Potential Problems That Should Be Considered in Evaluating the Experimental Technology Incentives Program

Under the Experimental Technology Incentives Program (ETIP) of the National Bureau of Standards, studies and experiments are conducted to develop policy recommendations on how the Government can affect the rate at which the private sector innovates. Problems encountered in program performance could hinder the program's ability to meet its objectives.

In managing projects, the ETIP staff has encountered difficulties that have hampered program activities and could continue to do so in the future. The size of the present staff and its reliance on agencies to assist in conducting cooperative experiments have made it difficult to plan and conduct the desired number of experiments. Also, the effectiveness of the method being used to evaluate experiments has yet to be determined. More effective interaction is needed between ETIP personnel and Federal policymaking and policy research organizations that have similar or related objectives. More coordination and cooperation could help ETIP staff achieve the objectives of the program by improving the performance of necessary background research, enabling the staff to conduct experiments on technology policy issues and enhancing the usefulness of experiment results to policymakers.

Recommendations

Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.

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