Charter | Mission | Core Principles

Public-Private Partnerships

ATP improves the quality of life of Americans in the 21st century by investing in early-stage, innovative technologies.

The pace of technological change is faster than ever before in today’s global economy, and competitive advanced technologies are critical to national economic growth. Private-sector investments in research and development are mainly focused on incremental improvements to capture faster returns to companies and their shareholders. Few financial institutions, venture capitalists, and angel investors fund unproven, early-stage technologies. This strategy, however, erodes the groundwork for game-changing advances that are key to creating new capabilities, improving productivity, and ensuring growth. This is where ATP comes in.

ATP helps industry invest in longer-term, high risk research with payoffs far beyond private profit. By sharing the cost with companies, ATP accelerates the development of early-stage, innovative technologies, helping industry raise its competitive potential while providing Americans with a higher standard of living.

• ATP Fosters National Benefit: ATP spurs its partners to invest in research and development that have payoffs far beyond private profit, bringing to Americans higher paying jobs, better consumer products, improved health, greater energy efficiency, and a cleaner environment;
• ATP Funds High-Risk Research: ATP accelerates the development of new-to-the-world technologies by sharing the cost and the risk with companies when research risks are too high for the private sector to bear alone.
• ATP Conducts Rigorous Peer Review: ATP’s merit-based, rigorous selection process ensures high quality, objectiveness, and fairness.
• ATP Builds Partnerships: ATP catalyzes companies, universities, research organizations, and state and local entities to partner creatively to develop innovative technologies;
• ATP Encourages Diffusion of Knowledge: ATP encourages companies to publish and share their results and to pursue patents and licensing to give others a chance to benefit from new knowledge created in ATP projects.

Mission ATP accelerates the development of innovative technologies for broad national benefit through partnerships with the private sector.

Our Core Principles  National Benefit: We accelerate development of technologies that enable multiple end use applications that improve the daily lives of Americans. Partnership: We encourage teaming arrangements that bring research, development, manufacturing, and commercialization partners together at an early stage of innovation.

Communication: We communicate results with our stakeholders and convene technology and business leaders to discuss future opportunities for ATP investment. Measurement: We monitor project performance, facilitate the changes needed to make projects successful, and encourage best management practices. We evaluate the impact of our projects on the nation by using state-of-the-art evaluation tools and techniques. Organization:  Our Assets are our people, knowledge capital, and reputation.

Date created: May 16, 2005
Last updated: June 15, 2005