1: Measurement and Standards Infrastructure

Promote innovation, trade, security, and jobs by strengthening the Nation’s measurements and standards infrastructure

Other Information:

The nation’s ability to innovate, grow, and create high value jobs will rely ever more on a robust scientific and technical infrastructure—including the measurements and standards provided by the NIST Laboratories. The NIST Laboratories perform research to advance the state of the art of measurement science and to develop leading-edge measurement tools, data, and models for advanced science and technology. This forward-looking research yields improvements in NIST’s measurement competencies and generates new knowledge, capabilities, and techniques that NIST transfers to its customers in industry, universities, and other government agencies. Maintaining pre-eminence as the world’s foremost National Measurement Institute requires not only state of the art measurement science but also state of the art mechanisms for transferring new measurement methods and capabilities to users. U.S. industry requires NIST’s high quality measurements to underpin technical standards for product development, testing, instrumentation, process monitoring, and product performance enhancement. NIST’s measurement capabilities and services provide a common infrastructure that allows customers to verify and gain domestic and international acceptance of their measurement results by tracing them back to the primary national standards. Measurement equivalency among international, national, and local laboratories also is critical for the acceptance of test results for commerce, trade, and health and safety. Over time, NIST’s ability to provide these capabilities will reside in part in the Institute’s continued ability to build and mine the interdisciplinary measurements and standards competencies needed to support emerging technologies throughout the manufacturing sector, service industries, university research system, and technology-intensive governmental agencies. Looking forward, NIST sees high rates of growth and broad potential impact for its measurement and standards expertise in the areas of nanometrology, bioscience and health, information and knowledge management, and public safety and security.

Objective(s):

1.a: Measurement Science

1.b: Transfer of Capabilities

1.c: Emerging Technology

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