Unleashing American 

Innovation

Return on Investment Initiative

Walter G. Copan, Ph.D

Undersecretary of Commerce for Standards and Technology
NIST Strategy for Federal Technology Transfer: The ROI Initiative

A comprehensive initiative 

to assess Federal technology transfer 

efforts, policies, and practices 

to ensure greater 

Return on Investment (ROI) 

from the Federal Government’s 

nearly $140B annual investment in 

research and development.

New IP, licensing, 

products, processes, 

services and 

companies return 

value via economic 

growth and 

enhanced national 

security

Technology 

Transfer 

System
ROI: Administration Priorities

• R&D Priority Area

– American Prosperity

• R&D Priority Practices

– Increasing Government 

Accountability and Efficiency

– Supporting Innovative EarlyStage Research

– Maximizing Interagency 

Coordination
ROI Vision and Goal

• Vision

– Unleash the innovation power of America into our economy

• Goal

– Implement changes necessary to streamline and accelerate transfer of 

technology from Federal laboratories and Federally-funded R&D at 

universities and research organizations that will:

 promote U.S. economic growth and national security

 attract greater private sector investment to create innovative products, processes, 

services, as well as new businesses and industries
ROI Objectives

• Identify critically-needed improvements to Federal technology transfer efforts by seeking broad input 

and participation from Federal R&D, intellectual property, and technology transfer stakeholders. 

• Specific objectives are to identify:

– Core Federal technology transfer principles and practices that should be protected, and those which should 

be adapted or changed.

– Approaches to improve efficiency and reduce regulatory burdens of technology transfer to attract private 

sector investment in later-stage R&D, commercialization, and advanced manufacturing. 

– New partnering models and technology transfer mechanisms with the private sector, academia, other 

Federal agencies, State, and other public-sector entities to support technology development and maturation.

– New approaches that will reduce or remove barriers, and enable accelerated technology transfer, with focus 

on areas of strategic national importance.

– Better metrics and methods to evaluate the ROI outcomes and impacts arising from Federal R&D investment.

– New approaches to motivate significantly increased technology transfer outcomes from the Federal sector, 

universities, and research organizations.
ROI: Partnering and Coordination

• Whole-of-Government effort with NIST as convener

– Closely coordinate with the White House, OSTP, and NEC

– Engage Federal agencies with R&D and technology transfer-related equities

• Broad stakeholder engagement

– Industry (e.g., LES, IRI, COC, Think Tanks)

– Academia (e.g., AUTM, COGR, AAU, APLU)

– State and local government (e.g., Technology-Based Economic Development Organizations)

– General Public

• Leverage existing interagency structures

– Lab-to-Market NSTC efforts

– Cross Agency Priority Goal

– Interagency Working Group for Technology Transfer

– Interagency Working Group for Bayh-Dole

– Federal Laboratory Consortium
ROI: Timeline and Milestones

February

• ROI Initiative introduction with key industry and academic 

stakeholders

• NIST Website: www.nist.gov/tpo/ROI

March/April/May

• Request for Information in Federal Register

• Public discussion forums

June/July/

August/September

• Analysis, interagency review, recommendations 

(practices, policies, regulatory, legislative), 

initiate implementation of action plan