An industry-leading materials manufacturer greatly increased production and reduced the cost of materials made of nanosized particles, which have applications ranging from sunscreen to industrial catalysts.

The world’s largest manufacturer of fiber-reinforced polymer composites developed prototype bridge beams that are lightweight, corrosion resistant, and expected to improve bridge durability and outlast conventional steel and concrete.

An innovative provider of front-end systems for wireless networks developed a thick-film processing technology for high-temperature superconductors to improve the quality of cellular phone service.

A leading biosciences company designed a bench-top bioreactor capable of growing, outside of the body, large amounts of human stem cells isolated from bone marrow for cell replacement therapy, potentially reducing the cost and pain of treatment for cancer and other diseases.

All of these innovations, and hundreds of others, have made their way from the research lab to the marketplace with the help of the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s Advanced Technology Program. Founded in 1990, the ATP provides financial support and resources that enable companies — large and small — to take revolutionary ideas and develop the technologies they need to bring new, innovative products and services to market. Through more than 700 research awards over the past 14 years, the ATP has helped accelerate the pace of scientific and engineering advances that promise significant commercial payoffs and widespread benefits for the United States.

Changing the Rules of Research and Development
What makes the ATP program unique is that it takes the risks that most traditional private sector venture capitalists will not. Technology research in the private sector is driven by today’s global economic realities. The pace of technological change is faster than ever before, and victory goes to the swift. These realities force companies to make narrower, shorter-term investments in research and development (R&D) that maximize returns to the company quickly.

The result of this fiercely competitive world of global markets means that some of the most promising new technologies, with the greatest potential for widespread national benefits, could remain in the research laboratory. They are the projects judged too risky or too far outside the mainstream to warrant private funding. Regardless of potential value, they are dropped entirely or pursued so slowly they fall to more aggressive foreign competitors.

The ATP is changing the way industry approaches R&D, providing a mechanism for industry to extend its technological reach and push the envelope of what can be attempted. The ATP views R&D projects from a broader perspective. Its bottom line is broad benefits for the nation as a whole — jobs, economic growth, better quality
of life — rooted in innovative technologies.

Standing Apart from Other Government Programs
The ATP has several critical features that also set it apart from other government R&D programs. ATP projects focus on the technology needs of American industry, not those of government. Research priorities for the ATP are set by industry, based on their understanding of the marketplace and research opportunities.

The ATP also has strict cost-sharing rules. Joint ventures (two or more companies working together) must pay at least half of the project costs. Large, Fortune-500 companies, participating as a single firm, must pay at least 60 percent of total project costs. Small and medium-sized companies working on single-firm ATP projects must pay a minimum of all indirect costs associated with the project. Private industry bears the costs of product development, production, marketing, sales and distribution.

The ATP awards are made strictly on the basis of rigorous peer-reviewed competitions. Selection is based on a high level of innovation, the technical risk, potential economic benefits to the nation, the strength of the commercialization plan of the project, and the rationale for why the ATP support is needed.

Breaking New Ground in Innovation
ATP partners with companies of all sizes, universities and non-profits, encouraging them to take on greater technical challenges with potentially larger benefits that extend well beyond the innovators — challenges they could not or would not do alone.

For smaller, start-up firms, early support from the ATP can spell the difference between success and failure. To date, more than half of ATP awards have gone to individual small businesses or to joint ventures led by a small business (see sidebar on page 11).

Large firms can work with the ATP, especially in joint ventures, to develop critical, high-risk technologies that would be difficult for any one company to justify because, for example, the benefits spread across the industry as a whole.

Universities and nonprofit independent research organizations play a significant role as participants in ATP projects. Out of 709 projects selected by the ATP since its inception, well over half of the projects include one or more universities as either subcontractors
or joint-venture members. All told, there are more than 160 individual universities and over 25 national laboratories participating in ATP projects.

Funding Unique Projects
In addition to innovative technologies with the potential for broad national benefits, the ATP looks for projects where the company or proposing group has a clear vision
of the marketplace and a commercialization plan for the
proposed technology. Projects that have clearly identified the high technical risks and propose a credible approach to solving the problems are also considered. The ATP also lends a helping hand to projects where the technical risks mean that the project would not be funded at all, or would be funded at a level so low that progress would be too slow to be at the forefront of rapidly evolving world markets.

