SUPPLEMENTAL REPORT

Department of Commerce, Annual Budget Proposal, FY 2008 

Annual Report on Technology Transfer: 

Approach and Plans, FY 2006 Activities and Achievements 

U.S. Department of Commerce 

Report prepared by: 

Office of the Under Secretary for Technology Policy, Technology Administration; 

National Institute of Standards and Technology, Technology Administration; 

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration; 

Institute for Telecommunication Sciences, National Telecommunications and Information 

Administration 

In response to the: 

Technology Transfer and Commercialization Act of 2000 (P.L. 106-404) 

January 30, 2007 

Annual Report on DoC Federal Lab Technology Transfer, FY 2006 edition (January 2007) Page 1 
Foreword. This is the calendar year 2007 edition of a report series summarizing the 

technology transfer activities and achievements of the Department of Commerce’s federal 

laboratories. This report responds to the statutory requirement for an annual “agency report on 

utilization” [15 U.S.C. Section 3710 (f)] under the revised federal-wide reporting process 

established by the Technology Transfer Commercialization Act of 2000 (P.L. 106-404). All 

federal agencies that direct one or more federal laboratories or conduct other activities under 

Section 207 and 209 of Title 35, United States Code are subject to the requirements of this 

statute. 

At the Department of Commerce, technology transfer is a part of the mission and program 

activities of principally the National Institute of Standards and Technology (Technology 

Administration), the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and the Institute for 

Telecommunication Sciences (National Telecommunications and Information Administration). 

Accordingly, this report focuses on the activities of these three departmental agencies. 

Each of the major sections of this report is organized to summarize the agency’s technology 

transfer approaches and plans and to provide specific information about the activities and 

accomplishments for FY 2006 and several earlier comparative years. The report begins with a 

summary of this information for the Department of Commerce as a whole. 

__________ 

This report has been organized and prepared by the Office of Technology Policy (Technology 

Administration), along with the joint participation of technology transfer personnel at the 

National Institute of Standards and Technology (Technology Administration), the National 

Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and the Institute for Telecommunication Sciences 

(National Telecommunications and Information Administration). 

Annual Report on DoC Federal Lab Technology Transfer, FY 2006 edition (January 2007) Page 2 
Table of Contents 

I. DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE OVERVIEW...................................................................... 4 

■ Summary of Technology Transfer Activities and Achievements across the Department, FY 

2006 and Recent Years ............................................................................................................... 6 

II. TECHNOLOGY ADMINISTRATION -- NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF STANDARDS AND 

TECHNOLOGY ........................................................................................................................... 20 

1. Agency Approach and Plans for Technology Transfer......................................................... 20 

2. Performance in FY 2006: Activities and Achievements....................................................... 24 

Appendix................................................................................................................................... 40 

III. NATIONAL OCEANIC AND ATMOSPHERIC ADMINISTRATION............................... 41 

1. Agency Approach and Plans for Technology Transfer......................................................... 41 

2. Performance in FY 2006: Activities and Achievements....................................................... 43 

Appendix................................................................................................................................... 57 

IV. NATIONAL TELECOMMUNICATIONS AND INFORMATION ADMINISTRATION -- 

INSTITUTE FOR TELECOMMUNICATION SCIENCES........................................................ 64 

I. Agency Approach and Plans for Technology Transfer ......................................................... 64 

II. Performance in FY 2006: Activities and Achievements...................................................... 66 

Appendix:.................................................................................................................................. 72 

Annual Report on DoC Federal Lab Technology Transfer, FY 2006 edition (January 2007) Page 3 
I. DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE OVERVIEW 

Technology Transfer by the Department’s Federal Laboratories – Summary of 

Approaches and FY 2006 Activities/Achievements 

The Department of Commerce works in partnership with businesses, universities, communities, 

and workers to promote innovation and the Nation’s overall competitiveness in the global 

economy. The Department pursues this objective through a host of policy and program activities 

directed at strengthening the nation’s economic infrastructure, facilitating the development of 

cutting-edge science and technology, providing an information base, and managing national 

resources. 

At the Department, research and development (R&D) in numerous areas of contemporary 

science and technology is conducted at the federal laboratories of the Technology Administration 

(the National Institute of Standards and Technology -- NIST), National Oceanic and 

Atmospheric Administration (various lab facilities across NOAA’s bureaus), and the National 

Telecommunications and Information Administration (Institute for Telecommunication Research 

– ITS). Technology transfer is a key part of the program activities at each of these agencies’ 

federal lab systems.1 

■ Agency Missions and Channels for Technology Transfer 

National Institute of Standards and Technology 

NIST’s mission is to develop and promote measurement, standards, and technology to enhance 

productivity, facilitate trade, and improve the quality of life. NIST laboratories develop and 

disseminate measurement techniques, reference data, test methods, standards, and other 

infrastructural technologies and services that support U.S. industry, scientific research, and the 

activities of many federal agencies. In carrying out its mission, NIST works directly with 

industry partners (and consortia), universities, associations, and other government agencies. 

NIST’s technology transfer activities are focused in general on the broad dissemination of 

research results to industry, rather than just creation of patents and associated licenses. 

Accordingly, NIST draws on a diverse group of mechanisms to transfer the knowledge and 

technologies that result from its laboratory research. Included are: 

CRADAs, 

Patents and licenses, 

Technical publications, 

Standard Reference Materials, 

Standard Reference Data, 

 

1

 In reviewing the technology transfer plans and activity statistics provided by this report, it is important to 

recognize there are significant differences among the three agencies in the level of resources available to 

support R&D activities. For NIST, budget authority for R&D (including conduct of R&D and R&D facilities) 

in FY 2006 totaled an estimated $437 million. For NOAA, the corresponding figure for R&D budget 

authority in FY 2006 is $617 million. For ITS, the corresponding FY 2006 figure is $6 million 

Annual Report on DoC Federal Lab Technology Transfer, FY 2006 edition (January 2007) Page 4 
Calibration services, 

Documentary standards 

Conferences, workshops, and inquiries 

Guest researchers and facilities users. 

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration 

NOAA’s mission is to understand and predict changes in the Earth’s environment and to 

conserve and manage coastal and marine resources to meet the Nation’s economic, social, and 

environmental needs. This mission will be ever more critical in the 21st century as national needs 

intensify concerning climate change, freshwater supply, ecosystem management, and homeland 

security. 

NOAA’s broad approach to tech transfer involves direct transfer, licensing its intellectual 

property, and cooperative research relationships with industry. NOAA works with its 

laboratories according to each’s expertise and ability to provide necessary resources. NOAA’s 

principal tech transfer mechanisms are: 

Public dissemination scientific/technical materials, 

CRADAs, 

Patents and licenses. 

Institute for Telecommunication Sciences 

ITS supports agency telecommunications objectives such as promoting advanced 

telecommunications and information infrastructure development in the United States, enhancing 

domestic competitiveness, improving foreign trade opportunities for U.S. telecommunications 

firms, and facilitating more efficient and effective use of the radio spectrum. ITS also serves as a 

principal federal resource for solving the telecommunications concerns of other federal agencies, 

state and local governments, private corporations and associations, and international 

organizations. 

ITS engages in tech transfer and commercialization activities by encouraging and facilitating 

cooperative research with industry where it can directly benefit U.S. competitiveness and market 

opportunities. ITS’ principal tech transfer mechanisms currently include: 

CRADAs, 

Patents and licenses, 

Telecommunications analysis services. 

Technical publications, 

Development of telecommunications standards. 

For a more detailed discussion, see the initial section of each of the agency chapters below. 

Annual Report on DoC Federal Lab Technology Transfer, FY 2006 edition (January 2007) Page 5 
■ Summary of Technology Transfer Activities and Achievements across the 

Department, FY 2006 and Recent Years 

Selected Activity Measures 

Collaborative Relationships for Research & Development 

FY 

2002 

FY 

2003 

FY 

2004 

FY 

2005 

FY 

2006 

● CRADAs, total active in the FY (1)

▪ Traditional CRADAs (2) Department 141 92 67 80 149 

 NIST 125 76 51 65 135 

 NOAA 8 11 9 8 6 

 ITS 6 5 7 7 8 

▪ Non-traditional CRADAs (3) Department 1,744 1,811 1,902 1,826 2,859 

 NIST 1,687 1,577 1,590 1,553 2,353 

 NOAA 0 0 0 0 0 

 ITS 57 234 312 273 506 

● Other types of collaborative R&D relationships (4)

▪ Facility use agreements NIST 391 511 590 588 639 

▪ Guest scientists and engineers NIST 1,300 1,300 1,700 2,15 2,114 

▪ Collaborative standards contributions ITS 3 2 11 11 16 

CRADA = Cooperative Research and Development Agreement. 

(1) “Active” = legally in force at any time during the FY. “Total active” is comprehensive of all agreements 

executed under CRADA authority (15 USC 3710a). 

(2) CRADAs involving collaborative research and development by a federal laboratory and non-federal partners. 

(3) CRADAs used for special purposes -- such as, material transfer or technical assistance that may result in 

protected information. 

(4) For details on these types of R&D relationships see the respective agency’s chapter later in this report. 

Annual Report on DoC Federal Lab Technology Transfer, FY 2006 edition (January 2007) Page 6 
Invention Disclosure and Patenting 

FY 

2002 

FY 

2003 

FY 

2004 

FY 

2005 

FY 

2006 

● New inventions disclosed in the FY (1) Department 15 21 25 21 14 

 NIST 14 16 23 19 10 

 NOAA 1 5 2 1 4 

 ITS 0 0 0 1 0 

● Patent applications filed in the FY (2) Department 20 8 12 12 5 

 NIST 19 8 12 11 4 

 NOAA 0 0 0 1 0 

 ITS 1 0 0 0 1 

● Patents issued in the FY Department 23 11 12 10 7 

NIST 18 9 11 9 6 

 NOAA 5 1 1 1 0 

 ITS 0 1 0 0 1 

(1) Inventions arising at the federal lab. 

(2) Tally includes U.S. patent applications, foreign patent applications filed on cases for which no U.S. application 

was filed, divisional applications, and continuation-in-part applications. Excludes provisional, continuation, 

duplicate foreign, and Paris Cooperation Treaty (PCT) applications. 

Annual Report on DoC Federal Lab Technology Transfer, FY 2006 edition (January 2007) Page 7 
Licensing -- Profile of Active Licenses 

FY 

2002 

FY 

2003 

FY 

2004 

FY 

2005 

FY 

2006 

All licenses, number total active in FY (1) Department 41 101 125 133 111 

▪ Invention licenses, total active in FY Department 41 101 125 133 111 

 - Patent licenses (2) Department 41 101 30 33 36 

 NIST 35 39 22 26 24 

 NOAA 3 5 5 4 5 

 ITS 3 57 3 3 7 

 - Material transfer licenses (inventions) 0 0 0 0 0 

 - Other invention licenses Department 0 0 95 100 75 

NIST 0 100 75 

 NOAA 0 0 0 

ITS 95 100 75 

▪ Other IP licenses, total active in FY Department 0 0 0 0 0 

 - Copyright licenses (fee bearing) 

 - Material transfer licenses (non-inventions) 

 - Other 

Multiple inventions in a single license are counted as one license. Licenses that include both patents and copyrights 

(hybrid licenses) are reported as patent licenses -- and not included in the count of copyright licenses. 

(1) “Active” = legally in force at any time during the FY. 

(2) Patent license tally includes patent applications which are licensed. 

Note: For simplicity, sub-departmental detail is suppressed in this table, where the appropriate disaggregated figures 

are straightforwardly evident from data listed in other rows. 

Licensing Management 

FY 

2002 

FY 

2003 

FY 

2004 

FY 

2005 

FY 

2006 

● Elapsed execution time, (1) licenses granted in the FY 

▪ Invention licenses, average, months NIST 5.4 3.4 * 1.0 6.0 

NOAA 8.0 5.0 * * 7.0 

 ITS 5.0 1.0 2.0 2.0 1.5 

● Licenses terminated for cause, number in the FY 

▪ Invention licenses NIST 3 1 0 1 0 

 NOAA 0 0 0 0 0 

 ITS 0 0 0 0 0 

* No New licenses executed in the FY 

For additional statistics on these metrics see the corresponding table the later agency chapters of this report. 

Annual Report on DoC Federal Lab Technology Transfer, FY 2006 edition (January 2007) Page 8 
(1) Date of license application to the date of license execution. (Date of license application is the date the lab 

formally acknowledges the written request for a license from a prospective licensee and agrees to enter into 

negotiations.) 

Characteristics of Licenses Bearing Income 

FY 

2002 

FY 

2003 

FY 

2004 

FY 

2005 

FY 

2006 

● All income bearing licenses, number Department 39 37 23 25 30 

▪ Invention licenses, income bearing Department 39 37 23 25 30 

 - Patent licenses (1) Department 39 37 23 25 30 

 NIST 33 29 15 17 18 

 NOAA 3 5 5 4 5 

 ITS 3 3 3 4 7 

 ▫ Exclusive/partially exclusive/ 

 non-exclusive Department 19/2/18 20/0/17 11/0/12 12/0/13 17/0/13 

 NIST 18/2/13 19/0/10 10/0/5 11/0/6 16/0/2 

 NOAA 1/0/2 1/0/4 1/0/4 1/0/3 1/0/4 

 ITS 0/0/3 0/0/3 0/0/3 0/0/4 0/0/7 

▪ Other IP licenses, income bearing 0 0 0 0 

● All royalty bearing licenses, (2) number 36 34 23 25 30 

▪ Invention licenses, royalty bearing 36 34 23 25 30 

 - Patent licenses (1) Department 36 34 23 25 30 

 NIST 33 29 15 17 18 

 NOAA 3 5 5 4 5 

 ITS 0 0 3 4 7 

▪ Other IP licenses, royalty bearing 0 0 0 0 0 

(1) Patent license tally includes patent applications which are licensed. 

(2) Note that royalties are one component of total license income. 

Note: For simplicity, sub-departmental detail is suppressed in this table, where the appropriate disaggregated figures 

are straightforwardly evident from data listed in other rows. 

Annual Report on DoC Federal Lab Technology Transfer, FY 2006 edition (January 2007) Page 9 
Income from Licensing 

FY 

2002 

FY 

2003 

FY 

2004 

FY 

2005 

FY 

2006 

● Total income, all licenses active in FY (1) $164,622 $127,566 $203,289 $146,660 $194,393 

▪ Invention licenses $164,622 $127,566 $203,289 $146,660 $194,393 

 - Patent licenses (2) Department $164,622 $127,566 $203,289 $146,660 $194,393 

 NIST $89,750 $122,850 $144,828 $123,348 $156,793 

 NOAA $9,402 $4,716 $24,961 $16,100 $13,100 

 ITS $65,470 $0 $33,500 $7,212 $24,500 

▪ Other IP licenses, total active in the FY $0 $0 $0 $0 $0 

● Total Earned Royalty Income (3) $99,152 $127,566 $169,789 $139,448 $169,893 

▪ Invention licenses $99,152 $127,566 $169,789 $139,448 $169,893 

 - Patent licenses (2) Department $99,152 $127,566 $169,789 $139,448 $169,893 

 NIST $89,750 $122,850 $144,828 $123,348 $156,793 

 NOAA $9,402 $4,716 $24,961 $16,100 $13,100 

 ITS $0 $0 $0 $0 $0 

▪ Other IP licenses, total active in the FY $0 $0 $0 $0 $0 

(1) Total income includes license issue fees, earned royalties, minimum annual royalties, paid-up license fees, and 

reimbursement for full-cost recovery of goods and services provided by the lab to the licensee including patent 

costs. 

(2) Patent license tally includes patent applications which are licensed. 

(3) “Earned royalty” = royalty based upon use of a licensed invention (usually, a percentage of sales or of units 

sold). Not a license issue fee or a minimum royalty. 

Note: For simplicity, sub-departmental detail is suppressed in this table, where the appropriate disaggregated figures 

are straightforwardly evident from data listed in other rows. 

Annual Report on DoC Federal Lab Technology Transfer, FY 2006 edition (January 2007) Page 10 
Disposition of License Income 

FY 

2002 

FY 

2003 

FY 

2004 

FY 

2005 

FY 

2006 

● Income distributed (1)

▪ Invention licenses Department $164,622 $127,566 $203,289 $146,660 $194,393 

 NIST $89,750 $122,850 $144,828 $123,348 $156,793 

 NOAA $9,402 $4,716 $24,961 $16,100 $13,100 

 ITS $65,470 $0 $33,500 $7,212 $24,500 

 - To inventor(s) Department $67,387

(41%) 

$52,903

(41%) 

$83,654 

(41%) 

$60,112

(41%) 

$70,786

(36%) 

NIST $45,650

(51%) 

$51,773

(42%) 

$54,134 

(37%) 

$48,148

(39%) 

$47,536

(30%) 

NOAA $696

(7%) 

$1,130

(24%) 

$11,070 

(44%) 

$8,400

(52%) 

$7,500

(57%) 

ITS $21,041

(32%) 

$0

(0%) 

$18,450 

(55%) 

$3,564

(49%) 

$15,750

(64%) 

 - To other (2) Department $97,235

(59%) 

$74,662

(59%) 

$119,635 

(59%) 

$86,547

(59%) 

$123,607

(64%) 

NIST $44,100

(49%) 

$71,076

(58%) 

$90,694 

(63%) 

$75,199

(61%) 

$109,257

(70% 

NOAA $8,706

(93%) 

$3,586

(76%) 

$13,891 

(56%) 

$7,700

(48%) 

$5,600

(43%) 

ITS $44,429

(68%) 

$0

(0%) 

$15,050 

(45%) 

$3,648

(51%) 

$8,750

(36%) 

Invention licenses are the chief policy interest regarding disposition of income; content of table reflects this focus. 

(1) Income includes royalties and other payments received during the FY. 

(2) To internal purposes, in the case of each agency. 

Annual Report on DoC Federal Lab Technology Transfer, FY 2006 edition (January 2007) Page 11 
Other Important Mechanisms for Technology and Knowledge Transfer 

FY 

2002 

FY 

2003 

FY 

2004 

FY 

2005 

FY 

2006 

Standard Reference Materials (SRMs) available NIST 1,353 1,214 1,211 1,246 1,302 

Standard Reference Materials (SRMs) sold NIST 30,996 29,527 30,490 32,163 31,195 

Standard Reference Data (SRD) titles available NIST 90 106 95 110 113 

Number of items calibrated NIST 2,924 3,459 3,373 3,145 3,026 

Technical publications produced NIST 2,236 1,918 2,074 2,070 1,960 

Journal articles published NOAA 529 626 419 397 444 

Technical reports published NOAA 363 245 300 226 148 

Technical publications produced ITS 17 20 17 19 8 

Total number of hits, online publications ITS -- -- -- -- 1,116,573 

-- = Data not requested from agency in reports of prior years. 

See the NIST, NOAA, and ITS chapters later in this report for definitions of these measures. 

Further detail on the measures cited in the tables above, as well as additional activity statistics 

can be found in the individual agency chapters later in this report. 

□ Illustrative Outcomes from Technology Transfer Cited by the Agencies 

The following cases were selected and described by the agencies in their 2005 reports as 

examples of “downstream” outcomes resulting from agency technology transfer efforts: 

Agency Downstream Outcomes Listed 

National Institute of Standards and 

Technology

▪ NIST RoboCrane® cuts aircraft maintenance costs. A revolutionary 

robotic platform developed by NIST, patented, and then licensed to 

the U.S. Technology Corporation has been adapted for the U.S. Air 

Force to address the critical, expensive, and nasty work of stripping 

old paint from large aircraft. The robot’s work platform, which 

“floats” in mid air suspended by a web of computer-controlled cables, 

promises to drastically reduce paint-stripping time per airplane, cut 

costs and lessen incidents of operator stress and injury. The 

technology also is expected to be of use to the commercial aircraft 

industry. 

▪ Quantum dot method rapidly identifies bacteria. A rapid method for 

detecting and identifying very small numbers of diverse bacteria, from 

anthrax to E. coli, has been developed by scientists from the National 

Cancer Institute (NCI) and NIST. The new method is more sensitive 

than conventional optical methods. It can count how many viruses are 

infecting a single bacteria cell and how many quantum dots are 

attached to a single virus. The work was funded by NIH, NCI, NIST, 

and the Center for Cancer Research. A joint patent application is 

being submitted. The work could lead to the development of handheld 

devices for accelerated identification of biological weapons and 

antibiotic-resistant or virulent strains of bacteria—situations where 

speed is essential. 

Annual Report on DoC Federal Lab Technology Transfer, FY 2006 edition (January 2007) Page 12 
Agency Downstream Outcomes Listed 

▪ Structure of key enzyme in Plague bacterium found. Researchers at 

NIST have solved the structure of a key enzyme from the bacterium 

responsible for plague, finding that it has a highly unusual 

configuration. The results may shed light both on how the bacterium 

kills and on fundamental cell signaling processes. Plague bacterium is 

rated as a highest category biothreat agent by the Centers for Disease 

Control and Prevention and the National Institute of Allergy and 

Infectious Diseases. 

▪ Bioactive cement scaffold may improve bone grafts. A new 

technology for implants that may improve construction or repair of 

bones in the face, skull and jaw, has been developed by researchers 

from the American Dental Association Foundation (ADAF) and 

NIST. The new technology provides a method for making scaffolds 

for bone tissue. The scaffold is seeded with a patient’s own cells and 

is formed with a cement paste made of minerals also found in natural 

bone. NIST and the ADAF have conducted cooperative research on 

dental and medical materials since 1928. ADAF researchers focus on 

development of new dental materials, while NIST develops and 

disseminates infrastructural technologies and services required by the 

U.S. private sector and other non-profit and government partners. 

▪ NIST method improves reliability of GPS clocks. The Global 

Positioning System (GPS) is more reliable today than it was several 

years ago. Widely used by the military, first responders, surveyors and 

even consumers, GPS is a navigation and positioning system 

consisting of ground-based monitors and a constellation of satellites 

that rely on atomic clocks. A statistical method, developed NIST, and 

tested and implemented with the help of several collaborators, has 

made the job of analyzing the accuracy and reliability of these 

satellite-borne time signals significantly faster and easier. The method 

will help ensure that GPS clocks produce accurate location and 

distance measurements and remain closely synchronized with official 

world time. 

