Commerce Department Requests Comments on Possible Changes 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