Identifying NIST Impacts on Patenting: A Novel Data Set and Potential Uses

Area of Science:

• Scientific and Technical Information
• Innovation Metrics
• Technology Transfer

Background:

• The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) aims to foster U.S. innovation and competitiveness through diverse scientific outputs.
• Traditional impact analyses often focus narrowly on patents and publications, potentially underestimating broader scientific contributions.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and present results from a novel methodology for measuring the usage and impact of a comprehensive range of NIST scientific outputs.
• To capture a wider array of outputs including patents, publications, research data, software, and reference materials.

Main Methods:

• Implemented a novel measurement approach to assess usage and impact across a broad spectrum of scientific and technical outputs.
• Expanded beyond traditional citation analysis (patent-to-patent, patent-to-paper) to include diverse output types.

Main Results:

• Metrics relying solely on patents understate NIST's invention impact and fail to capture inventor usage of other scientific outputs.
• Different industries and technologies demonstrate varied reliance on distinct types of NIST outputs, highlighting the need for diverse transfer mechanisms.

Conclusions:

• A comprehensive assessment of NIST's scientific output usage provides a more accurate measure of its impact on innovation.
• Over-reliance on limited technology transfer tools risks underutilization of NIST knowledge and capabilities by businesses.
• The study suggests new metrics for technology transfer that encourage shared responsibility and enhance research impact.