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Good practice Imported

ITAP — Thailand's Innovation and Technology Assistance Program

Thailand · Pathum Thani · See the Thailand profile

Evidence: Descriptive / self-reported Top 39% 71/100 · Ask Evidence Copilot about this practice

Since 1992, Thailand's NSTDA has run ITAP, pairing SMEs with subsidised technical experts from universities and labs. NSTDA reports 10,500+ SMEs and 8,200 projects backed in 2016-2021 alone, though figures are self-reported by the same agency.

10,500+
SMEs supported (2016-2021)
8,200+
R&D/technology projects (2016-2021)
18 THB billion
Additional profit attributed (2016-2021)
4 THB billion
Enterprise investment attributed (2016-2021)
4,000+
Cumulative technology-development projects (longer-run)
7.5x
Post-project profit increase
1,300+ specialists
Expert roster size
400,000 THB
Subsidy cap per project
ITAP — Thailand's Innovation and Technology Assistance Program

Details

Maturity
Established
Promoter
National Science and Technology Development Agency (NSTDA)
Period
1992-present
Keywords
SME technology extension, industrial upgrading, innovation intermediary, technology consultancy matchmaking

Context

The Innovation and Technology Assistance Program (ITAP) is Thailand's national technology-extension service, run by the National Science and Technology Development Agency (NSTDA) since 1992. It matches SMEs facing a specific technology problem — product design, process upgrading, certification, digitalisation — with a technical expert from a roster of over 1,300 specialists at universities, NSTDA's own research centres (BIOTEC, MTEC, NECTEC) or industry, subsidising up to 50% of the expert's cost, capped at 400,000 THB per project.

Results

According to NSTDA's own reporting, ITAP supported more than 10,500 Thai SMEs and over 8,200 R&D or technology projects between 2016 and 2021, attributing roughly THB 18 billion in additional profit and THB 4 billion in enterprise investment to assisted firms. A related NSTDA page cites a longer-run cumulative total of over 4,000 technology-development projects and a 7.5x post-project profit increase from an internal performance assessment.

Conclusions

All verifiable quantitative figures trace back to NSTDA-family websites rather than an independent auditor, so this is cross-page consistency within one agency, not third-party verification. Academic case studies confirm the 1992 founding date and the intermediary model, including documented failure cases, but were not accessible in full text to verify the outcome figures further.

Implementation
Indicative cost
Medium (€50k–€500k)
Time to results
Long (> 3 years)
Staffing & skills
National Science and Technology Development Agency (NSTDA), roster of 1,300+ university, NSTDA-centre (BIOTEC, MTEC, NECTEC) and industry experts

Conditions for success

  • a cost-sharing subsidy (up to 50%, capped at 400,000 THB per project) that lowers SMEs' barrier to accessing expert technical help
  • a broad, multi-institution expert roster spanning universities, public research centres and industry
  • long-term dedicated government-agency ownership sustained over three decades

Commonly funded by

National / regional programmes

Indicative funding routes for practices of this type — always check each programme's current calls and eligibility rules.

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Data sources

Where this practice's information was retrieved from, and when.

Attachments

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