Federal Laboratory Technology Transfer

Fiscal Year 2018

Summary Report to the President and the Congress

Prepared by:

National Institute of

Standards and Technology

U.S. Department of Commerce

June 2022
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FOREWORD

The Department of Commerce (DOC) is pleased to submit this Fiscal Year 2018 Technology 

Transfer Summary Report to the President and the Congress. This report illustrates the 

continuing efforts of federal laboratories to ensure that the nation’s investment in innovative 

research is transferred from our laboratories to the American people.

Federal laboratories, through their fundamental and mission-oriented research and development 

(R&D) investments, have historically been at the forefront of scientific discovery, invention, and 

technological innovation. Technology transfer facilitates the practical application of federal 

research directly through the transfer of laboratory results and by providing non-federal entities 

the opportunities to partner with federal laboratories on innovative research of mutual interest. 

Over the years, new products, services, and the formation of new companies have occurred 

through technology transfer initiatives.

The cross-agency focus on the lab-to-market efforts have emphasized the important role that 

innovation plays in accelerating the development of new industries, products, and services that 

lead to economic growth and job creation. Agencies have engaged in efforts to accelerate 

technology transfer activities, improved and expanded the collection of technology transfer 

metrics, and established performance goals and evaluation methods to enhance the efficiency and 

impact of their technology transfer activities.

This report fulfills the requirement contained in 15 U.S.C. § 3710(g)(2), for an annual report 

summarizing the use of technology transfer authorities by federal agencies. It highlights the 

achievements of federal technology transfer and includes data on the use of specific transfer 

authorities. Future editions of this report will be used to continue to keep the President and the 

Congress informed of the ongoing efforts of federal laboratories to expand our technology 

transfer efforts in partnership with U.S. industry, academic institutions, non-profit foundations, 

and state, local, and tribal governments. These efforts will continue to play a vital role in 

building the nation’s economic strength.

Dr. Laurie E Locascio

Under Secretary of Commerce for Standards and Technology, &

Director, National Institute of Standards and Technology
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Table of Contents

Chapter 1 Overview of Federal Technology Transfer.................................................................... 1

Federal Technology Transfer Summary..................................................................................... 4

Chapter 2 Agency Performance in FY 2018................................................................................... 8

Department of Agriculture (USDA)......................................................................................... 18

Department of Commerce (DOC)............................................................................................ 27

Department of Defense (DoD) ................................................................................................. 36

Department of Energy (DOE) .................................................................................................. 45

Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) ................................................................. 54

Department of Homeland Security (DHS)............................................................................... 63

Department of the Interior (DOI)............................................................................................. 69

Department of Transportation (DOT) ...................................................................................... 80

Department of Veteran Affairs (VA) ....................................................................................... 89

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)................................................................................ 97

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)..................................................... 107

Chapter 3 Conclusion.................................................................................................................. 118

Appendix A................................................................................................................................. 120

Appendix B................................................................................................................................. 125

Appendix C................................................................................................................................. 131
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1

Chapter 1

Overview of Federal Technology Transfer

Many federal agencies conduct research and development (R&D) activities that result in the 

creation of new technologies. In most cases, these technologies are created to support specific 

needs of an agency’s mission. In other cases, they are spontaneous creations of ongoing research. 

Regardless of how they are created, federal technologies can have significant value that goes 

beyond an agency’s mission. It is the role of an agency’s technology transfer office to identify 

this value and provide the most effective means to transfer it outside of the agency.

Federal legislation provides a variety of vehicles through which federal technologies can be 

transferred.1 These vehicles facilitate the potential commercialization of inventions, enable the 

use of federal laboratory facilities by non-federal entities, and allow for the establishment of 

research partnerships between federal government laboratories and other entities. This includes 

the processing of patent applications and licenses as well as cooperative research and 

development agreements (CRADAs) and other mechanisms that convey knowledge, ownership 

rights, or establish formal research agreements.

Collaborative research is particularly important to the technology transfer process and in many 

ways, is fundamental to every agency’s mission. By bringing together thousands of highly 

qualified researchers and world-class research facilities, collaborative research between federal 

and non-federal organizations greatly enhances researcher capabilities, core competencies, and 

creativity. This in turn leads to the flow of new ideas, new tools, more efficient techniques, new 

processes and products, and new businesses. Collaborative research also helps agencies attract 

and retain talented scientific personnel through rewards and royalty sharing opportunities.

Over the last decade agencies have responded to the need to improve technology transfer 

operations to better address the needs of business and especially small businesses that are 

vulnerable to a slow-moving bureaucratic system. The interagency coordination of efforts has led 

agencies to review their operations and propose new ways to improve the overall customer 

experience. These improvements include efforts to streamline operations to open doors to more 

efficient technology transfer opportunities. Other improvements target the way customers 

interact with the federal system.

This annual report summarizes the technology transfer activities and transfer vehicles used by 11 

federal agencies that have significant federal laboratory operations:2

1 The primary legislation addressing federal technology transfer includes the Stevenson-Wydler Technology 

Innovation Act of 1980, 15 U.S.C. 3701 et seq., the Patent and Trademark Act Amendments of 1980 (Bayh-Dole 

Act), 35 U.S.C. 200 et seq., the Small Business Innovation Development Act of 1982, 15 U.S.C. 638, and the 

Federal Technology Transfer Act of 1986, 15 U.S.C. § 3710a. Numerous other acts indirectly affect federal 

technology transfer activities.

2

In this report, the term “Federal laboratory” refers to any laboratory, any federally funded research and 

development center, or any center established under 15 U.S.C. § 3705 or 15 U.S.C. § 3707 that is owned, leased, or 

otherwise used by a federal agency and funded by the federal government, whether operated by the Government or 

by a contractor.
2

Department of Agriculture (USDA) Department of the Interior (DOI)

Department of Commerce (DOC) Department of Transportation (DOT)

Department of Defense (DoD) Department of Veterans Affairs (VA)

Department of Energy (DOE) Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)

Department of Health and Human 

Services (HHS)

National Aeronautics and Space 

Administration (NASA)

Department of Homeland Security (DHS)

Each of these agencies has established programs for promoting the transfer and 

commercialization of technologies developed in its R&D laboratories and has provided the data 

contained in this report. The DOC’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) 

prepared and organized this report. An electronic version of this report is available.
3

Federal R&D Spending

Spending on R&D by the federal government supports a wide variety of agency-specific 

missions, for instance, military objectives, health and human services issues, energy 

development, space exploration, and so forth. In FY 2018, the total federal budget for R&D was 

$129,425 million. Of this, $81,016 million (63%) was used to support R&D activities that 

occurred outside of the federal laboratories. This includes funding for grants, cooperative 

agreements, and similar instruments.3 The remainder, $48,409 million (37%), supported R&D 

activities that occurred inside federal laboratories. This includes $35,953 million to support 

intramural activities and $12,456 million to support federally funded R&D centers (FFRDCs). 

The technology transfer activities described in this report support new technologies that arise 

from these federal laboratory R&D investments. As shown in the table below, the percent of an 

agency’s budget that was available for federal laboratory R&D varied significantly among 

agencies.