▪ ‘Long’ distances measured with picometer accuracy. A new laserbased method for measuring millimeter distances more accurately 

than ever before -- with an uncertainty of 10 picometers (trillionths of 

a meter) --has been developed and demonstrated by a physicist at the 

National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). This is akin 

to measuring the distance from New York to Los Angeles with an 

uncertainty of just 1 millimeter. The technique may have applications 

in nanotechnology, remote sensing and industries such as 

semiconductor fabrication. 

▪ Tool tackles translucence and other color challenges. Plain old 

colors are passé. Complex visual effects, such as pearlescence, 

translucence, iridescence and glitter, help sell many products, 

including cars, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals and military hardware. A 

new instrument at NIST -- called a goniospectrometer -- makes 

comprehensive measurements of such appearance properties to help 

companies calibrate their own tools and control product quality. 

▪ Advanced imaging facility watches fuel cells at work. Thanks to a 

Annual Report on DoC Federal Lab Technology Transfer, FY 2006 edition (January 2007) Page 13 
Agency Downstream Outcomes Listed 

new and improved imaging instrument at NIST, scientists now can 

conduct detailed surveillance of water inside hydrogen fuel cells -- a 

piece of intelligence key to making the technology practical for 

powering automobiles. Better water management is fundamental to 

meeting targets for fuel cell performance, reliability and durability. 

Water is the by-product of the chemical process in fuel cells that strips 

electrons from hydrogen molecules to generate electricity. NIST’s 

newly commissioned Neutron Imaging Facility can image water 

quantities smaller than 1 microgram (millionth of a gram), and details 

as small as 0.02 millimeter can be discerned in images. Even better 

spatial resolution is expected. Located at the NIST Center for Neutron 

Research (NCNR), the Neutron Imaging Facility research station is 

operated as a national user facility, open to scientists from industry, 

universities and government agencies. It is jointly funded by NIST, 

the Department of Energy and General Motors. 

▪ Soft materials buckle up for measurement. NIST scientists have 

developed a new method to evaluate the mechanical properties of soft 

polymers and gels, such as those used in contact lenses and as tissueengineering scaffolds. The new method uses “sensor films” with 

known properties to report the stiffness (or “modulus”) of the soft 

substrates to which they are attached. This capability makes it 

possible to “map” spatial variations in rigidity in complex materials 

and devices. The new method may also be a powerful tool to test for 

flaws or weak regions in soft materials products. Another key aspect 

of the technique is its speed. The NIST team is working with 

industrial partners to harness this method as a high-throughput 

measurement tool for rapidly testing large numbers of soft polymer 

products. 

▪ Microfluidic device tests fluid compatibility. The key to a great 

detergent, cosmetic, paint or other complex liquid product is pretty 

much the same: include components that mix well and don’t have 

high levels of what scientists call “interfacial tension,” a tendency to 

bead up and pull away from each other. To help industrial engineers 

improve their ability to systematically test new product formulations, 

NIST researchers have developed a microfluidic instrument that 

quickly measures interfacial tension. The device will be especially 

useful to test fresh interfaces for applications with scarce amounts of 

the fluids to be tested such as custom-synthesized materials from 

combinatorial chemistry. Funding for the research was provided by 

NIST, ICI/National Starch, and Proctor and Gamble. 

▪ Quality standards issued for testing herbal products. NIST has issued 

the first suite of Standard Reference Materials (SRMs) in a planned 

series of reference materials for botanical dietary supplements. The 

dietary supplement industry has exploded in the past decade to about 

29,000 products, with about 1,000 new products introduced each year, 

according to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). NIST began 

working in 2001 with the FDA and the National Institutes of Health's 

Office of Dietary Supplements (NIH/ODS) on a series of SRMs of 

popular botanical dietary supplements. Products such as botanical 

supplements that have been derived from extracts of plant materials 

are challenging to analyze accurately because of their complex sample 

matrices. Manufacturers can use these materials for quality control, 

and researchers can use them to ensure that their laboratory analyses 

Annual Report on DoC Federal Lab Technology Transfer, FY 2006 edition (January 2007) Page 14 
Agency Downstream Outcomes Listed 

of supplements are accurate. Future dietary supplement SRMs will 

include: Ginkgo biloba, saw palmetto, bitter orange, carrot extract, 

green tea, blueberries, cranberries, bilberries and St. John's wort. 

▪ NIST SRM aids efforts to reduce cigarette fire risk. Cigarettes are 

the single largest igniters of fatal fires in the United States. Each year 

these fires cause about 700 to 800 deaths, 1,700 serious injuries and 

$400 million in direct property damage, according to the National Fire 

Protection Association. Several states, as well as Canada, have moved 

to reduce this toll by requiring that all cigarettes sold in their 

jurisdictions meet a new standard for low risk of igniting household 

furnishings. This year, NIST released Standard Reference Material 

(SRM) 1082 to help testing laboratories and cigarette manufacturers 

make accurate measurements required by the new regulations. 

▪ Using ‘minutiae’ to match fingerprints can be accurate. A study by 

the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) shows that 

computerized systems that match fingerprints using interoperable 

minutiae templates -- mathematical representations of a fingerprint 

image -- can be highly accurate as an alternative to the full fingerprint 

image. NIST conducted the study, called the Minutiae Interoperability 

Exchange Test (MINEX), to determine whether fingerprint system 

vendors could successfully use a recently approved standard for 

minutiae data rather than images of actual prints as the medium for 

exchanging data between different fingerprint matching systems. For 

many years, law enforcement agencies have used automated 

fingerprint matching devices. Increasingly, smart cards—which 

include biometric information such as fingerprints—are being used to 

improve security at borders and at federal facilities. The increased use 

and the desire to limit storage space needed on these cards is driving 

the use of minutiae rather than full images. MINEX was sponsored by 

the U.S. Departments of Homeland Security and Justice. 

National Oceanic and Atmospheric 

Administration

▪ Precision airdrop system. Problems associated with aerial re-supply 

resulted in Department of Defense initiation of the Precision Airdrop 

System (PADS), a program to develop capability to airdrop ballistic 

parachute payloads accurately and safely from high altitude. Wind 

errors (forecast versus actual) are the largest contributors to the total 

error budget of a ballistic airdrop system, especially in mountainous 

terrain. The development team, comprised by the U.S. Army, 

Planning Systems Inc. (civilian contractor), and NOAA focused on 

reducing the wind error budget through the real-time measurement of 

winds over and near a planned drop zone using mature technologies. 

▪ Air freezing index for construction industry. NOAA has developed 

an air freezing index (AFI) that was transferred to the U.S. 

construction industry for use in building frost protected shallow 

foundations (FPSF). The NOAA designers of the AFI received the 

2006 NOAA Technology Transfer Award. 

▪ Spot forecasts aid wildfire control. NOAA has issued nearly 3,000 

spot forecasts for wildfires and over 7,000 for natural resource 

management. Covering relatively small geographic areas, these spot 

forecasts require NOAA meteorologists to apply micro and mesoscale 

knowledge about temperature, humidity trends, wind speed and 

direction, smoke dispersion, and expected rainfall and lightning, 

Annual Report on DoC Federal Lab Technology Transfer, FY 2006 edition (January 2007) Page 15 
Agency Downstream Outcomes Listed 

usually for a 36-hour period. 

▪ Aid to spacecraft launches and landings. When the space shuttle 

Discovery touched down, it was a triumph not only for NASA, but 

also for NOAA's National Weather Service Spaceflight Meteorology 

Group. NOAA has been an integral part of spaceflight since the space 

program began over 40 years ago. NOAA monitors and forecasts 

landing weather. 

▪ First salt marsh ecosystem model. NOAA transferred a computer 

model of salt marsh restoration to Gulf of Maine coastal managers in 

2006. MarshMD is the first salt marsh ecosystem model of its kind 

and resulted from a synthesis of original research and published 

scientific findings. 

▪ Tsunami warning network expanded. NOAA deployed the first 

Deep-Ocean Assessment and Reporting of Tsunamis (DART) station 

in the Atlantic Ocean. The buoy station is located about 280 miles 

east-southeast of Cape Fear, North Carolina. NOAA also deployed 

DART stations in the Caribbean Sea and Gulf of Mexico. 

▪ Tsunami preparedness materials. NOAA transferred preparedness 

materials and related tools to help communities in regions potentially 

affected by tsunamis. One such tool is "inundation mapping," which 

gives emergency managers graphical information to clarify the extent 

of potential coastal damage that may be caused by various 

tsunami/wave heights. 

▪ Tsunami warning system. NOAA hosted several visitors from Indian 

Ocean nations in 2006 to provide the background and specific 

technological information regarding tsunami detection and reporting 

platforms as well as numerical modeling of tsunamis. NOAA also 

participated with the U.S. State Department Agency for International 

Development (USAID) in meetings in India, Indonesia, and Australia 

to assist Indian Ocean nations in developing a regional tsunami 

warning system. 

▪ Hawaii first tsunami ready state. NOAA transferred Tsunami and 

storm information, data, and advice to Hawaii, helping it to become 

the first state of the United States to achieve the status of 

TsunamiReady and StormReady. 

▪ Disneyland resort storm ready. NOAA’s National Weather Service 

recently helped Disneyland Resort in California to become a 

StormReady community. The voluntary StormReady program 

provides communities with clear-cut advice from their local NOAA 

National Weather Service forecast offices. NOAA developed the 

StormReady program to help protect every American from hazardous 

weather. 

▪ Gulf Coast storm tide information. The Gulf Coast was able to more 

frequently update storm tide information this past hurricane season 

(2006) thanks to technology upgrades implemented to the 23 National 

Water Level Observation Network (NWLON) stations along the Gulf 

Coast. The technology upgrades enable the near real time 

transmission of NWLON data to NOAA National Weather Service 

(NWS) forecasters, emergency responders, mariners, the public, and 

other users. 

Annual Report on DoC Federal Lab Technology Transfer, FY 2006 edition (January 2007) Page 16 
Agency Downstream Outcomes Listed 

▪ Hazard mapping system to Mexican weather service. NOAA 

successfully transferred and implemented the Hazard Mapping 

System (HMS) for fire and smoke detection to the Servicio 

Meteorologico Nacional (National Weather Service of Mexico). HMS 

is an interactive tool to identify fires and associated smoke emissions 

in an operational environment. This state-of-the-art satellite data 

visualization and analysis system utilizes multiple geostationary and 

polar orbiting environmental satellites as input to automated fire or 

hotspot detection algorithms specifically designed for each sensor. 

▪ Wind model to State of Florida. NOAA transferred a wind model to 

Florida for use in its CAT (Catastrophe) model. Florida's recently 

mandated annual hurricane insurance deductible is based on its 

catastrophe modeling system. 

▪ Cutting-edge weather forecast model. NOAA has transferred an 

advanced weather forecast (WRF) model that predicts several types of 

extreme weather with substantially improved accuracy. The new 

model was created through a partnership between NOAA, the 

National Center for Atmospheric Research and more than 150 other 

organizations and universities in the United States and abroad. 

▪ Greenhouse gas information to World Meteorological Organization. 

NOAA transferred its Annual Greenhouse Gas Index (AGGI) to the 

World Meteorological Organization (WMO) for inclusion in its 

annual Greenhouse Gas Bulletin. The AGGI is a benchmark 

measurement of gases in the atmosphere that affects the Earth’s 

climate and provides a scientific basis for management and policy 

decisions by Government and industry. 

▪ Debris flow warnings. NOAA’s National Weather Service and 

Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research partnered with the U.S. 

Geological Survey to deliver life-saving watches and warnings for 

debris flow events. Once smoke clears from a wildfire, the danger is 

not over. Flash floods and debris flows can be one of the most 

hazardous consequences of rainfall on burned hill slopes. 

▪ Advice on surface transportation weather. Three years ago, NOAA 

released its first report on improving surface transportation, safety and 

cost efficiency through improved weather information products. The 

report, “Weather Information for Surface Transportation,” spurred a 

rapid expansion of interagency, intergovernmental and public-private 

efforts, all designed to enhance safety and mitigate economic impacts 

of transportation weather. This year’s update of this report provides 

new data on the risks of transportation weather to America’s safety, 

security, quality of life, and economic activity. 

▪ CRADA signed with Boeing Aerospace. NOAA entered into a 

Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) with 

Boeing Aerospace on October 6, 2005 (in FY 2006), to bring new 

satellite data sets into the Integrated Oceanic Observing System 

(IOOS), and to further coastal remote sensing. 

▪ Coral reef warning system. NOAA expanded coverage for the 

NOAA Coral Reef Watch Satellite Bleaching Alert monitoring system 

from 6 Caribbean sites to a total of 24 sites throughout the U.S, and 

Caribbean. The expansion was made possible through collaborative 

efforts with NOAA, the World Bank, and the Global Environment 

Annual Report on DoC Federal Lab Technology Transfer, FY 2006 edition (January 2007) Page 17 
Agency Downstream Outcomes Listed 

Facility. 

▪ New Great Lakes weather observation platforms. More than a dozen 

new weather observation platforms deployed in the Great Lakes 

region by NOAA are providing valuable information directly to 

recreational and commercial boaters and to NOAA National Weather 

Service meteorologists issuing marine weather forecasts and lifesaving warnings. NOAA's National Weather Service, National Ocean 

Service, and Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory joined 

forces to deploy 13 new coastal weather observation sites throughout 

the Great Lakes. These observation platforms now provide critical 

information on wind speed and direction, temperature and 

atmospheric pressure and are updated and broadcast every hour on the 

Internet for public consumption. 

▪ Navigation information for Volvo ocean racers. NOAA helped to 

ensure safe navigation for the Volvo Ocean Race, an eight-month 

round the world sailing race covering 32,500 nautical miles over four 

oceans with port stops in nine countries. NOAA models provided near 

real-time sea surface currents, sea surface temperature, surface winds, 

and wave height and direction. 

▪ Ozone forecasting tool for western U.S. The NOAA National 

Weather Service, in partnership with the Environmental Protection 

Agency, now provides experimental forecast guidance for groundlevel ozone for the western half of the contiguous United States. This 

is in addition to the air quality forecast guidance currently prepared 

for the eastern half of the U.S. This new forecast guidance will 

provide accurate projections of ozone levels near the ground, linked to 

weather forecast models. NOAA National Weather Service forecast 

models are used to drive simulations of atmospheric chemical 

conditions using pollutant emissions and monitoring data provided by 

EPA. 

▪ Sea Grant provides information to Gulf residents. In the wake of two 

of the worst natural disasters in our Nation’s history, hurricanes 

Katrina and Rita, NOAA’s Sea Grant is providing critical information 

to residents and business owners in communities affected by the 

storms. The Louisiana Sea Grant College Program has launched a 

Recovery Resources website. Also Sea Grant and NOAA’s National 

Marine Fisheries Service are collaborating to place a Vietnamesespeaking Sea Grant extension agent in Mississippi to work on 

recovery efforts with the fishing industry. 

▪ NEXRAD dual polarization modification. NOAA is leading a 

research and development effort on the dual polarization modification 

of the NEXRAD operational radar system. Improved radar data will 

improve support to severe weather warnings, flood and flash flood 

warnings, and general forecast services. 

National Telecommunications and 

Information Administration -- Institute 

for Telecommunication Sciences 

▪ Video quality metric – ITS has developed a superior method of 

measuring video quality objectively that closely predicts the quality 

that human viewers would perceive subjectively. The technology is 

covered by four patents owned by ITS/NTIA. The metric was adopted 

by ANSI as a U.S. national standard in FY 2003. It became an 

international standard in FY 2004, with approval by the International 

Telecommunication Union (ITU). ITS has targeted the method for 

Annual Report on DoC Federal Lab Technology Transfer, FY 2006 edition (January 2007) Page 18 
Annual Report on DoC Federal Lab Technology Transfer, FY 2006 edition (January 2007) Page 19 

Agency Downstream Outcomes Listed 

commercial development. In FY 2006, the metric earned substantial 

royalty income for the laboratory through commercial licenses. 

▪ Table Mountain research. ITS’ Table Mountain Field Site and Radio 

Quiet Zone supports fundamental research into the nature, interaction, 

and evaluation of telecommunication devices, systems, and services. 

Each year, private companies, universities, and other organizations 

conduct research at Table Mountain under Cooperative Research and 

Development Agreements (CRADAs). 

See the agency chapters below for further details on these cases. 

■ The Department’s Performance Metrics for Technology Transfer 

This year’s annual report again provides a comprehensive set of statistics on the technology 

transfer activities of each of the department’s agencies with federal lab operations. This 

information covers cooperative research and development relationships, invention 

disclosure/patenting, licensing, and other technology transfer mechanisms employed by the labs. 

There is also a new round of agency-selected case illustrations of downstream outcomes (e.g., 

commercially significant technologies, improved federal lab capabilities) resulting from these 

federal lab technology transfer activities. 

The content and format of this year’s performance report is consistent with guidelines issued for 

the annual performance reporting by the Office of Management and Budget in its July 2006 

edition of Circular A-11. (OMB’s guidelines are based on the performance reporting approach 

organized by the Interagency Working Group on Technology Transfer, which is coordinated by 

the Technology Administration at the Department of Commerce. This approach has been the 

basis for most all of the federal agencies reporting under the Technology Transfer and 

Commercialization Act over the last several years.) 

All of the agencies continue to indicate that their overall technology transfer efforts involve a 

good deal more than cooperative R&D, patenting, and licensing. These “other” mechanisms 

include transfer through technical publications, development of industrial standards, other forms 

of public dissemination, and opportunities for guest scientists and engineers to participate in 

federal lab activities. Each of the agencies now includes yearly activity figures for such “other” 

mechanisms as they are a part of the agency’s technology transfer effort. 

Plans for technology transfer activities by the Department of Commerce’s federal labs generally 

continue to emphasize the development of better metrics for program performance. In general, a 

stable framework for this annual reporting has now been established and is comprehensive of the 

main technology transfer mechanisms used by Department of Commerce federal labs. The 

Department continues, however, to evaluate the effectiveness of its technology transfer activities 

and will consider including additional metrics as need arises. 

An appendix section at the end of each of the agency chapters below discusses the specific 

initiatives currently underway. 
NIST/TA 

II. TECHNOLOGY ADMINISTRATION -- NATIONAL INSTITUTE 

OF STANDARDS AND TECHNOLOGY 

Technology Transfer at the Agency’s Federal Laboratories – Approach and 

Plans, FY 2006 

1. Agency Approach and Plans for Technology Transfer 

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is an unusual federal agency. Its 

mission is broad: to promote U.S. innovation and industrial competitiveness by advancing 

measurement science and standards and technology in ways that enhance economic security and 

improve our quality of life. 

An essential part of NIST’s work is to anticipate the future measurement and standards needs of 

U.S. industry. Fast-moving sectors like nanotechnology, biotechnology, homeland security, 

information technology, and advanced manufacturing need sophisticated technical support 

systems to flourish and grow. NIST’s laboratories develop and disseminate measurement 

techniques, reference data, test methods, standards, and other infrastructural technologies and 

services that support U.S. industry, scientific research, and the activities of many federal 

agencies. In carrying out its mission, NIST works directly with industry partners (individual 

companies and consortia), universities, associations, and other government agencies. 

NIST’s technology transfer activities are designed to disseminate the Institute’s measurements 

and standards research results broadly to industry and other customers. Leading-edge scientific 

and technical work requires multiple disciplines, high levels of collaboration among 

organizations and people with diverse capabilities, and highly specialized facilities and tools. For 

more than a century, the NIST laboratories have successfully collaborated with industry and 

universities to provide the measurement techniques and technical tools needed by America’s 

innovators. NIST uses many mechanisms to collaborate with industry and to ensure that the 

resulting knowledge and infrastructural technologies are broadly disseminated. 

The principal technology mechanisms employed for transfer of NIST’s intellectual property and 

assets, in rough order of significance, are: informal research and development collaboration with 

colleagues from industry, academia and other government agencies; peer-reviewed publications; 

dissemination of Standard Reference Materials, Standard Reference Data, and Documentary 

Standards; participation in development of industry “road maps”, organizing conferences and 

workshops; hosting U.S. and international Guest Researchers from industry, academia and other 

government agencies; Facility Use Agreements; CRADAs; and patents/licenses. 

Annual Report on DoC Federal Lab Technology Transfer, FY 2006 edition (January 2007) Page 20 
NIST/TA 

The set of outputs that NIST uses to transfer its measurement capabilities and technologies to 

customers includes standard reference materials, calibration services, and other products and 

services that are described below.2

Inputs 

Funding

Appropriated and 

reimbursable funds 

Staff

2800+ employees 

Guest 

researchers/year 

Facilities and 

Equipment

State-of-the-art 

measurement and 

standards 

laboratories (A

Activities 

Laboratory 

research 

Measurement 

services and 

product 

dissemination 

Conferences and 

workshops 

Participation in 

standards 

committees and 

working groups

Outputs 

Contributions to 

basic measurement 

science 

Measurement and 

test methods 

Standards 

development 

Calibration services 

Reference 

materials 

Evaluated 

Technical 

Impacts on Primary 

Customers 

Facilitate new R&D 

and technical 

capabilities 

Increase R&D 

productivity 

Develop new 

products, processes & 

services 

Improve product or 

service quality and 

performance 

Improve process 

quality and efficiency 

Reduce technical 

barriers to trade 

Lower transaction 

costs

Outcomes 

Supply Chain 

Impacts 

Improvements in 

sales, profits, and 

employment 

Socioeconomic 

Impacts 

Productivity gains 

Increased market 

access and 

efficiency 

Public benefits: 

higher standard 

of living; better 

quality of life 

data 

rvices 

nsfer 

mechanisms 

publications 

Advisory se

and other 

knowledge tra

CSL, 

AML) 

● Standard Reference Materials 

Standard Reference Materials (SRMs) are one definitive source of measurement traceability in 

the United States. All measurements using SRMs can be traced to a common and recognized set 

of basic standards that provides the basis for compatibility of measurements among different 

laboratories. As economic exchange has become more global, customers increasingly use SRMs 

to achieve measurement quality and conformance to process requirements that address both 

national and international needs for commerce and trade. NIST produces and disseminates SRMs 

to a large and diverse group of customers, including private sector laboratories, universities, and 

 

2

 NIST’s authority to perform its technology/knowledge transfer activities does not rest solely in the Bayh-Dole Act, 

Stevenson-Wydler Act, Federal Technology Transfer Act (FTTA) and related legislation. It also resides in NIST’s 

Organic Act (15 USC 272) and the Standard Reference Data Act (15 USC 290). 

