NISTIR-6098
Development, Commercialization, and Diffusion of Enabling Technologies
Progress Report for
Projects Funded 1993-1995
1. THE ATP'S BUSINESS
REPORTING SYSTEM:
A TOOL FOR ECONOMIC EVALUATION
Overview of the Advanced Technology
Program (ATP)
The Advanced Technology
Program (ATP), administered by the U.S. Commerce Department's National
Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), partners with U.S. industry
to fund the development of high risk and enabling technologies, with
significant potential for stimulating U.S. economic growth. Industry
submits proposals containing a research plan for the work to be performed,
an explanation of how the nation broadly will benefit from the new technical
capability, a business plan for future commercialization of at least
some of the goods and services that may derive from the technology, plans
for diffusing the technology beyond the innovators, and a project budget
indicating the proposed cost-share arrangement. Through a highly competitive
peer review process, involving a mix of technical experts from government
laboratories, and business and economic experts from the private sector
and government, projects with both high technical and business/economic
merit are selected for funding. The ATP costs shares with industry the
R&D costs of the award-winning projects; the companies are fully
responsible for business planning and product development costs.
The ATP provides funding
for both single-company projects and joint ventures. Eligible joint ventures
consist of a minimum of two for-profit companies participating in the
R&D and contributing cost share, and may contain additional companies,
universities, or research organizations. Only U.S.-owned companies or
U.S. subsidiaries of foreign-owned companies are eligible to receive
awards and the latter only if they meet certain tests. Single company
proposers can receive funding of up to $2 million in direct costs over
three years and must cover their own indirect costs. (Beginning in 1998,
large single-company proposers -- Fortune 500 or equivalent -- must cover
at least 60 percent of total project costs.) Joint ventures may propose
a project of any size for up to five years of funding but must cover
more than 50 percent of total project costs.
Since its first congressional
appropriation in 1990, the Advanced Technology Program has funded 352
projects, with over 840 participating organizations across a mix of 233
single company projects and 119 joint venture projects. Project awards
amount to $1.151B, with industry committing an additional $1.172B cost
share.
Overview of the Business Reporting
System
Program evaluation has
been a central component of ATP operations from the beginning. In the
early years of the program, the ATP relied on third-party surveys of
projects to determine their progress. In early 1994, the ATP implemented
the Business Reporting System (BRS), a
comprehensive data collection tool for tracking, on a routine and regular
basis, progress of projects against business plans and projected economic
benefits outlined in the project proposals and updated over the course
of the projects. The survey system, electronically administered, has
been implemented for projects selected in the 1993 competition and since,
from their inception. To ensure maximum confidentiality of information
and detail concerning the multiple commercialization activities of joint
venture members, data is collected at the individual participant level
(from individual companies, universities, and not-for-profit organizations)
within a project.
The survey information
collected through the BRS comprises part of the integrated ATP database
framework. It is intended for use for ATP project management, as well
as by researchers for performing evaluation research. Over time, the
data is expected to support comprehensive analyses of the behavior of
firms conducting R&D and developing new technologies, of the business
progress, and economic benefits.
The Business Reporting
System consists of five major parts:
- A
Baseline Report. At the beginning of the project,
in the Baseline Report, companies identify potential areas
of application of the technology being developed with ATP
funding. They identify quantitative business goals, including
cost or performance targets; key attributes of the technology
needed to achieve these goals; planned strategies for commercialization;
e.g., in-house production, licensing, and strategic alliances.
They outline their strategies for protecting intellectual
property; and identify their plans for disseminating non-proprietary
information.
- Anniversary
Reports. Annually, in the Anniversary Report,
companies expand upon the baseline information to cover
progress towards implementing commercialization strategies.
They report on early economic impacts of the project,
as well as collaboration experiences, attraction of new
funding, new intellectual property created, and dissemination
of information through conferences, publications, and
other mechanisms. They also provide a summary of company
financial data.