Federal Obligations for R&D

By Agency FY2018 ($ million)4

Total 

R&D Intramural(a) FFRDCs

Intramural 

and 

FFRDCs

Percent 

of Total 

R&D 

Budget

 DoD $52,973 $18,999 $1,683 $20,681 39%

 HHS $36,911 $8,315 $638 $8,953 24%

 DOE $12,832 $1,336 $7,502 $8,838 69%

 NASA $10,717 $1,484 $2,034 $3,518 33%

 USDA $2,479 $1,550 $0 $1,550 63%

 VA $1,349 $1,277 $73 $1,349 100%

 DOC $1,439 $1,027 $24 $1,051 73%

 DOI $766 $670 $1 $671 88%

 DHS $912 $365 $90 $455 50%

 DOT $1,046 $210 $80 $290 28%

 EPA $487 $255 $1 $256 52%

 Other Agencies $7,514 $466 $331 $797 11%

 All Agencies $129,425 $35,953 $12,456 $48,409 37%

(a) Intramural activities cover costs associated with the administration of intramural and extramural 

programs by federal personnel as well as actual intramural performance.

3 A federal award is an instrument setting forth terms and conditions of an agreement between a federal agency and 

non-federal entity. Awards can include, among other things, grants and cooperative agreements. Grants and 

cooperative agreements are similar in that they transfer funds (or anything of value) to a non-federal entity but differ 

in that cooperative agreements involve substantial involvement by the federal awarding agency usually in terms of 

project oversight and management. 

4 National Science Foundation (NSF), National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics, Survey of Federal 

Funds for Research and Development Fiscal Years 2018-19, Federal Obligations for Research and Development, by 

Agency and Performer, FY 18, Table 7.
4

In FY 2018, DoD spent the largest amount of funding for intramural activities and FFRDCs, 

$20,681 million (39% of its R&D budget). The HHS was second with $8,953 million (24% of its 

R&D budget) and DOE was third with $8,838 million (69% of its R&D budget).
5

Federal Technology Transfer Summary

Every federal agency that operates or directs one or more federal laboratories or that conducts 

research and development is required to prepare and submit an annual report of its technology 

transfer activities as described in 15 U.S.C § 3710(f). These reports contain details on each 

agency’s technology transfer program as well as agency plans to use technology transfer to 

advance the agency’s mission and to promote U.S. competitiveness.5 The following tables 

summarize federal technology transfer activities for the five-year period from FY 2014 through 

FY 2018.

6

5 A list of agency technology transfer reports.

6 Technology transfer data are routinely adjusted over time to account for new information resulting from changes in 

reporting procedures, patent decisions, programmatic changes, and other corrections. Throughout this report, data 

prior to FY 2018 have been adjusted where necessary to reflect the most accurate estimates for each year reported. 

The data in this report are accurate per the reporting agencies as of June 6, 2022. The data presented in this report 

may differ from individual agency reports submitted for FY 2018 if the agencies have updated those data after the 

agency report was submitted.
6

Federal Invention Disclosures and Patenting

The protection of intellectual property can be vital to attracting the additional investment and 

product development resources necessary for early-stage research products to be brought to their 

full commercial potential. Federal laboratory achievements in the areas of invention disclosures 

and patents issued are often cited as metrics of the active management of intellectual assets and 

technical know-how by federal agencies.

Between FY 2014 and FY 2018, invention disclosures reported by federal agencies increased by 

11% to 5,627. Patent applications filed increased by 4% to 2,788, and patents issued increased by 

9% to 2,386. NASA reported the largest number of invention disclosures with 1,775 in FY 2018, 

followed by DOE with 1,748 and DoD with 839. These three agencies accounted for 78% of all 

invention disclosures reported in this fiscal year.

In FY 2018, DoD reported the largest number of patent applications with 1,060, followed by 

DOE with 868, and VA with 255. These three agencies accounted for 79% of patent applications 

in FY 2018. DOE reported the largest number of patents issued in FY 2018 with 854, followed 

by HHS with 624, and DOD with 600. These three agencies accounted for 87% of reported 

patents issued in FY 2018.

Federal Invention Disclosures and Patenting

FY 2014 FY 2015 FY 2016 FY 2017 FY 2018

New Invention Disclosures 5,053 4,787 5,003 5,667 5,627

Patent Applications Filed 2,677 2,477 2,515 2,615 2,788

Patents Issued 2,193 2,183 2,300 2,275 2,386
7

Technical Area Summary of U.S. Federal Agency Patents

The chart below uses data from the U.S. Patent Office (USPTO) to illustrate the technical areas 

covered by patents issued to federal agencies in FY 2018. The chart shows the percentage of 

patents issued to federal agencies by technology area based on fractional count patents.

7

In FY 

2018, the largest number of federal patents issued involved Measurement (13%), followed by 

Biotechnology (8%), Electrical Machinery, Apparatus, Energy (7%), Other Special Machines 

(6%), Pharmaceuticals (5%), Telecommunications (5%), Computer Technology (4%), 

Semiconductors (4%), Basic Materials Chemistry (4%), Optics (4%), Materials, Metallurgy 

(4%), Medical Technology (3%), Chemical Engineering (3%), Organic Fine Chemistry (3%), 

Analysis of Biological Materials (3%), and Other (20%).8

USPTO Patents Assigned to Selected U.S. Federal Agencies by Technology Area: FY 2018

7

In this summary, patents are credited on a fractional-count basis (i.e., for patents with assignees from multiple 

federal agencies, other U.S. institutions, or foreign institutions, each federal agency receives fractional credit based 

on the proportion of its participating institution(s)). Furthermore, fractioning is used at the level of Internal Patent 

Classification (IPC) codes to ensure that the sum of patents across technology areas (WIPO technology 

classification) is equal to the total number of patents as each patent can be assigned to more than one technology 

area. Source: Prepared by Science-Metrix using USPTO data indexed in PatentsView in October 2018. Used with 

permission.

8 Definitions for all technology areas addressed are included in Appendix B.
8

Federal Licenses

Licensing of federally developed technologies is an important technology transfer mechanism 

that creates incentives for industry to invest the resources necessary to develop and 

commercialize nascent leading-edge technologies. Successful development and 

commercialization of federal technologies create benefits to the economy and contribute to 

competitiveness and domestic economic growth. The ability to grant licenses to the nonfederal 

sector helps protect, utilize, or further develop and utilize federally developed innovations, which 

would not be further developed into commercial products or services otherwise. The terms and 

conditions under which federal intellectual property is licensed varies based upon many factors, 

including the extent of development of the technology, the financial resources needed to further 

develop the technology for consumer use, fields of use, projected market impact, and other 

factors.

Data for some agencies were not available for this report.9 The values reported in this section are 

calculated using the data from agencies for which a complete set of data are available to more 

accurately reflect changes in these measures over time. Between FY 2014 and FY 2018, total 

active licenses reported by federal laboratories for which data were available increased by 6%,

from 8,707 in FY 2014 to 8,226 in FY 2018.

10 New licenses reported by agencies for which data 

were available increased by 47%, from 904 in FY 2014 to 1,325 in FY 2018.

11 Invention licenses 

reported by agencies for which data were available decreased by 7%, from 3,486 in FY 2014 to 

3,233 in FY 2018 while new invention licenses increased by 41% to 530.

12 Invention licenses 

refers to inventions that are patented or could be patented. Income-bearing licenses decreased by 

5% to 5,644 and exclusive income-bearing licenses reported by agencies for which data were 

available increased by 72% to 885.

13

In FY 2018, DOE reported the largest number of total active licenses with 4,742 licenses. The

HHS was second with 1,867 licenses and NASA was third with 540 licenses. These three 

agencies accounted for 87% of all licenses reported in FY 2018. 

In FY 2018, HHS reported the largest number of invention licenses with 1,411, followed by 

DOE 844, and NASA with 488. Together these three agencies accounted for 85% of invention 

licenses in FY 2018. 

9 Data for some agencies were not available for this report. Data for FY 2018 values for total active licenses, new 

licenses, invention licenses, and new invention licenses were not available for VA. Data for FY 2018 values for 

invention licenses, total active and new invention licenses, were not available for DoD. Data for FY 2014 and FY 

2015 income bearing exclusive licenses were not available for DoD. Data for FY 2018 values for invention licenses, 

total active, new invention licenses, and income bearing exclusive licenses were not available for DOI.

10 Total active licenses for all agencies, including those for which data were not available, decreased by 8% from 

8,904 in FY 2014 to 8,226 in FY 2018.

11 New licenses for all agencies, including those for which data were not available, increased by 46% from 907 in 

FY 2014 to 1,325 in FY 2018.

12 Invention licenses for all agencies, including those for which data were not available, decreased by 19% to 3,233 

while new invention licenses increased by 38% to 530.

13 Exclusive income bearing licenses for all agencies, including those for which data were not available, increased 

by 99% to 1,036.
9

In FY 2018, DOE reported the largest number of income-bearing licenses, 3,323. The HHS was 

second with 978 followed by USDA with 472. Together these three agencies accounted for 85% 

of income-bearing licenses in FY 2018.

In FY 2018, USDA reported the largest number of income-bearing exclusive licenses with 324, 

followed by VA with 205, and DOE with 181. Together these three agencies accounted for 69% 

of income-bearing exclusive licenses in FY 2018.

Federal Licenses14

Federal Income from Licenses

Licensing income includes income received for earned royalties from partners, license issue fees, 

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. Data for some 

agencies were not available for these measures.15 Between FY 2014 and FY 2018, income from 

all licensing reported by agencies for which data were available decreased by 23% to $139 

14 This figure shows data for all agencies, including those for which some data were not available.

15 DoD was unable to provide values for licensing income for FY 2016, FY 2017, and FY 2018 and for invention 

licenses income for FY 2017 and FY 2018.

FY 2014 FY 2015 FY 2016 FY 2017 FY 2018

Licenses, Total Active 8,904 9,748 8,950 7,750 8,226

New Licenses 907 1,130 1,099 1,248 1,325

Invention Licenses, Total Active 3,979 4,111 4,084 3,982 3,233

New Invention Licenses 384 569 570 598 530

Income Bearing Licenses, Total Active 5,940 6,337 5,793 5,182 5,644

Income Bearing Exclusive Licenses 520 562 976 895 1,036
10

million.16 Income from invention licenses reported by agencies for which data were available 

decreased by 23% to $132 million and total earned royalty income decreased by 14% to $135

million.17 

The HHS accounted for the most licensing income with $111 million, followed by DOE with 

$21 million, and USDA with $4 million. Together these three agencies accounted for 97% of 

reported licensing income.

The HHS accounted for the most invention license income with $108 million, followed by DOE 

with $17 million, and USDA with $3 million. Together these three agencies accounted for 97% 

of Invention License Income.

The HHS accounted for the most Earned Royalty Income with $112 million, followed by DOE

with $10 million, and DoD with $7 million. Together these three agencies accounted for 95% of 

Earned Royalty Income.

Federal Income from Licenses ($ thousands)18

16 Income from all licenses for all agencies, including those for which data were not available, decreased by 28% to 

$139 million.

17 Income from invention licenses for all agencies, including those for which some data were not available, 

decreased by 28% to $133 million

18 This figure shows data for all agencies, including those for which some data were not available.

FY 2014 FY 2015 FY 2016 FY 2017 FY 2018

Total Income, All Active Licenses $194,516 $203,508 $172,956 $180,653 $139,495

Invention Licenses $184,666 $193,347 $166,851 $174,590 $132,596

Total Earned Royalty Income, (ERI) $156,196 $150,741 $139,709 $163,350 $134,991
11

Federal Collaborative R&D Relationships

Collaborative R&D relationships between federal laboratories and non-federal collaborators are 

widely viewed as an effective and economical means of transferring technology through joint 

research. These relationships create a mutually advantageous leveraging of federal agency and 

collaborator resources and technical capabilities, as well as to provide avenues for both the 

collaborator and the federal laboratory to gain new competencies and develop new skills. 

One frequently used mechanism for establishing joint research relationships is the cooperative 

research and development agreement (CRADA). The CRADA is a multifaceted mechanism that 

can be used to address several kinds of partnership needs. “Traditional CRADAs” refer to formal 

collaborative R&D agreements between a federal laboratory and nonfederal partners. Other 

special CRADA arrangements are used by federal agencies to address special purpose 

applications such as material transfer agreements or agreements that facilitate technical 

assistance activities. 

In addition to CRADAs, agencies have other specific authorities that also facilitate cooperative 

R&D relationships, such as Space Act Agreements (NASA) or other transaction authorities.

Data for some agencies were not available for these measures.19 Between FY 2014 and FY 2018, 

active CRADAs increased by 25% to 12,967. New CRADA agreements increased by 25% to 

5,248. Other collaborative R&D relationships increased by 0.5% to 11,780.

In FY 2018, DoD reported the largest number of CRADAs with 4,976, followed by DOC with 

3,363, and VA with 1,688. The DOC reported the largest number of other collaborative R&D 

relationships with 3,497, USDA was second with 3,215, and NASA was second with 2,182

(Space Acts Agreements).

19 DOE was unable to provide data on traditional CRADAs and other collaborative agreements for FY 2018.
12

Federal Collaborative R&D Relationships20

Science and Engineering (S&E) Articles

Although intellectual property has traditionally been tracked in terms of patents, licenses, and 

collaborative efforts, most federal research results are transferred through publication of S&E 

articles. Unfortunately, a uniform tracking system for S&E articles across all federal agencies 

does not exist; however, data from Thomson Reuters’ Web of Science database can provide

insight into the nature of S&E articles published by technology area even though not all articles 

published by federal agencies are included in the publications covered by this database. For 

example, in 2018, Thomson Reuters reports that federal researchers authored or coauthored

70,957 articles using a whole-count basis (where each agency gets full credit for each article 

even if the article has co-authors from different agencies).21

20 This figure shows data for all agencies, including those for which some data were not available.

21 Data prepared by Science-Metrix. Article counts are from the set of journals covered by the Science Citation 

Index (SCI) and Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI) classified under Caspar fields using the CHI classification. 

Articles are classified by the year they entered the database, rather than the year of publication, and are assigned to a 

federal agency based on the institutional addresses listed in the article. Because the CHI classification classifies 

journals accounting for only about 60% of all publications indexed in the Web of Science, the classification was 

expanded to fully cover the database using a two-step approach. The first step was to classify all journals under the 

same fields as those determined for the preparation of the NSF SEI 2018 indicators. The remaining journals were 

then assigned to a unique field using citations to and from journals to determine their most relevant field. Used with 

permission.

