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PATH and Department of Commerce's National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have agreed to launch a $1.5 million program of cooperative R&D; agreements with industry to speed the
creation and use of innovative housing technologies.
NIST's Building and Fire Research Laboratory will administer the housing technology effort called the "PATH Cooperative Research Program (PATH CoRP), which hopes to begin entering into cooperative
agreements with industry in fall of 1999.
NIST will work with the PATH secretariat, the NAHB Research Center (the research arm of the National Association of Home Builders), federal agency laboratories as well as other private sector
research organizations and consortia to identify prospective candidates and technologies for the cooperative partnerships. NIST also will announce openings for participation in the cooperative research program through media such as the Commerce Business Daily and the NAHB Research
Center's toolbase outreach services to the building and remodeling industries.
All selected technologies for PATH CoRP must address one or more of the PATH goals. By the year 2010 PATH is to (1) reduce the monthly cost of new housing by 20 percent or more; (2) cut the
environmental impact and energy use of new housing by 50 percent or more and reduce energy use in at least 15 million existing homes by 30 percent or more; (3) improve durability and reduce maintenance costs by
50 percent; and (4) reduce the risk of loss of life, injury, and property destruction from natural hazards by at least 10 percent and decrease
residential construction work illnesses and injuries by at least 20 percent.
For more information regarding the PATH CoRP program, the
NIST contact is Dr. H.S. Lew: (301) 975-6060. Email: hsl@nist.gov
PATH media contact: John G. Blair, (202) 708-4277, jblair@pathnet.org
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