Evaluation of Performance: Outputs 

Assessment of production and 

dissemination of key product and service 

outputs as indicators of progress along 

value chain; includes: 

Standard Reference Materials 

Standard Reference Databases 

Items calibrated 

Technical publications 

Evaluation of Performance: 

Long-term Impacts 

Economic impact studies: Projectlevel estimates of the net present 

value, benefit-cost ratio, and social 

rate-of-return 

Evaluation of Performance: Quality, Relevance, and Effectiveness 

National Research Council (NRC) peer review: External assessment of Laboratory 

programs, focusing on: the technical quality relative to the state-of-the-art 

worldwide; the effectiveness with which the laboratory programs are carried out 

and the results disseminated to their customers; and the relevance of the 

laboratory programs to the needs of their customers.

Annual Report on DoC Federal Lab Technology Transfer, FY 2006 edition (January 2007) Page 21 
NIST/TA 

other federal agencies. NIST SRMs support industrial materials production and analysis, 

environmental analysis, health measurements, and basic measurements in science and metrol

The number of SRMs available for sale -- currently over 1,300 -- illustrates the breadth of 

measurements supported by NIST. Over time, NIST expects slight growth in the number of 

SRMs available, given its current strategy of focusing on those SRMs that cannot be produced by

secondary laboratories and which have broad and/or high downstream impact. In establishing its 

out-year projections, the NIST SRM Program monitors, among other things, trends in emerging 

technologies, new regulations that will depend on SRMs for enforcement, and the reference 

material needs of other federal agencies. Several microec

ogy. 

onomic studies of NIST SRM programs 

 transfer mechanisms built into these efforts to be effective with 

 to 

physical 

ement areas: dimensional; mechanical, including 

try and 

ite 

studies of NIST calibration 

logy transfer mechanisms built into these efforts to be effective 

have shown the technology

resulting high economic benefits delivered to industry. 

● Calibration Services 

The NIST laboratories provide physical measurement services for their customers, including 

calibration services, special tests, and measurement assurance programs (MAPs). Calibration 

services and special tests are characterizations of particular instruments, devices, and sets of 

standards with respect to international and national standards. MAPs are quality control 

programs for calibrating entire measurement systems. NIST’s calibration services are designed

help the makers and users of precision instruments achieve the highest possible levels of 

measurement quality and productivity. The services constitute the highest order of calibration

services available in the United States. NIST offers more than 500 different types of 

calibrations covering the following measur

flow, acoustic, and ultrasonic; thermodynamic; optical radiation; ionizing radiation; 

electromagnetic; and time and frequency. 

Over the past several years, NIST has calibrated approximately 3,000 items annually. Over the

next several years, NIST expects to realize a relatively high but slightly declining number of 

items calibrated. This is in keeping with a long-term trend, over the past several decades, of a 

decline in the number of items calibrated by NIST. Despite this overall trend, the number of 

calibrations in individual years may fluctuate slightly due to multi-year calibration cycles. NIST 

expects to provide fewer but more highly leveraged calibration services over time. NIST’s 

strategy is driven by the need to effectively manage trends in demand from its major indus

government customers for these services. NIST is pursuing three strategies: (1) performing only

those calibrations that require a direct connection to the national standards; (2) improving 

calibration accuracy in those areas where new industry demands are emerging; and (3) 

accrediting primary and secondary calibration laboratories to meet on-going industry needs. In 

FY 2006, the National Voluntary Laboratory Accreditation Program (NVLAP) accepted 6 new 

calibration laboratories into the program (bringing the total to 76) in fields ranging from 

dimensional metrology to optical and ionizing radiation. In FY 2006, NVLAP performed on-s

assessments of 32 calibration laboratories. Through this overall approach, NIST efficiently 

leverages its primary calibration services to support a broader base of secondary calibrations 

conducted within the private sector. Several microeconomic 

programs have shown the techno

with resulting high economic benefits delivered to industry. 

Annual Report on DoC Federal Lab Technology Transfer, FY 2006 edition (January 2007) Page 22 
NIST/TA 

● Standard Reference Data 

NIST produces and makes available (i.e., sells or distributes for free) many Standard Reference 

Data titles (SRDs). SRDs provide numeric data to scientists and engineers for use in technical

problem solving, research, and development. These recommended values are based on data 

ies, 

, some database titles are 

eliminated from the NIST catalog. In FY 2006 there were 55 SRD databases for sale, including 

 electron Spectra for Surface Analysis”. One free online SRD 

. 

y 

 in technological forums where measurement standards 

ientific journals), while the remaining 20% are 

se 

g 

, 

better understanding of marine resources and environmental health. In 2006, NIST initiated new 

stitute and the Food and Drug Administration 

extracted from scientific and technical literature or on measurements done at NIST laborator

which are then assessed for reliability and evaluated to select the preferred values. NIST’s SRD 

databases cover many areas of science, including analytical chemistry, atomic and molecular 

physics, biotechnology, and materials sciences. 

Historically, NIST has produced two new SRD titles per year. At the same time, NIST also 

provides numerous upgrades to existing databases. Each year, however

one new title – “Simulation of

database was also released on 2006: “NIST/TRC Ionic Liquids”. Over time, NIST expects 

continued modest growth in the total number of SRD titles available. 

● Technical Publications 

NIST uses publications as a key mechanism to transfer the results of its work to the U.S. private 

sector and to other government agencies that need cutting-edge measurements and standards

Many of these publications appear in prestigious scientific journals and withstand peer review b

the scientific community. Others appear

and technologies developed by NIST staff (at times in collaboration with private sector partners) 

are disseminated. Of the technical publications produced annually, approximately 80% are 

approved for external publication (such as in sc

NIST reports and special publications. 

Over time, NIST expects a relatively constant level of high quality publications (2,000-2,300 per 

year) to be produced by its technical staff. 

● Informative Collaborative Research, Guest Researchers, and Facilities Users 

Each year hundreds of researchers visit NIST to participate in collaborative projects and/or to u

NIST’s research facilities. NIST makes its facilities available for limited periods of time to 

domestic and foreign guest researchers to collaborate with NIST staff on research and 

development projects of mutual interest or to transfer NIST techniques, procedures, and best 

practices. NIST also sponsors several formal collaboration programs with universities, amon

them JILA, an interdisciplinary institute for research and graduate education in the physical 

sciences, located on the main campus of the University of Colorado (CU) in Boulder, and 

operated jointly by CU and NIST; the Center for Advanced Research in Biotechnology (CARB)

a joint collaboration with the University of Maryland Biotechnology Institute that conducts 

research and provides interdisciplinary training in fundamental problems at the forefront of 

biotechnology; and the Hollings Marine Laboratory (HML), a collaboration between NIST, 

NOAA, the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources, the Medical University of South 

Carolina, and the College of Charleston that conducts interdisciplinary scientific research for a

formal collaborations with the National Cancer In

in conjunction with the Nanotechnology characterization Laboratory, and with the University of 

Maryland and National Security Agency for the establishment of the Joint Quantum Institute. 

Annual Report on DoC Federal Lab Technology Transfer, FY 2006 edition (January 2007) Page 23 
NIST/TA 

● Conferences, Workshops, and Inquiries 

NIST also transfers technology through the hosting of numerous conferences and workshops, as 

well as through answering inquiries. In FY 2006, NIST inquiries offices handled nearly 7,000 

nferences with about 10,000 

rocedures 

l and Electronic Engineers 

(IEEE), and 101 in the International Organization for Standardization (ISO).These activities are 

ongress as required by 

: Activities and Achievements 

general inquiries. In addition, during FY 2006, NIST held 103 co

attendees. 

● Participation in Documentary Standards Committees 

Still another means by which NIST transfers technology is through staff participation in the 

activities of documentary standards developing organizations, which develop consensus 

standards on a host of technologies. NIST participation enables its scientists and engineers to 

bring NIST technology directly into a standard, which could involve test methods and p

for protecting health, safety, and/or the environment, or specifications for performance or 

interoperability, or other aspects. During FY 06, 382 NIST staff members participated on 972 

committees representing 98 standards developing organizations. NIST staff held 1324 

memberships on these committees including 392 in ASTM International, 105 in the American 

National Standards Institute (ANSI), 49 in the Institute for Electrica

also reported by NIST to the Office of Management and Budget and to C

the National Technology Transfer and Advancement Act of 1995. 

2. Performance in FY 2006

The data below quantify the many ways through which NIST transfers knowledge and 

technology to the private sector. 

In response to the reporting requirements of the Technology Transfer Commercialization Act of 

2000 and other relevant legislation, data are provided for collaborative relationships for research 

and development (CRADAs and other kinds of relationships), invention disclosures and 

patenting, and licensing. In addition, in keeping with the previous discussion, data are also 

provided for some of the other technology transfer mechanisms utilized by the NIST 

laboratories: such as Standard Reference Materials available, technical publications produced, 

items calibrated, and guest researcher collaborations. A number of examples of downstream 

outcomes from NIST technology transfer activities are also provided. 

Annual Report on DoC Federal Lab Technology Transfer, FY 2006 edition (January 2007) Page 24 
NIST/TA 

■ Collaborative Relationships for Research & Development 

FY 

2002 

FY 

2003 

FY 

2004 

FY 

2005 

FY 

2006 

● CRADAs, total active in the FY (1) 1,812 1,653 1,641 1,618 2,488 

 - New, executed in the FY 1,712 1,589 1,605 1,579 1,646 

▪ Traditional CRADAs, (2) total active in the FY *125 *76 *51 *65 135 

 - New, executed in the FY 25 12 15 26 74 

▪ Non-traditional CRADAs, (3) total active in the FY 1,687 1,577 1,590 1,553 ***2,353 

 - New, executed in the FY **1,687 **1,577 **1,590 **1,553 ***1,572 

● Other types of collaborative R&D relationships

▪ Facility use agreements, total in effect, end of FY (4) 391 511 590 588 639 

 - New, executed in the FY 62 308 239 280 283 

▪ Guest scientists and engineers during the FY (5) 1,300a 1,300a 1,700 2,115 2114 

CRADA = Cooperative Research and Development Agreement. 

a = Figures are approximate. 

* Includes CRADAs associated with all NIST programs, including Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP), 

Technology Services (TS), and the Director of Administration/Chief Financial Officer. 

** “non-traditional” CRADAs protect the results (under CRADA authority) of calibrated items from disclosure for 

a period of five years after development. Such “non-traditional” CRADAs are issued (and terminate) on an 

annual basis. 

(1) “Active” = legally in force at any time during the FY. “Total active” is comprehensive of all agreements 

executed under CRADA authority (15 USC 3710a). 

(2) CRADAs involving collaborative research and development by a federal laboratory and non-federal partners. 

(3) CRADAs used for special purposes -- such as, material transfer or technical assistance that may result in 

protected information. 

(4) NIST authorizes individuals to use designated facilities. The numbers reported here represent the Facility Use 

Agreements in effect for the NIST Center for Neutron Research. 

(5) “Guest scientists and engineers” includes foreign and domestic guest researchers, and researchers working at 

NIST under Intergovernmental Personnel Act (IPA) Agreements and CRADAs. 

■ Invention Disclosure and Patenting 

FY 

2002

FY 

2003

FY 

2004

FY 

2005

FY 

2006

● New inventions disclosed in the FY (1) 14 16 23 19 10 

● Patent applications filed in the FY (2) 19 8 12 11 4 

● Patents issued in the FY 18 9 11 9 6 

● Active patents, end of the FY 207 190 161 154 132 

● Patents purposely dropped (triaged) during the FY 13 15 26 14 24 

(1) Inventions arising at the federal lab. 

(2) Tally includes U.S. patent applications, foreign patent applications filed on cases for which no U.S. application 

was filed, divisional applications, and continuation-in-part applications. Excludes provisional, continuation, 

duplicate foreign, and PCT applications. 

Annual Report on DoC Federal Lab Technology Transfer, FY 2006 edition (January 2007) Page 25 
NIST/TA 

■ Licensing 

Profile of Active Licenses 

FY 

2002 

FY 

2003 

FY 

2004 

FY 

2005 

FY 

2006 

● All licenses, number total active in the FY (1) 35 39 22 26 24 

 ▫ New, executed in the FY 2 3 2 5 3 

▪ Invention licenses, total active in the FY 35 39 22 26 24 

 ▫ New, executed in the FY 2 3 2 5 3 

 - Patent licenses, (2) total active in FY 35 39 22 26 24 

 ▫ New, executed in the FY 2 3 2 5 2 

 - Material transfer licenses (inventions), total active 0 0 0 0 24 

 ▫ New, executed in the FY 0 0 0 0 3 

 - Other invention licenses, total active in the FY 0 0 0 0 0 

 ▫ New, executed in the FY 0 0 0 0 0 

▪ Other IP licenses, total active in the FY 0 0 0 0 0 

 ▫ New, executed in the FY 0 0 0 0 0 

 - Copyright licenses (fee bearing) 

 ▫ New, executed in the FY 

 - Material transfer licenses (non-inventions), total active 

 ▫ New, executed in the FY 

 - Other, total active in the FY 

 ▫ New, executed in the FY 

Multiple inventions in a single license are counted as one license. Licenses that include both patents and copyrights 

(hybrid licenses) are reported as patent licenses and not included in the count of copyright licenses. 

(1) “Active” = legally in force at any time during the FY. 

(2) Patent license tally includes patent applications which are licensed. 

Annual Report on DoC Federal Lab Technology Transfer, FY 2006 edition (January 2007) Page 26 
NIST/TA 

Licensing Management 

FY 

2002 

FY 

2003 

FY 

2004 

FY 

2005 

FY 

2006 

● Elapsed execution time, (1) licenses granted in the FY 

▪ Invention licenses

 ▫ Average, months 5.4 3.4 ** 1.0 6.0 

 ▫ Minimum 2.5 1.0 1.0 1.0 

 ▫ Maximum 5.0 10.0 1.0 13.0 

 - Patent licenses (2)

 ▫ Average, months 5.4 3.4 ** 1.0 6.0 

 ▫ Minimum 2.5 1.0 1.0 1.0 

 ▫ Maximum 5.0 10.0 1.0 13.0 

● Licenses terminated for cause, number in the FY

▪ Invention licenses 3 1 0 1 0 

 - Patent licenses (2) *3 1 0 1 0 

Data included in this table (intentionally) addresses only invention licenses, with patent licenses distinguished as a 

subclass. 

* In addition to the 3 licenses cited here as terminated “for cause,” 4 licenses were terminated by mutual 

agreement and 4 expired with the end of their original term. 

** NIST processed no commercialization licenses in FY 2004. 

(1) Date of license application to the date of license execution. (Date of license application is the date the lab 

formally acknowledges the written request for a license from a prospective licensee and agrees to enter into 

negotiations.) 

(2) Patent license tally includes patent applications which are licensed. 

Annual Report on DoC Federal Lab Technology Transfer, FY 2006 edition (January 2007) Page 27 
NIST/TA 

Characteristics of Licenses Bearing Income 

FY 

2002 

FY 

2003 

FY 

2004 

FY 

2005 

FY 

2005 

● All income bearing licenses, total number 33 29 15 17 18 

 ▫ Exclusive 18 19 10 11 16 

 ▫ Partially exclusive 2 0 0 0 0 

 ▫ Non-exclusive 13 10 5 6 2 

▪ Invention licenses, income bearing 33 29 15 17 18 

 ▫ Exclusive 18 19 10 11 16 

 ▫ Partially exclusive 2 0 0 0 0 

 ▫ Non-exclusive 13 10 5 6 2 

 - Patent licenses, (1) income bearing 33 29 15 17 18 

 ▫ Exclusive 18 19 10 11 16 

 ▫ Partially exclusive 2 0 0 0 0 

 ▫ Non-exclusive 13 10 5 6 2 

▪ Other IP licenses, income bearing 0 0 0 0 0 

 ▫ Exclusive 

 ▫ Partially exclusive 

 ▫ Non-exclusive 

 - Copyright licenses (fee bearing) 

 ▫ Exclusive 

 ▫ Partially exclusive 

 ▫ Non-exclusive 

● All royalty bearing licenses, (2) total number 33 29 15 17 18 

▪ Invention licenses, royalty bearing 33 29 15 17 18 

 - Patent licenses, (1) royalty bearing *33 29 15 17 18 

▪ Other IP licenses, royalty bearing 0 0 0 0 0 

 - Copyright licenses (fee bearing) 

* Of the 35 licenses active in FY 2002 (see earlier table), two were royalty-free research licenses. 

In general, license income can result from various sources: license issue fees, earned royalties, minimum annual 

royalties, paid-up license fees, and reimbursement for full-cost recovery of goods and services provided by the lab to 

the licensee including patent costs. 

(1) Patent license tally includes patent applications which are licensed. 

(2) Note that royalties are one component of total license income. 

Annual Report on DoC Federal Lab Technology Transfer, FY 2006 edition (January 2007) Page 28 
NIST/TA 

Income from Licenses 

FY 

2002 

FY 

2003 

FY 

2004 

FY 

2005 

FY 

2006 

● Total income, all licenses active in FY (1) $89,750 $122,850 $144,828 $123,348 $156,793 

▪ Invention licenses $89,750 $122,850 $144,828 $123,348 $156,793 

 - Patent licenses (2) $89,750 $122,850 $144,828 $123,348 $156,793 

▪ Other IP licenses, total active in the FY 0 0 0 0 0 

 - Copyright licenses 

● Total Earned Royalty Income (ERI) (3) $89,750 $122,850 $144,828 $123,348 $156,793 

 ▫ Median ERI $2,300 n/a n/a *$2,500 $5,000 

 ▫ Minimum ERI $700 $960 $640 $640 $640 

 ▫ Maximum ERI $20,000 $35,000 $54,072 $45,000 $85,403 

 ▫ ERI from top 1% of licenses $20,000 $35,000 dw dw dw 

 ▫ ERI from top 5% of licenses $20,000 $35,000 dw dw dw 

 ▫ ERI from top 20% of licenses $50,000 $45,000 dw dw dw 

▪ Invention licenses $89,750 $122,850 $144,828 $123,348 $156,793 

 ▫ Median ERI $2,300 n/a n/a *$2,500 $5,000 

 ▫ Minimum ERI $700 $960 $640 $640 $640 

 ▫ Maximum ERI $20,000 $35,000 $54,072 $45,000 $85,403 

 ▫ ERI from top 1% of licenses $20,000 $35,000 dw dw dw 

 ▫ ERI from top 5% of licenses $20,000 $35,000 dw dw dw 

 ▫ ERI from top 20% of licenses $50,000 $45,000 dw dw dw 

 - Patent licenses (2) $89,750 $122,850 $144,828 $123,348 $156,793 

 ▫ Median ERI $2,300 n/a n/a *$2,500 $5,000 

 ▫ Minimum ERI $700 $960 $640 $640 $640 

 ▫ Maximum ERI $20,000 $35,000 $54,072 $45,000 $85,403 

 ▫ ERI from top 1% of licenses $20,000 $35,000 dw dw dw 

 ▫ ERI from top 5% of licenses $20,000 $35,000 dw dw dw 

 ▫ ERI from top 20% of licenses $50,000 $45,000 dw dw dw 

▪ Other IP licenses, total active in the FY 0 0 0 0 

 ▫ Median ERI 

 ▫ Minimum ERI 

 ▫ Maximum ERI 

 ▫ ERI from top 1% of licenses 

 ▫ ERI from top 5% of licenses 

 ▫ ERI from top 20% of licenses 

Annual Report on DoC Federal Lab Technology Transfer, FY 2006 edition (January 2007) Page 29 
NIST/TA 

FY FY FY FY FY 

2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 

 - Copyright licenses 

 ▫ Median ERI 

 ▫ Minimum ERI 

 ▫ Maximum ERI 

 ▫ ERI from top 1% of licenses 

 ▫ ERI from top 5% of licenses 

 ▫ ERI from top 20% of licenses 

n/a = Data not available from agency at time of this report. 

dw = Data withheld to protect proprietary information. 

* The distribution of NIST’s annual license income is bimodal at the extremes. The median figure cited here is 

rather unrepresentative. 

(1) Total income includes license issue fees, earned royalties, minimum annual royalties, paid-up license fees, and 

reimbursement for full-cost recovery of goods and services provided by the lab to the licensee including patent 

costs. 

(2) Patent license tally includes patent applications which are licensed. 

(3) “Earned royalty” = royalty based upon use of a licensed invention (usually, a percentage of sales or of units 

sold). Not a license issue fee or a minimum royalty. 

Disposition of License Income 

FY 

2002 

FY 

2003 

FY 

2004 

FY 

2005 

FY 

2005 

● Income distributed (1)

▪ Invention licenses, total distributed $89,750 $122,850 $144,828 $123,348 $156,793 

 - To inventor(s) $45,650

(51%) 

$51,773

(42%) 

$54,134 

(37%) 

$48,148

(39%) 

$47,536

(30%) 

 - To other (3) $44,100

(49%) 

$71,076

(58%) 

$90,694 

(63%) 

$75,199

(61%) 

$109,257

(70%) 

 - Patent licenses, (2) total distributed $89,750 $122,850 $144,828 $123,348 $156,793 

 - To inventor(s) $45,650

(51%) 

$51,773

(42%) 

$54,134 

(37%) 

$48,148

(39%) 

$47,536

(30%) 

 - To other (3) $44,100

(49%) 

$71,076

(58%) 

$90,694 

(63%) 

$75,199

(61%) 

$109,257

(70%) 

Invention licenses are the chief policy interest regarding disposition of income; content of table reflects this focus. 

