D3: ATP Performance Measures

• Track performance to assess if goals are being met
• Link performance to budget decisions
• Address management challenges.

Each year, ATP estimates the following performance results as measures of key outputs and indicators of progress in meeting short-run program goals-funding high-risk R&D;, fostering collaboration, and accelerating development and commercialization of advanced technologies. These performance measures are included in NIST's budget submissions to the U.S. Department of Commerce (DoC) and the Office of Management and Budget.

In addition to compiling actual performance results as of the end of a given fiscal year, ATP forecasts results for the following seven years. These forecasts are derived by computing the ratio of actual total outputs for a given measure to the cumulative number of completed projects over the history of ATP and applying this ratio to the anticipated number of completed projects at each future date. The forecasts are used by the DoC as targets for annual performance.

The table below shows the ATP targets* for FY 2003 that the DoC will use to assess actual performance and budgets, actual measures of performance for FY 2003, and the targets for FY 2004.

Table 1. ATP Performance Measures for Fiscal Year 2001

Performance Measure	Target FY 2003	Actual FY 2003	Target FY 2004
Cumulative number of projects with new technologies under commercialization	210	271	250
Cumulative number of publications	840	1,245	990
Cumulative number of patents filed	1,020	1,171	1,220
Percent of projects reporting an increase in longer-term and/or higher-risk R&D	95	96	95
Percent of projects involving R&D collaboration	85	86	85
Percent of project participants reporting acceleration of R&D cycle time	85	85	85

The results shown in the table above are based primarily on:

• Survey data from the Business Reporting System
• Status Reports of Completed Projects.

Key Results

• Actual results for FY 2003 represent over 100 percent of the targeted levels for all measures.
  
• The level of collaboration, the percent of projects reporting an increase in longer-term/higher-risk R&D;, and acceleration have been constant over time.
  
• These high levels of acceleration of R&D and collaboration are expected to continue in the future, indicating that ATP is meeting its mission.

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* Final targets for 2003 were estimated by the ATP in mid FY2002, submitted to DoC in FY2002, and articulated in the DoC annual performance plan for FY2003. Similarly, final targets for 2004 were estimated by the ATP in mid 2003 for articulation in the DoC annual performance plan and budget for FY2005. Therefore, there are considerable lags associated with the process. Actual results for a given year are compiled and become available for reporting purposes by the middle of the following year.

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D1 Characteristics of ATP Award Winner D2 Distribution of Funding of 736 Awards (Total Funding Dollars for 1990-May 2004)

Date created: September 14, 2001
Last updated: August 23, 2004