(National Renewable Energy Laboratory)
The U.S. Department of Energy (DoE) will test a new process that it says will reduce some of the hurdles faced by businesses in commercializing the department’s research findings. The Agreements for Commercializing Technology (ACT) pilot test is expected to begin in January 2012 and involve the department’s national laboratories.
In making the announcement, Deputy Secretary of Energy Daniel Poneman said the initiative aims to make it easier to move ideas from the lab to the marketplace. “The Agreements for Commercializing Technology will cut red tape for businesses and start-ups interested in working with our nation’s … national laboratories,” said Poneman, “and strengthen new domestic industries by helping bring innovative, job-creating technologies to the market faster.”
ACT authorizes a more flexible framework for negotiation of intellectual property (IP) rights. That more flexible framework will involve businesses working with the contractors operating the national labs rather than DoE itself, since the contractors can take on risks the government cannot assume.
The pilot program, expected to begin early in 2012, is planned to last a few years. During this time, the national labs will also continue using Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) and Work for Others (WFO) arrangements with companies.
In October, the President issued a memorandum to executive departments and agencies directing agencies with federal laboratories to accelerate technology transfer and commercialization of research, and to take steps to increase partnerships between businesses and laboratories. The ACT initiative, says DoE, will serve as a vehicle to help accomplish this at its labs.
Read more:
- NIH Unveils Web Site to Expedite Lab Technology Transfer
- U.S. Agencies Directed to Speed Science to Marketplace
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