Advanced technology has sustained our leadership in the global commu- nity. It has accounted for over 50 percent of U.S. economic growth since the Second World War. The Advanced Technology Program was established by Congress to help spur this economic growth. The ATP practices a sort of economic jujitsu, applying relatively small, highly leveraged investments against the poten- tial for major economic impacts. Ten years ago few people would have been sufficiently insane to predict the current role that the Internet plays in the national economy.
Long range means sometime out in the future.
Although, ultimately, we will perform retrospective analyses, we cannot wait until then. Broad-based economic benefits mean tracking and measuring impacts that go well beyond the individual company or companies that did the original work. We need to measure or credibly estimate the macro- economic effects of a fundamentally microeconomic program. Finally, we need to make credible predictions based on those measurements and estimates. At NIST, measurement and evaluation have been part of the ATP from the beginning.