Federal Laboratory Consortium for Technology Transfer

This panel will introduce TechComm’s Beta Lab Initiative, which involves the selection of twelve federal labs working with TechComm to develop and implement TechComm’s long-range, national strategy for federal technology commercialization, which is based on the premise of developing a national network of industry, university, economic development, and venture capital partners.

This session highlights NASA's efforts, in partnership with USAID, the Department of State and NIKE, to identify technologies that can be applied to solving problems and challenges in the developing world. These range from providing small villages in remote areas of the world with technology for safe drinking water, to energy generation and storage capabilities. The session will showcase NASA's LAUNCH Initiative, which is designed to accelerate innovation for a sustainable future. LAUNCH searches for innovators whose world-class ideas, technologies or programs show great promise for making tangible impacts on society in global "grand challenge" areas, including water, health, and energy. Through LAUNCH, NASA brings to the table a problem-solving culture, deep technical expertise, and a unique capacity to capture and analyze data about our home planet.

Cluster development, company creation, and jobs are all hot topics as well as basic mandates of the Office of Research and Technology Applications (ORTA) mission. So how do you do it? What resources does it take? How long does it take? Are there models and lessons learned? A recent case history of a cluster development effort with metrics will be presented by a panel of those involved in the effort. It will feature the critical roles various federal, state, and local tech transfer and business development entities played in this success. Here is a successful model for possible replication.

Few federal technology transfer offices (TTOs) are tapping into the power of social media, which is not surprising given tight budgets, overloaded staff, and strict communication rules. Yet blogs, tweets, and “likes” are key paths to a TTO’s messages reaching the general public. Effective, cost-efficient use of social media also can connect TTOs with licensing prospects and potential partners for specific opportunities. Some federal labs have established an effective tech transfer presence on the various social media platforms. Come to this session to find out how they made social media a reality for their TTO. Panelists will share information to enable more federal TTOs to tap into this effective means of communication. Forget the technical mechanics of how to use the various social media tools. For federal labs, the real question is: What are the structural logistics for implementing social media? This session will answer that question, helping attendees develop and implement a plan to incorporate social media into their TTO’s communications strategy.

This session reviews an initiative started in Aug 2011 at a Navy lab to harness the collective power of universities, local PIAs, and national PIAs to do "10 deals in 6 mos" with the lab's IP.

NSWC Crane has developed a "free" Network of eight local PIAs, four national PIAs and an additional five universities to help assess value, develop marketing information, identify partners, execute the deal, and then support the partner.  Each partner has their expertise and this challenge begins to integrate each part of the collective network for maximum results.

In his October 28, 2011, Presidential Memorandum, President Obama recognized the important role of technology transfer to our nation and challenged agencies to develop innovative strategies to significantly increase technology transfer from federal laboratories.  This session will focus on strategies from several key agencies and what to expect in the coming years as these plans are implemented.

On September 16, 2011, President Obama signed into law the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act (AIA). The AIA represents the first major overhaul in U.S. patent law since 1952, and will have far-reaching effects on U.S. patent law. Among the changes set forth in the Act are provisions that change the U.S. from a first-inventor-to-invent to a first-inventor-to-file system; modify how pre-filing disclosures can affect the issuance and validity of a patent; expand the ways in which third parties can challenge patents and patent applications in front of the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office, including through post-grant opposition procedures; implement a prioritized examination option; and lower government fees for "micro-entities." Several provisions of the AIA directly impact inventions made with government funds. The panelists for this session include a mix of experienced patent practitioners from the federal government and outside partners who will discuss the new rules, how to adapt to them, and how FLC members and their intellectual property portfolios will be affected.

GOGOs and GOCOs differ in their ability to protect and commercialize software and other copyrighted materials.  This session will briefly describe the differences in how federal labs handle software and explore current practices for GOGOs commercializing software.  In addition, the session participants will explore if changes should be sought to broaden GOGOs’ ability to protect software for commercialization purposes.

Laboratory Directors from a number of agencies will discuss their perspectives and actions regarding President Obama's October 2011 memorandum on accelerating technology transfer and commercialization of federal technology to foster economic growth. Time will be allocated to answer questions from the audience.