(1) Income includes royalties and other payments received during the FY. 

(2) Patent license tally includes patent applications which are licensed. 

(3) NIST only in FY 2001-2004. In FY 2005, $1,500 to NIH and rest to NIST. 

Annual Report on DoC Federal Lab Technology Transfer, FY 2006 edition (January 2007) Page 30 
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■ Other Performance Measures Deemed Important by the Agency 

FY 

2002 

FY 

2003 

FY 

2004 

FY 

2005 

FY 

2006 

Standard Reference Materials (SRMs) available (1) 1,353 1,214 1,211 1,246 1,302 

Standard Reference Materials (SRMs) sold (2) 30,996 29,527 30,490 32,163 31,195 

Standard Reference Data (SRD) titles available (3) 90 106 95 110 113 

Number of items calibrated (4) 2,924 3,459 3,373 *3,145 3,026 

Technical publications produced (5) 2,236 1,918 2,074 2,070 1,960 

See Section I above for additional information about the measures listed here. See also the Department of 

Commerce’s annual reports under the Government Performance and Results Act (GPRA) for detailed information 

about each of these measures, analysis of trends, and future-year performance projections 

http://www.osec.doc.gov/bmi/budget/FY2006APP.htm

(1) Direct and verifiable count of SRMs available to customers at the close of the fiscal year. The number of SRMs 

available for sale illustrates the breadth of measurements supported by NIST. Over time, NIST expects slight 

growth in the number of SRMs available. 

(2) Direct and verifiable count of NIST SRM units sold during the fiscal year. In recent years, NIST had been 

expecting a continuing slight decline in the number of SRM units sold, as NIST made greater use of highly 

leveraged SRM services over time, including accreditation of Nationally Traceable Reference Material 

producers. However, in FY 2005, the number of SRMs sold increased. Some possible contributing factors 

include the implementation of new EPA regulations, environmental activities, increased in construction 

projects, and the availability of previously out-of-stock SRMs. 

(3) Direct and verifiable count of SRD products developed and disseminated by NIST. NIST expects continued 

modest growth in the total number of SRD titles available. Of those titles currently available, about 50% are 

available for sale, and 50% are free online systems. Over time, a larger percentage of SRDs will be distributed 

via the Internet. New growth in online systems is anticipated for FY 2006 with the release of fee-based titles for 

the Internet. 

(4) Direct and verifiable count of items calibrated by the NIST laboratories. Over the next several years, NIST 

expects to realize a relatively high but slightly declining number of items calibrated. This is in keeping with a 

long-term trend, over the past several decades, of a decline in the number of items calibrated by NIST. NIST 

expects to provide fewer but more highly leveraged calibration services over time. 

(5) Annual number of technical publications generated by NIST’s technical staff. The number is a direct count of 

the number of technical publications cleared for publication by the NIST Editorial Review Boards at the 

Gaithersburg and Boulder sites. Over time, NIST expects a relatively constant level of high quality publications 

(2,000-2,200 per year) produced by its technical staff. Of the publications produced annually, approximately 

80% are approved for external publication (such as in scientific journals); the other 20% are NIST reports and 

special publications. 

■ Outcomes from Technology Transfer 

NIST develops and disseminates infrastructural technologies and services required by the U.S. 

private sector and other non-profit and government partners. The outputs of the NIST 

laboratories provide a foundation for industry in all stages of commerce -- research, 

development, testing, production, and marketing -- and in turn enable socioeconomic impacts, 

such as productivity gains, increased market access and efficiency, and improved quality of life. 

These impacts are long-term, accruing years after the original infrastructural technologies were 

developed by NIST (often in conjunction with industry partners). 

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The examples below show how NIST’s various technology transfer mechanisms – CRADA’s, 

Standard Reference Materials, joint research facilities, software, and documentary standards – 

have, over the long term, produced outcomes that significantly benefit consumers and improve 

the quality of life. 

NIST develops and disseminates infrastructural technologies and services required by the U.S. 

private sector and other non-profit and government partners. The outputs of the NIST 

laboratories provide a foundation for industry in all stages of commerce -- research, 

development, testing, production, and marketing -- and in turn enable socioeconomic impacts, 

such as productivity gains, increased market access and efficiency, and improved quality of life. 

These impacts are long-term, accruing years after the original infrastructural technologies were 

developed by NIST (often in conjunction with industry partners). 

The examples below show how NIST’s various technology transfer mechanisms – CRADA’s, 

Standard Reference Materials, joint research facilities, software, and documentary standards – 

have, over the long term, produced outcomes that significantly benefit consumers and improve 

the quality of life. 

 NIST RoboCrane® cuts aircraft maintenance costs. A revolutionary robotic platform 

developed by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), patented, and then 

licensed to the U.S. Technology Corporation has been adapted for the U.S. Air Force to address 

the critical, expensive, and nasty work of stripping old paint from large aircraft. The robot’s 

work platform, which “floats” in mid air suspended by a web of computer-controlled cables, 

promises to drastically reduce paint-stripping time per airplane, cut costs and lessen incidents of 

operator stress and injury. 

Air Force maintenance rules require that the coatings on large aircraft be stripped off and 

replaced every five to six years. The stripping process is difficult and hazardous, filling the air 

with toxic dust and vapors. The task is currently done by maintenance workers in hot, 

movement–inhibiting protective suits climbing on scaffolding erected around the airplane. Using 

the new “Aerial Multiaxis Platform” (AMP), a worker in a protected cab can operate the 

automated high-pressure blast nozzles of the paint-stripping machinery, moving easily around 

the aircraft suspended from the aircraft hanger’s ceiling. This robotic approach allows the 

operator to guide several concurrent nozzles, vastly improving productivity over the 

conventional single nozzle, hands-on approach. The AMP uses NIST’s RoboCrane® technology 

in which six hoist cables from three upper support points tautly support, stabilize, and maneuver 

the work platform. It eliminates the need for scaffolding and other ground-base equipment that is 

time consuming to set up and hinders other operations within the hanger. 

The AMP was adapted for aircraft maintenance operations by NIST in partnership with the U.S. 

Technology Corporation, with sponsorship from the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL). 

According to AFRL’s Manufacturing Technology program, the AMP dramatically improves the 

quality and productivity of the paint stripping operations—one third of the overall maintenance 

process. Tests demonstrate that a worker with the AMP can strip up to 10-20 square feet per 

minute. A single operator can comfortably work an entire eight hour shift rather than taking the 

frequent breaks needed with the current de-painting process. The AMP design reduces the 

process time to strip old paint from an aircraft by 40-50 percent, the equivalent of four to five 

days for a C-5 aircraft. 

Annual Report on DoC Federal Lab Technology Transfer, FY 2006 edition (January 2007) Page 32 
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Two production AMP systems are being installed at the Air Force’s Warner Robins Air Logistics 

Center in Georgia for C-130 coating removal. The technology also is expected to be of use to the 

commercial aircraft industry. 

 Quantum dot method rapidly identifies bacteria. A rapid method for detecting and 

identifying very small numbers of diverse bacteria, from anthrax to E. coli, has been developed 

by scientists from the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and NIST. The work could lead to the 

development of handheld devices for accelerated identification of biological weapons and 

antibiotic-resistant or virulent strains of bacteria—situations where speed is essential. 

Traditional ways of identifying infectious bacteria and their possible treatments can be time 

consuming and laborious, requiring the isolation and growth of the bacteria over many hours or 

even days. The new method speeds up the process by using fast-replicating viruses (called 

bacteriophages or phages) that infect specific bacteria of interest and are genetically engineered 

to bind to "quantum dots." Quantum dots are nanoscale semiconductor particles that give off 

stronger and more intense signals than conventional fluorescent tags and also are more stable 

when exposed to light. The method detects and identifies 10, or fewer, target bacterial cells per 

milliliter of sample in only about an hour. 

The phages were genetically engineered to produce a specific protein on their surface. When 

these phages infect bacteria and reproduce, the bacteria burst and release many phage progeny 

attached to biotin (vitamin H), which is present in all living cells. The biotin-capped phages 

selectively attract specially treated quantum dots, which absorb light efficiently over a wide 

frequency range and re-emit it in a single color that depends on particle size. The resulting 

phage-quantum dot complexes can be detected and counted using microscopy, spectroscopy or 

flow cytometry, and the results used to identify the bacteria. The new method could be extended 

to identify multiple bacterial strains simultaneously by pairing different phages with quantum 

dots that have different emission colors. 

The new method is more sensitive than conventional optical methods. It can count how many 

viruses are infecting a single bacteria cell and how many quantum dots are attached to a single 

virus. The work was funded by NIH, NCI, NIST, and the Center for Cancer Research. A joint 

patent application is being submitted. 

 Structure of key enzyme in Plague bacterium found. Researchers at NIST have solved the 

structure of a key enzyme from the bacterium responsible for Plague, finding that it has a highly 

unusual configuration. The results may shed light both on how the bacterium kills and on 

fundamental cell signaling processes. 

The NIST team determined the three-dimensional shape of Class IV adenylyl cyclase (AC), an 

enzyme found in Plague bacteria (Yersinia pestis) by purifying and crystallizing the protein and 

using X-ray crystallography at the Center for Advanced Research in Biotechnology to resolve its 

configuration. Adenylyl cyclase is a fundamental enzyme found in one form or another in 

organisms ranging from bacteria to mammals. It synthesizes cyclic AMP (cAMP), an important 

signaling molecule that in turn triggers a variety of cellular processes. Six distinct classes of AC 

are known, playing a wide variety of roles. AC-II is part of the anthrax bacterium’s killing 

mechanism, for example, while AC-III triggers adrenaline release in humans. Shape plays an 

essential role in determining the biological function of a protein, but it’s very difficult to 

determine for such large molecules. Three-dimensional structures are known for only two other 

forms of AC. The NIST experiments revealed that AC-IV has a shape completely different from 

Annual Report on DoC Federal Lab Technology Transfer, FY 2006 edition (January 2007) Page 33 
NIST/TA 

the other two known shapes. AC-IV folds into a rare form of a barrel-like shape previously seen 

in only three other unrelated proteins. 

The purpose of AC-IV in plague is not well understood, but it may play a role in disrupting cell 

processes in the infected host. Plague is not as common as it was in the Middle Ages, when it 

killed millions, but the World Health Organization still logs about 1,000 to 3,000 cases a year, an 

average of 10 to 15 in the United States. It is rated as a highest category biothreat agent by the 

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious 

Diseases. Fundamental molecular data on this enzyme and its various forms may be critical to 

the development of defenses against plague and other pathogens, including Bacillus anthracis 

(Anthrax) and Bordetella pertussis (Whooping cough). Beyond that, structural and functional 

studies of AC-IV, with its unusual shape, may lead to deeper understanding of the cAMP 

signaling mechanism and other fundamental cellular processes. 

 Bioactive cement scaffold may improve bone grafts. A new technology for implants that 

may improve construction or repair of bones in the face, skull and jaw, has been developed by 

researchers from the American Dental Association Foundation (ADAF) and the National 

Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). 

The new technology provides a method for making scaffolds for bone tissue. The scaffold is 

seeded with a patient’s own cells and is formed with a cement paste made of minerals also found 

in natural bone. The paste is mixed with beads of a natural polymer (made from seaweed) filled 

with bone cells. The paste is shaped or injected into a bone cavity and then allowed to harden 

with the encapsulated cells dispersed throughout the structure. The natural polymer beads 

gradually dissolve when exposed to the body’s fluids, creating a scaffold that is filled by the now 

released bone cells. 

The cement, a calcium phosphate material, is strengthened by adding chitosan, a biopolymer 

extracted from crustacean shells. The implant is further reinforced to about the same strength as 

spongy natural bone by covering it with several layers of a biodegradable fiber mesh already 

used in clinical practice. 

The researchers used mouse bone cells in their experiments, but in practice surgeons would use 

cells cultured from patient samples. 

In addition to creating pores in the hardened cement, the natural polymer beads protect the cells 

during the 30 minutes required for the cement to harden. Future experiments will develop 

methods for improving the material's mechanical properties by using smaller encapsulating beads 

that biodegrade at a predictable rate. 

NIST and the American Dental Association Foundation have conducted cooperative research on 

dental and medical materials since 1928. ADAF researchers focus on development of new dental 

materials, while 

NIST develops and disseminates infrastructural technologies and services required by the U.S. 

private sector and other non-profit and government partners. The outputs of the NIST 

laboratories provide a foundation for industry in all stages of commerce -- research, 

development, testing, production, and marketing -- and in turn enable socioeconomic impacts, 

such as productivity gains, increased market access and efficiency, and improved quality of life. 

These impacts are long-term, accruing years after the original infrastructural technologies were 

developed by NIST (often in conjunction with industry partners). 

Annual Report on DoC Federal Lab Technology Transfer, FY 2006 edition (January 2007) Page 34 
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The examples below show how NIST’s various technology transfer mechanisms – CRADA’s, 

Standard Reference Materials, joint research facilities, software, and documentary standards – 

have, over the long term, produced outcomes that significantly benefit consumers and improve 

the quality of life. 

NIST and the American Dental Association Foundation have conducted cooperative research on 

dental and medical materials since 1928. ADAF researchers focus on development of new dental 

materials, while NIST specializes in the development of improved technologies and methods for 

measuring materials properties. 

The research was funded by the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Facial Research, 

NIST and ADAF. 

 NIST method improves reliability of GPS clocks. The average user may not notice, but the 

Global Positioning System (GPS) is more reliable today than it was several years ago. 

Widely used by the military, first responders, surveyors and even consumers, GPS is a 

navigation and positioning system consisting of ground-based monitors and a constellation of 

satellites that rely on atomic clocks. A statistical method, developed by the National Institute of 

Standards and Technology (NIST) and tested and implemented with the help of several 

collaborators, has made the job of analyzing the accuracy and reliability of these satellite-borne 

time signals significantly faster and easier. The method will help ensure that GPS clocks produce 

accurate location and distance measurements and remain closely synchronized with official 

world time. 

The NIST method has been incorporated over the past few years into the GPS clock analysis 

software system managed by the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL). The satellite clocks—

commercial devices based in part on research originally done at NIST—use the natural 

oscillations of rubidium atoms as "ticks," or frequency standards. The algorithm helps detect and 

correct GPS time and frequency anomalies. The algorithm also can be used to improve the 

control of other types of atomic clocks and has been incorporated into commercial software and 

instruments for various timing applications. 

A GPS receiver pinpoints its location based on the distance to three or more GPS satellites at 

known locations in space. The distance is calculated from the time it takes for satellite radio 

signals to travel to the receiver. Thus, timing accuracy affects distance measurements. The NIST 

method makes a series of mathematical calculations to account for numerous measures of 

random "noise" fluctuations in clock operation simultaneously. This makes it easier to estimate 

many sources of error and identify the onset of instabilities in the clocks in minutes or hours 

rather than days. Adjustments then can be made promptly. The technique also could accelerate 

the evaluation of clocks during the process of building GPS satellites, where test time is at a 

premium. 

 ‘Long’ distances measured with picometer accuracy. A new laser-based method for 

measuring millimeter distances more accurately than ever before—with an uncertainty of 10 

picometers (trillionths of a meter)—has been developed and demonstrated by a physicist at the 

National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). This is akin to measuring the distance 

from New York to Los Angeles with an uncertainty of just 1 millimeter. The technique may have 

applications in nanotechnology, remote sensing and industries such as semiconductor fabrication. 

Annual Report on DoC Federal Lab Technology Transfer, FY 2006 edition (January 2007) Page 35 
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Laser light is typically used to measure distances by counting the number of wavelengths (the 

distance between successive peaks of the wave pattern) of light between two points. Because the 

wavelength is very short (633 nanometers for the red light most often used), the method is 

intrinsically very precise. 

Modern problems in nanotechnology and device fabrication, however, require uncertainty far 

below 633 nm. 

A more precise method involves measuring the frequency of laser light rather than the 

wavelength. The laser light is stored between two highly reflective mirrors, to create the optical 

analog of an organ pipe. The length of an organ pipe can be measured by driving the pipe with 

sound waves of a known frequency (pitch). The sound emitted by the pipe is loudest when it is 

driven at one of its “natural” frequencies, commonly called harmonics. When one or more of 

these frequencies is identified, the pipe length can be determined. In the NIST work, light is 

transmitted through both mirrors only when the frequency of the light matches a harmonic 

frequency. This frequency can be used to determine the distance between the mirrors. 

While this approach has been used previously for the measurement of short distances (of the 

order of 1 micrometer), the new work extends it 25,000-fold by demonstrating a range of 25 

millimeters. (Ultimately, the design should accommodate a range of up to 50 mm.) In addition, 

the NIST approach described in the paper excites two harmonics of the optical system, rather 

than one, a redundancy that increases the range while achieving picometer accuracy. 

 Tool tackles translucence and other color challenges. Plain old colors are passé. Complex 

visual effects, such as pearlescence, translucence, iridescence and glitter, help sell many 

products, including cars, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals and military hardware. A new instrument at 

the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) makes comprehensive measurements 

of such appearance properties to help companies calibrate their own tools and control product 

quality. 

Exotic surfaces and coatings may look different depending on illumination or viewing angles, 

subtleties that cannot be accounted for by traditional characterization methods. Many consumers 

are familiar with automobile paints that appear to change color with viewing direction. The new 

NIST device, called a goniospectrometer, automatically measures the color of light reflected 

from a surface as well as its dependence on the directions of illumination and observation. 

NIST already offers a heavily used calibration service making less sophisticated measurements 

with another instrument. The new goniospectrometer will provide more complete data on the 

reflection of light from a color surface, and will be used for calibrating similar instruments and 

for research on exotic-appearing materials and coatings. The work is part of a NIST effort to 

develop accurate measurement methods for reproduction and quality control of appearance 

attributes, including color matching, by determining the minimum set of illumination and 

viewing geometries needed to accurately characterize the perceived color. 

The goniospectrometer, housed in a clean room, illuminates a sample with a range of 

wavelengths of visible light, every 5 nanometers (nm) from 360 nm to 780 nm, i.e. from the near 

ultraviolet/deep blue to red/infrared. The sample and detector are rotated around three axes, 

allowing illumination and viewing in any direction within a hemisphere around the sample (see 

graphic). The intensity of the reflected beam is measured at several hundred locations on a 

Annual Report on DoC Federal Lab Technology Transfer, FY 2006 edition (January 2007) Page 36 
NIST/TA 

sample surface. Based on these measurements, computer software assigns a numerical value to 

the color of the reflected light. 

 Advanced imaging facility watches fuel cells at work. Thanks to a new and improved 

imaging instrument at NIST scientists now can conduct detailed surveillance of water inside 

hydrogen fuel cells—a piece of intelligence key to making the technology practical for powering 

automobiles. 

With visualization powers 10 times better than those achieved previously, researchers can watch 

water being produced and removed inside the maze-like solid housing of fuel cells under a range 

of simulated operating conditions, from arctic cold to desert heat. This as-it-happens, inside view 

is essential because fuel-cell performance depends on a delicate. Too little—or too much—water 

can shut it down.” 

Better water management is fundamental to meeting targets for fuel cell performance, reliability 

and durability. Water is the by-product of the chemical process in fuel cells that strips electrons 

from hydrogen molecules to generate electricity. NIST’s newly commissioned Neutron Imaging 

Facility can image water quantities smaller than 1 microgram (millionth of a gram), and details 

as small as 0.02 millimeter can be discerned in images. Even better spatial resolution is expected. 

The facility produces still images akin to CAT scans and movies recorded at a rate of up to 30 

frames per second, or 30 times faster than the first-generation instrument that NIST built to 

demonstrate the usefulness of neutron imaging for fuel cell research. 

Located at the NIST Center for Neutron Research (NCNR), the Neutron Imaging Facility 

research station is operated as a national user facility, open to scientists from industry, 

universities and government agencies. It is jointly funded by NIST, the Department of Energy 

and General Motors. Although the new facility has been optimized for fuel cell research, it has 

many potential applications, from evaluations of metal-casting techniques to non-destructive 

analysis of archeological artifacts. 

 Soft materials buckle up for measurement. Buckling under pressure can be a good thing, say 

materials scientists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). NIST 

scientists developed a new method to evaluate the mechanical properties of soft polymers and 

gels, such as those used in contact lenses and as tissue-engineering scaffolds. For such 

applications, stiffness is an indicator for key material performance qualities, such as comfort and 

durability, and it is important to controlling cell adhesion. 

The new method uses “sensor films” with known properties to report the stiffness (or “modulus”) 

of the soft substrates to which they are attached. Compressing the sample causes the sensor film 

to buckle, resulting in patterns of repeating ridge-like features, akin to corrugated cardboard. The 

ridge spacing is related to the modulus ratio between the film and the soft substrate. Since the 

mechanical properties of the sensor film was known, the researchers could calculate the stiffness 

of the soft material underneath. 

The NIST the team focused on results achieved with model soft specimens, such as silicone 

polymer, and more challenging “hydrogel” specimens (networks of polymers swollen with 

water). In each case, the researchers tested “gradient” specimens that changed in their 

mechanical properties across the lengths of a sample. With the sensor film, they could track and 

measure changes in stiffness in the underlying materials. 

Annual Report on DoC Federal Lab Technology Transfer, FY 2006 edition (January 2007) Page 37 
NIST/TA 

This capability makes it possible to “map” spatial variations in rigidity in complex materials and 

devices. Accordingly, the new method may be a powerful tool to test for flaws or weak regions 

in soft materials products, the researchers suggest. 

Another key aspect of the technique is its speed. The NIST team is working with industrial 

partners to harness this method as a high-throughput measurement tool for rapidly testing large 

numbers of soft polymer products. 

 Microfluidic device tests fluid compatibility. The key to a great party is inviting guests who 

mix well and don’t instill tension among their fellow revelers. The key to a great detergent, 

cosmetic, paint or other complex liquid product is pretty much the same—include components 

that mix well and don’t have high levels of what scientists call “interfacial tension,” a tendency 

to bead up and pull away from each other. 

