Contact: Michael Baum, michael.baum@nist.gov
EMBARGOED FOR RELEASE: TA 97-02
April 4, 1997
Contact: Michael Baum COMMERCE DEPARTMENT REQUESTS
(301) 975-2763 COMMENTS ON POSSIBLE CHANGES
michael.baum@nist.gov TO STRENGTHEN ADVANCED
TECHNOLOGY PROGRAM
The Commerce Department's Technology Administration is requesting
information from interested parties on ways to strengthen the
department's Advanced Technology Program. The request for public
comments appears in today's edition of the Federal Register.
The Advanced Technology Program, managed by the National Institute of
Standards and Technology, provides cost-shared funding to industry for
high-risk R&D projects with the potential to spark important,
broad-based economic benefits for the United States. The program is
designed to enable or accelerate potentially important R&D projects that
industry otherwise would not undertake, or would not devote significant
resources to, because of the significant technical risks involved. ATP
projects focus on technologies that will create opportunities for new,
world-class products, services and industrial processes, benefiting not
just the ATP participants but other companies and industries--and
ultimately consumers and taxpayers. The ATP does not fund
product-development projects.
Input is being requested on specific areas, including the rules
governing company participation, ways to ensure that potential ATP
applicants have maximum access to private capital markets, mechanisms to
improve the geographic distribution of ATP awards and new mechanisms for
assisting applicants.
Comments received in response to the notice will be incorporated in a
report to Secretary of Commerce William M. Daley on possible
improvements to the ATP.
As a non-regulatory agency of the Commerce Department's Technology
Administration, NIST promotes U.S. economic growth by working with
industry to develop and apply technology, measurements and standards.
-30-