Is technology transfer a honey pot for industrial espionage? Use acted-out, real-life scenarios to see what you and your colleagues would do in a given situation. There are many roads to ruin—or even jail. Some companies will do anything to find out what you know, have, or can influence, not to mention the foreign countries that will send trained professional spies into our midst. Are you practicing "safe" technology transfer? Can you protect your scientists from traps? Who ya gonna call when the bad guys come? Share your organization's best practices with the audience, and let's all stay off the radar.

From universities to federal R&D to regional initiatives, metrics are on everyone's mind these days. What should be measured? Why? In the world of technology-based economic development, SSTI's Regional Innovation Acceleration Network (RIAN) project concluded that only five measures should guide the assessment of every venture development organization. While some view this model as spot-on, others view it as dangerous. As we develop better metrics for technology transfer, what can we learn from this project? Join the debate on applying only a few metrics to every aspect of technology-based economic development.

How can national laboratories leverage the increased interest and funding for business plan competitions? The Administration, through Start-up America and the Department of Energy (DOE), recently announced the winners of its business plan competition. This panel will address ways to ensure that are technologies are being considered and explored by student entrepreneurs. It will highlight student-focused programs at the laboratories and how they currently partner with existing competitions. The number of competitions is likely to increase based on university presidents' commitment to create student business competition as part of the National Advisory Council on Innovation and Entrepreneurship (NACIE). These competitions offer an excellent opportunity for laboratories' technologies to be part of a business plan and showcased to a broader audience. For instance, DOE's regional competitions will feed into a national forum.

This session will feature a panel of representatives from member companies of the Industrial Research Institute's (IRI) External Technology Network (ETN). A brief overview of ETN's activities will be presented, and the panelists will describe their experiences, both positive and negative, working with federal laboratories. They also will share their ideas for improving interactions between industry and the federal labs.

This session will focus on the development and growth of an ecosystem that surrounds the university as a source of technology, knowledge, and ideas for innovation. The ecosystem consists of the university, startup and emerging companies, investment capital spanning early stage to commercialization to market growth, and larger organizations already in the marketplace whose goal is to innovate. The unifying model for innovation is that of open innovation, whereby the value chain of the organization is unbundled, providing the potential for the corporation to partner and collaborate with research and development organizations (such as universities and national labs) and crowd sourcing for ideas and technologies. Additionally, it is possible to utilize alternate routes to market, such as creating and partnering with early-stage companies or "renting the business model" of others. The session will consist of a set of presentations and moderated discussion consisting of representatives from the university, startup companies, funding groups, and mature corporations. The Pittsburgh region will be highlighted in the panel that has been organized.

Federal laboratories have nearly limitless unique capabilities, facilities and expertise, and are eager to be your open innovation partner. Projects range from alternative energy to antennas and software to sand flies; however, precious few firms tap into this wealth of intellectual capital. Bring a handful of business cards for followup, brace yourself for the possibilities, and make the federal laboratories part of your strategic advantage.

With federal budget pressures making the headlines in Washington, most federal labs and agencies are faced with flat or declining budgets, including those for technology transfer functions. At the same time, the nation's focus is on job creation through innovation and driving technologies from research organizations into industry faster. Achieving high performance in technology transfer increasingly requires partnerships that leverage external resources to bridge from the lab to market. Federal lab researchers, like their university counterparts, frequently invent what can be considered "raw technology," but they usually need market insight to define "products" that use this technology to meet real market needs. This session will present innovative approaches to bridging this gap from invented technology to innovative product—leveraging external innovator networks (open innovation) and entrepreneurial networks/programs.

Hear directly from two of TechComm’s Beta Labs regarding their development of a new model for federal technology transfer to industry.

The technology transfer office (TTO) at a national laboratory often has a commercialization component structured to move new technologies into the marketplace so that others can benefit from the federal investment in research. The economic development office (EDO) is structured to help technology-based businesses start, grow, or revitalize. Attendees at this session will learn how to tap into the common ground shared by both groups to successfully deploy and commercialize technology for economic growth. A panel of TTO and EDO professionals representing several federal laboratories will discuss successful collaborations between the two groups; how to improve interaction; and how they effectively team to identify potential technology licensees, and successfully transfer intellectual property for commercialization and, ultimately, taxpayer benefit. Specific examples will show how the two offices collaborate to successfully accomplish their respective department missions and the overall laboratory mission. Attend this session to learn how by working together, TTO and EDO functions can be stronger, accomplish more, and have a greater impact on society than if each were working individually to accomplish their specific goals.