Mellon Award for Technology Collaboration

The MATC Awards have been suspended.

On behalf of the Program in Research in Information Technology and the Mellon Foundation, we would like to thank all those who participated as nominators, nominees, and commentators in the 2009 nomination process for the Mellon Awards for Technology Collaboration (MATC). After consultation with our colleagues and our leadership, we have decided to suspend the MATC awards for 2009.

This decision is no reflection on the quality of this year's nominations, but rather reflects the Foundation's desire, in a year when the endowment is enduring substantial contraction at the same time as so many excellent institutions and projects are experiencing existential financial threats, to concentrate resources where they can do the most good. After extensive deliberation, it was decided that the relatively small sums awarded through the MATC would do more good if concentrated into larger increments of funding for open and community source software projects having distinctive social returns that are experiencing particular difficulties raising resources in today's challenging economic environment.

We would like to assure the community that all funds reallocated from the MATC continue to be used to support the development of cutting-edge, collaborative, and open source software in service to Mellon's constituencies.

• Ira H. Fuchs, Vice-President, Research in Information Technology

• Christopher J. Mackie, Associate Program Officer, Research in Information Technology

The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation