The Advanced Technology Program at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) bridges the gap between the research lab and the marketplace, stimulating prosperity through innovation. Through partner-ships with the private sector, the ATP’s early stage investment is accelerating the development of innovative technologies that promise significant commercial payoffs and widespread benefits for the nation. As part of the highly regarded NIST, the ATP is changing the way industry approaches R&D, providing a mechanism for industry to extend its technological reach. The ATP partners with companies of all sizes, universities and non-profits, encouraging them to take on greater technical challenges with potentially large benefits that extend well beyond the innovators—challenges they could not or would not do alone.  

Administered by the National Institute of Standards and Technology

Founded in 1901, NIST is a non-regulatory federal agency within the U.S. Commerce Department's Technology Administration.  NIST's mission is to develop and promote measurement, standards, and technology to enhance productivity, facilitate trade, and improve the quality of life. NIST carries out its mission in four cooperative programs: the NIST Laboratories, conducting research that advances the nation's technology infrastructure and is needed by U.S. industry to continually improve products and services, which include:

• The Baldrige National Quality Program, which promotes performance excellence among U.S. manufacturers, service companies, educational institutions, and health care providers; conducts outreach programs and manages the annual Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award which recognizes performance excellence and quality achievement;
  
• The Manufacturing Extension Partnership, a nationwide network of local centers offering technical and business assistance to smaller manufacturers; and
  
• The Advanced Technology Program, which accelerates the development of innovative technologies for broad national benefit by co-funding R&D partnerships with the private sector.