To help industrial engineers improve their ability to systematically test new product 

formulations, researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have 

developed a microfluidic instrument that quickly measures interfacial tension. 

The instrument is relatively simple and includes a series of channels ranging from 700 

micrometers to 50 micrometers wide. Fluids are pumped toward a “T” intersection where drops 

of one liquid are pinched off and flow along a “river” of the second liquid. As the spherical drops 

flow through constriction points in the channel, they speed up and elongate. The degree to which 

the drops stretch out depends on the interfacial tension between the two fluids. High levels of 

tension exert more pressure on the drops, keeping them more nearly spherical. 

Just as the mood of a party goes through stages, the tension between newly mixed liquids can 

change over time, and the device tracks these changes as the drops move downstream through 

the channel. A camera captures 100 pictures per second to record the changes, and an algorithm 

analyzes the data and produces a measurement in approximately 1 second. 

The device will be especially useful to test fresh interfaces for applications with scarce amounts 

of the fluids to be tested such as custom-synthesized materials from combinatorial chemistry. 

Funding for the research was provided by NIST, ICI/National Starch, and Proctor and Gamble. 

 Quality standards issued for testing herbal products. The National Institute of Standards 

and Technology (NIST) has issued the first suite of Standard Reference Materials (SRMs) in a 

planned series of reference materials for botanical dietary supplements. 

The dietary supplement industry has exploded in the past decade to about 29,000 products, with 

about 1,000 new products introduced each year, according to the Food and Drug Administration 

(FDA). In 2001 NIST began working with the FDA and the National Institutes of Health's Office 

of Dietary Supplements (NIH/ODS) on a series of SRMs of popular botanical dietary 

supplements. Manufacturers can use these materials for quality control, and researchers can use 

them to ensure that their laboratory analyses of supplements are accurate. Products such as 

botanical supplements that have been derived from extracts of plant materials are challenging to 

analyze accurately because of their complex sample matrices. 

The new NIST reference materials were designed primarily for quality control of supplements 

containing ephedra, a plant once widely used in herbal weight-loss products. Ephedra products 

were pulled from the market by the FDA in 2004 after being linked to cardiovascular problems, 

but the new test materials remain valuable both to assure that new products are not adulterated 

Annual Report on DoC Federal Lab Technology Transfer, FY 2006 edition (January 2007) Page 38 
NIST/TA 

with ephedra and because they also can be used to improve several other key measurements in 

other botanical supplements, including concentrations of potentially toxic heavy metals. 

The new reference materials represent several different forms of ephedra and include powdered 

plant material (SRM 3240), a ground solid oral dosage form (SRM 3243), and a protein powder 

(SRM 3244). The materials are certified for their concentrations of the ephedrine alkaloids and 

potentially toxic elements (including arsenic, cadmium, lead and mercury). SRM 3243 also 

provides certified values for synephrine (a compound in some of the "ephedra-free" weight-loss 

products) and caffeine. SRM 3244 adds values for caffeine, theobromin, theophylline, and 

nutrients including fat, protein, carbohydrate, individual fatty acids and amino acids, vitamins 

and nutritive elements. 

Future dietary supplement SRMs will include: Ginkgo biloba, saw palmetto, bitter orange, carrot 

extract, green tea, blueberries, cranberries, bilberries and St. John's wort. 

 NIST SRM aids efforts to reduce cigarette fire risk. Cigarettes are the single largest igniters 

of fatal fires in the United States. Each year these fires cause about 700 to 800 deaths, 1,700 

serious injuries and $400 million in direct property damage, according to the National Fire 

Protection Association. Several states, as well as Canada, have moved to reduce this toll by 

requiring that all cigarettes sold in their jurisdictions meet a new standard for low risk of igniting 

household furnishings. This year, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) 

released Standard Reference Material (SRM) 1082 to help testing laboratories and cigarette 

manufacturers make accurate measurements required by the new regulations. The SRM consists 

of 10 packs of uniform cigarettes especially produced with the required low risk of ignition. 

The regulations in New York, California, Vermont and Canada all use an ASTM standard, which 

was originally developed by NIST as part of the Fire Safe Cigarette Act of 1990. (ASTM 

standard E2187-04, “Standard Test Method for Measuring the Ignition Strength of a Cigarette.”) 

All have adopted the 2004 New York State pass/fail criterion that no more than 25 percent of 40 

tested cigarettes burn their full length when placed on 10 layers of standard filter paper. 

NIST developed SRM 1082 at the request of cigarette companies, the New York State Office of 

Fire Prevention and Control (OFPC), and Health Canada. Extensive testing by NIST, the 

National Research Council of Canada and Kidde-Fenwal Inc. established that SRM 1082, 

manufactured for NIST by Philip Morris USA, is compatible with the New York State pass/fail 

criterion. 

Approximately 20 laboratories are or will be performing testing of commercial cigarettes for 

compliance using the ASTM standard. Comparative measurements between SRM 1082 and 

commercial cigarettes should enable testing laboratories to assure clients that their measurements 

are accurate and do not vary over time. Cigarette companies also are expected to use the SRM to 

check their products’ ignition properties prior to certification testing. More information about 

SRM 1082, including purchase data, can be found at 

https://srmors.nist.gov/view_detail.cfm?srm=1082. 

 Using ‘minutiae’ to match fingerprints can be accurate. A study by the National Institute of 

Standards and Technology (NIST) shows that computerized systems that match fingerprints 

using interoperable minutiae templates—mathematical representations of a fingerprint image—

can be highly accurate as an alternative to the full fingerprint image. NIST conducted the study, 

called the Minutiae Interoperability Exchange Test (MINEX), to determine whether fingerprint 

Annual Report on DoC Federal Lab Technology Transfer, FY 2006 edition (January 2007) Page 39 
NIST/TA 

Annual Report on DoC Federal Lab Technology Transfer, FY 2006 edition (January 2007) Page 40 

system vendors could successfully use a recently approved standard for minutiae data rather than 

images of actual prints as the medium for exchanging data between different fingerprint 

matching systems. 

Minutiae templates are a fraction of the size of fingerprint images, require less storage memory 

and can be transmitted electronically faster than images. However, the techniques used by 

vendors to convert fingerprint images to minutiae are generally proprietary and their systems do 

not work with each other. 

For many years, law enforcement agencies have used automated fingerprint matching devices. 

Increasingly, smart cards—which include biometric information such as fingerprints—are being 

used to improve security at borders and at federal facilities. The increased use and the desire to 

limit storage space needed on these cards is driving the use of minutiae rather than full images. 

Fourteen fingerprint vendors from around the world participated in MINEX. Performance 

depended largely on how many fingerprints from an individual were being matched. Systems 

using two index fingers were accurate more than 98 percent of the time. For single-index finger 

matching, the systems produced more accurate results with images than with standard minutia 

templates. However, systems using images and two fingers had the highest rates of accuracy, 

99.8 percent. Results of the test are available at http://fingerprint.nist.gov/minex04/. 

MINEX was sponsored by the U.S. Departments of Homeland Security and Justice. The test was 

not conducted to recommend or endorse any products or equipment. 

Appendix: 

Progress in Improving the Agency’s Performance Metrics for Tech Transfer 

The additional activity metrics included by NIST in FY 2002, 2003, and 2004 -- notably, for 

non-traditional CRADAs to cover NIST calibration services; greater detail on licenses and 

license income; workshops, conferences, and publications; and participation by NIST staff in 

documentary standards committees -- are now well integrated into the annual report process. The 

present array of metrics covers the wide variety of mechanisms that NIST employs for 

technology transfer. 

NIST continues, however, to evaluate the effectiveness of its technology transfer activities and 

will consider including additional metrics as need may arise. 
NOAA 

III. NATIONAL OCEANIC AND ATMOSPHERIC 

ADMINISTRATION 

Technology Transfer at the Agency’s Federal Laboratories – Approach and 

Plans, FY 2006 Activities/Achievements 

1. Agency Approach and Plans for Technology Transfer 

NOAA’s mission is to understand and predict changes in the Earth’s environment and conserve 

and manage coastal and marine resources to meet the Nation’s economic, social, and 

environmental needs. This mission will become ever more critical in the 21st century as national 

needs intensify concerning climate change, freshwater supply, ecosystem management, and 

homeland security. 

NOAA is one of the nation’s premier scientific agencies. NOAA science and technology impact 

the daily lives of the nation’s citizens and have a significant effect on the national economy. For 

example, about one-third of the U.S. economy (approximately $3 trillion) is weather sensitive -- 

such as agriculture, energy, construction, travel, and transportation. Weather data and forecasts 

play a critical role -- and are transferred to industry and the public through the media, internet, 

and NOAA Weather Radio. Governments and the public use weather warnings to save lives and 

prevent destruction of property. Television weathercasters and many weather related firms use 

weather data and forecasts in their daily operations. Industry uses NOAA data in home 

construction and design, crop selection, disease control, and fuel delivery and supply. 

Additionally, industry has applied weather data for deciding such things as automobile fuel 

delivery system design, the best time to market umbrellas, and even for when the conditions 

would be best for the mating of honeybees. Increasingly accurate and longer range weather 

forecasts depend on an ongoing program of research and development. 

Research by NOAA’s federal laboratories is aimed at assisting NOAA’s operational components. 

NOAA’s research is directed at such topic areas as weather forecasting, solar emission 

forecasting, estimating fish stocks, predicting water resources, warning of tsunamis, and charting 

ocean bottom topography. The results of such research are transferred to NOAA’s operational 

components to improve prediction, management, and other mission activities. 

NOAA’s web page at www.noaa.gov details the voluminous amount of research and technology 

data made available to the public in the form of information products and services, such as 

weather and climate forecast data, El Nino prediction and monitoring, tides and currents, satellite 

imagery and direct readout, fishery statistics and information on protected species, air quality, 

state of the coasts, beach temperatures, and nautical charts, as well as extensive databases on 

climate, oceans, ice, atmosphere, geophysics, and the sun. 

NOAA's primary technology transfer mechanism has historically been the open dissemination of 

scientific and technical information to individuals, industry, government, and universities. This 

means of transfer is consistent with the agency’s mission and scientific tradition and has been 

found to be more efficient and economical than transfer through patenting and licensing. Even 

Annual Report on DoC Federal Lab Technology Transfer, FY 2006 edition (January 2007) Page 41 
NOAA 

so, NOAA continues, where advantageous, to transfer intellectual property through licenses and 

CRADAs -- including to industry to benefit the competitiveness of U.S. companies. 

In FY 2006, NOAA conducted an extensive technology transfer program through applications of 

meteorological and oceanographic technologies and information, and through open 

dissemination to individuals, industry, government, and universities. In addition, NOAA 

provided daily weather forecasts and warnings through the media and NOAA Weather Radio. 

NOAA technology is transferred through presentations at scientific meetings, publication in 

peer-reviewed scientific journals, and through NOAA scientific and technical publications. For 

example, the NOAA laboratories in Boulder, Colorado published 444 articles in scientific 

journals and 148 papers in NOAA Tech Reports. NOAA Weather Radio has been integrated into 

the nation’s homeland security efforts and will be used to alert citizens to take precautions in 

response to chemical or nuclear spills and terrorist attacks. The system, called the all-hazards 

alert system, reaches more than 97 percent of U.S. territory on a 24/7 basis, through broadcasts in 

the 50 states and in U.S. territories. 

NOAA collaborates with other federal research agencies on science and technology development 

matters of joint interest. For example, NOAA and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) 

team to provide new experimental air quality forecast guidance that enables state and local 

agencies to issue more accurate and geographically specific air quality warnings to the public. 

The annual cost of poor air quality to the U.S. from air pollution-related illnesses has been 

estimated at $150 billion. 

Furthermore, to ensure that the United States benefits from and fully exploits scientific research 

and technology developed abroad, NOAA collaborates and shares information with 

organizations in countries throughout the world. Through these international relationships, 

technology is transferred into NOAA for the eventual benefit of U.S. industry and public users. 

For instance, the understanding and forecasting of global phenomena that occur in the 

atmosphere, oceans, and on the sun require worldwide collaboration and information sharing. 

This is accomplished through formal agreements with individual countries and participation in 

international organizations, such as the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), the 

Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC), and the International Astronomical Union 

(IAU). NOAA also participates in international scientific programs and shares technology and 

scientific data, such as in the Global Earth Observation System. This effort involves nearly 50 

other countries, the European Commission, and 29 international organizations. NOAA also 

provides technical assistance and training to individuals from other countries, and participates in 

a visiting scientist program. In addition, environmental data is shared through NOAA 

participation in the World Data Center program. 

In the future, NOAA will continue to direct its technology transfer and international 

collaboration activities toward four mission goals: 1. protect, restore, and manage the use of 

coastal and ocean resources through ecosystem-based management; 2. understand climate 

variability and change to enhance society’s ability to plan and respond; 3. serve society’s needs 

for weather and water information; and 4. support the Nation’s commerce with information for 

safe, efficient, and environmentally-sound transportation.

Annual Report on DoC Federal Lab Technology Transfer, FY 2006 edition (January 2007) Page 42 
NOAA 

2. Performance in FY 2006: Activities and Achievements 

■ Collaborative Relationships for Research & Development 

FY 

2002 

FY 

2003 

FY 

2004 

FY 

2005 

FY 

2006 

● CRADAs, total active in the FY (1) 10 11 9 8 6 

 - New, executed in the FY 1 0 0 0 0 

▪ Traditional CRADAs, (2) total active in the FY 10 11 9 8 6 

 - New, executed in the FY 1 0 0 0 0 

▪ Non-traditional CRADAs, (3) total active in the FY 0 0 0 0 0 

 - New, executed in the FY 0 0 0 0 0 

● Other types of collaborative R&D relationships 0 0 0 0 0 

CRADA = Cooperative Research and Development Agreement. 

(1) “Active” = legally in force at any time during the FY. “Total active” is comprehensive of all agreements 

executed under CRADA authority (15 USC 3710a). 

(2) CRADAs involving collaborative research and development by a federal laboratory and non-federal partners. 

(3) CRADAs used for special purposes -- such as, material transfer or technical assistance that may result in 

protected information. 

■ Invention Disclosure and Patenting 

FY 

2002 

FY 

2003 

FY 

2004 

FY 

2005 

FY 

2006 

● New inventions disclosed in the FY (1) 1 5 2 1 4 

● Patent applications filed in the FY (2) 0 0 0 0 0 

● Patents issued in the FY 5 1 1 1 0 

(1) Inventions arising at the federal lab. 

(2) Tally includes U.S. patent applications, foreign patent applications filed on cases for which no U.S. application 

was filed, divisional applications, and continuation-in-part applications. Excludes provisional, continuation, 

duplicate foreign, and PCT applications. 

Annual Report on DoC Federal Lab Technology Transfer, FY 2006 edition (January 2007) Page 43 
NOAA 

■ Licensing 

Profile of Active Licenses 

FY 

2002 

FY 

2003 

FY 

2004 

FY 

2005 

FY 

2006 

● All licenses, number total active in the FY (1) 3 5 5 4 5 

 ▫ New, executed in the FY 1 2 0 0 1 

▪ Invention licenses, total active in the FY 3 5 5 4 5 

 ▫ New, executed in the FY 1 2 0 0 1 

 - Patent licenses, (2) total active in FY 3 5 5 4 5 

 ▫ New, executed in the FY 1 2 0 0 1 

 - Material transfer licenses (inventions), total active 0 0 0 0 0 

 ▫ New, executed in the FY 0 0 0 0 0 

 - Other invention licenses, total active in the FY 0 0 0 0 0 

 ▫ New, executed in the FY 0 0 0 0 0 

▪ Other IP licenses, total active in the FY 0 0 0 0 0 

 ▫ New, executed in the FY 0 0 0 0 0 

 - Copyright licenses (fee bearing) 

 ▫ New, executed in the FY 

 - Material transfer licenses (non-inventions), total active 

 ▫ New, executed in the FY 

 - Other, total active in the FY 

 ▫ New, executed in the FY 

Multiple inventions in a single license are counted as one license. Licenses that include both patents and copyrights 

(hybrid licenses) are reported as patent licenses and are not included in the count of copyright licenses. 

(1) “Active” = legally in force at any time during the FY. 

(2) Patent license tally includes patent applications which are licensed. 

Annual Report on DoC Federal Lab Technology Transfer, FY 2006 edition (January 2007) Page 44 
NOAA 

Licensing Management 

FY 

2002 

FY 

2003 

FY 

2004 

FY 

2005 

FY 

2006 

● Elapsed execution time, (1) licenses granted in the FY 

▪ Invention licenses

 ▫ Average , months *8.0 ** ** ** *7.0 

 ▫ Minimum 

 ▫ Maximum 

 - Patent licenses (2)

 ▫ Average , months *8.0 ** ** ** *7.0 

 ▫ Minimum 

 ▫ Maximum 

● Licenses terminated for cause, number in the FY

▪ Invention licenses 0 0 0 0 0 

 - Patent licenses (2) 0 0 0 0 0 

Data included in this table (intentionally) addresses only invention licenses, with patent licenses distinguished as a 

sub-class. 

* Only a single new license was executed in FY 2001 and 2002. Thus, there is no range of execution times to 

report. 

** No new licenses were executed in FY 2004 or FY 2005. 

(1) Date of license application to the date of license execution. (Date of license application is the date the lab 

formally acknowledges the written request for a license from a prospective licensee and agrees to enter into 

negotiations.) 

(2) Patent license tally includes patent applications which are licensed. 

Annual Report on DoC Federal Lab Technology Transfer, FY 2006 edition (January 2007) Page 45 
NOAA 

Characteristics of Licenses Bearing Income 

FY 

2002 

FY 

2003 

FY 

2004 

FY 

2005 

FY 

2006 

● All income bearing licenses, total number 3 5 5 4 5 

 ▫ Exclusive 1 1 1 1 1 

 ▫ Partially exclusive 0 0 0 0 0 

 ▫ Non-exclusive 2 4 4 3 4 

▪ Invention licenses, income bearing 3 5 5 4 5 

 ▫ Exclusive 1 1 1 1 1 

 ▫ Partially exclusive 0 0 0 0 0 

 ▫ Non-exclusive 2 4 4 3 4 

 - Patent licenses, (1) income bearing 3 5 5 4 5 

 ▫ Exclusive 1 1 1 1 1 

 ▫ Partially exclusive 0 0 0 0 0 

 ▫ Non-exclusive 2 4 4 3 4 

▪ Other IP licenses, income bearing 0 0 0 0 0 

 ▫ Exclusive 

 ▫ Partially exclusive 

 ▫ Non-exclusive 

 - Copyright licenses (fee bearing) 

 ▫ Exclusive 

 ▫ Partially exclusive 

 ▫ Non-exclusive 

● All royalty bearing licenses, (2) total number 3 5 5 4 5 

▪ Invention licenses, royalty bearing 3 5 5 4 5 

 - Patent licenses, (1) royalty bearing 3 5 5 4 5 

▪ Other IP licenses, royalty bearing 0 0 0 0 0 

 - Copyright licenses (fee bearing) 

In general, license income can result from various sources: license issue fees, earned royalties, minimum annual 

royalties, paid-up license fees, and reimbursement for full-cost recovery of goods and services provided by the lab to 

the licensee including patent costs. 

(1) Patent license tally includes patent applications which are licensed. 

(2) Note that royalties are one component of total license income. 

Annual Report on DoC Federal Lab Technology Transfer, FY 2006 edition (January 2007) Page 46 
NOAA 

Income from Licenses 

FY 

2002 

FY 

2003 

FY 

2004 

FY 

2005 

FY 

2006 

● Total income, all licenses active in the FY (1) $9,402 $4,716 $24,961 $16,100 $13,100 

▪ Invention licenses $9,402 $4,716 $24,961 $16,100 $13,100 

 - Patent licenses (2) $9,402 $4,716 $24,961 $16,100 $13,100 

▪ Other IP licenses, total active in the FY 0 0 0 0 0 

 - Copyright licenses 

● Total Earned Royalty Income (ERI) (3) $9,402 $4,716 $24,961 $16,100 $13,100 

 ▫ Median ERI $1,333 $696 $1,923 $1,000 $1,000 

 ▫ Minimum ERI $100 $100 $116 $100 $100 

 ▫ Maximum ERI $7,969 $1,920 $21,000 $9,000 $5,000 

 ▫ ERI from top 1% of licenses $7,969 $1,920 $21,000 $9,000 $5,000 

 ▫ ERI from top 5% of licenses $7,969 $1,920 $21,000 $9,000 $5,000 

 ▫ ERI from top 20% of licenses $7,969 $1,920 $21,000 $9,000 $5,000 

▪ Invention licenses $9,402 $4,716 $24,961 $16,100 $13,100 

 ▫ Median ERI $1,333 $696 $1,923 $1,000 $1,000 

 ▫ Minimum ERI $100 $100 $116 $100 $100 

 ▫ Maximum ERI $7,969 $1,920 $21,000 $9,000 $5,000 

 ▫ ERI from top 1% of licenses $7,969 $1,920 $21,000 $9,000 $5,000 

 ▫ ERI from top 5% of licenses $7,969 $1,920 $21,000 $9,000 $5,000 

 ▫ ERI from top 20% of licenses $7,969 $1,920 $21,000 $9,000 $5,000 

 - Patent licenses (2) $9,402 $4,716 $24,961 $16,100 $13,100 

 ▫ Median ERI $1,333 $696 $1,923 $1,000 $1,000 

 ▫ Minimum ERI $100 $100 $116 $100 $100 

 ▫ Maximum ERI $7,969 $1,920 $21,000 $9,000 $5,000 

 ▫ ERI from top 1% of licenses $7,969 $1,920 $21,000 $9,000 $5,000 

 ▫ ERI from top 5% of licenses $7,969 $1,920 $21,000 $9,000 $5,000 

 ▫ ERI from top 20% of licenses $7,969 $1,920 $21,000 $9,000 $5,000 

▪ Other IP licenses, total active in the FY 0 0 0 0 0 

 ▫ Median ERI 

 ▫ Minimum ERI 

 ▫ Maximum ERI 

 ▫ ERI from top 1% of licenses 

 ▫ ERI from top 5% of licenses 

Annual Report on DoC Federal Lab Technology Transfer, FY 2006 edition (January 2007) Page 47 
NOAA 

FY FY FY FY FY 

2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 

 ▫ ERI from top 20% of licenses 

 - Copyright licenses 

 ▫ Median ERI 

 ▫ Minimum ERI 

 ▫ Maximum ERI 

 ▫ ERI from top 1% of licenses 

 ▫ ERI from top 5% of licenses 

 ▫ ERI from top 20% of licenses 

(1) Total income includes license issue fees, earned royalties, minimum annual royalties, paid-up license fees, and 

reimbursement for full-cost recovery of goods and services provided by the lab to the licensee including patent 

costs. 

