(NIST: Gaithersburg, MD) -- The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is soliciting proposals for the next round of funding in its long-running Precision Measurement Grant Program (PMGP). The program provides support for experiments to make novel, high-precision measurements of important physical properties or fundamental constants of nature.

Begun in 1970, the PMGP grew out of NIST’s core mission to develop state-of-the-art measurement technologies and scientific data to support U.S. industry, commerce, and research. The grants have primarily funded work at universities and colleges in basic measurement-related research. Typical PMGP projects have included precise measurements of variations in local gravity, improved measurements of the fine-structure constant (fundamental to quantum mechanics and electrodynamics), and tests of charge-parity-time (CPT) symmetry, one of the core tenets of physics. The program also is intended to make it possible for researchers to pursue new ideas for which other sources of support may be difficult to find.

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