<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html charset=us-ascii"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space;" class="">Everyone. <div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">This morning, I had a telephone call from Dennis Phillips (Program Manager for Isotope Research) and Ethan Balkin (Program Manager for Isotope production) at DOE-ONP. Hari sat in on the call. </div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">Our proposal reviewed very well, but did not make the cut for immediate (2017) funding, a disappointment. However, it did make the cut for funding in 2018 if the presently foreseen budget is maintained in 2018. </div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">Our proposal which compared two different ways of making Cu67 was interesting to them as they are very worried about being able to make enough Cu67 for serious clinical trials and eventually regular production. Previously, they had been concerned that Jefferson Lab had no experience with chemical separation. Apparently, one of the reviewers knew Jamal and made an explicit comment that VCU was an excellent partner for us; a nice compliment for Jamal and his team! </div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">I asked if were expected to update the proposal; the response was no, we had been judged on our proposal and if we updated our proposal, everyone else would want to do the same and they would have to hold the review process all over again. </div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">Their only recommendation was that we should be ready to answer three questions:</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><blockquote style="margin: 0 0 0 40px; border: none; padding: 0px;" class=""><div class="">How much Cu67 could we produce per week? </div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">How pure would it be? </div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">How much investment in infrastructure would be needed to achieve this production rate? </div></blockquote><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">I reiterated our invitation to visit; they tentatively agreed on the first or second week of April to come to Jefferson Lab to visit the LERF and then to stop at VCU on the way back to visit the separation facilities. I will try and make it happen this time! </div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">So not a yes, not a no, but something in between. We should have a meeting to discuss all of this and what we should be doing in the next few months. </div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">Thanks to you all for getting our proposal to this position, lets hope that we finally make it next time! </div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">Andrew</div></body></html>