FARMINGTON HILLS, MI - The American Concrete Institute (ACI) is pleased to announce the recent partnership between its ACI Foundation and the Charles Pankow Foundation with the purpose of delivering innovative, commercially viable applications for the design and construction of concrete buildings.

The three-year partnership was formalized with a memorandum of agreement signed by the ACI Foundation and the Charles Pankow Foundation at the recent ACI Spring 2008 Convention in Los Angeles, Calif. Under the terms, the ACI Foundation's Concrete Research Council (CRC), with input from its Strategic Development Council (SDC), will help identify the research needs of the industry and will recommend qualified research projects to the Charles Pankow Foundation for possible selection, funding, and management of the chosen projects.

When selected research projects are completed, the ACI Foundation will work to disseminate the resulting products to the marketplace through printed and electronic means and possible inclusion in ACI reports, guides, specifications, and codes.

The Charles Pankow Foundation has been a leader in facilitating valuable building construction research since its first grant awards in 2006. The foundation has granted over $3.5 million toward research projects by such institutions as Purdue University (to develop design procedures for dual-plate composite shear walls), the National Institute of Building Sciences (to develop a Building Information Modeling (BIM) standard for architectural precast concrete), and the University of Arizona (to develop design procedures for precast concrete diaphragm systems). The Charles Pankow Foundation expects to give its first award under this agreement in 2008, and is prepared to continue this generous level of giving.

"The ACI Foundation receives many qualified proposals for research funding each year, but in the past, has never had the resources to fund to the degree needed," said Claude Bédard, chair of the ACI Foundation and vice president and general manager of the North American Admixtures Division of The Euclid Chemical Co. "With this new agreement with the Charles Pankow Foundation, the concrete industry will benefit from Charles Pankow's vision through increased funding of innovative and market-driven research projects."