FY 2014 FY 2015 FY 2016 FY 2017 FY 2018

CRADAs, Total Active 10,355 10,090 11,118 10,919 12,967

New CRADAs 4,203 4,943 5,027 4,961 5,248

Traditional CRADAs, Total Active 6,666 6,187 6,773 6,605 6,146

Other Collaborative R&D Relationships 11,723 10,748 12,172 12,939 11,780
13

The Thomson Reuters’ database provide the additional benefit of identifying publications by 

federal researchers according to science and engineering categories. Using this data, the greatest 

percentage of articles addressed research in Health Sciences (26%), Biological and Biomedical

Sciences (19%), Engineering (15%), Physics (12%), and Geosciences, Atmospheric, and Ocean 

Sciences (7%).22

S&E Articles Authored by Selected U.S. Federal Agencies, by S&E Fields: CY 2018

Citations within U.S. Patents

Thomson Reuters’ data also provides insight into the commercial relevance of S&E articles 

authored by federal researchers through the number of articles cited in U.S. patents. In FY 2018, 

more than 18,897 articles authored or coauthored by federal researchers were cited in U.S. 

patents.23 Of these, the greatest number of articles addressed research in Biological and 

22 Articles are credited on a fractional-count basis (i.e., each participating federal agency receives a share of the 

publication proportional to its share of addresses on the publication). Source: Prepared by Science-Metrix using the 

Web of Science database (Thomson Reuters) accessed in October 2018. All rights reserved. Used with permission.

23 Data prepared by Science Metrix. Cited articles are from the set of journals covered by the Science Citation Index 

(SCI) and Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI) classified under Caspar fields using the CHI classification. Cited 

articles are classified by the year of publication and are assigned to a federal agency based on the institutional 

addresses listed in the article. Because the CHI classification classifies journals accounting for only about 60% of all 

publications indexed in the Web of Science, the classification was expanded to fully cover the database using a twostep approach. The first step was to classify all journals under the same fields as those determined for the 

preparation of the NSF SEI 2018 indicators. The remaining journals were then assigned to a unique field using 

citations to and from journals to determine their most relevant field. Used with permission.
14

Biomedical Sciences (36%), Health Sciences (23%), Physics (13%), Engineering (12%), and 

Chemistry (7%).24

Citation of U.S. S&E Articles Authored by Selected U.S. Federal Agencies, in USPTO 

Patents, by S&E Field: FY 2017

Efforts to Enhance Technology Transfer Outcomes and Entrepreneurship

In addition to individual agency streamlining activities and developing new metrics to quantify 

technology transfer impact, federal agencies have also been involved in activities that have been 

designed to promote awareness and enhance the effectiveness of technology transfer activities.

The Innovation Corps Program

In 2011, the National Science Foundation (NSF) established the Innovation Corps (I-CorpsTM)25

program to help scientists and engineers focus their attention upon critical business-related issues 

that are fundamental to the commercialization of new and emerging technologies. Originally 

designed to broaden the impact of NSF-funded basic research projects, other federal agencies 

have adopted the successful program to enhance the economic impact of their own technology 

transfer efforts. 

DoD

The I-Corps DoD program is a partnership with the National Science Foundation to provide 

DoD-funded researchers with training from experienced entrepreneurs in how to commercialize 

their innovations. The DoD’s Basic Research Office (BRO) is also looking to establish bridges 

that will allow teams who have completed the training to more seamlessly mature innovations 

into products that may enter DoD programs of record.

24 Citations are classified on a fractional-count basis (i.e., for cited articles with collaborating institutions from 

federal agencies, other U.S. institutions, or foreign institutions, each federal agency receives fractional credit based 

on the proportion of its participating institution(s)). Source: Prepared by Science-Metrix using the Web of Science 

(Thomson Reuters) accessed in October 2018 and PatentsView accessed in October 2018. All rights reserved. Used 

with permission.

25 See http://sbir.cancer.gov/resource/icorps/
15

NIH

The I-Corps at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) program is focused on educating 

researchers and technologists on how to translate technologies from the lab into the marketplace. 

The program provides three-member project teams with access to instruction and mentoring in 

order to accelerate the translation of technologies currently being developed with NIH and CDC 

Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR)

funding. It is anticipated that outcomes for the I-Corps teams participating in this program will 

include significantly refined commercialization plans and well-informed pivots in their overall 

commercialization strategies. Under this program, NIH and CDC foster the development of 

early-stage biomedical technologies, focus on teaching researchers how to gain a clearer 

understanding of the value of their inventions in the marketplace, and ultimately how to advance 

their technologies from the research lab into the commercial world. The program complements 

activities within the scope of the parent SBIR and STTR grant programs to help accelerate the 

commercialization of new products and services derived from NIH- and CDC-funded technical 

feasibility studies.

DOE

At DOE, the Energy I-CorpsTM program, formerly known as Lab-Corps, pairs teams of 

researchers with industry mentors for an intensive two-month training where the researchers 

define technology value propositions, conduct customer discovery interviews, and develop viable 

market pathways for their technologies. Energy I-Corps is managed by DOE’s National 

Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). The NREL leads curriculum development and 

execution, recruits program instructors and industry mentors, and assembles teams from the 

following national labs:

Argonne National Laboratory 

Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory

Idaho National Laboratory

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

Los Alamos National Laboratory

National Renewable Energy Laboratory 

Oak Ridge National Laboratory

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory 

Sandia National Laboratories

Other agencies have incorporated I-CorpsTM into their programs. The DHS, DoD, and NASA 

partner with NSF to send their awardees through the NSF I-CorpsTM programs. Other agencies 

develop their own programs that adapt the curriculum for their research communities: NSA’s ICorpsTM for the Intelligence Community, I-CorpsTM at ARPA-E, and the USDA I-CorpsTM 

Agricultural Research Service pilot program.

Entrepreneur in Residence Programs

Several agencies have established Entrepreneur in Residence (EIR) programs that mentor 

technical researchers on the fundamentals of commercializing new technologies. While these 

programs vary across agencies, their common goal is to provide sound entrepreneurial advice 

from experienced business experts to accelerate technology transfer. Topics that are common to 

these programs include methods of establishing market values, managing intellectual property 

rights, performing due diligence, fund raising, and requirements for starting a new business.
16

The DOE's EIR initiative was started in 2007 by the Office of Energy Efficiency & Renewable 

Energy to address long-standing concerns that national laboratory inventions were not being 

sufficiently transferred into the marketplace. By placing venture capital-sponsored entrepreneurs 

at key national laboratories, DOE aims to accelerate laboratory technology transfer; start-up 

entrepreneurs are able to work directly with the laboratories and bridge the gap between leading 

scientific and business talent. Technology assessments and proposing business structures to 

commercialize promising technologies can be conducted on site. Entrepreneurs are permitted to 

work directly with laboratory staff for a hands-on look at various inventions and potentially 

viable technologies. 

The NIH Office of Technology Transfer began its first EIR program in 2012. The EIRs are 

charged with three key activities: 1) review NIH technologies to assess commercial relevance; 2) 

work with the private sector to facilitate commercialization of the NIH technologies into 

marketable products; and 3) educate scientists on life science product development and 

commercialization. 