- Close-out
Report. At the project conclusion, in
the Close-out Report, companies update Anniversary
Report information and identify remaining technical
and business barriers to commercialization of
the technology, define specific business goals
for the following five-year period, and indicate
expected future effects of the ATP project outside
that organization.
-
Post-project Reports. Following the end of ATP funding, companies
report three times--once every two years--concerning actual progress
in commercializing the technology and related impacts inside and outside
the organization.
- Quarterly
Reports.
At the end of each quarter,
other than the initial and
anniversary quarters, companies
report one or more significant
business developments related
to the ATP projects.
Companies funded in FY
1993 and later are required to submit these reports under the terms and
conditions of their ATP awards. Under ATP's agreements with project participants,
all information reported through the BRS is considered proprietary and
confidential. Information is released and published only in aggregate,
summary statistical form, or in quotes without attribution, unless companies
explicitly agree to disclosure or the same information is available from
company press releases.
The BRS supports three
objectives:
A. To track business
progress against company plans for achieving
- Commercialization
- Broad-based
economic impacts
B. To develop short-term
statistical indicators of results
C. To build a database
to support long-term evaluation of ATP economic impact.
About This Report
The report provides a snapshot
of plans and progress of projects funded in competitions held from 1993
through 1995, and of the pathways to achieving impact. It provides a
status report of R&D completed; an analysis of commercialization
activities; and analyses of other effects of ATP funding, such as stimulation
of effective R&D collaborations, increased private sector investment
in high risk and enabling R&D, creation of intellectual property,
and dissemination of non-proprietary knowledge. Although significantly
different from the earlier surveys in terms of the method of data collection,
the size of the sample, and the specific projects covered, the current
study, based on BRS data, has significant parallels to the earlier surveys
in terms of issues covered and results.
The report draws on the
BRS to measure progress of 210 projects and 480 separately reporting
organizations funded during FY 1993-1995. The information is based on
business reports filed through December 31, 1996. Table
1 illustrates the BRS participation (shaded areas) by year of award
and relative to the total number of projects and participants funded.
The 210 projects covered include all ATP awards made during the 1993-1995
period, with the exception of nine projects since cancelled. The projects
funded in FY 1996 and 1997 are not included because they had not yet
begun reporting at the time the data were analyzed. The 60 projects funded
between 1990 and 1992 are not included because they were funded prior
to implementation of the BRS.
The difference between
the 480 participants covered in the BRS data and the total of 579 participants
in the FY 1993-1995 awards, reflects several factors: 1) cancellation
of nine projects; 2) changes in joint venture membership over the course
of the awards; 3) limitation of BRS reporting to major participants for
a few very large joint ventures and exclusion of non-profit organizations
with a purely administrative function; and 4) some late reports.
Figure
1 illustrates the distribution of types of organizations and
types of ATP projects (single-company or joint venture) included
in the data. It includes all those organizations that had provided
at least an initial Baseline Report by December 31, 1996, even if
some had not yet reported actual progress.
Figure
1. Distribution of Type of Participation and Types of
Organizations in the BRS
The subgroup of organizations
reporting actual commercialization progress and other effects of ATP
funding after one-to-two years of funding represent those shown in Table
1 as having filed First or Second Anniversary Reports. They are described
further in Figure 2. Of the entire group of 285
participants in 179 projects providing Anniversary Reports after one-to-two
years of ATP funding, 268 participants in 176 projects reported some
degree of commercialization progress. The remaining organizations are
largely universities and non-profits who do not plan to commercialize
their ATP-funded technologies but have reported on other effects of ATP
funding. This early attention to commercialization is consistent with
the ATP's model that requires companies to set commercial goals up front,
and to integrate plans for their R&D goals and for their business/economic
goals from the outset.
Figure
2. Distribution for Organizations in the BRS That Had
Completed One or Two Years of ATP Funding
 Return
to Return to Table of Contents
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to Chapter 2: PATHS TO NATIONAL ECONOMIC
BENEFITS
Date created: December
1997
Last updated:
August 3, 2005
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