October 17, 2002 | Read Time: 2 minutes
The Technology Opportunities Program of the U.S. Department of Commerce has awarded grants totaling $12.4-million to 25 nonprofit organizations and state and local governments.
Since 1994, the program has awarded grants for innovative projects that demonstrate how information technology can be put to use in education, health care, economic development, and other areas. The awards, which this year range from $241,185 to $705,000, must be matched by money from private sources or state or local governments.
Among the new grantees:
- Gulf of Maine Aquarium, in Portland, which will use its $364,911 award to expand a program in which students, scientists, and commercial fishermen use handheld computers, global-positioning satellite receivers, and other technology to monitor aquatic environmental information.
- PatchWorx, a nonprofit organization in San Mateo, Calif., which received $426,000 to develop an online network that allows children who have a critical illness or a serious disability to communicate with one another, develop coping skills, and become more involved in making decisions about their treatment.
- Regional Development Corporation, in Sante Fe, N.M., which will build an online “e-Plaza” with its $360,390 grant to help people in northern New Mexico’s isolated agricultural communities work together on economic-development projects.
The $12.4-million awarded this year is a steep decline from the $42.8-million approved in the last year of the Clinton administration and distributed in 2001, although it is close to the $13.9-million distributed in 2000.
President Bush’s budget request for fiscal 2003 proposed eliminating the Technology Opportunities Program, as well as the Department of Education’s Community Technology Centers program, which makes grants to nonprofit organizations that provide access to information technology.
Senate committees this summer voted to continue both programs at their current allocation levels, but Congress has not yet enacted any of the spending bills that finance government operations.
For more information: Go to http://www.ntia.doc.gov/otiahome/top.
