Conference Profile: Air Force Dual Use S&T Program

The Air Force Dual Use Science & Technology (AF DUS&T) Program is part of a congressionally mandated, tri-service program to cost-share research projects with industry for the development of a technology that has both military utility and sufficient commercial potential to support a viable industrial base. A main objective of the AF DUS&T Program is to obtain for defense procurements the economies of scale, accelerated product improvements, and increased sustainability inherent in the commercial marketplace. 



From its inception in FY97, the AF DUS&T Program has initiated 121 projects totaling $476 million. These projects, being conducted outside the Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR), are investment partnerships designed to allow more flexibility than the standard federal contract, which assumes a buyer-seller relationship. Hence, the AF DUS&T Program uses cooperative agreements and other transactions as funding instruments for the overwhelming bulk of its work. One major advantage of these instruments is the flexibility in dealing with intellectual property rights, thus helping attract firms that might not otherwise deal with the government. 



Dual Use Industry Day Workshop 

A one-day workshop meant to provide industry an up-to-date understanding of the risk-shared AF DUS&T Program is being held Sept. 27 at the Ohio Aerospace Institute (OAI) in Cleveland, Ohio. 



The Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), OAI and the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) are hosting the Industry Day Workshop, allowing industry the opportunity to discuss approaches to AFRL's focus areas under the upcoming FY2003 solicitation and make recommendations for specific topics to be addressed in potential DUS&T awarded projects. This process will be accomplished via one-on-one dialog sessions with AFRL scientists and engineers. 



An early registration fee of $25 covers the cost of breakfast, lunch, and handouts. For more information, including pre-registration benefits and workshop sessions, contact, Roxanne Summers at roxannesummers@oai.org or (440) 962-3113. To register for the workshop, visit www.oai.org/events/

More information on the overall AF DUS&T Program — a gold sponsor hosting an exhibit at SSTI's annual conference Sept. 20-21, 2001 — may be obtained by visiting the following links: the DUS&T home page at http://www.dtic.mil/dust/  AFRL at http://www.afrl.af.mil/dualuse, OAI at http://www.oai.org/events, and SAE at http://www.sae.org/technicalcommittees/dust.htm