Measuring ATP Impact
2004 Report on Economic Progress

Our Most Vital Resource

In 2003 the National Science and Technology Council, a cabinet-level body advising the president, labeled the U.S. capacity for innovation as “the nation’s most vital resource for national security, economic development, and continuous improvements in living standards for all Americans.” ⁷¹ But having great ideas is only half the battle. Innovators need to be able to take the next step. “…Truth be told,” said Boston Globe columnist Robert Weisman in January 2004, “ideas are plentiful. For businesses, the hard part is choosing the right ones, turning them into products or services, and bringing them to the marketplace before their competitors do.”⁷² That’s the job of the Advanced Technology Program, to help these innovators pursue their ideas and turn them into possibilities . ATP has compiled a measurable record of success in helping private firms across the nation turn breakthrough ideas into high payoff innovations and build future capacity to innovate by:

• Pursuing the development of high-risk, enabling technologies.
• Requiring well-thought-out technical and business plans up front.
• Involving the right combination of companies, universities, and non-profit independent research organizations as partners in R&D projects.
• Monitoring their progress throughout the life of the project and measuring their outputs, outcomes, and impacts. What are the next big ideas that will become breakthrough technologies? Right now, ATP participants are working on applications of nanotechnology to medicine and manufacturing, applications of information technology to virtual reality learning environments, the use of practical, affordable fuel cells for the home and automobile, a high-speed metal sorter to revolutionize recycling, exciting medical research into antibodies and drug delivery systems, and dozens of other R & D efforts that could make the United States more competitive, spur the economy, and help future generations of Americans lead longer, healthier, and higher-quality lives.

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71 Committee on Technology, Advanced Foundations for American Innovation: Networking and Information Technology Research and Development, Supplement to the President’s Budget, FY2004 , A Report by the Interagency Working Group in Information Technology Research and Development, National Science and Technology Council, September 2003, page iii.

72 Robert Weisman, Finding New Ideas is Easy, Choosing Right Ones Isn’t, Boston Globe , January 18, 2004.

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Date created:  March 15, 2005
Last updated: August 15, 2005

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