Press Release

For more information, contact: Christopher J. Mackie 212-834-8400 or cjm -at- mellon -dot- org

(NEW YORK, NY, 17 August 2009) The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation today announced that it was suspending the 2009 Mellon Awards for Technology Collaboration (MATC). The Mellon Awards honor not-for-profit organizations for leadership in the collaborative development of open source software tools with application to scholarship in the arts and humanities, as well as cultural-heritage not-for-profit activities.

The decision to suspend the awards was made after substantial consultation within the Foundation and with open source leaders. According to Mellon Vice-President of Research in Information Technology Ira Fuchs, "this decision 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."

The MATC award staff expressed its thanks to all those who participated as nominators, nominees, and commentators in the 2009 nomination process. 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.

The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation is a philanthropic organization with offices in New York City. The MATC awards are a project of the Foundation’s Program in Research in Information Technology (RIT). More information about the MATC awards is available at http://matc.mellon.org.

For more information, please contact:

Christopher J. Mackie

Associate Program Officer, Program in Research in Information Technology

The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation

140 W 62nd. St.

New York, NY 10065

212-834-8400

cjm at mellon.org