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NIST-Funded Studies

NIST has a leadership role within a large group of public and private stakeholders and aids this group in establishing goals, measuring performance, establishing standards, streamlining administrative processes, and facilitating partnerships that encourage commercialization of these federally funded research and development efforts.

To support this role, NIST engages in ongoing efforts to track technology transfer activity metrics and directs economic research studies that estimate the importance of federal technologies and supporting technical infrastructure. NIST uses its leadership role to help facilitate the economic assessment of all federal laboratories and their technology transfer efforts. In this role, NIST has conducted the following studies with regard to the impact of federal investments and technology transfer activities.


Report Date
The National Institute of Standards and Technology's Impact on Fire Safety Standards Feb 2022
Economic Benefits of the Global Positioning System (GPS), Final Report Jun 2019
Overview and Analysis of Technology Transfer from Federal Agencies and Laboratories Jun 2019

Maximizing Innovation and Technology Commercialization of Federal Research Investments

Mar 2019
The Economic Impacts of the Advanced Encryption Standard, 1996-2017 Sept 2018
The Economic Rationales and Impacts of Technology-Based Economic Development Policies Jul 2018
Analysis of International Technology Development and Commercialization Policy Instruments and Infrastructures Jul 2018
Economic Analysis of National Needs for Technology Infrastructure to Support the Materials Genome Initiative, Final Report Apr 2018
NIST Economic Contribution of Operations and Construction, FY2014 - FY2016 Sep 2017
Created February 6, 2020, Updated August 23, 2023