The USDA’s Agricultural Research Service (ARS) has seven Technology Transfer Coordinators 

(TTCs) stationed in different geographical areas around the country. Each TTC acts as a type of 

EIR. The TTCs are engaged in numerous activities including planning, administrating, 

coordinating, and evaluating technology transfer activities of their assigned geographic region’s 

research programs to affect the optimum transfer of research for development and 

commercialization. They work closely with ARS researchers to select the most beneficial and 

expeditious mechanism(s) for technology transfer on a case-by-case basis. They participate in the 

planning of research programs and preparing material that illustrates ARS research results and 

accomplishments. 

The NIST has also initiated an EIR program in cooperation with the Maryland Technology 

Development Corporation. Through this initiative experienced EIRs and NIST researchers come 

together to identify commercial opportunities for technologies emerging from NIST’s 

laboratories. The NIST EIRs are not full-time paid positions; rather, they are guest researchers 

who undertake a variety of tasks to identify the commercial value of NIST technologies and 

mentor and educate NIST researchers on career opportunities in technological entrepreneurship. 
17

Chapter 2

Agency Performance in FY 2018

Each federal agency prepares and submits an annual report covering data on technology transfer 

as described in 15 U.S.C. § 3710(f). These reports include details on each agency’s technology 

transfer program and efforts to use technology transfer to advance the agency’s mission and 

promote U.S. competitiveness.

This chapter provides a comparable summary of the content of these 11 federal agency reports. 

For each agency, this report considers three main topic areas:

• Statistical data on the agency’s technology transfer activity levels for a number of 

measures (e.g., cooperative R&D relationships, invention disclosure and patenting, and 

intellectual property licensing) for the most recently closed fiscal year (FY 2018) and 

several prior years (FY 2014-2018);

• Streamlining activities at each agency to lower administrative burden and make 

technology transfer more accessible; and

• Reported examples of successful downstream outcomes arising from the agency’s 

technology transfer activities, such as new products or improved industrial processes 

available in the marketplace that arise from the transfer and commercialization of federal 

lab inventions.
18

Department of Agriculture (USDA)

President Abraham Lincoln coined the phrase “the People’s Department” acknowledging the role

of the U.S. Department of Agriculture in solving problems that benefits all people every day.

Thus, well before the coining of the modern-day phrase of “technology transfer,” it was the

culture of USDA to deliver solutions to the people of the United States. Today, USDA broadly

defines technology transfer as the adoption of research outcomes (i.e., solutions) for public

benefit. Although a seemingly simple statement, the process of adoption is complicated, 

requiring integration of many assets from disparate sources in the successful delivery of 

solutions. “Public benefit” is achieved through many mechanisms including public release of 

information, tools, and solutions (e.g., germplasm, plants, and other materials); adoption and 

enhancement of research outcomes by partners through collaborative research; formal CRADAs 

authorized by the Federal Technology Transfer Act (FTTA); direct federal, state, or local 

technical assistance; or through licensing of biological materials or protected intellectual 

property directly to not-for-profit entities and for-profit private sector firms. Additionally,

successful adoption of USDA knowledge and research outcomes typically require 

complementary assets and services provided by multiple agencies in USDA, including agencies 

that are not primarily engaged in direct research in the physical and life science arenas.

Private-sector involvement in technology transfer adds the benefit of creating new or expanded

businesses, jobs, and economic prosperity. Science-based innovations from USDA intramural

research – often developed through public-private partnerships (PPPs) – create new or improved

technologies, processes, products, and services that benefit the Nation by increasing productivity,

increasing efficiency (keeping costs low), and enhancing global competitiveness for the U.S.

agriculture sector. Thus, technology transfer functions are critical to accelerating the utility of

public research and development (R&D) investments, creating economic activity, job creation,

and sustainable economic development.

The Agriculture Research Service (ARS) has been delegated authority by the Secretary of

Agriculture to administer the patent program for ARS, review CRADAs, and administer

technology licensing programs for all intramural research conducted by USDA. These activities

are housed in the Office of Technology Transfer.

The USDA’s annual technology transfer report is available online.

More information about USDA’s technology transfer activities is available on the following

websites:

Agricultural Research Service (ARS)

Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS)

Forest Service (FS)
19

USDA Invention Disclosures and Patenting

Between FY 2014 and FY 2018, invention disclosures received increased by 174%, from 117 in 

FY 2014 to 320 in FY 2018. Patent applications filed increased 1%, from 119 in FY 2014 to 120 

in FY 2018. Patents issued decreased by 19%, from 83 in FY 2014 to 67 in FY 2018.

USDA Invention Disclosures and Patenting

Patents issued to USDA in FY 2018 covered many technology areas including Biotechnology 

(27%), Basic Materials Chemistry (13%), Other special machines (11%), Organic fine chemistry 

(10%), and Pharmaceuticals (7%).26

26 Source: Prepared by Science-Metrix using USPTO data indexed in PatentsView in 2019. Used with permission.
20

USPTO Patents Assigned to USDA by Technology Area: FY 2018

USDA Licenses

Between FY 2014 and FY 2018, total active licenses increased by 14% to 472 licenses in FY 

2018. Total active invention licenses increased by 7% to 386 licenses. Total active income 

bearing licenses increased 14%, from 412 in FY 2014 to 471 in FY 2018, while income-bearing 

exclusive licenses increased by 8% to 324.

USDA Licenses
21

USDA Income from Licensing

Between FY 2014 and FY 2018, total income from all active licenses decreased by 22% to $3.8

million in FY 2018. The income from invention licenses decreased by 26% to $3.5 million. Total 

earned royalty income decreased by 25% from $3.6 million in FY 2014 to $2.7 million in FY 

2018.

USDA Income from Licensing ($ thousands)

FY 2014 FY 2015 FY 2016 FY 2017 FY 2018

Licenses, Total Active 413 427 441 448 472

New Licenses 3 1 3 7 3 1 4 0 4 0

Invention Licenses, Total Active 362 362 370 373 386

New Invention Licenses 2 9 2 2 2 5 3 1 2 7

Income Bearing Licenses, Total Active 412 421 439 437 471

Income Bearing Exclusive Licenses 299 292 307 302 324

FY 2014 FY 2015 FY 2016 FY 2017 FY 2018

Total Income, All Active Licenses $4,928 $5,067 $4,784 $5,703 $3,835

Invention Licenses $4,733 $4,842 $4,456 $5,378 $3,495

Total Earned Royalty Income, (ERI) $3,611 $3,510 $3,633 $3,504 $2,716
22

USDA Collaborative R&D Relationships

Between FY 2014 and FY 2018, total active CRADAs decreased by 21% to 212 agreements 

while new CRADAs increased by 2% to 61. Traditional CRADAs decreased by 32% to 182. 

Other collaborative R&D relationships decreased by 40% to 3,369 in FY 2018.

27

USDA Collaborative R&D Relationships

27 In prior reports, USDA reported all agreements that were not CRADAs as “Other collaborative R&D 

agreements”. Beginning in with their FY 2017 agency report, USDA is reporting only agreements that 

are similar to CRADAs” as “Other collaborative R&D agreements”. For USDA, “Other collaborative 

R&D agreements” includes Trust Fund Cooperative Agreements, Reimbursable Agreements, Material 

Transfer Research Agreements, Specific Cooperative Agreements and Non-Funded Cooperative 

Agreements, Challenge Cost-Share Agreements, Collections Agreements, Cooperative Agreements, 

Inter-agency & Intra-agency Agreements, Joint Venture Agreements, Participating Agreements, 

Research Cost-Reimbursable Agreements, Research Joint Venture Agreements.

