The ATP does not fund product development. It supports enabling technologies that are essential to the development of new products, processes, and services across diverse application areas. Private industry bears the costs of product development, production, marketing, sales, and distribution. Expert technical reviewers from government laboratories who have no conflicts of interest carefully examine and rate the technical potential each proposal according to published selection criteria. Experts in business and economics from the private and public sectors who have no conflicts of interest review the business and economic portions of proposals.
Proprietary information is protected carefully.
Projects are monitored and can be terminated for cause before completion. For smaller, start-up firms, early support from the ATP can spell the difference between success and failure. To date, more than half of the ATP awards have gone to individual small businesses or to joint ventures led by a small business. 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 non-profit independent research organizations play significant roles as participants in ATP projects.