Accelerated studies have been in use since at least the mid-1950s, at least for biological reference materials. CRMs are typically monitored at a range of temperatures and the results are used to predict the rate of change at a proposed, usually low, storage temperature. Often, the prediction uses a well known degradation model such as an Arrhenius model. The advantage over real-time studies is that results are available sooner and predictions of stability over a much longer period than the stability study can be defended. For some applications, accelerated studies have been described as the only practical approach: 
The principal disadvantage of accelerated studies is that reference materials, like any other material, can degrade for unexpected reasons over time, or can degrade following different kinetic models; predictions can then become unreliable.