FY 2014 FY 2015 FY 2016 FY 2017 FY 2018

CRADAs, Total Active 267 301 238 330 212

New CRADAs 6 0 8 0 7 9 9 1 6 1

Traditional CRADAs, Total Active 267 301 238 330 182

Other Collaborative R&D Relationships 5,629 4,730 5,628 6,125 3,369
23

USDA Efforts to Streamline Technology Transfer Operations

• The ERS continues to enhance and update its website. Following a recent upgrade, the 

site is faster and features more intuitive navigation for customers to enhance information 

delivery. The ERS has added features to enhance functionality for mobile users.

• The National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) administers the USDA Small 

Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program. In FY 2018, NIFA promoted SBIR funding 

opportunities to USDA intramural research Cooperative Research and Development 

Agreement (CRADA) partners through a partnership between NIFA’s SBIR program and the 

Agricultural Research Service (ARS) Office of Technology Transfer (OTT).

• The RD continues to enhance its Web presence to make information and programs more 

accessible to the public as well as to concentrate outreach efforts to ensure that businesses 

and communities in greatest need have access to the necessary resources to be 

competitive.

USDA Downstream Success Stories

Agricultural Research Service (ARS): Overcoming antibiotic resistance using a novel 

antibiotic

Beta-lactam antibiotics are a class of broad-spectrum (i.e., effective against a large variety of 

organisms) antimicrobials that include penicillin derivatives and cephalosporins. The use of these 

important drugs has been limited over the years with the development of antibiotic-resistant 

bacterial strains. Tunicamycin is a powerful antibiotic that can be combined with beta-lactam 

antibiotics to overcome this resistance. Scientists have known about this antibiotic for decades, 

but toxicity in human and animal cells prevented it from being used for therapeutic application. 

Recently, ARS researchers in Peoria, Illinois, have chemically modified tunicamycin into less 

harmful derivatives. The modified tunicamycins did not show any toxicity to human and hamster 

cells but were still capable of increasing the efficacy of clinical penicillin-based drugs by 32 to 

64 times. This significant discovery now allows older-type antibiotics to once again be effective 

and is an important step toward combating drug resistance. It is currently being evaluated by a 

U.S. drug company.

ARS: An effective method to dry and decontaminate wet whole almonds

California produces 80 percent of the world’s almonds with a value of more than $5.33 billion. 

Contamination of almonds with Salmonella has caused several large and expensive recalls by the 

industry and outbreaks of human illness. The occurrence of rain during the harvest season may 

result in the complete loss of an almond crop due to increased risk of microbial contamination 

and lack of adequate drying technology. The ARS scientists in Albany, California, developed an 

effective and energy-saving new technology based on sequential infrared heat and hot air to 

simultaneously dry and decontaminate wet whole almonds. The results were provided to industry 

and contributed to ARS receiving the 2018 Research and Development Award by the Institute of 

Food Technologists.

ARS: Efficient nitrate recycling and re-use

Nitrate contamination of surface and ground waters is a serious problem in many agricultural 

regions. It is a human health risk and contributes to eutrophication of fresh water and the Gulf of 

Mexico. Most mitigation efforts focus on denitrification through a process of encouraging 
24

microbes to convert nitrate to nitrogen gas. This is inherently wasteful because much energy is 

required for the initial manufacture of nitrogen fertilizer. A more efficient solution would be to 

develop methods to recycle nitrate for re-use. The ARS scientists in St. Paul, Minnesota, have 

developed a system that can remove nitrate from contaminated water and concentrate it for reuse as fertilizer. The system runs on electricity from solar panels, so it is suitable for remote 

locations. A feasibility test was successfully conducted on a contaminated trout stream that has a 

nitrate concentration of more than 20 ppm (twice the United States Environmental Protection 

Agency safety standard of 10 ppm). The system was able to remove an average of 42 percent of 

the nitrate from water passing through it, concentrating it in a tank that ultimately reached a 

concentration exceeding 500 ppm, which was subsequently used elsewhere as fertilizer. This 

approach could be used to recover nitrate from streams and contaminated wells, ponds, and 

lakes.

National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA): Experiential Training in Use of 

Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) Technology for Agriculture Applications

The primary purpose of this four-year interdisciplinary multi-institution project is to increase the 

number of south Texas students graduating from 2-yr Associate-granting institutions 

transitioning to 4-yr Bachelor of Science and Master’s degrees (TAMUCC, TAMUK, UTRGV) 

in fields related to the agricultural, plant, and biological sciences. Faculty and staff at partner 

institutions will provide undergraduate and graduate training and education in the use of 

Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) technology for precision farming in agriculture. Targeted 

coursework will be created to include two permanent on-line introductory courses in UA 

Vehicles technology and ethics, and one blended (on-line/hands-on) course in UAS applications. 

Training will include internships and assistance in research projects aligned with UAS as a tool 

for crop/soil management, plant, and natural resource sciences. The project will produce 28 

Bachelor of Science and 11 Master’s of Science graduates working in food, agriculture, and 

natural resources-related fields. This project will also affect 48 students from two-year academic 

institutions. Educational needs areas addressed by this project include: curricula design in terms 

of development of new courses of study and student experiential learning. The major project 

outcome will be production of approximately 40 Hispanic Americans equipped with additional 

experience and education in food, agricultural, and natural sciences and who will be better 

prepared to engage in careers with the USDA or other federal agencies as well as the private 

sector.

Forest Service (FS): The new normal: empirical estimates of future fire environments in 

the Pacific Northwest

A set of time series maps provides empirical estimates of how climate change might affect the 

geographic distribution of large wildfires and fire rotations in the Pacific Northwest. This 

information can help forest resource managers and policymakers plan strategically for changing 

conditions. Large wildfires in the Pacific Northwest are increasingly frequent compared to the 

last three decades of the 20th century. These wildfires are the result of their environment. As 

droughts become more common in much of the western United States and temperatures warm, 

forest environments appear to be coming more suitable for large wildfires

Scientists with the PNW Research Station and collaborators extrapolated and contrasted what is 

consider today’s ‘‘normal” fire environment to what might be considered normal by the end of 
25

this century as a result of forecasted changes in climate. Their findings indicate more forest area 

in all ecoregions of the Pacific Northwest will be suitable for the occurrence of wildfire larger 

than 100 acres over the next century. The largest increases are projected to occur on federal 

lands, while private and state lands showed less. By the end of the century, the models predict 

shorter fire-rotation periods; cooler, moister forests are projected to experience larger magnitudes 

of change than warmer, drier forests.

This project yielded a set of time series maps that provide forest resource managers, fire 

protection agencies, and policymakers with empirical estimates of how much and where climate 

change might affect the geographic distribution of large wildfires and effect fire rotations. Areas 

where the fire environment is not likely to change much might serve as focal areas for fire 

refugia and reserves designed to maintain or restore older, denser, closed canopy forests. Forests

that are currently classified as moderately suitable for large wildfires or are predicted to 

transition into it may be places to focus active management to improve resilience to future 

wildfires. Management to ameliorate fire risk may be needed where forests have or are predicted 

to transition into higher wildfire suitability classes and, due to their location, also pose threats to 

infrastructure or valued forest resources, and where fire has not been as common.

