Technology Transfer and Collaboration at Federal Labs
By law, each federal agency involved in research is required to have an Office of Research and Technology Applications, abbreviated ORTA. This office is intended to serve as an intermediary between the Laboratory and those outside such as universities, private companies and nonprofit entrepreneurial support agencies.
Some of the tools available for “outsiders” to collaborate with federal Labs are summarized below:
Small Business Innovation Research awards (SBIR) This is a competitive program designed to encourage the commercialization of products and processes developed by small businesses through grants of federal funds.
Small Business Technology Transfer program (STTR) is similar to SBIR except it only applied to the departments of Defense, Energy, Health and Human Services, NASA and the National Science Foundation and award applicants are partnerships of small businesses and universities.
Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) These agreements are used when a Lab and a private company share mutual research interests. They spell out the details of the relationship, cost sharing, and protection of the resulting discoveries or products.
Intellectual Property (IP) The labs can patent technology developed by their scientists and license inventions to companies that will commercialize them. If the lab collaborates with an outside partner on an invention, intellectual property issues are typically negotiated and formalized in advance.
Personnel Exchanges It is possible for Laboratory scientists to be deployed on a short term basis to private sector companies and universities, or for company employees and university personnel to be deployed to a Lab to enhance the knowledge, expertise and research of both parties. This is discretionary with each Lab and paid for by the outside party.
Technical Assistance (Work for Others) agreements allows a Laboratory to advise US companies or other researchers on problems for which the Lab has special expertise or equipment. There may be a fee and a formal agreement if the assistance requires more than an incidental amount of time.
Use of Facilities Outside entities such as universities, technology incubators, private companies and individual inventors may be able to use scientific equipment, specialized rooms, testing centers or other unique experimental property of the Labs. This use is at the discretion of the Lab with costs paid by the user.
Technology Transfer Offices of Colorado Federal Research Labs
Agriculture Research Service (ARS)
http://www.ars.usda.gov/Business/Business.htm
Bryan Kaphammer, Ph.D.
970-492-7028
bryan.kaphammer@ars.usda.gov
Bureau of Reclamation Technical Services Center
http://www.usbr.gov/research/tech-transfer/index.html
Samantha Q. Zhang
303-445-2126
szhang@do.usbr.gov
Centers for Disease Control, Division of Vector-Borne Infectious Diseases
http://www.cdc.gov/od/science/techtran/about.htm
tto@cdc.gov (office is in Atlanta)
Institute for Telecommunications Science, National Telecommunications
and Information Administration (NTIS)
http://www.its.bldrdoc.gov
Brian D. Lane, Executive Officer
(303) 497-3484
blane@its.bldrdoc.gov
info@its.bldrdoc.gov
National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR)
http://www.ncar.ucar.edu/tools/technology/
Research Applications Laboratory
Brant Foote, Director
rap_admin@rap.ucar.edu
303.497.8422
Meg McClellen, General Counsel
mmcclellen@ucar.edu
303.497.8875
National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST)
Office of Technology Partnerships
Gaithersburg, MD
http://ts.nist.gov/ts/htdocs/220/external/
http://patapsco.nist.gov/ts/220/external/index.htm
Terry Lynch, Senior Licensing Officer jtlynch@nist.gov
Clara Asmail, Boulder Labs liaison asmail@nist.gov
(301) 975-2691
NIST has announced a 2009 competition for multiyear research funding in two major areas of national interest, civil infrastructure and advanced materials in manufacturing, under its Technology Innovation Program (TIP). TIP expects to provide cost-shared funding for approximately 25 new R&D projects.
http://www.nist.gov/tip/
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA),
Boulder Earth Systems Research Lab (ESRL)
http://www.esrl.noaa.gov/psd/technology/tech_transfer/
ESRL is the largest lab in Colorado
Richard Lataitis,
(303) 497-6523
NOAA is very decentralized and many units have their own T2 offices.
Silver Springs HQ Office of Research and Technology Applications:
Diane (Dee Dee) Rinaldo
diane.rinaldo@noala.gov
National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL)
http://www.nrel.gov/technologytransfer/about.html
Casey Porto, Vice President
Bill Farris, 303-275-3069
William.Farris@nrel.gov
National Wildlife Research Center, US Department of Agriculture,
Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service
Technology Transfer Coordinator
Northern Plains Area and Southern Plains Area
(970) 492-7028
npa-spattc@npa.ars.usda.gov
Rocky Mountain Research Station, US Forest Service
Office of Science Application and Integration
Jan Engert, Acting Director
406-542-3256
Ron Ketter, Acting Deputy Director, FLC contact
970-295-5917
USGS Geographic Science Center
http://www.usgs.gov/tech-transfer/index.html
http://www.usgs.gov/tech-transfer/available_patents.html
Mary Lou Pectol
Chief Office of Policy and Analysis
Reston, VA
(703) 648-6616
mpectol@usgs.gov
Business Development Branch, Geographic Sciences
Beth Duff
703.648.4621
In addition to their sponsoring labs, CIRES (NOAA) and JILA (NIST) work with the University of Colorado Technology Transfer office
http://www.colorado.edu/webcom/cgi-bin/frame.cgi?http://www.cusys.edu/techtransfer/
David Allen
Associate Vice President for Technology Transfer
David.Allen@cu.edu
(303) 735-1688
CIRA works with NOAA, the CSU Office of Vice President for Research and Information Technology and Colorado State University Research Foundation
http://www.csurf.org/tto/
Todd Headley
Director, Technology Transfer Office
970.484.0354
todd.headley@csurf.colostate.edu
Other Resources
These websites contain information about technology transfer at all federal agencies nationwide and are a good starting point:
Federal Laboratory Consortium
http://www.federallabs.org/
FLC Technology Locator helps match user technical requests for expertise and facilities with appropriate federal laboratory capabilities. Their website also has a good list of Resources about technology transfer.
National Technical Information Service
www.ntis.gov
This federal agency collects and disseminates scientific and technical information generated by federally funded research.
www.technologytransfertactics.com
Robert Byrd National Technology Transfer Center
This organization offers information and assistance about federal technologies
http://www.nttc.edu/