(2) Patent license tally includes patent applications which are licensed. 

(3) “Earned royalty” = royalty based upon use of a licensed invention (usually, a percentage of sales or of units 

sold). Not a license issue fee or a minimum royalty. 

Disposition of License Income 

FY 

2002 

FY 

2003 

FY 

2004 

FY 

2005 

FY 

2006 

● Income distributed (1)

 ▪ Invention licenses, total distributed $9,402 $4,716 $24,961 $16,100 $13,100 

 - To inventor(s) $696

(7%) 

$1,130

(24%) 

$11,070 

(44%) 

$8,400

(52%) 

$7,500

(57%) 

 - To other $8,706

(93%) 

$3,586

(76%) 

$13,891 

(56%) 

$7,700

(48%) 

$5,600

(43%) 

 - Patent licenses, (2) total distributed $9,402 $4,716 $24,961 $16,100 $13,100 

 - To inventor(s) $696

(7%) 

$1,130

(24%) 

$11,070 

(44%) 

$8,400

(52%) 

$7,500

(57%) 

 - To other $8,706

(93%) 

$3,586

(76%) 

$13,891 

(56%) 

$7,700

(48%) 

$5,600

(43%) 

Invention licenses are the chief policy interest regarding disposition of income; content of table reflects this focus. 

(1) Income includes royalties and other payments received during the FY. 

(2) Patent license tally includes patent applications which are licensed. 

■ Other Performance Measures Deemed Important by the Agency 

FY 

2002

FY 

2003

FY 

2004

FY 

2005

FY 

2006

Journal articles published 529 626 419 397 444 

Technical reports published 363 245 300 226 148 

Annual Report on DoC Federal Lab Technology Transfer, FY 2006 edition (January 2007) Page 48 
NOAA 

Represents publications by NOAA laboratories in Boulder, Colorado. 

■ Outcomes from Technology Transfer 

For this year’s annual report, the cases described below are provided as examples of the 

downstream outcomes being achieved by NOAA technology transfer efforts: 

 Precision airdrop system. Problems associated with aerial re-supply resulted in Department of 

Defense initiation of the Precision Airdrop System (PADS), a program to develop capability to 

airdrop ballistic parachute payloads accurately and safely from high altitude. Wind errors 

(forecast versus actual) are the largest contributors to the total error budget of a ballistic airdrop 

system, especially in mountainous terrain. The development team, comprised by the U.S. Army, 

Planning Systems Inc. (civilian contractor), and NOAA focused on reducing the wind error 

budget through the real-time measurement of winds over and near a planned drop zone using 

mature technologies. The developed, fully-operational PADS was transferred to nations in 

NATO (Sweden, Spain, Belgium, Norway), the Middle East (Saudi Arabia, India, and Israel), 

and Pacific (Australia, Japan, and Singapore), and it now serves domestic, civilian, and military 

applications. NOAA tailored the Local Analysis and Prediction System (LAPS), along with its 

components and interfaces, to operate within the PADS software architecture on the PADS 

laptop-computer, in its unique operating environment. LAPS components were tailored and 

applied to accomplish two mission-critical processes: 1) an analysis using the full physics and 

dynamics of real-time wind data and high-resolution forecast fields from a weather center to 

produce an accurate analyses of 3-D winds and density; and 2) a short-range forecast using 

parametric time-tendencies from weather-center forecast fields to produce an accurate 0-1 hour 

forecast of 3D-wind and density at the planned time of airdrop. These winds and densities are 

further processed by the PADS payload-descent simulator to produce the Computed Air Release 

Point (CARP) executed by the airdrop aircrew. 

 Air freezing index for construction industry. NOAA developed an air freezing index (AFI) 

that was transferred to the U.S. construction industry for use in building frost protected shallow 

foundations (FPSF). Home builders can now construct a frost protected shallow foundation 

(FPSF), which is a practical alternative to deeper and more costly foundations that are less 

environmentally friendly. The Index produces significant savings to homeowners and the 

environment. The NOAA designers of the AFI received the 2006 NOAA Technology Transfer 

Award. 

FPSF construction is directly reliant upon the AFI and incorporates strategically placed 

insulation to raise the frost depth around a building. At the construction site, the AFI is used to 

determine the required footing depth and the amount of insulation needed to protect a building 

foundation from frost heave. 

This technology transfer has resulted in the following quantified savings to homeowners & the 

environment: 

 Construction Cost Savings: 

a) Conventional deep foundations not needed: depths now 16 inches vs. several feet in 

severe climates 

b) Minimizes site disturbance; more environmentally friendly 

c) Building savings: 1.1 – 3.8% of total home cost 

Annual Report on DoC Federal Lab Technology Transfer, FY 2006 edition (January 2007) Page 49 
NOAA 

d) Projected Annual Construction Savings to U.S. homeowners: $300 million 

 Energy Savings: 

a) Added insulation protects foundation from frost heave 

b) Added insulation also saves on home heating cost 

c) Amount of insulation determined by the AFI 

d) Projected annual energy savings to the US homeowners: 590 megawatts; Equivalent 

to saving 8.6 million gallons of gasoline 

Builders can interpolate the statistic from maps provided by NOAA: 

http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/fpsf/fpsfmaps.html. 

Three main web sites that can also be searched for further information on the AFI: 

-NOAA http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/fpsf/

-ASCE http://www.techstreet.com/cgi-bin/detail?product_id=946635

-NAHB http://www.nahb.org/fileUpload_details.aspx?contentTypeID=7&contentID=434

 Spot forecasts aid wildfire control. NOAA has issued nearly 3,000 spot forecasts for 

wildfires and over 7,000 for natural resource management. For example, the Sawtooth fire near 

California 's Yucca Valley recently burned over 60,000 acres, demolishing 50 homes and causing 

one fatality. NOAA’s San Diego forecast office provided two spot forecasts on July 10 and 

another three on July 11 to aid firefighters in successfully battling this blaze. Covering relatively 

small geographic areas, these spot forecasts require NOAA meteorologists to apply micro and 

mesoscale knowledge about temperature, humidity trends, wind speed and direction, smoke 

dispersion, and expected rainfall and lightning, usually for a 36-hour period. 

(http://fire.boi.noaa.gov) 

 Aid to spacecraft launches and landings. When the space shuttle Discovery touched down, it 

was a triumph not only for NASA, but also for NOAA's National Weather Service Spaceflight 

Meteorology Group. NOAA has been an integral part of spaceflight since the space program 

began over 40 years ago. NOAA monitors and forecasts landing weather. NASA will not launch 

a space shuttle unless, should an emergency arise, there is a safe place to land shortly after takeoff. That means forecasting weather conditions at U.S. landing sites in Florida, California, New 

Mexico, and also sites in France and Spain. NOAA also issues a key weather forecast for the 

critical end-of-mission shuttle landing decision by NASA's Mission Control. NOAA examines a 

range of weather parameters. For example, the cloud ceiling must be at least 8,000 feet, visibility 

must be five miles or greater, and crosswinds must be 15 knots or less. Precipitation should be at 

least 30 miles away for scheduled landings, and 20 miles away for launch abort landings. At 

times, the sky is beautiful in Florida yet the space shuttle does not fly. That is because the 

emergency landing site weather does not fit parameters required to ensure a safe landing in a 

launch emergency. Collaborating with Houston Mission Control and Moscow Control Center, 

NOAA also provides forecasts for worldwide Soyuz landing sites. Should astronauts and 

cosmonauts ever need to make an emergency escape from the space station on the Soyuz, these 

forecasts would be vital. (www.srh.noaa.gov/smg) 

 First salt marsh ecosystem model. NOAA transferred a computer model of salt marsh 

restoration to Gulf of Maine coastal managers in 2006. MarshMD is the first salt marsh 

ecosystem model of its kind and resulted from a synthesis of original research and published 

Annual Report on DoC Federal Lab Technology Transfer, FY 2006 edition (January 2007) Page 50 
NOAA 

scientific findings. The model was distributed to coastal managers through CDs and workshops. 

MarshMD integrates components that simulate plant biomass production, marsh elevation 

dynamics, tidal hydrology, and plant succession. The Office of Intellectual Property at the 

University of New Hampshire is investigating market opportunities. This investigation includes 

documentation of intellectual property status and a comprehensive market analysis. 

 Tsunami warning network expanded. NOAA deployed the first Deep-Ocean Assessment 

and Reporting of Tsunamis (DART) station in the Atlantic Ocean. The buoy station is located 

about 280 miles east-southeast of Cape Fear, North Carolina. NOAA also deployed DART 

stations in the Caribbean Sea and Gulf of Mexico. These new DART stations are part of the U.S. 

tsunami warning system expansion project and also contribute the ongoing effort to maintain and 

improve capabilities for the early detection and real-time reporting of tsunamis in the open 

ocean. Ten DART stations maintained by the U.S. are already operational in the Pacific Ocean. 

(For further information see www.tsunami.noaa.gov .) 

 Tsunami preparedness materials. NOAA transferred preparedness materials and related tools 

to help communities in regions potentially affected by tsunamis. One such tool is "inundation 

mapping," which gives emergency managers graphical information to clarify the extent of 

potential coastal damage that may be caused by various tsunami/wave heights. In the U.S., there 

are 512 coastal communities that can gain from protection planning using 75 tsunami inundation 

maps. NOAA's West Coast/Alaska Tsunami Warning Center in Palmer, Alaska transferred 

tsunami information bulletins to coastal populations and emergency management officials in 

California, Oregon, Washington, Alaska and the province of British Columbia. The Pacific 

Tsunami Warning Center in Hawaii transfers materials to most countries in the Pacific Basin as 

well as to Hawaii and all other U.S. interests in the Pacific outside of Alaska and the U.S. West 

Coast. 

 Tsunami warning system. NOAA hosted several visitors from Indian Ocean nations in 2006 

to provide the background and specific technological information regarding tsunami detection 

and reporting platforms as well as numerical modeling of tsunamis. NOAA also participated with 

the U.S. State Department Agency for International Development (USAID) in meetings in India, 

Indonesia, and Australia to assist Indian Ocean nations in developing a regional tsunami warning 

system. 

 Hawaii becomes the first tsunami ready state. NOAA transferred Tsunami and storm 

information, data, and advice to Hawaii, helping it to become the first state of the United States 

to achieve the status of TsunamiReady and StormReady. Through these programs, Hawaii is 

better prepared to help protect the lives and property of its residents and visitors during severe 

weather events. The TsunamiReady and StormReady programs are voluntary, and provide 

communities with the information they need through a partnership between the local NOAA 

National Weather Service offices and state, county, and local emergency managers. StormReady 

currently has more than 990 StormReady status communities in 48 states and TsunamiReady has 

20 TsunamiReady status communities in 6 states. 

 Disneyland resort storm ready. NOAA’s National Weather Service recently helped 

Disneyland Resort in California to become a StormReady community. The voluntary 

StormReady program provides communities with clear-cut advice from their local NOAA 

National Weather Service forecast offices. NOAA developed the StormReady program to help 

protect every American from hazardous weather. StormReady helps communities improve 

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communications and safety resources needed to save lives -- before, during, and after a weather 

event. High winds, heavy rain, flooding, and thunderstorms are likely to affect the southern 

California region. Disneyland has set up its own emergency operations center with 24-hour 

warning capabilities. Along with the Walt Disney World Resort in Florida, the Disneyland 

Resort joins more than 1,070 StormReady communities throughout the United States and is one 

of 18 such communities in California 

● Gulf Coast storm tide information. The Gulf Coast was able to more frequently update storm 

tide information this past hurricane season (2006) thanks to technology upgrades implemented to 

the 23 National Water Level Observation Network (NWLON) stations along the Gulf Coast. The 

technology upgrades enable the near real time transmission of NWLON data to NOAA National 

Weather Service (NWS) forecasters, emergency responders, mariners, the public, and other 

users. The upgrades allow NWLON stations to transmit their data every six minutes over the 

NOAA geostationary satellites, making the data available within minutes on the internet at: 

http://tidesonline.nos.noaa.gov Prior to the technology upgrades, NWLON stations provided data 

every sixty minutes. NOAA has also worked with state governments and other partners along the 

Gulf Coast to almost double its water level observing capacity in that region. NOAA now 

receives, analyzes, and disseminates data from water level stations operated to NWLON 

standards by the Texas Coastal Ocean Observing Network and through Tampa Bay and HoustonGalveston Physical Oceanographic Real Time Systems. Having access to observed storm tide 

heights can improve NWS storm surge forecast accuracy, enable emergency responders to make 

critical evacuation decisions, and provide mariners with critical water depth information. 

 Hazard mapping system to Mexican weather service. NOAA successfully transfered and 

implemented the Hazard Mapping System (HMS) for fire and smoke detection to the Servicio 

Meteorologico Nacional (National Weather Service of Mexico). HMS is an interactive tool to 

identify fires and associated smoke emissions in an operational environment. This state-of-the-art 

satellite data visualization and analysis system utilizes multiple geostationary and polar orbiting 

environmental satellites as input to automated fire or hotspot detection algorithms specifically 

designed for each sensor. 

Analysts apply quality control procedures for the automated fire detections by eliminating those 

that are deemed to be false and adding hotspots that the algorithms have not detected via a 

thorough examination of real time satellite imagery. The HMS also allows analysts to denote 

fires that are producing smoke emissions. These fire locations are in turn used as input to a 

smoke trajectory model developed by NOAA and run to provide a forecast of smoke emissions 

and dispersion through 48 hours. By using the HMS, the Mexican weather service can better 

support their Forestry Service and civil emergency responders. The output of the HMS -- 

including both fire detectors and smoke plume outlines as well as auxiliary data layers such as 

land cover -- is available via a WebGIS page at http://www.firedetect.noaa.gov/viewer.htm . The 

fire and smoke analyses are also made available to users in several standard formats via the 

Internet at http://gp16.ssd.nesdis.noaa.gov/FIRE/fire.html. A more detailed description of the 

system is located at http://www.ssd.noaa.gov/PS/FIRE/hms.html. 

 Wind model to State of Florida. NOAA transferred a wind model to the State of Florida for 

use in its CAT (Catastrophe) model. Florida's recently mandated annual hurricane insurance 

deductible is based on its catastrophe modeling system. 

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 Cutting-edge weather forecast model. NOAA has transferred an advanced weather forecast 

(WRF) model that predicts several types of extreme weather with substantially improved 

accuracy. The high-resolution WRF model is the first to serve as both the backbone of the 

nation's public weather forecasts and as a tool for cutting-edge weather research. The new model 

was created through a partnership between NOAA, the National Center for Atmospheric 

Research and more than 150 other organizations and universities in the United States and abroad. 

The U.S. Air Force Weather Agency has used WRF for several areas of operations around the 

world. The new model is being adopted by the national weather agencies of Taiwan, South 

Korea, China and India. The model's research-oriented version has been transferred to 

approximately 4,000 people in 77 countries to study a wide range of weather problems. 

 Greenhouse gas information to World Meteorological Organization. NOAA transferred its 

Annual Greenhouse Gas Index (AGGI) to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) for 

inclusion in its annual Greenhouse Gas Bulletin. The AGGI is a benchmark measurement of 

gases in the atmosphere that affects the Earth’s climate and provides a scientific basis for 

management and policy decisions by Government and industry. NOAA’s AGGI is a recently 

developed index that provides an easily understood and scientifically unambiguous point of 

comparison for tracking annual changes in levels of atmospheric greenhouse gases. This year’s 

AGGI reflects an increase in carbon dioxide (CO2) and nitrous oxide (N2O), but a leveling off of 

methane (CH4), and a decline in two chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), gases that help cause the 

Antarctic ozone hole. Overall, the AGGI shows a continuing, steady rise in the amount of heattrapping gases in the atmosphere. (See the following for the WMO Greenhouse Gas Bulletin: 

www.wmo.int/web/arep/gaw/ghg/ghg-bulletin-en-03-06.pdf.) 

 Debris flow warnings. NOAA’s National Weather Service and Office of Oceanic and 

Atmospheric Research partnered with the U.S. Geological Survey to deliver life-saving watches 

and warnings for debris flow events. Once smoke clears from a wildfire, the danger is not over. 

Flash floods and debris flows can be one of the most hazardous consequences of rainfall on 

burned hill slopes. The powerful force of rushing water, soil, and rock, both within the burned 

area and downstream, can cause injury or death and destroy culverts, bridges, roadways, and 

structures. Sixteen people, for example, were killed on Christmas Day 2003 when a debris flow 

hit recently burned hill slopes in San Bernardino County. Nearly $1 billion was spent to clean up 

and repair roadways following this event. Many areas in southern California are prone to 

wildfires in close proximity to housing developments, and heavy precipitation in these areas has 

resulted in flash floods and debris flows. These warnings are key to safety in the region. 

 Advice on surface transportation weather. Three years ago, NOAA released its first report 

on improving surface transportation, safety and cost efficiency through improved weather 

information products. The report, “Weather Information for Surface Transportation,” spurred a 

rapid expansion of interagency, intergovernmental and public-private efforts, all designed to 

enhance safety and mitigate economic impacts of transportation weather. This year’s update of 

this report provides new data on the risks of transportation weather to America’s safety, security, 

quality of life, and economic activity. Acting on the information provided by NOAA, some 

roadway freight lines have equipped their trucks to receive NOAA Public Alert Radio broadcasts 

and some automobile manufacturers offer the capability as an option. The updated report also 

includes weather information for railway, marine and airport ground operations, pipeline systems 

-- as well as the impact of weather on traffic congestion. 

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 CRADA signed with Boeing Aerospace. NOAA entered into a CRADA agreement with 

Boeing Aerospace on October 6, 2005 (in FY 2006), to bring new satellite data sets into the 

Integrated Oceanic Observing System (IOOS), and to further coastal remote sensing. The title of 

the agreement is “A State of the Art Earth Science Information System.” This CRADA funds a 

graduate student to undertake applied research and development to determine water levels in 

Chesapeake Bay using satellite-derived altimetry data. The work is performed at the University 

of Maryland and the NOAA Cooperative Institute for Climate Studies (co-located at the 

University). 

 Coral reef warning system. NOAA expanded coverage for the NOAA Coral Reef Watch 

Satellite Bleaching Alert monitoring system from 6 Caribbean sites to a total of 24 sites 

throughout the U.S, and Caribbean. The expansion was made possible through collaborative 

efforts with NOAA, the World Bank, and the Global Environment Facility. The warning system 

will give local officials advance warning that a bleaching event is about to occur. With this 

advance notice, officials can take measures to prevent human activity, such as diving, boating 

and recreational fishing, from adding to the stress of higher ocean temperature already affecting 

the coral reefs. Preliminary data summaries, as well as maps of coral bleaching and thermal 

stress are posted on the web at: http://coralreefwatch.noaa.gov/caribbean2005. 

 New Great Lakes weather observation platforms. More than a dozen new weather 

observation platforms deployed in the Great Lakes region by NOAA are providing valuable 

information directly to recreational and commercial boaters and to NOAA National Weather 

Service meteorologists issuing marine weather forecasts and life-saving warnings. NOAA's 

National Weather Service, National Ocean Service, and Great Lakes Environmental Research 

Laboratory joined forces to deploy 13 new coastal weather observation sites throughout the 

Great Lakes. These observation platforms now provide critical information on wind speed and 

direction, temperature and atmospheric pressure and are updated and broadcast every hour on the 

Internet for public consumption. Boaters use the information to avoid perilous situations on the 

water, and NOAA forecasters incorporate the data with other factors to improve weather and 

marine forecasts. Information from these platforms are improving wind and wave forecasts, 

assisting in the response to coastal hazards, strengthening coastal resource management and 

improving the safety of marine commerce and recreation in the Great Lakes. Mariners on the 

Great Lakes are very weather dependent, not only for their own safety but also for protecting 

their commercial investments. Each year, nearly 200 million tons of cargo, mostly iron ore, 

limestone and coal, are shipped over the Great Lakes' sometimes treacherous waters, which also 

are home to large recreational and commercial fisheries. 

 Navigation information for Volvo ocean racers. NOAA helped to ensure safe navigation for 

the Volvo Ocean Race, an eight-month round the world sailing race covering 32,500 nautical 

miles over four oceans with port stops in nine countries. NOAA models provided near real-time 

sea surface currents, sea surface temperature, surface winds, and wave height and direction. 

NOAA provided graphics for every leg of the race and multiple regions within each leg, 

information that Volvo's race meteorologist used to provide forecasts for the racers. SARSAT, an 

instrument package flown aboard NOAA environmental satellites, provided life-saving 

capability to the racers. Each crew carries an Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon 

(EPIRB) as part of the SARSAT system. (See: www.sarsat.noaa.gov) 

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 Ozone forecasting tool for western U.S. The NOAA National Weather Service, in partnership 

with the Environmental Protection Agency, now provides experimental forecast guidance for 

ground-level ozone for the western half of the contiguous United States -- a total of 17 states 

from the Plains to the Pacific Coast. This is in addition to the air quality forecast guidance 

currently prepared for the eastern half of the U.S. This new forecast guidance will provide 

accurate projections of ozone levels near the ground, linked to weather forecast models. 