NIFA: Adapt-N

A project out of Cornell University entitled, New Tools and Incentives for Carbon, Nitrogen, and 

Greenhouse Gas Accounting and Management in Corn Cropping Systems, now in its fourth year, 

seeks to provide small- to large-scale corn growers with low-cost soil C assessment and 

greenhouse (GHG) accounting tools, and provide policymakers with an evaluation of the current 

and long-term costs and benefits of various policy incentives for this sector of the agricultural 

economy (see http://www.adapt-n.com/). 

• Milestones achieved: The Adapt-N tool will be available online to corn growers in 26 

states and includes new output data on greenhouse gas emissions including N2O. Interest 

in Adapt-N includes both agricultural industry and environmental protection groups. 

• Workforce development: The project involves three graduate students and four 

undergraduates. 

• Outcomes: The Climate Team developed the capacity to produce downscaled climate 

projections from a set of GCMs driven by the IPCC's four Representative Concentration 

Pathways (RCPs). These are being used to drive DayCent and PNM crop-soil 

biogeochemical models, the outputs of which are being linked to economic performance 

and mitigation policy efficacy at nationally integrated scales. Collectively, soil C 

assessment results indicate that tillage has a greater impact on soil organic C in the top 30 

cm than crop rotation or residue removal.

• Potential Impacts: Increased carbon sequestration would decrease greenhouse gases 

mitigating climate change.

NIFA: Soy-based resin that can replace traditional anti-fouling boat paint without 

containing copper

The ePaint Company is located in East Falmouth, MA and has received support from the SBIR 

program. Biofouling in the marine environment is where marine organisms attach to hard 

surfaces and is a major problem for marine aquaculture. The most common approach to this 

problem is to use paint that contains copper because it will inhibit attachment to hard surfaces. 
26

The problem is that copper can accumulate in sediments and the water column, and this poses 

environmental problems. This company has developed a soy-based resin that contains a 

photosensitizer that in the presence of blue light causes the formation of peroxides. The 

peroxides are short-lived but they are effective in deterring attachment by marine tunicates, 

sponges, and other organisms to hard surfaces. The company is working with shellfish farmers in 

New England and salmon farmers in Canada, Norway, and Chile and is in the process of 

commercializing their anti-fouling paint.
27

Department of Commerce (DOC)

Technology transfer plays an important role in DOC’s mission to promote job creation, 

economic growth, sustainable development, and improved standards of living for all Americans. 

The DOC works in partnership with businesses, universities, state, tribal and local governments, 

and communities to promote innovation and improve the nation’s overall competitiveness in the 

global economy. The DOC pursues these objectives through policies and programs directed at 

strengthening the nation’s economic infrastructure, facilitating the development of cutting-edge 

science and technology, providing critical scientific information and data, and managing national 

resources.

DOC conducts research and development (R&D) in areas of science and technology at the 

laboratory facilities of NIST, NOAA, and NTIA’s Institute for Telecommunication Sciences 

(ITS). Technology transfer, which is a key part of the programmatic activities in these 

laboratories, connects technological advances of DOC’s science and engineering programs to the 

U.S. economy.

In addition to the technology transfer efforts of DOC laboratories, DOC is responsible for 

coordinating technology transfer activities across federal agencies. The DOC coordinates the 

Interagency Working Group for Technology Transfer (IAWGTT) through the facilitation by 

NIST of interagency discussion on policy, new approaches to technology transfer, and lessons 

learned from agency transfer programs.28 The NIST also serves as the host agency for the 

Laboratory Consortium for Technology Transfer (FLC), which provides a forum for federal labs 

to develop strategies and opportunities for linking technologies and expertise with the 

marketplace, as well as serving as the Executive Secretariat for the National Science and 

Technology Council’s Lab-to-Market subcommittee. 

More information about DOC technology transfer is available on the following websites.

NIST | NOAA | ITS

28 Agencies participating in the IAWGTT, established pursuant to Executive Order 12591 of April 10, 1987, include 

the Department of Agriculture, Department of Commerce, Department of Defense, Department of Energy, 

Department of Health and Human Services, Department of Homeland Security, Department of the Interior, 

Department of Transportation, Department of Veterans Affairs, Environmental Protection Agency, and National 

Aeronautics and Space Administration.
28

DOC Invention Disclosures and Patenting

Between FY 2014 and FY 2018, new inventions disclosed increased by 64% to 77 disclosures in 

FY 2018. Patent applications filed increased by 124% to 56, and patents issued increased by 47% 

to 28.

DOC Invention Disclosures and Patenting

Patents issued to DOC in FY 2018 covered many technology areas including Measurement 

(38%), Optics (11%), Telecommunications (8%), Electrical machinery, apparatus, energy (8%), 

and Semiconductors (7%).

29

29 Source: Prepared by Science-Metrix using USPTO data indexed in PatentsView in October 2018. Used with 

permission.

FY 2014 FY 2015 FY 2016 FY 2017 FY 2018

New Invention Disclosures 47 61 64 43 77

Patent Applications Filed 25 32 25 46 56

Patents Issued 19 20 16 34 28
29

USPTO Patents Assigned to DOC by Technology Area: FY 2018

DOC Licenses

Total active licenses increased by 76% from 38 in FY 2014 to 67 in FY 2018. New licenses 

increased by 57% to 11. All licenses were invention licenses. Total active income bearing 

licenses increased by 42% to 37, while income bearing exclusive licenses increased by 57% to 

22.

DOC Licenses
30

DOC Income from Licensing

DOC reported that all income from licensing comes from invention licenses. During the fiveyear period, from FY 2014 to FY 2018, there was a 33% decrease in total income from all active 

licenses, from $220 thousand in FY 2014 to $147 thousand in FY 2018.

DOC Income from Licensing ($ thousands)

FY 2014 FY 2015 FY 2016 FY 2017 FY 2018

Licenses, Total Active 3 8 4 6 5 7 6 8 6 7

New Licenses 7 1 3 1 5 1 9 1 1

Invention Licenses, Total Active 3 8 4 6 5 7 6 8 6 7

New Invention Licenses 7 1 3 1 5 1 9 1 1

Income Bearing Licenses, Total Active 2 6 2 9 3 1 3 5 3 7

Income Bearing Exclusive Licenses 1 4 1 6 2 0 1 9 2 2

FY 2014 FY 2015 FY 2016 FY 2017 FY 2018

Total Income, All Active Licenses $220 $164 $149 $141 $147

Invention Licenses $220 $164 $149 $141 $147

Total Earned Royalty Income, (ERI) $220 $164 $149 $141 $147
31

DOC Collaborative R&D Relationships

Between FY 2014 and FY 2018, total active CRADAs increased by 46% to 3,363 agreements 

while new CRADAs increased by 31% to 2,770. Traditional CRADAs increased 129%, from 

233 in FY 2014 to 534 in FY 2018. Other collaborative R&D relationships increased by 17%, 

from 2,981 in FY 2014 to 3,497 in FY 2018.