Opening the Door to Commercialization
ATP success stories can be found across a wide range of industries, from advanced materials and chemicals to computer hardware, from automobile manufacturing to biotech- nology, and much more. Chances are good that today or sometime in the future you will use a product or service that got a jumpstart to the marketplace with the help of ATP program funding. Following are just a couple of examples of ATP program success.

Materials Made of Tiny Particles Finally Achieve Their Big Promise
Nanoscale materials, less than 100 billionths of a meter in size, have long been exalted by scientists as important new technologies because they often exhibit superior chemical, mechanical, electronic, magnetic, or optical properties. Until now, however, it has been impossible to produce these materials in economical quantities or engineer them for high-performance applications.

These materials finally are achieving their promise as ingredients in superior commercial products as a result of early support for the development of basic processing technology from the ATP program.

ATP funding enabled Nanophase Technologies Corp., a small company near Chicago, to scale up its production from 10 grams of material per day at $1,000 per gram to the current capacity of 100 tons per year at 5 cents per gram. The process makes metal, ceramic, or composite particles that are nearly spherical, close to uniform in size, free of chemical residues, and loosely clustered,enabling the engineering of materials with specific attributes such as high strength or a particular color.

ATP funding also was used to refine and demonstrate a process for shaping nanoscale ceramics into parts quickly and economically, without machining. Nanophase credits ATP with helping it attract major industry collaborators and millions of dollars in venture capital funding, leading to an agreement to distribute the materials in more than 300 countries. Today, the materials are used in a number of commercial products, including cosmetics, skin-care sprays and powders. Independent tests show that sunscreens containing nanocrystalline titania (a non-irritating alternative to sun-blocking chemicals) provide higher SPF protection using less material by weight than do conventional products, with no skin-whitening effect.

Composite Beams Designed to Enhance Bridge Durability, Reduce Life-Cycle Costs
Composites (hybrids of two or more materials) are attractive for infrastructure applications — bridges, buildings, and other large structures — because they are lightweight and resistant to rust and corrosion, but they are also expensive and difficult to engineer into structures of appropriate shape and size with adequate stiffness.

With the help of co-funding from the ATP, Strongwell Corporation of Virginia is designing and manufacturing bridge beams made of polymer composites that consist of glass and carbon fibers bound by a resin, which should last longer and be maintained more easily than the concrete and steel now used. Strongwell worked with the Georgia Institute of Technology to optimize beam shape for torque resistance and to increase the beam’s stiffness, eliminating the need for braces and also optimizing costs. The prototype beams performed well in tests for fatigue, creep (stretching under tension), and strength under static loading.

The project has attracted the interest of transportation officials in a number of states, including Virginia. In an offshoot to the ATP project, 24 subscale beams were installed successfully in the replacement of the Tom’s Creek Bridge in Blacksburg, making it one
of the first U.S. vehicular bridges to use hybrid composites as the primary load-bearing structure.

Leveraging The Resources of the ATP
The ATP has offered these companies and hundreds of others, the opportunity to take a revolutionary idea and drive it to reality. For innovators looking to beat the odds and challenge the status quo, the ATP offers:

Early Financial Support
The ATP provides cost-share funding in the critical early stages of R&D, when research risks are too high and the anticipated payback period is too long for other sources of funding.

Research Support
The ATP encourages R&D partnerships and consortia, and can provide guidance in putting together a joint research venture.

Recognition
The ATP’s rigorous peer-review system provides an independent, objective, and confidential evaluation of the strength of your R&D and business plans.

Independence
Companies control and retain the intellectual property rights to the results of their research.

Getting Started with the ATP
If you have an innovative idea in the lab or on your office white board, then maybe ATP funding is what you need to take it to the next level. ATP awards are selected through open, peer-reviewed competitions. All industries and all fields of science and technology are eligible. Proposals are evaluated by one of several technology-specific boards that are staffed with experts in a wide range of disciplines. All proposals are assured appropriate, technically competent review even if they involve a broad, multi-disciplinary mix of technologies.

ATP competition announcements appear in the Commerce Business Daily and are widely publicized. More information on current ATP competitions and copies of the ATP Proposal Preparation Kit are available by contacting ATP at 1-800-ATP-FUND, or by visiting www. atp.nist.gov. //

Note: Information for this
article can be found at the
ATP Program website at www.atp.nist.gov.

Copyright © ASTM, 2004