--NETWORK AND INFORMATION SCIENCES-INTERNATIONAL TECHNOLOGY ALLIANCE

Together the United Kingdom (UK) Ministry of Defence (MoD) and the US Department of the Army Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Army (Acquisition , Logistics, and Technology) through the US Army Research Laboratory have been exploring mechanism s of improved research collaboration that would create a critical mass of government, private sector, and academia scientist, engineers, and facilities/equipment focused on solving the military technology challenges in network centric warfare for coalition operations. The International Technology Alliance (ITA) Program is a new bilateral cooperative technology concept planned by the Governments to achieve this goal. In order to provide an opportunity for interested parties to network and learn more about the ITA program, two Opportunity Conferences were held, one on 01 April 2005 in Washington, DC and the other on 07 April 2005 in London, UK. A revised Draft program was posted in May 2005. A revised Final Program Bulletin (Parts I through VIII) has been posted to the ITA Program Website: http://www.usukita.com/program_documents.html. No significant changes occurred between the revised Draft and Final version of the Program Bulletin, however, Offerors are strongly encouraged to examine the Final Version of the Program Bulletin. The revised Draft Program Bulletin required potential Consortium Lead Industrial Partners to submit qualification requests by 01 July 2005. The final prequalified lead industrial partners and their US and UK points of contact are posted at http://www.usuk ita.com/program_prequal_companies.html