Joint venture lands alliance contract

Rosettex Technology and Ventures Group has won a five-year contract potentially worth more than $200 million to provide technology services to the National Technology Alliance.

Rosettex of Rosslyn, Va., is a joint venture formed by Sarnoff Corp., Princeton, N.J., and SRI International, Menlo Park, Calif., specifically to address the needs of the NTA.

The contract was awarded Feb. 19 by the National Imagery and Mapping Agency, or NIMA, which is the executive agent for NTA and executes the program on behalf of the intelligence community, Defense Department and other government agencies.

The NTA is a federal program established in 1987 to help the government capitalize on advances in commercial technology. Its purpose is to discover, initiate, influence and accelerate commercial and dual-use technology development to meet national security and defense needs.

The NTA initiates projects in four areas: imagery, geographic information systems and cartography; digital processing, analysis and management; digital technology infrastructure; and chemical, biological and radiological defense.

The Rosettex award covers the first three technology areas; it is the first of two agreements that will replace soon-ending contracts and agreements that support the NTA's activities.

Under the terms of the agreement, Rosettex will provide the government with best-of-class technology and commercialization capabilities through an alliance of 64 partners representing major technology consulting firms, established and new companies, independent research institutes and government contractors.

Rosettex will invest its profits from the NTA agreement into a newly created Rosettex Venture Fund, which will invest in promising technologies and start-up companies that can address government technology needs.

"This innovative business model provides a new and novel way for NIMA to execute the NTA program," said retired Air Force Lt. Gen. James Clapper Jr., NIMA's director.