Twice daily, NOAA supercomputers produce ground-level ozone forecasts, which are available 

on NOAA’s National Weather Service (www.nws.noaa.gov/aq) and EPA data servers 

(http://airnow.gov/index.cfm?action=airnow.main). Hour-by-hour ozone forecasts, through 

midnight of the following day, are available online, providing information for the onset, severity 

and duration of poor air quality for more than 290 million people from coast to coast. This 

product also serves as a tool that local and state air quality forecasters can use when creating 

daily air quality outlooks and issuing poor air alerts. Air quality forecasts can help Americans 

reduce their exposure to ozone pollution, which is a special concern for children and people with 

asthma and other lung diseases. This new experimental guidance expands coverage westward to 

the Pacific Ocean and will enable additional state and local agencies to issue enhanced and more 

geographically specific ozone-based air quality warnings to the public. States included in this 

experimental expansion are Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New 

Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington and Wyoming, and the remaining western portions of 

Kansas, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota and Texas. The eastern parts of these 

states were included in last year's expansion into the central U.S. 

 Sea Grant provides information to Gulf residents. In the wake of two of the worst natural 

disasters in our Nation’s history, hurricanes Katrina and Rita, NOAA’s Sea Grant is providing 

critical information to residents and business owners in communities affected by the storms. The 

Louisiana Sea Grant College Program has launched a Recovery Resources website at \ The site 

offers information on wetlands, seafood and water quality to ports, economic impacts and 

rebuilding concerns. Experts in a variety of fields provide the best current information, and 

updates are made as new data become available. Also Sea Grant and NOAA’s National Marine 

Fisheries Service are collaborating to place a Vietnamese-speaking Sea Grant extension agent in 

Mississippi to work on recovery efforts with the fishing industry. The agent assists the Asian 

communities in the affected areas in understanding hurricane relief programs, including NOAA 

Fisheries disaster programs that may be implemented. The agent also collaborates with NOAA 

Fisheries, Pascagoula Laboratory to communicate with Asian fishers in the Gulf Region. In the 

wake of Hurricane Katrina, vibrio vulnificus, a naturally occurring marine bacterium that can 

cause serious infections in humans, could become an even greater danger. California and 

Georgia Sea Grant have developed a vibrio informational website at http://safeoysters.org. The 

site includes information about how the disease impacts shellfish and its threat to humans 

through skin wounds. 

 NEXRAD dual polarization modification. NOAA is leading a research and development 

effort on the dual polarization modification of the NEXRAD operational radar system. Improved 

radar data will improve support to severe weather warnings, flood and flash flood warnings, and 

general forecast services. The NEXRAD tri-agencies (Departments of Commerce, Defense, and 

Transportation) have determined that adding Dual Polarization capability to the WSR-88D radar 

would provide mission benefits including improved hail detection for severe thunderstorm 

warnings, improved rainfall estimation for flood and flash flood warnings, rain/snow 

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discrimination for winter weather warnings and advisories, icing conditions for air and ground 

transportation, data retrieval from areas of partial beam blockage to improve services in 

mountainous terrain, and removal of non-weather artifacts such as birds and ground clutter to 

improve overall data quality for algorithms and numerical model input. The Dual Polarization 

modification to NEXRAD will improve precipitation estimates and will have a national 

economic benefit of $690 million a year as a result of improvements in flash flood warnings. 
NOAA 

Appendix: 

A. Progress in Improving the Agency’s Performance Metrics for Tech Transfer 

In future reports, the agency will list mission-related data that addresses NOAA's primary 

technology transfer mechanism, which is the open dissemination of its products and services. 

Presentations at scientific meetings, collaborative research (other than CRADAs), visiting 

scientists, data exchange agreements, numbers of data requests received by NOAA’s 

environmental data centers, and external agency studies are being investigated as metrics for 

reporting this aspect of NOAA's technology transfer activities. Annual figures for the number of 

publications in scientific journals and NOAA technical reports are already included. 

B. Information on Other Agency Technology Transfer Activities 

Data and Resources Available on NOAA Web Pages 

NOAA makes available on its web pages large amounts of information and data for transfer to a 

wide variety of users. Some of the new or updated web pages are as follows: 

 Hurricane Katrina web site. This Website offers a comprehensive look at the historic storm, 

providing details on the development of the storm, its power, and destruction. The site also 

details NOAA’s multi-faceted response to the storm’s aftermath, including floods, testing 

fisheries, clearing waterways, and identifying and cleaning up oil spills. In addition, there are 

dozens of photos and satellite images that capture Hurricane Katrina’s march into the Gulf of 

Mexico and its subsequent landfall on the U.S. Gulf Coast. Although Katrina will be recorded as 

the most destructive storm in terms of economic losses, it did not exceed the human losses in 

storms such as the Galveston Hurricane of 1900, which killed as many as 6,000-12,000 people, 

and led to almost complete destruction of coastal Galveston. Estimates from the insurance 

industry as of late August 2006, have reached approximately $60 billion in insured losses 

(including flood damage) from Katrina. The storm could cost the Gulf Coast states as much as an 

additional $120 billion. (See www.katrina.noaa.gov). 

 Critical Gulf coast storm information site. NOAA has instituted C-SIDE, a comprehensive 

Gulf Coast Storm Information Center, providing direct linkage to local, state and federal 

information as it pertains to severe weather preparation and monitoring across the Gulf of 

Mexico coastal region. (C-Side stands for Coastal Studies, Information and Data for the 

Ecosystem.) The site includes recommendations for home preparation and evacuation as well as 

time-sensitive data, weather products, and storm surge information. Post-storm assessments on 

the ecosystem, response and recovery products, environmental data and information, and 

remotely sensed data and imagery for affected areas are available for response and recovery 

efforts. C-Side fills the need to provide potentially life-saving information in hazardous 

circumstances, especially when coastal demographics have changed a great deal over the past 25 

years, and there has been an influx of people unfamiliar with the threat of tropical events. 

(http://ecowatch.ncddc.noaa.gov/c-side). 

 Coast Pilot Disaster Impact website. NOAA has established a special Coast Pilot Disaster 

Impact website to help speed the recovery efforts of 21 significant port facilities in Texas, 

Louisiana and Mississippi impacted by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. The Coast Pilot Disaster 

Impact website is http://www.nauticalcharts.noaa.gov/nsd/cpgulf/cpgulf.htm. The purpose of the 

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Coast Pilot Disaster Impact website is to help facilitate the recovery efforts by providing a 

resource for port facility managers to send critical information to NOAA's Coast Survey. The 

information received will be promptly evaluated and posted on the website where mariners can 

quickly access the most current information available regarding the impacted ports. The website 

will remain active until all impacted ports have fully recovered. The website data will include 

information on: pilotage, channel, side and approach depths, anchorages locations, obstruction 

hazards, bridge information, storage and supply facility information, overhead or surface bottom 

cabling, small craft facilities, status of wreck removals, and wharf information. NOAA publishes 

books covering the entire United States coast. These books contain important information about 

port facilities, channel depths, and hazards to navigation. This information is often drastically 

altered by a disaster such as a hurricane and it changes again as the port recovers. The website 

will make these changes available rapidly online. 

 Coastwatch program serves east coast. NOAA has opened the East Coast Node of its 

CoastWatch program. This will broaden the availability of environmental data for the Atlantic 

Ocean collected by the agency's geostationary and polar-orbiting satellites. The East Coast Node, 

part of a network of other CoastWatch offices around the country, gathers data, including sea 

surface temperature, ocean surface winds, and chlorophyll-a levels and posts the information on 

the Internet. Scientists, resource managers and fishermen use the data to forecast atmospheric 

events, predict harmful algal blooms, and study fish and marine mammal distribution, along the 

eastern seaboard of the United States. See: http://coastwatch.chesapeakebay.noaa.gov 

 New version of nowCOAST planning tool. In a continuing effort to improve maritime safety 

and commerce through the monitoring of physical changes in weather, oceanographic, and river 

conditions, NOAA has launched an updated version of the popular nowCOAST Web portal. 

nowCOAST is a planning aid for commercial and recreational mariners, coastal managers, 

emergency responders, marine educators, and researchers to discover and display real-time 

coastal information. By aggregating a wide variety of this information in one location and 

providing access and visualization in an easy-to-use manner, nowCOAST serves as a unique and 

powerful tool for the marine community to visualize environmental conditions via the Internet. 

The new version of nowCOAST allows users to view real-time surface observations on-the-map 

along with the latest GOES satellite cloud imagery, and NOAA National Weather Service 

weather radar images. The GOES imagery is updated every half hour and the weather radar 

mosaic is updated every 15 minutes. nowCOAST uses Geographic Information System 

technology allowing users to overlay other datasets and NOAA forecast products with these onmap displays to get a detailed picture of present conditions from the top of the watershed to the 

ocean. nowCOAST's on-map display of real-time surface meteorological and oceanographic 

observations includes hourly updated data from federal and regional observing networks on land 

and water. In addition to these new data, nowCOAST includes geo-referenced hyperlinks to 

observations from river and water quality observing networks, coastal Web-cams, as well as 

NOAA marine and weather forecasts and forecast guidance from NOAA weather, ocean, 

estuarine, and river computer prediction models. NowCOAST includes an interface to 

accommodate both novice and experienced GIS users to allow both to quickly view real-time 

environmental conditions for any U.S coastal area. Users can access information via four pull 

down menus or use standard GIS tools such as zooming in and out to change map scale; and 

overlaying different types of observations or forecasts for comparison purposes. By combining 

these capabilities, nowCOAST provides a rapid way to discover and view a wide range of realAnnual Report on DoC Federal Lab Technology Transfer, FY 2006 edition (January 2007) Page 58 
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time coastal observational and NOAA forecast information. The nowCOAST Web portal allows 

users to specify particular areas of interest and provides both on-map display of environmental 

conditions and direct access to Web pages displaying observational and forecast information. 

nowCOAST web page: http://nowcoast.noaa.gov.

● New marine science web portal. NOAA and “Immersion Presents” launched oceanslive.org, 

a marine science portal that offers live video and special content to educate people of all ages 

about the ocean, including national marine sanctuaries. “Immersion Presents” is an after-school 

science education program founded by ocean explorer Robert Ballard. In addition to watching 

live video from research expeditions, the portal’s visitors can learn more about oceanography, 

marine life, conservation and preservation, marine research technologies, and the nation’s 

maritime heritage. To complement the video broadcasts, the portal offers lesson plans, videos, 

puzzles and games based on the marine environment. The portal’s first live telepresence 

broadcast on July 17 focused on a research expedition to the wreck of the Civil War ironclad the 

USS Monitor, located off the North Carolina coast. The expedition is a collaborative effort 

between the Institute for Exploration and the NOAA Monitor National Marine Sanctuary to 

generate a digital photographic mosaic of the ship’s hull and surrounding wreckage. Live 

programming was fed via Internet to sites across the country, and also was converted for 

broadcast through the oceanslive.org portal. 

 Climate models available. NOAA has developed timely, state-of-art model simulations of 

past, present, and future climates. NOAA prepared over 7,000 years of climate simulations and 

enabled open access to the data sets. This output is easily available through the Internet. A large 

amount of data has been shipped to the repository of the Department of Energy’s Program for 

Climate Model Diagnosis and Intercomparison (PCMDI); the information is also available 

locally from a dedicated NOAA Web portal. Over 1200 users have downloaded data from 

NOAA; 293 users have accessed the PCMDI site. Over 20,000 gigabytes of data (enough to 

completely fill the disks of 200 PCs) have been distributed. A broad cross section of international 

and national researchers has been served by these actions. 

 Weather radar viewer. Data from NOAA’s Weather Surveillance Radar 1988 Doppler 

(WSR-88D), generally known as NEXRAD, are in high demand globally by both the public and 

private sectors. To provide better support to these end users, NOAA has developed visualization 

tools for browsing and displaying these data. The NOAA Interactive Weather Radar Viewer and 

Data Exporter loads WSR-88D S-band volume scan data, known as Level-II, and derived 

products, known as Level-III, into an OPEN GIS compliant environment. The application is 

launched via Java Web Start and runs on the client machine while accessing these data remotely 

from the NOAA archive or in near real time from other servers. The NOAA Interactive Weather 

Radar Viewer provides tools for custom data overlays, animations and basic queries. The export 

of images and movies is provided in multiple formats that support the “blending” of radar data 

with other types of data. The Data Exporter allows for data export in both vector polygon and 

raster formats. Instructions for using the Radar Data Viewer and Exporter can be found at the 

following web page: (http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/radar/jnx/index.html). A tutorial is also 

available at: (http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/radar/jnx/jnxv-basics.php). 

 Users of Scientific Graphics toolkit and ncBrowse increase. These Java-based tools, 

developed by NOAA, which more easily visualize oceanographic (and other) data for both Webbased and desktop applications had increased users in 2006. The Scientific Graphics Toolkit 

(SGT) is designed to aid developers in producing scientific graphics applications. SGT Beans 

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can be used with several Java integrated development environments (NetBeans, JBuilder, etc.) 

and provides a graphical environment to configure and develop SGT applications. The number of 

users increased to over 11,000 from 77 countries, including users from Australia, France, 

Germany, Italy, Japan, Poland, Russian Federation, South Africa, Switzerland, and the United 

Kingdom . ncBrowse is a general purpose Java desktop application designed to enable users to 

interactively browse and visualize data from netCDF files and OPeNDAP resources. netCDF is a 

file format commonly used by the oceanographic community to store both observations and 

model results. The number of ncBrowse users has increased to over 9,300 from 74 countries, 

including Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Japan, Norway, Poland, Russian Federation, 

Sweden, and the United Kingdom. 

 Web-based access to distributed data sets. At the end of FY 2006, the number of users of the 

NOAA-developed Live Access Server (LAS) is estimated to have increased to 50-75 systems. 

LAS is used by other Federal Agencies (NASA, Navy, DOE); internationally, in support of 

major collaborations (Global Ocean Data Assimilation Experiment, GODAE; Hybrid Coordinate 

Ocean Model, HYCOM; and the International Pacific Research Center, IPRC); and at individual 

ocean research institutions in Japan, France, Germany, Italy, and other nations. 

Information Transfer Through Outreach and Education 

NOAA also transfers large amounts of information through outreach efforts and through 

education of the public, teachers, and students. Education is also an important way of stimulating 

students to become future meteorologists, oceanographers, and fishery scientists. 

● NOAA transfers hurricane awareness information. NOAA's Hurricane Awareness Tour came 

to a successful conclusion in Tampa, Fla., delivering its message of the need for hurricane 

preparedness to thousands of visitors and media audiences. Other stops were in Brownsville and 

Beaumont, Texas; Mobile, Ala.; and West Palm Beach, Fla. Max Mayfield, director of the 

NOAA National Hurricane Center, emphasized the importance of an individual hurricane plan. 

People who have a hurricane plan, and execute that plan, fare much better than those that do not. 

Each person needs to take individual responsibility and make preparations. The NOAA National 

Weather Service forecast offices arranged the event with local governments, emergency 

managers, FEMA, schools, the public and the media in a team effort to increase hurricane 

awareness and encourage preparedness in this vulnerable area of the nation. Educating the public 

is an ongoing NOAA mission. 

● Science On a Sphere. Science On a Sphere expanded its availability to the general public and 

to many different student groups by providing public demonstrations to these audiences at its 

Planet Theater which is part of the Earth System Research Laboratory in Boulder, Colorado. In 

addition to installing Science On a Sphere at six more museums and science centers, emphasis 

was placed on expanding the content to be shown on the sphere. Five major content categories 

were developed and descriptions were written for each data set within the category. The five 

categories are land, atmosphere, ocean, model and simulation and solar system. NOAA’s Office 

of Education provided a grant to help pay for the hardware pieces required to build a Science On 

a Sphere system plus the integration and installation of the total system. As a result, four 

facilities installed this technology in FY06: The Tech Museum of Innovation in San Jose, CA; 

the Science Museum of Minnesota in St. Paul, MN; the Bishop Museum in Honolulu, HI; and 

the Maryland Science Center in Baltimore, MD. In addition to these museums and science 

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center, Science On a Sphere technology was also transferred to the Thunder Bay National 

Marine Sanctuary in Alpena, MI and the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, MD. 

A key NOAA contribution to these technology transfers is to provide rich data sets to be shown 

on the sphere that will help teach audiences about planetary science. Examples are: near real time 

weather data showing developing hurricanes and typhoons, ocean simulations such as El Nino, 

and visualizations showing global climate change possibilities. NOAA's ultimate goal is to 

increase public understanding of the environment and earth system processes. 

● NOAA teaches teachers about Gulf of Mexico coral reefs. The Flower Garden Banks National 

Marine Sanctuary staff invited educators from around the country to get out of their classrooms 

and into the Gulf of Mexico for a five day educators' underwater exploration workshop, "Down 

Under, Out Yonder." NOAA manages the sanctuary, which partners with the non-profit Gulf of 

Mexico Foundation to organize this popular annual event. The workshops offer teachers 

firsthand experience with exploration and research. The teachers get hands-on training, and they 

get to interact with educators from around the country. They exchange ideas that result in new 

classroom dynamics. During the classroom session, the participants are given a crash course in 

coral reef biology and ecology. They use those new skills during a three-day cruise to the 

sanctuary, hosted by the foundation. While underwater, teachers will count fish and other 

animals and conduct general observations on the coral reef environment. SCUBA diving is done 

from a 100-foot converted oil and gas crew boat equipped for diving. Flower Garden Banks 

National Marine Sanctuary: http://flowergarden.noaa.gov. Gulf of Mexico Foundation: 

http://www.gulfmex.org

● NOAA trains students for careers in meteorology and oceanography. Students from colleges 

and universities in 36 states and Puerto Rico spent their summer in NOAA laboratories as part of 

the Hollings Scholarship Program. The scholarship program was named after former Senator 

Ernest F. Hollings of South Carolina, a strong supporter of science education. NOAA provides 

hands-on training and experience to encourage the 110 undergraduates to pursue studies in the 

fields of Oceanography and Meteorology. The NOAA program consists of a series of workshops 

where the students are engaged in a wide variety of projects, including conducting fisheries 

surveys, engineering remotely operated underwater vehicles, studying the carbon flux in marine 

waters, forecasting sea breeze and lightning, monitoring tornado processes, analyzing storm data, 

identifying acoustic signatures of marine mammals, evaluating sea bass habitat, and participating 

in studies of the Antarctic climate. The NOAA Hollings scholarship program increases students’ 

knowledge of oceanic and atmospheric science, fosters multidisciplinary training opportunities, 

prepares students for public service careers with NOAA, prepares students for careers as teachers 

and educators in oceanic and atmospheric science, and increases public understanding and 

support for stewardship of the ocean and atmosphere. 

● NOAA promoting ocean science through school milk carton campaign. NOAA carried out an 

outreach and education effort to reach K-12 students in St. Louis, Missouri by placing ocean 

science awareness messages on side panels of school milk cartons in 450 schools, reaching about 

240,000 students. The cartons were distributed to schools served by Prairie Farms Dairy, in 

conjunction with Blue Ridge Paper Products Inc. The milk cartons were complemented by 

NOAA posters distributed to the schools. The milk carton campaign allows NOAA to promote 

an informal education effort that could be used nationwide. The carton’s panels ask a variety of 

ocean and weather related trivia questions and supplies answers. They also direct readers to the 

NOAA home page, which has a link to a page describing NOAA, its education resources, and 

Annual Report on DoC Federal Lab Technology Transfer, FY 2006 edition (January 2007) Page 61 
NOAA 

age-appropriate information. NOAA offers resources on its Web site for teachers to use, such as 

curriculum ideas and teaching kits on weather, climate change, earth science, the oceans and 

coasts, fish and marine mammals, navigation, and earth-monitoring satellites. NOAA: 

http://www.noaa.gov. NOAA Education: http://www.education.noaa.gov

● NOAA provides experience and knowledge through science camps. Sixty-five seventh and 

eighth graders from 32 Seattle schools experienced science firsthand as they addressed complex 

environmental issues by learning to interpret information, conduct investigations and report 

outcomes to a broad audience. NOAA scientists helped develop lesson plans in areas such as 

water sampling, marine mammal tagging, and photo-identification of humpback whales. Meeting 

Washington State middle-school science standards, the curriculum also taught students how data 

from ocean buoys help predict El Niño events. The activities also attracted assistance from 10 

teachers and 11 high school and undergraduate interns. 

http://www.nwfsc.noaa.gov/sciencecamp.cfm

● NOAA teaches through telepresence. Telepresence capability, a growing resource for 

environmental interests and NOAA, opened a world of virtual exploration as live underwater 

images from the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary were beamed to visitors at the 

Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach, California. Action from the depths of the sanctuary 

allowed viewers to become submerged in an underwater kelp forest filled with rockfish, red-hued 

anemones, and perhaps a sea lion or two. The demonstration introduced plans for a "Follow That 

Fish!" educational exhibit that will highlight ongoing acoustic telemetry research being 

conducted at national marine sanctuaries by the Pfleger Institute of Environmental Research to 

learn about fish behavior. Development of the exhibit begins summer 2006, with completion 

expected by early 2007. The telepresence capability is fully interactive, allowing a viewer, for 

instance, to talk directly with a diver in Monterey Bay 

● NOAA offers educational discovery kit on non-point source pollution. A new online 

educational product, The Nonpoint Source Pollution Discovery Kit, is now available online 

(http://oceanservice.noaa.gov/education/kits/pollution/welcome.html). The kit explains the 

history of pollution, the differences between point and nonpoint source pollution, types of 

pollutants, and how scientists monitor, assess and control nonpoint source pollution. This online 

educational product is one of five Web-based Discovery Kits from NOAA. The kit makes 

complex science more accessible to students. The kits are written in plain language and a 

student-friendly style, with ample use of multimedia features to visually illustrate difficult 

concepts. They are designed for the high school level, but can be easily adapted for middle 

school and even college undergraduate levels. The Discovery Kits, are part of the NOAA 

Education Discovery Center. The center also includes Discovery Stories, which are 

comprehensive case studies, and the Discovery Classroom, a growing library of lesson plans 

designed for use in the classroom. The Discovery Center is available at: 

http://oceanservice.noaa.gov/education. The Nonpoint Source Pollution Discovery Kit joins four 

other Discovery Kits (on corals, tides and water levels, geodesy, and estuaries). It also 

complements the two existing Discovery Stories covering lion fish and the recovery of Alaska’s 

Prince William Sound after the Exxon Valdez oil spill. 

