Technology Transfer Several Factors Have Led To A Decline In Partnerships At Doe S Laboratories

Technology Transfer: Several Factors Have Led to a Decline in Partnerships at DOE's Laboratories

Congress has enacted several laws designed to make federally funded technology avail. to the public by facilitating the transfer of tech. (TT) from Fed. labs. to U.S. bus. The Dept. of Energy's (DoE) nat. labs. are among the leading fed. labs. participating in cooperative R&D research agreements with bus., univ., and other partners. DoE's labs. have also participated in tech. partnerships by providing tech. assist. to small bus. and other nonfed. entities. Twelve DoE labs. have been most active in TT to U.S. bus. This report: (1) examines these labs.' participation in and funding for TT activities with nonfed. entities during the past 10 years, and (2) obtains lab. managers' views on any barriers that may limit TT activities between DoE's labs. and potential nonfed. partners.

The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) is an independent agency that works for Congress. The GAO watches over Congress, and investigates how the federal government spends taxpayers dollars. The Comptroller General of the United States is the leader of the GAO, and is appointed to a 15-year term by the U.S. President. The GAO wants to support Congress, while at the same time doing right by the citizens of the United States. They audit, investigate, perform analyses, issue legal decisions and report anything that the government is doing. This is one of their reports.

The Dept. of Energy (DoE) spends billions of dollars each year at its national labs. on advanced science, energy, and other research. Federal laws and policies have encouraged the transfer of federally developed technologies to private firms, universities, and others to use or commercialize. The Amer. Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 further emphasized the role of such technologies for addressing the nation's energy, economic, and other challenges. This report examined: (1) the nature and extent of technology transfer at DoE's labs.; (2) the extent to which DoE can measure the effectiveness of its technology transfer efforts; and (3) factors affecting, and approaches for improving, DoE's efforts. Charts and tables.