The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) granted Stanford a two-year extension of its $316 million contract to manage the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC), just in time for the Sept. 30 deadline.

In November 2006, the DOE announced that it would open bidding for SLAC’s management contract for the first time in 44 years. The decision stemmed from a 2003 decision to open such lab contracts to interested competition.

“The SLAC contract was unilaterally extended by the Department of Energy for two years,” said Vice President of the Office of the General Counsel Debra Zumwalt in an email to The Daily. “This is a fairly common practice and will give more time for the DOE to issue a Request for Proposal.”