R-8 ATP Promotes Public Benefits and Knowledge Diffusion

R-8 ATP Promotes Public Benefits and Knowledge Diffusion

In order to accelerate innovative technology for broad national benefit, the Advanced Technology Program (ATP) seeks to fund projects that promote public benefits, knowledge creation, and knowledge dissemination. Evidence from the Survey of ATP Applicants 2002 indicates that ATP fosters proposals with public benefits and strong potential for knowledge creation and diffusion.

Survey respondents were asked to indicate the extent to which:

a) Knowledge and results from their proposed project would be public in nature
b) Knowledge from the project would be actively disseminated through publications
and presentations

Respondents were also asked to indicate how important is patent or copyright protection as a means of establishing intellectual property and creating value from the R&D project.

Most ATP applicants indicate that they believe that knowledge and results from their proposed project would be public in nature and would benefit others

89% of applicants report that they believe results from their project would be public in nature.1 The 2002 applicants appear to believe this even more strongly than did the year 2000 applicants. (See Figure 1.)

Most ATP applicants indicate that they plan to actively disseminate knowledge from the
project through publication or presentation of results

85% of applicants report that they plan to actively disseminate knowledge from their projects. And again, the 2002 applicants seem to believe this more strongly than did the year 2000 applicants. (See Figure 1.)

Figure 1 - Applicant Beliefs Regarding the Extent to which Project Knowledge Would Be Public and Actively Disseminated

Nearly all ATP applicants report that patent or copyright protection is important as a means of establishing intellectual property and creating value from their proposed project

Patent or copyright provides legal protection of specified intellectual property. As such, a patent or copyright identifies specific knowledge creation and publishes a public record of the specific knowledge. The importance of patent or copyright to ATP applicants also indicates the likelihood of knowledge creation and dissemination from ATP-supported R&D projects.
87% of all applicants report that patent or copyright is important as a means of protecting intellectual property and creating value from their proposed ATP project.2 The 2002 applicants believe this more strongly than did the year 2000 applicants. (See Figure 2.)

Figure 2 - Applicant Beliefs as to the Importance of Patent or Copyright Protection for Project Results

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1. We have combined the response categories “large extent” and “moderate extent” for ease of reporting.

2. We have combined the response categories "extremely imortant" and "very important" for ease of reporting.

Companies seeking to partner with the Advanced Technology Program (ATP) submit proposals to the ATP. Proposals must be for the development of innovative technologies that could not obtain private funding due to the high technical risk and that have the potential to produce widespread benefits to the economy and society. Proposals are evaluated for technical and economic merit in a rigorous competitive review process.

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Date created: July 22, 2005
Last updated: August 11, 2005

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