Annual Report on DoC Federal Lab Technology Transfer, FY 2006 edition (January 2007) Page 62 
NOAA 

Annual Report on DoC Federal Lab Technology Transfer, FY 2006 edition (January 2007) Page 63 

Other Tech Transfer Activities 

● NOAA’s system for operational rainfall products, the Microwave Surface and Precipitation 

Products System (MSPPS), has been updated with improved algorithms. Some components or 

data sets from MSPPS have been delivered to Japan and European Countries, including the UK 

Meteorological Office and the European Center for Medium-range Weather Forecasting 

(ECMWF). 

● The Satellite Climate Studies Branch, co-located with the Cooperative Institute at the 

University of Maryland, hosted guest scientist Doug Ramers from the University of Evansville. 

He collaborated with NOAA scientist Christopher Brown to predict various ocean habitats with a 

neural network. 

● NOAA hosted four graduate students from the Cooperative Remote Sensing Science & Tech. 

Center in New York. These students are pursuing projects on satellite remote sensing, in College 

Park, Maryland 

● NOAA scientist Jeffrey Key (Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies, 

CIMSS, in Madison, Wisconsin) visited the Kongsberg Satellite Services facility in Tromsø, 

Norway, to deliver a system there that generates real-time polar wind observations from data 

received in Svalbard, Norway from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer 

(MODIS) satellite. 
ITS/NTIA 

IV. NATIONAL TELECOMMUNICATIONS AND INFORMATION 

ADMINISTRATION -- INSTITUTE FOR TELECOMMUNICATION 

SCIENCES 

Technology Transfer at the Agency’s Federal Laboratories – Approach and 

Plans, FY 2006 Activities/Achievements 

I. Agency Approach and Plans for Technology Transfer 

The Institute for Telecommunication Sciences (ITS) is the chief research and engineering arm of 

the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA). 

ITS supports such NTIA telecommunications objectives as promotion of advanced 

telecommunications and information infrastructure development in the United States, 

enhancement of domestic competitiveness, improvement of foreign trade opportunities for U.S. 

telecommunications firms, and facilitation of more efficient and effective use of the radio 

spectrum. ITS also serves as a principal federal resource for solving the telecommunications 

concerns of other federal agencies, state and local governments, private corporations and 

associations, and international organizations. 

ITS uses three principal means for achieving technology transfer: cooperative research and 

development, technical publications, and leadership and technical contributions in the 

development of telecommunications standards. 

Cooperative research and development. Cooperative research and development agreements 

(CRADAs), based upon the Federal Technology Transfer Act (FTTA) of 1986, are a principal 

means through which ITS aids the private sector. The FTTA provides the legal basis for and 

encourages shared use of government facilities and resources with the private sector in advanced 

telecommunications technologies. 

These partnerships aid in the commercialization of new products and service as well as enhance 

the capabilities of ITS laboratories. They also provide insights into industry’s needs for 

productivity growth and competitiveness enabling ITS to adjust the focus and direction of its 

programs for effectiveness and value. 

In FY 2006, ITS participated in technology transfer and commercialization efforts by fostering 

cooperative telecommunications research with industry where benefits can directly facilitate U.S. 

competitiveness and market opportunities. These efforts will continue in future years. ITS also 

participated – as it has for a number of years – in CRADAs with private sector organizations to 

design, develop, test, and evaluate advanced telecommunication concepts. The private industry 

partner benefits through such cooperative relationships, as does the Institute, as it is able to 

undertake research in commercially important areas that it would not otherwise be able to do. 

To date, major contributions to personal communication services (PCS), local multipoint 

distribution service (LMDS), ultrawideband (UWB), Broadband over Power Line (BPL) 

technologies have been achieved through CRADAs. These have aided U.S. efforts to rapidly 

introduce new socially beneficial, communications technologies. More recently, CRADAs in the 

Annual Report on DoC Federal Lab Technology Transfer, FY 2006 edition (January 2007) Page 64 
ITS/NTIA 

areas of objective audio and video quality and advanced antennas for wireless systems have 

allowed ITS to contribute to the development of new products and services. 

In addition, ITS plans to continue using patents to secure intellectual property rights in 

laboratory innovations with commercial promise. ITS plans to advance its mission and benefit 

the competitiveness of U.S. industry by pursuing opportunities to commercially license patents to 

CRADA partners and other interested parties. As an example, ITS is targeting software 

implementing a video quality metric for commercial development. This software incorporates 

technology covered by three patents. Evaluation software was requested by 201 parties in FY 

2006 for testing purposes and five commercial licensing agreements are currently being 

negotiated with corporations. 

Technical publications. Publication has, historically, been the means through which ITS has 

transferred research results to other researchers, the commercial sector, and government 

agencies. Many of these publications – both internal reports and monographs and external, peer 

reviewed, scientific journal articles – have become standard references in several 

telecommunications areas. 

Technical publication remains at present a principal means for ITS’ technology transfer. Most of 

these technical publications are released only after going through an internal peer review process 

managed by the ITS Editorial Review Board (ERB). Of the publications released through the 

ERB process in recent years, approximately one half were approved for external publication in 

the scientific literature. 

Development of telecommunication standards. This third principal means of ITS technology 

transfer directly addresses improvement of U.S. competitiveness in telecommunications. For 

several decades, ITS has provided leadership and technical contributions to organizations, both 

national and international, responsible for developing telecommunication standards. For 

example, a plurality of the technical recommendations of the International Telecommunication 

Union (ITU – a treaty organization) are based on research conducted at ITS. Also, key national 

quality of service standards developed under the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) 

T1 committee for video, audio, and digital data incorporate research results obtained at ITS. 

ITS continues to chair numerous committees and working groups in the ITU, ANSI T1, and 

other telecommunication standards organizations, providing technical leadership that is trusted 

by the commercial sector participants. ITS’ technical inputs are relied upon as technically 

advanced and sound, and unbiased by commercial interests. 

In FY 2006, ITS continued its technical leadership and contributions to communications 

standards for public safety, particularly for first responders. ITS’ primary area of contribution 

has been interoperability standards and testing procedures. ITS’ objective video quality 

measurement method has been made a national standard by ANSI. ITS’ method was also the best 

performing metric in comparison testing by the ITU with other methods from around the world. 

Annual Report on DoC Federal Lab Technology Transfer, FY 2006 edition (January 2007) Page 65 
ITS/NTIA 

II. Performance in FY 2006: Activities and Achievements 

■ Collaborative Relationships for Research & Development 

FY 

2002 

FY 

2003 

FY 

2004 

FY 

2005 

FY 

2006 

● CRADAs, total active in the FY (1) 63 239 319 280 514 

 - New, executed in the FY 6 178 185 185 512 

▪ Traditional CRADAs, (2) total active in the FY 6 5 7 7 8 

 - New, executed in the FY 0 0 3 5 6 

▪ Non-traditional CRADAs, (3, 4) total active in FY 57 234 312 273 506 

 - New, executed in the FY 6 178 182 180 506 

● Other types of collaborative R&D relationships 

▪ Collaborative standards contributions, (5)

 total active in FY 

3 2 11 11 16 

 - New, executed in the FY 0 1 0 0 5 

CRADA = Cooperative Research and Development Agreement. 

(1) “Active” = legally in force at any time during the FY. “Total active” is comprehensive of all agreements 

executed under CRADA authority (15 USC 3710a). 

(2) CRADAs involving collaborative research and development by a federal laboratory and non-federal partners. 

(3) CRADAs used for special purposes, such as material transfer or technical assistance that may result in protected 

information. (For example, CRADAs for Video Quality Software Evaluation.) 

(4) ITS’ Telecommunications Analysis Services (TA Services) is Internet accessible through Web-based electronic 

CRADAs. TA Services provides analysis support to private industry and public agencies in the areas of wireless 

system design and evaluation, and site selection. The service is provided on a cost-reimbursable basis, 24 hours 

a day/7 days a week throughout the year. TA Services currently reaches numerous government and private 

sector users across the nation, providing the latest versions of ITS-developed telecommunications models, 

databases, and tools. Use of the CRADA makes TA Services available to users in a short time and on a cost 

reimbursable basis. Additionally, CRADA partners provide useful evaluations of the ITS software used. This 

information aids ITS to improve existing software tools for wireless system design and analysis and to develop 

new ones – benefiting both ITS’ own research capabilities and the resources that outside users can draw upon. 

The CRADA agreement also allows ITS to gain valuable insights from users’ feedback about the rapidly 

changing needs of industry and government in telecommunications technology. 

(5) ITS works with industry, through a number of standards fora, to apply research results to the development of 

telecommunication performance standards and guidelines. In FY 2004, ITS worked collaboratively with the 

International Telecommunication Union, the Telecommunications Industry Association, the Alliance for 

Telecommunications Industry Solutions, and various Federal Public Safety groups to interpret and analyze 

standards and regulations. 

Annual Report on DoC Federal Lab Technology Transfer, FY 2006 edition (January 2007) Page 66 
ITS/NTIA 

Invention Disclosure and Patenting 

FY 

2002 

FY 

2003 

FY 

2004 

FY 

2005 

FY 

2006 

● New inventions disclosed in the FY (1) 0 0 0 1 0 

● Patent applications filed in the FY (2) 1 0 0 0 1 

● Patents issued in the FY 0 1 0 0 1 

● Active patents, end of the FY 6 6 6 6 8 

(1) Inventions arising at the federal lab. 

(2) Tally includes U.S. patent applications, foreign patent applications filed on cases for which no U.S. application 

was filed, divisional applications, and continuation-in-part applications. Excludes provisional, continuation, 

duplicate foreign, and PCT applications. 

■ Licensing 

Profile of Active Licenses 

FY 

2002 

FY 

2003 

FY 

2004 

FY 

2005 

FY 

2006 

● All licenses, number total active in the FY (1) 3 57 98 103 82 

 ▫ New, executed in the FY 2 54 98 100 79 

▪ Invention licenses, total active in the FY 3 57 98 103 82 

 ▫ New, executed in the FY 2 54 98 100 79 

 - Patent licenses, (2) total active in FY 3 57 3 3 7 

 ▫ New, executed in the FY 2 54 3 0 4 

 - Material transfer licenses (inventions), total active 0 0 0 0 0 

 ▫ New, executed in the FY 0 0 0 0 0 

 - Other invention licenses, (3) total active in the FY 0 0 95 100 75 

 ▫ New, executed in the FY 0 0 95 100 75 

▪ Other IP licenses, total active in the FY 0 0 0 0 0 

 ▫ New, executed in the FY 0 0 0 0 0 

 - Copyright licenses (fee bearing) 

 ▫ New, executed in the FY 

 - Material transfer licenses (non-inventions), total active 

 ▫ New, executed in the FY 

 - Other, total active in the FY 

 ▫ New, executed in the FY 

Multiple inventions in a single license are counted as one license. Licenses that include both patents and copyrights 

(hybrid licenses) are reported as patent licenses and not included in the count of copyright licenses. 

(1) “Active” = legally in force at any time during the FY. 

(2) Patent license tally includes patent applications which are licensed. 

Annual Report on DoC Federal Lab Technology Transfer, FY 2006 edition (January 2007) Page 67 
ITS/NTIA 

(3) International copyright licenses (non fee bearing) for VQM technology 

Licensing Management 

FY 

2002 

FY 

2003 

FY 

2004 

FY 

2005 

FY 

2006 

● Elapsed execution time, (1) licenses granted in the FY 

▪ Invention licenses

 ▫ Average, months 5.0* 1.0 2.0 2.0 1.5 

 ▫ Minimum 1.0 1.0 1.0 1.0 

 ▫ Maximum 1.0 3.0 3.9 2.0 

 - Patent licenses (2)

 ▫ Average, months 5.0* 1.0 2.0 2.0 1.5 

 ▫ Minimum 1.0 1.0 1.0 1.0 

 ▫ Maximum 1.0 3.0 3.0 3.0 

● Licenses terminated for cause, number in the FY 

▪ Invention licenses 0 0 0 0 0 

 - Patent licenses (2) 0 0 0 0 0 

Data included in this table (intentionally) addresses only invention licenses, with patent licenses distinguished as a 

sub-class. 

* Only a single new license was executed in FY 2002. Therefore, there are no distributional statistics for elapsed 

execution time to report. 

 (1) Date of license application to the date of license execution. (Date of license application is the date the lab 

formally acknowledges the written request for a license from a prospective licensee and agrees to enter into 

negotiations.) 

(2) Patent license tally includes patent applications which are licensed. 

Characteristics of Licenses Bearing Income 

FY 

2002 

FY 

2003 

FY 

2004 

FY 

2005 

FY 

2006 

● All income bearing licenses, total number 3 3 3 4 7 

 ▫ Exclusive 0 0 0 0 0 

 ▫ Partially exclusive 0 0 0 0 0 

 ▫ Non-exclusive 3 3 3 4 7 

▪ Invention licenses, income bearing 3 3 3 4 7 

 ▫ Exclusive 0 0 0 0 0 

 ▫ Partially exclusive 0 0 0 0 0 

 ▫ Non-exclusive 3 3 3 4 7 

 - Patent licenses, (1) income bearing 3 3 3 4 7 

 ▫ Exclusive 0 0 0 0 0 

 ▫ Partially exclusive 0 0 0 0 0 

Annual Report on DoC Federal Lab Technology Transfer, FY 2006 edition (January 2007) Page 68 
ITS/NTIA 

FY FY FY FY FY 

2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 

 ▫ Non-exclusive 3 3 3 4 7 

▪ Other IP licenses, income bearing 0 0 0 0 0 

 ▫ Exclusive 

 ▫ Partially exclusive 

 ▫ Non-exclusive 

- Copyright licenses (fee bearing) 0 0 0 0 0 

 ▫ Exclusive 

 ▫ Partially exclusive 

 ▫ Non-exclusive 

● All royalty bearing licenses, (2) total number 0 0 3 4 7 

▪ Invention licenses, royalty bearing 0 0 3 4 7 

 - Patent licenses, (1) royalty bearing 0 0 3 4 7 

▪ Other IP licenses, royalty bearing 0 0 0 0 0 

 - Copyright licenses (fee bearing) 

In general, license income can result from various sources: license issue fees, earned royalties, minimum annual 

royalties, paid-up license fees, and reimbursement for full-cost recovery of goods and services provided by the lab to 

the licensee including patent costs. 

(1) Patent license tally includes patent applications which are licensed. 

(2) Note that royalties are one component of total license income. 

Income from Licenses 

FY 

2002 

FY 

2003 

FY 

2004 

FY 

2005 

FY 

2006 

● Total income, all licenses active in the FY (1) $65,470 $0 $33,500 $7,212 $24,500 

▪ Invention licenses $65,470 $0 $33,500 $7,212 $24,500 

 - Patent licenses (2) $65,470 $0 $33,500 $7,212 $24,500 

▪ Other IP licenses, all active licenses in FY $0 $0 $0 $0 $0 

 - Copyright licenses 

● Total Earned Royalty Income (ERI) (3) $0 $0 $0 $0 $0 

 ▫ Median ERI 

 ▫ Minimum ERI 

 ▫ Maximum ERI 

 ▫ ERI from top 1% of licenses 

 ▫ ERI from top 5% of licenses 

 ▫ ERI from top 20% of licenses 

Annual Report on DoC Federal Lab Technology Transfer, FY 2006 edition (January 2007) Page 69 
ITS/NTIA 

FY FY FY FY FY 

2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 

▪ Invention licenses $0 $0 $0 $0 $0 

 ▫ Median ERI 

 ▫ Minimum ERI 

 ▫ Maximum ERI 

 ▫ ERI from top 1% of licenses 

 ▫ ERI from top 5% of licenses 

 ▫ ERI from top 20% of licenses 

- Patent licenses (2) $0 $0 $0 $0 $0 

 ▫ Median ERI 

 ▫ Minimum ERI 

 ▫ Maximum ERI 

 ▫ ERI from top 1% of licenses 

 ▫ ERI from top 5% of licenses 

 ▫ ERI from top 20% of licenses 

▪ Other IP licenses, total active in the FY $0 $0 $0 $0 $0 

 ▫ Median ERI 

 ▫ Minimum ERI 

 ▫ Maximum ERI 

 ▫ ERI from top 1% of licenses 

 ▫ ERI from top 5% of licenses 

 ▫ ERI from top 20% of licenses 

 - Copyright licenses 

 ▫ Median ERI 

 ▫ Minimum ERI 

 ▫ Maximum ERI 

 ▫ ERI from top 1% of licenses 

 ▫ ERI from top 5% of licenses 

 ▫ ERI from top 20% of licenses 

(1) Total income includes license issue fees, earned royalties, minimum annual royalties, paid-up license fees, and 

reimbursement for full-cost recovery of goods and services provided by the lab to the licensee including patent 

costs. 

(2) Patent license tally includes patent applications which are licensed. 

(3) “Earned royalty” = royalty based upon use of a licensed invention (usually, a percentage of sales or of units 

sold). Not a license issue fee or a minimum royalty. 

Annual Report on DoC Federal Lab Technology Transfer, FY 2006 edition (January 2007) Page 70 
ITS/NTIA 

Disposition of License Income 

FY 

2002 

FY 

2003 

FY 

2004 

FY 

2005 

FY 

2006 

● Income distributed (1)

▪ Invention licenses, total distributed $65,470 $0 $33,500 $7,212 $24,500 

 - To inventor(s) $21,041

(32%) 

$0 $18,450 

(55%) 

$3,564

(49%) 

$15,750

(64%) 

 - To other (3) $44,429

(68%) 

$0 $15,050 

(45%) 

$3,648

(51%) 

$8,750

(36%) 

 - Patent licenses, (2) total distributed $65,470 $0 $33,500 $7,212 $24,500 

 - To inventor(s) $21,041

(32%) 

$0 $18,450 

(55%) 

$3,564

(49%) 

$15,750

(64%) 

 - To other (3) $44,429

(68%) 

$0 $15,050 

(45%) 

$3,648

(51%) 

$8,750

(36%) 

Invention licenses are the chief policy interest regarding disposition of income; the content of this table reflects this 

focus. 

(1) Income includes royalties and other payments received during the FY. 

(2) Patent license tally includes patent applications which are licensed. 

(3) To ITS/NTIA 

■ Other Performance Measures Deemed Important by the Agency 

FY 

2002 

FY 

2003 

FY 

2004 

FY 

2005 

FY 

2006 

Technical publications produced 17 20 17 19 8 

Total number of hits on ITS online publications -- -- -- -- -- 

-- = Data not requested from agency in reports for prior years. 

See “Technical Publications” above in the first section of this report for additional information on this topic. 

■ Outcomes from Technology Transfer 

For this year’s annual report, the cases described below are provided as examples of the 

downstream outcomes being achieved by ITS technology transfer efforts: 

 Video quality metric. ITS has developed a superior method of measuring video quality 

objectively that closely predicts the quality that human viewers would perceive subjectively. The 

technology is covered by four patents owned by ITS/NTIA. In FY 2003, the ITS method was 

adopted by the ANSI as a U.S. national standard. In addition, the ITU tested a number of 

proposed video quality metrics from around the world and found the ITS method superior. ITS’ 

method became an international standard in 2004, as approved by the ITU. Also in FY 2004, the 

Federal Laboratory Consortium presented ITS with an award for its efforts to disseminate this 

technology both nationally and internationally. ITS filed another patent on a new version of the 

video quality metric in FY 2006. ITS also received a registered trademark for the video quality 

metric logo in FY 2006. 

Annual Report on DoC Federal Lab Technology Transfer, FY 2006 edition (January 2007) Page 71 
ITS/NTIA 

Annual Report on DoC Federal Lab Technology Transfer, FY 2006 edition (January 2007) Page 72 

ITS has targeted this technology for commercial development. In FY 2006, the video quality 

metric earned thousands in royalty income for the laboratory. To date, seven commercial licenses 

and two CRADAs have been negotiated with U.S. corporations with royalty and CRADA 

funding exceeding $100,000. Five new royalty bearing licenses are currently being negotiated. 

More than 200 copies of software implementing the method were requested in FY06 for 

purposes of evaluation. 

 Table Mountain research. The Table Mountain Field Site and Radio Quiet Zone supports 

fundamental research into the nature, interaction, and evaluation of telecommunication devices, 

systems, and services. Each year, private companies, universities, and other organizations 

conduct research at Table Mountain under Cooperative Research and Development Agreements 

(CRADAs). Brief descriptions of some of these recent CRADAs follow. 

For the past two years the University of Colorado’s Research and Engineering Center for 

Unmanned Vehicles has conducted measurements of the performance of ad hoc wireless 

networks with both ground-based and airborne terminals at Table Mountain. In FY 2006, a small 

local company known as Johnson’s Jobs performed antenna testing at the Table Mountain 

turntable facility under a CRADA. Another small company, RF Metrics, performed research 

under a CRADA entitled “A Study of the Use of a New Antenna Pattern Collection 

 Technique for Radar Emissions.” Lockheed Martin Coherent Technologies is currently in the 

middle of a year-long CRADA to perform field-testing and characterization of components, 

subsystems, and systems for an eyesafe, coherent laser radar. 

Appendix: 

A. Progress in Improving the Agency’s Performance Metrics for Tech Transfer 

ITS’ annual performance reporting has been revised to conform to the Department of Commerce 

guidelines. Starting in 2003, ITS added a new metric under the “Other Performance Measures” 

category: number of publications approved through the Editorial Review Board (ERB) process. 

While not perfect, this metric provides a useful, working indicator of the number of quality 

publications released to the public. In 2004, ITS added another measure, participation on 

standards committees. In 2006, ITS added another metric; one that more directly provides an 

indication of ultimate benefit to the public. The new metric is the total number of hits on the 

publications listed on the "ITS Online Documents."