlines include: Professional Opportunities for Women in Research and Education (POWRE), 09Dec97; Integrative Graduate Education and Research Training Program (IGERT), 15Dec97; Instrumentation and Laboratory Improvement, 14Nov97; Centers of Research Excellence in Science and Technology (CREST), 01Dec97; Software Engineering and Languages, 18Nov97; Networking and Communications Research, 01Dec97; Experimental Software Systems, 16Dec97; Computing Systems Research (formerly Microelectronic Systems Architecture), 01Nov97 target; Design Automation (formerly Design, Tools, and Test), 01Nov97 target; Experimental Systems, 01Nov97 target; Signal Processing Systems (formerly Circuits and Signal Processing), 01Nov97 target. [NSF Bulletin, Nov97.]

NSF is seeking a new program director for its NSFNeT program in the Division of Networking and Communications Research and Infrastructure (NCRI). 1-2 years (initially). Contact Dr. George Strawn . [NSF Bulletin, Nov97.]