6.  Recommendations for Future Directions and Conclusion

ATP is continuously improving its evaluation program. In A Toolkit for Evaluating Public R&D Investment, a list of recommendations for guiding these improvements is provided (Ruegg and Feller, 2003).

• Increase retrospective analyses based on market data.
• Incorporate both direct- and indirect-path analysis in benefit-cost case studies, including estimates of both market and knowledge spillovers.
• Continue status reports of completed projects and conduct periodic updates for a sampling of projects.
• Update information on state and foreign counterpart programs.
• Further develop several of the promising new evaluation techniques.
• Deepen analysis of knowledge spillovers beyond patent studies.
• Identify and address new questions that arise as ATP is modified.
• Pursue analysis of failures and successes.
• Continue an effective mix of in-house and external evaluation studies.
• Take greater advantage of evaluation results in decision-making processes.

ATP is beginning to incorporate these recommendations in planning future work.

ATP’s multifaceted and integrated evaluation program uses widely accepted approaches to economic and statistical analysis to develop estimates of impacts of ATP funding on project timing and success. In this paper, we have discussed the best practices learned from our 15 years of evaluation. Through the use of these evaluation best practices, our surveys, studies, and reports show that ATP is indeed meeting its mission to accelerate the development of high-risk, enabling technologies.

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Date created: July 20, 2005
Last updated: August 3, 2005

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