Highways for LIFE Technology Partnerships Program (Request for Information ONLY!)

REQUEST FOR INFORMATION ONLY! THIS IS NOT A SOLICITATION, A REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL, OR A REQUEST FOR APPLICATION OF FEDERAL ASSISTANCE. THIS IS A REQUEST FOR INFORMATION ONLY! The Highways for LIFE (HfL) Technology Partnerships Program intends to publish two different solicitations for proposals in 2011 to assist industry fill the gap between late-stage prototypes and commercialization. The Program would like to receive comments on both approaches and suggestions for other methods. In addition, the Program is seeking input from potential applicants to assist us reach the appropriate audiences and increase the number of applications, improve the quality of the applications, and ascertain if there are burdensome program requirements that prevent eligible applicants from applying to the program. Comments are requested by 4:00 p.m. Eastern Time on Thursday, September 22, 2011. BACKGROUND The HfL Technology Partnerships Program was established to foster and accelerate the deployment of innovative technologies including providing financial impetus needed to move some of the many proven but underutilized innovations into routine practice in the highway industry. In the past four years, two different approaches were used to accelerate the adoption of new technologies. In the first approach, the Technology Partnerships Program funded grants to assist general industry make the leap from promising prototypes to market ready products and facilitated partnerships with state and local highway agencies to demonstrate the technologies under real-world conditions. Grant solicitations issued in 2007, 2008, and 2009 resulted in 8 awards to industry totaling $2,773,571. In the second approach, in 2010, the Technology Partnerships Program focused exclusively on safety and addressed the need for an independent performance and product evaluation of promising commercialized technologies with limited or no U.S. installations. The program selected one technology. DRAFT SOLICITATIONS FOR COMMENT Draft 2011 - grants for late-stage prototypes Question & Answers on the late-stage prototypes approach 2010 Solicitation - Safety Performance and Product Evaluations approach Questions & Answers on the Safety Performance and Product Evaluation approach Please visit http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/hfl/tech.cfm and provide your comments on one or both approaches. CONFIDENTIALITY OF SUBMISSIONS Respondents who provide data or information in response to this request for information (RFI) that they do not want disclosed to the public, for any purpose, are encouraged to mark their submissions (or portions of their submissions) accordingly. Material submitted in response to this RFI that is marked "proprietary" or "confidential" and that otherwise constitutes commercial or financial information that is privileged or confidential, pursuant to 5 U.S.C. - 552(b)(4), will be treated in accordance with FHWA Notice 1320.6 ("Freedom of Information Act - Predisclosure Notification to Submitters of Confidential Commercial Information" - September 28, 1990), which may be found at the following link: http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/legsregs/directives/notices/n1320.htm. This restriction does not limit the Government's right to use information contained in the data if it is obtainable from another source without restriction. At such time as the Federal Highway Administration no longer has need to retain such marked material, it will be destroyed in a secure manner.