Technology Adoption Indicators Applied to the ATP Flow-Control Machining Project

NISTIR 6888
Technology Adoption Indicators Applied to the ATP Flow-Control Machining Project

The Advanced Technology Program (ATP) is a partnership between government and private industry to conduct high-risk research to develop enabling technologies that promise significant commercial payoffs and widespread benefits for the economy. The ATP provides a mechanism for industry to extend its technological reach and push the envelope beyond what it otherwise would attempt.

Enabling technologies that are essential to the development of future new and substantially improved projects, processes, and services across diverse application areas;
Technologies for which there are challenging technical issues standing in the way of success;
Technologies whose development often involves complex “systems” problems requiring a collaborative effort by multiple organizations;
Technologies that will go undeveloped and/or proceed too slowly to be competitive in global markets without ATP.

The ATP funds technical research, but it does not fund product development–that is the domain of the company partners. The ATP is industry driven, and that keeps it grounded in real-world needs. For-profit companies conceive, propose, co-fund, and execute all of the projects cost-shared by ATP.

Smaller firms working on single-company projects pay a minimum of all the indirect costs associated with the project. Large, “Fortune 500” companies participating as a single company pay at least 60 percent of total project costs. Joint ventures pay at least half of total project costs. Single-company projects can last up to three years; joint ventures can last as long as five years. Companies of all sizes participate in ATP-funded projects. To date, more than half of ATP awards have gone to individual small businesses or to joint ventures led by a small business.

Each project has specific goals, funding allocations, and completion dates established at the outset. Projects are monitored and can be terminated for cause before completion. All projects are selected in rigorous, competitions, which use peer review to identify those that score highest against technical and economic criteria.

On the Internet: http://www.atp.nist.gov
By e-mail: atp@nist.gov
By phone: 1-800-ATP-FUND (1-800-287-3863)
By writing:
Advanced Technology Program
National Institute of Standards and Technology
100 Bureau Drive, Mail Stop 4701
Gaithersburg, MD 20899-4701

Hayden Brown is an economist in the Office of Applied Economics at NIST. He has conducted economic analyses of the assistance provided by Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) Centers, and is currently studying the selection of firefighting protective gear as well as exterior housing elements, based on multiple attributes. Dr. Brown received his Ph.D. in economics from the University of Kentucky.

Mark A. Ehlen served as an industrial economist in the Office of Applied Economics at NIST from June 1995 toFebruary 2002. During that time, he conducted studies on the economics of automotive, manufacturing, andconstruction technologies.

Dr. Ehlen received his Ph.D. in economics from Cornell University. The Office of Applied Economics, part of the Building and Fire Research Laboratory at NIST, provides economicresearch and consulting to industry and government agencies in support of productivity enhancement, economicgrowth, and international competitiveness.