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NIST Economic Impact Studies table

Impact Reports


Impact Study/ Transfer Mechanism Outcomes BCR(a) SRR(b) 249NPV(Year)(c)
Building Technology
"Benefits and Costs of Research: A Case Study of Construction Systems Integration and Automation Technologies in Commercial Facilities" (2001)
  • Construction System Integration and Automation Technologies
Increase productivity & reduced costs 4 nc $120M (1997)
"Benefits and Costs Of Research: A Case Study of Fire Dynamics Simulation" (2002)
  • Fire Dynamics Simulator
Improved efficiencies & reduced R&D costs 75 27% $282M (2000)
Chemicals
"Economic Impact of Standard Reference Materials for Sulfur in Fossil Fuels" (2000)
  • Sulfur in Fossil Fuels/SRM
Increased product quality & production efficiency, reduced transaction costs & pollution 113 1056% $409M (1998)
"The Economic Impact of the Gas-Mixture NIST-Traceable Reference Materials Program" (2002)
  • National Traceable Reference Materials, SRD; Calibration Services
Increase productivity, reduced costs 24 225% $56M (2001)
Electronics
"Economic Impact Assessment of the NIST's Josephson Volt Standard Program" (2001)
  • Josephson Voltage Standard/SRM
Increased product quality & production efficiency, reduced development costs 5 877% $45M (2000)
Information Technology
"The Economic Impacts of NIST's Data Encryption Standard (DES) Program" (2001)
  • Data Encryption Standards/Standard Conformance Test Methods
Increase productivity, reduced technical risks 102 270% $768M (2000)
"The Economic Impact of Role-Based Access Control" (2001)
  • Role-Based Access Control/Reference Models (RBAC)
Increase productivity, reduced R&D costs 109 62% $292M (2000)
"Economic Impact Assessment of NIST's Text Retrieval Conference (TREC) Program" (2010)
  • Search Engines (TREC)
Increase productivity, reduced R&D costs 4 189% $51M (2009)
Manufacturing
"Economic Impact Assessment of the International Standard for the Exchange of
Product Model Data (STEP) in Transportation Equipment Industries
" (2002)
  • STEP/STDS; Conformance Test Methods and Services
Improved system efficiencies, & reduced costs 8 32% $180M (2001)
"Economic Analysis of Role-Based Access Control" (2010)
  • Computer Security (RBAC)
Improved system efficiencies & reduced downtime 249 nc $835M (2000)
"The Economic Impacts of Documentary Standards: A Case Study of the Flat Panel Display Measurement Standard(FPDM)" (2011)
  • Documentary Standards
Improved system efficiencies, reduced costs 4 48% $56M (2010)
Materials
"Retrospective Economic Impact Assessment of the NIST Combinatorial Methods Center" (2009)
  • Consortium-Based Combinatorial Methods Development and Transfer
Increased R&D, production & technology adoption efficiency 9 161% $118M (1998)
Pharmaceuticals
"The Economic Impacts of NIST's Cholesterol Standards Program" (2000)
  • Cholesterol Measurement/SRM
Reduced production costs, improved quality & accuracy 5 154% $4M (1999)
Photonics
"Economic Impact Assessment: NIST-EEEL: Laser and Fiberoptic Power and Energy Calibration Services" (2000)
  • Laser and Fiber Optic Power and Energy Calibration/Calibrations
Increase productivity, reduced costs 9 136% $20M (1999)
Semiconductors
"Economic Analysis of NIST's Investments in Superfilling Research" (2008)
  • Superfilling Research Techniques
Reduced R&D costs 5 71% $8M (2008)
"Economic Analysis of NIST's Low-K Materials Characterization Research" (2008)
  • Low-K Materials Characterization
Redcued R&D, adoption, & production costs 8 nc $17M (2008)

  SRR BCR
Number of Studies Reporting 13 16
Min 27% 4
Max 1056% 249
Mean 254% 46
Std Dev 327% 69
Median 154% 9

nc = not calculated
(a) NPV (Year) = Net Present Value and base year for dollars
(b) SRR = Social Rate of Return
(c) BCR = Benefit to Cost Ratio
Created October 20, 2014, Updated November 6, 2023