• Save the date for SSTI's 2024 Annual Conference

    Join us December 10-12 in Arizona to connect with and learn from your peers working around the country to strengthen their regional innovation economies. Visit ssticonference.org for more information and sign up to receive updates.

  • Become an SSTI Member

    As the most comprehensive resource available for those involved in technology-based economic development, SSTI offers the services that are needed to help build tech-based economies.  Learn more about membership...

  • Subscribe to the SSTI Weekly Digest

    Each week, the SSTI Weekly Digest delivers the latest breaking news and expert analysis of critical issues affecting the tech-based economic development community. Subscribe today!

New Study Finds ATP Speeds Technology Development

November 07, 1997

The National Institute of Standards and Technology's Advanced Technology Program (ATP) is having a significant impact in accelerating the pace of technology development, according to a new study of 28 early ATP award winners.

Half of the companies surveyed (14 out of 28) estimated that participation in the ATP reduced their technology development cycle by 50 percent, typically reducing a six-year process to three years. The majority (27 out of 28, or 96 percent) estimated that ATP participation reduced the cycle time anywhere from 30 to 66 percent.

Accelerated technology development translates to dollars and cents according to the companies studied, with estimates of the economic impact of reducing cycle time ranging from one million to several billions of dollars for a single year of time saved.

In addition, 24 of the companies (86 percent) indicated that participation in ATP resulted in cycle-time improvements that carried over to other technology development projects outside of ATP. They spoke of adapting specific "ATP practices" to related programs.

The results are documented in "Acceleration of Technology Development by the Advanced Technology Program: The Experience of 28 Projects Funded in 1991," one of a series of studies commissioned by the ATP as part of the program's evaluation and analysis efforts.

Copies of the study are available from the ATP Office of Economic Assessment, 301/975-4332.

Maryland