NIST Advanced Technology Program
Return to ATP Home Page Return to ATP Home Page

Appendix G

University Participation in the Advanced Technology Program


The Advanced Technology Program places special emphasis on working directly with industry, in contrast to other federal funding programs that provide primary support for R&D at universities and federal labs. By law only for-profit companies and industry-led joint ventures are allowed to receive ATP awards. But universities, a traditional source of research excellence in the United States, play a significant role in many ATP projects, either as subcontractors to private companies or as members of industry-led joint ventures.

Out of the 280 projects selected by the ATP since its inception, 157 of the proposals included plans to involve one or more universities as either subcontractors or joint-venture members. In many of these cases, more than one academic institution was involved. There are over 260 individual instances of university participation in ATP projects all told.

As some of the leading research institutions in the country, universities also are a valuable source of ideas for new ATP focused program areas. The ATP goal is to have a constantly changing portfolio of focused programs, with some programs drawing to a close and new programs starting. This requires a continuing supply of new, high-quality program ideas. Universities, federal labs, and independent research organizations are urged to participate in this process. The ATP offers a vehicle to help move ground-breaking academic research with the potential for revolutionary change from the laboratory into the nation's industries.

Modes of Participation

There are two ways that universities, federal labs, and non-profit independent research organizations can participate in ATP projects:

  • A university, federal laboratory, or non-profit independent research organization (IRO) can be a subcontractor to a single company or to a joint venture of two or more for-profit companies.

  • A university, federal laboratory, or IRO can participate in a joint venture that includes at least two for-profit companies, both of which are substantially involved in the R&D and both contributing toward the matching-fund requirement.

Any of these three types of organizations can serve as the catalyst to organize a joint venture; however, of these three organizations, only an IRO may submit the proposal and administer the project provided that the following conditions are met:

  • The joint venture must include at least two for-profit companies, both of which are substantially involved in the R&D and both contributing toward the matching-fund requirement; and

  • The joint venture must be industry led, i.e., the industrial members of the joint venture must define the research agenda and the commercialization plans based on their needs and must have the leadership role in programmatically controlling the project. A university or federal laboratory participating in a joint venture may not submit the proposal or administer the joint venture project.

ATP Funding and Cost-Sharing

A university, federal lab, or IRO, if subcontracting to a single applicant, can recover both direct and indirect costs from the ATP, since the cost of the subcontract is considered a direct cost to the ATP applicant, and direct costs of ATP single applicants are 100 percent reimbursable up to $2 million. (The ATP does not pay for tuition for students participating in university subcontracts, however.) A university, federal lab, or IRO participating as a partner in a joint venture may share costs if it wishes, but it is not required to do so. The industry partners may cover university, federal lab, or IRO's share of the costs.

Intellectual Property

An important provision of the ATP legislation regarding intellectual property rights affects universities, federal labs, and IROs-patents resulting from ATP awards must be vested in a company or companies incorporated in the United States. Thus, unless an organization participating in an ATP project is a for-profit company, it cannot retain title to patents resulting from ATP-sponsored R&D, although such an organization can receive mutually agreeable payments (either one time or continuing) from the company or companies holding title to the patent. The Clinton Administration has supported, and the Congress has considered, legislation that would change this provision; however, with the law as currently written, ATP cannot waive this legislatively mandated provision.

University Participants

The following is a partial list of universities and other academic institutions participating in ATP projects, assembled from project proposals. (The ATP is not always informed of every incidence of university participation in projects as subcontractors or consultants.)

Arizona State University (Tempe, Ariz.)
Baylor College of Medicine (Houston, Texas)
Boston University (Boston, Mass.)
Bradley University (Peoria, Ill.)
Brigham Young University (Provo, Utah)

Brown University (Providence, R.I.)
California Institute of Technology (Pasadena, Calif.)
Carnegie Mellon University (Pittsburgh, Pa.)
Case Western Reserve University (Cleveland, Ohio)
Central State University (Wilberforce, Ohio)

City College of New York (New York, N.Y.)
City University of London (London, England)
Clark-Atlanta University (Atlanta, Ga.)
Clarkson University (Potsdam, N.Y.)
Clemson University (Clemson, S.C.)

College of William and Mary (Williamsburg, Va.)
Cornell University (Ithaca, N.Y.)
Duke University (Durham, N.C.)
Emory University (Atlanta, Ga.)
George Mason University (Fairfax, Va.)

George Washington University (Washington, D.C.)
Georgia Institute of Technology (Atlanta, Ga.)
Harvard University (Cambridge, Mass.)
Iowa State University (Ames, Iowa)
Johns Hopkins University (Baltimore, Md.)

