Faster, cheaper strategy for federal tech transfer

In a presidential memorandum issued 28 October, Obama instructed federal agencies that own and operate laboratories to develop five-year plans aimed at increasing the number and pace of technology commercialization efforts with industry and nonprofit entities. The plans are to be submitted to the Office of Management and Budget within 180 days.

In the memorandum, which in legal terms does not carry the same force as an executive order, Obama also instructed agencies to reduce the time and effort required for companies to negotiate licenses and to enter into cooperative R&D agreements with labs. He ordered the agencies to streamline the process required to apply for Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) grants, which set aside about 3% of the research agencies’ R&D budgets for technology development projects proposed by small businesses. Agencies are also instructed to get private sector participation in the peer review of SBIR and STTR applications, to encourage industry coinvestment in the grants, and to increase the transparency of the programs.

Rebecca Blank, acting deputy secretary of the Department of Commerce, told reporters in a teleconference, “America must enhance its capability to transfer science and engineering breakthroughs to the marketplace. Federal labs play an important role in this effort, and we’re working to ensure that all research agencies make their lab-to-market efforts a top priority.” Labs acting on the memorandum will increase the flow of technologies from the lab to the market, which will create new businesses and jobs while maintaining the agencies’ research missions, she said. “In short, we consider the changes that this memo lays out among the most important steps taken to improve tech transfer since the Stevenson-Wydler innovation act passed 30 years ago,” Blank said, referring to the 1980 statute that established a technology transfer office at federal labs and authorized cooperative research agreements with the private sector.

Agencies that own major labs include the Department of Energy, the Department of Defense, the Department of Health and Human Services (National Institutes of Health), the Department of Commerce (NIST and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration), the US Department of Agriculture, and NASA.

In a second, simultaneously released memorandum, Obama ordered the establishment of a new web portal, Business USA, to provide a single contact point for small businesses and companies that seek to grow their exports so that they can locate all relevant programs across the federal spectrum. “It’s critical that entrepreneurs and job creators know what tools and resources are available to them from the federal government,” said Karen Mills, administrator of the Small Business Administration.

The instructions contained in the two memoranda were part of Obama’s jobs bill, which Congress rejected last month. The White House has since been pushing for passage of parts of the bill piecemeal, insisting that the country can’t wait for Congress to act. The measures ordered in the memoranda are administrative and don’t require legislation.

The memorandum directs the Interagency Workgroup on Technology Transfer, established through an executive order issued by President Ronald Reagan in 1987, to recommend other steps to improve federal lab technology transfer. Obama also ordered agencies to collaborate with tech transfer programs sponsored by universities, industry consortia, economic development entities, and state and local governments.