Building Careers and Shaping Public Policy

21 September 2005

The Honorable Christopher Bond
United States Senate
274 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510

Dear Senator Bond:

I am writing on behalf of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers-United States of America (IEEE-USA) in support of the Advanced Technology Program (ATP) at the National Institutes of Standards and Technology (NIST). We strongly oppose the elimination of the ATP, as proposed in the House of Representatives version of the FY2006 Commerce-Justice-Science Appropriations Bill (H.R. 2862) and request that conferees adhere to the Senate version, which preserves the program and provides $140 million in funding.

The ATP provides important resources for high risk, long-term research and development that most companies are reluctant to perform in today’s fast-paced, highly competitive economic environment. Industry surveys consistently indicate that, due to international competition and significantly decreased product development cycles, U.S. companies are increasingly investing only in short-term technologies with more immediate payoffs. This leaves a critical gap in the research into the “enabling technologies” that lead to innovation and technological progress.

The ATP relies on cost sharing, peer review and competition to ensure that only deserving proposals are funded. It is a model for collaboration between the federal government and the private sector in funding advanced technologies. Over the past decade, the ATP has awarded 709 projects. Four out of five ATP projects result in new products or processes introduced into the marketplace, and half of all ATP projects result in a patent application. According to the ATP Economic Assessment Office, “The benefit-cost case studies provide evidence that the benefits of the program far exceed its costs. These studies collectively attributed to ATP more than $18 billion in expected present value social benefits from about 40 projects, much greater than the total amount spent by the program of $2.3 billion to date, a greater than 8 to 1 return on investment.” This is exactly the type of payoff Americans expect for their tax dollars.

Thank you for your attention to this important matter. IEEE-USA is an organizational unit of the IEEE. It was created in 1973 to advance the public good and promote the careers and public-policy interests of the more than 225,000 electrical, electronics, computer and software engineers who are U.S. members of the IEEE. The IEEE is the world’s largest technical professional society. If you have any questions or we can be of further assistance, please contact Bill Williams, legislative representative for our research and Development Policy Committee, at (202) 785-0017 ext. 8331.

Sincerely,

Gerard A. Alphonse
President, IEEE-USA