Kansas State University (Manhattan, Kan.)
Lehigh University (Bethlehem, Pa.)
Louisiana State University (Baton Rouge, La.)
Marquette University (Milwaukee, Wis.)
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Cambridge, Mass.)

Medical University of South Carolina (Charleston, S.C.)
Michigan State University (East Lansing, Mich.)
New Jersey Institute of Technology (Newark, N.J.)
New York University (New York, N.Y.)
North Carolina State University (Raleigh, N.C.)

Northeastern University (Boston, Mass.)
Northwestern University (Evanston, Ill.)
Ohio State University (Columbus, Ohio)
Ohio University (Athens, Ohio)
Pennsylvania State University (University Park, Pa.)

Philadelphia College of Textiles and Science (Philadelphia, Pa.)
Portland State (Portland, Ore.)
Princeton University (Princeton, N.J.)
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (Troy, N.Y.)
Rice University (Houston, Texas)

Rutgers University (Piscataway, N.J.) San Diego State University (San Diego, Calif.)
San Jose State University (San Jose, Calif.)
Stanford University (Palo Alto, Calif.)
State University of New York at Albany (Albany, N.Y.)

State University of New York at Brockport (Brockport, N.Y.)
State University of New York at Buffalo (Buffalo, N.Y.)
State University of New York at Stony Brook (Stony Brook, N.Y.)
Stevens Institute of Technology (Hoboken, N.J.)

Texas A&M (College Station, Texas)

Texas Tech University (Lubbock, Texas)
Tufts University (Medford, Mass.)
University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa (Tuscaloosa, Ala.)
University of Alabama at Birmingham (Birmingham, Ala.)
University of Alabama at Huntsville (Huntsville, Ala.)

University of Arizona (Tucson, Ariz.)
University of California at Berkeley (Berkeley, Calif.)
University of California at San Francisco (San Francisco, Calif.)
University of California at San Diego (La Jolla, Calif.)
University of California, Irvine (Irvine, Calif.)

University of Cincinnati (Cincinnati, Ohio)
University of Colorado (Boulder, Colo.)
University of Dayton (Dayton, Ohio)
University of Delaware (Newark, Del.)
University of Florida at Alachua (Alachua, Fla.)

University of Florida at Gainesville (Gainesville, Fla.)
University of Georgia (Athens, Ga.)
University of Houston (Houston, Texas)
University of Illinois (Urbana, Ill.)
University of Kansas (Lawrence, Kan.)

University of Maryland at College Park (College Park, Md.)
University of Maryland at Baltimore (Baltimore, Md.)
University of Massachusetts (Amherst, Mass.)
University of Michigan (Ann Arbor, Mich.)
University of Minnesota (Minneapolis, Minn.)

University of Missouri at Rolla (Rolla, Mo.)
University of Missouri at St. Louis (St. Louis, Mo.)
University of Nebraska at Lincoln (Lincoln, Neb.)
University of New Mexico (Albuquerque, N.M.)
University of North Carolina at Charlotte (Charlotte, N.C.)

University of Oklahoma (Norman, Okla.)
University of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, Pa.)
University of Pittsburgh (Pittsburgh, Pa.)
University of South Carolina (Columbia, S.C.)
University of Southern California (Los Angeles, Calif.)

University of Southern Mississippi (Hattiesburg, Miss.)
University of Texas at Austin (Austin, Texas)
University of Toronto (Toronto, Canada)
University of Tulsa (Tulsa, Okla.)
University of Utah (Salt Lake City, Utah)

University of Virginia (Charlottesville, Va.)
University of Washington (Seattle, Wash.)
University of Wisconsin at Madison (Madison, Wis.)
Vanderbilt University (Nashville, Tenn.)
Virginia Polytechnic Institute (Blacksburg, Va.)

Washington University (St. Louis, Mo.)
Wayne State University (Detroit, Mich.)
West Virginia University (Morgantown, W.Va.)
Yale University (New Haven, Conn.)

Return to main page. 

Date created: April 16, 1996
Last updated: May 19, 2005

Return to ATP Home Page ATP website comments: webmaster-atp@nist.gov   /  Technical ATP inquiries: InfoCoord.ATP@nist.gov

NIST is an agency of the U.S. Commerce Department
Privacy policy / Security Notice / Accessibility Statement / Disclaimer / Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) /
No Fear Act Policy / NIST Information Quality Standards / ExpectMore.gov (performance of federal programs)
Return to NIST Home Page
Return to ATP Home Page Return to NIST Home Page Visit the NIST Web Site