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![handle is hein.gao/gaobacnea0001 and id is 1 raw text is:
(3 O United States
N )O General Accounting Office
Washington, D.C. 20548
Resources, Community, and
Economic Development Division
B-283229
August 3, 1999
The Honorable F. James Sensenbrenner, Jr.
Chairman, Committee on Science
House of Representatives
Subject: Federal Research: Information on the Advanced Technology Program's Award
Selection
This report responds to your request concerning the Advanced Technology Program
(ATP), which is administered by the National Institute of Standards and Technology
within the Department of Commerce. ATP's mission is to stimulate U.S. economic
growth by developing high-risk and enabling technologies through industry-driven cost-
shared partnerships. ATP carries out competitions each year to select research and
development projects for support. The program's fiscal year 1999 budget is $203.5
million; the President's fiscal year 2000 budget request seeks $238.7 million.
A July 1997 Commerce Department report states that [p]roject proposals are carefully
scrutinized during the review process to ensure that ATP funding is in fact necessary.
The ATP frequently rejects projects when it concludes that the applicants could
probably find funding elsewhere or that a delay in [the project's] progress would not be
a serious national economic concern.1 In light of that report and recent changes to the
ATP Proposal Preparation Kit, you asked us to review whether ATP has used these
selection criteria in its funding decisions for proposals. Specifically, you asked us (1) to
describe how ATP determines that a delay in a project's progress would be a serious
national economic concern and (2) to identify the number of ATP applications that
have been rejected since July 1997 because a delay in progress would not be a serious
national economic concern or because the applicants could probably find funding
elsewhere.
Results in Brief
While ATP collects a great deal of economic information from applicants during the
proposal process, it does not specifically assess whether the nonselection of projects
would pose a serious national economic concern. Agency officials said that the issue
of a serious national economic concern influenced the development of the program and
remains a basis for the program. The selection process itself focuses on evaluating the
IStrengthening the Commerce Department's Advanced Technology Propram: An Action Plan, U.S. Department of
Commerce, Technology Administration (July 1997).
GAOJRCED-99-258R Advanced Technology Program](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.gao/gaobacnea0001&div=1&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)