DOC Collaborative R&D Relationships

Efforts to Streamline Technology Transfer Operations

The NIST has undertaken several efforts to streamline and simplify the technology transfer process. 

It revised its standard CRADA to expedite review of these documents and reduce the overall size of 

these documents by approximately one third. The NIST also implemented several new licensing 

programs to encourage small businesses to participate. These programs lay out terms in advance to 

ease concerns of small businesses about overall costs. It is conducting detailed analysis of the flow of 

documents to understand where significant delays occur within the system. In many cases, these 

delays are with the partner and NIST does not have direct control; however, by continued efforts to 

identify and understand issues experienced by partners, NIST expects to identify new ways to 

simplify and streamline technology transfer practices. In FY 2018, the average number of days 

between the receipt date of an invention disclosure and the filing date of the first non-provisional 

patent application was 337 days and the average CRADA approval time was 91 days.

FY 2014 FY 2015 FY 2016 FY 2017 FY 2018

CRADAs, Total Active 2,307 2,752 2,940 2,932 3,363

New CRADAs 2,111 2,548 2,608 2,443 2,770

Traditional CRADAs, Total Active 233 365 335 413 534

Other Collaborative R&D Relationships 2,981 3,125 3,273 3,181 3,497
32

DOC Downstream Success Stories

NIST: New Cell Lines Produce NIST Monoclonal Antibody for Improved Manufacturing 

of Biologic Drugs

When NIST issued the world’s first standardized monoclonal antibody (mAb) in July

2016, the exhaustively analyzed protein known as NISTmAb (NIST Reference Material

8671) was intended as a valuable tool for biopharmaceutical companies. Its purpose is to

help ensure the quality of measurement techniques used in the development and

manufacture of biologic drug therapies for a wide range of health conditions, including

cancers, autoimmune disorders, and infectious diseases. Although the molecule has been

precisely characterized, the current proprietary method for its production has not.

In a new paper in the journal mAbs, researchers at the Institute for Bioscience and

Biotechnology Research (IBBR), a joint institute of NIST and the University of

Maryland, described how they took the first step to solve this dilemma: engineering three

mouse cell lines to produce nonproprietary versions of NISTmAb that closely resemble

the characteristics of the original reference material.

“By creating the means to produce our already well-characterized monoclonal antibody,

the NISTmAb, we can now make the measurements that will define the production

process as well as the product,” states NIST research biologist Zvi Kelman, who coauthored the 

mAbs paper. “From that, we can develop a standardized model for

monoclonal antibody biomanufacturing that will give researchers and manufacturers a

second valuable reference tool.”

Monoclonal antibodies are proteins manufactured in the laboratory that can target

specific disease cells, viruses, and other antigens (agents that trigger an immune

response) for removal from the body or can be used to deliver therapeutic chemicals or

radiation to select sites. Since the first commercial mAb was approved in 1986, their

impact on medicine has been astounding. Today, five of the 10 top-selling drugs are

mAbs with annual sales currently at $100 billion and expected to rise to $150 billion

within three years.

NIST: Industry Now Has Access to a Rare Resource

NIST’s nSoft consortium helps product developers solve difficult problems by giving them 

access to a powerful tool, unlike anything in an industry R&D lab, for seeing the structure of 

materials.

The NIST’s Material Measurement Lab developed a new model for outreach to increase industry 

access to federally funded scientific instruments. These tools are often under-utilized by privatesector researchers, because they don’t have the expertise to use them. nSoft and the NIST Center 

for Neutron Research (NCNR) train scientists from industry members to measure materials 

nondestructively. Members of nSoft develop expertise in neutron science by planning and 

executing their own experiments at NCNR with guidance from NIST scientists.
33

nSoft works at the pace of 

business, and once trained, 

industry members can get 

timely access to the 

instrument, helping them 

meet product development 

milestones. The outcomes 

from experiments are 

shared publicly so that all 

U.S. industry sectors may 

benefit. While the results of 

experiments are often 

published in scholarly 

journals, helping industry 

scientists conduct their own 

experiments is an accelerated form of technical transfer from federal research facilities to the 

people who benefit.

To date, nSoft has helped companies develop therapeutics with a longer shelf-life and higher 

strength materials and provided key insight into how plants can stay hydrated in arid and harsh 

environments.

NOAA: High Precision Devices Receives Phase II Small Business Innovation Research 

(SBIR) Award to Commercialize NOAA NOy Cavity Ringdown Instrument

High Precision Devices, a small company located in Boulder, Colorado, successfully completed 

Phase I of its commercialization plan under NOAA’s SBIR-Technology Transfer activity, and 

has been granted a Phase II award to complete the commercial development of NOAA’s patented 

NOy-Cavity Ring-Down Spectrometer. 
34

The NOy-Cavity Ring-Down Spectrometer, a patented 

technology developed at NOAA’s Earth System 

Research Laboratory, is a sensitive, compact detector 

that measures total reactive nitrogen (NOy), as well as 

NO2, NO, and O3 using cavity ring-down spectroscopy 

(CRDS). This product is unique in that the optical cage 

system holds four optical cavities (with associated 

sample cells) and a laser together, allowing a 

measurement of all four trace gases simultaneously with 

a robust calibration in a small package. The NOAA 

CRDS is compact and has lower power, size, weight, 

and vacuum requirements than chemiluminescencebased instruments on the market, while approaching 

equivalent sensitivity, precision, and time response. 

The goal for Phase II with High Precision Devices is to 

develop an even more compact, transportable, and 

powerful instrument that will attract commercial sale. 

NOAA: Scientists and Industry Professionals Join 

Forces to Develop Best Practices for Finfish Aquaculture

Aquaculture has been identified as a priority area for NOAA Fisheries. Fish in the genus Seriola 

are highly desirable fish that enter the food supply through recreational and commercial fishing 

and now through aquaculture. They can be found on seafood restaurant menus, commonly sold 

under the names of yellowtail and amberjack. They are also a mainstay of sushi restaurants 

where the same species have Japanese names such as Hiramasa, Hamachi, or Kampachi. Seriola 

species are important aquaculture species in Japan, Mexico, Chile, Australia, and in the 

European Union. In the United States, Seriola are commercially cultured in Hawaii, and largescale offshore fish farming of these species is anticipated in Southern California and the Gulf of 

Mexico. 

To advance the culture of these species, NOAA scientists and collaborators sequenced the 

Seriola genome and used genomic and physiological approaches to improve aquaculture 

procedures. California Sea Grant and NOAA Fisheries hosted the 2nd Seriola Workshop that 

brought together the research and culture community to discuss research progress, identify routes 

of collaboration, and coordinate synergistic projects for breeding, rearing, and feeding of 

yellowtail, amberjacks, and related Seriola species in culture. This workshop formed several 

new domestic and international collaborations that will better address these research priorities 

and more rapidly benefit commercial Seriola culture in the United States and globally.

NTIA ITS: Table Mountain Research

The Table Mountain Field Site and Radio Quiet Zone supports fundamental research in 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 CRADAs. 
35

• In FY 2018, capabilities were added to the Table Mountain test facilities in support of 

NOAA’s Radio Frequency Interference Monitoring System (RFIMS) program. The ITS

helped NOAA develop the technical specifications for a Request for Proposals to 

develop, produce, install, and maintain a radio frequency interference monitoring system 

to mitigate the risk of potential interference by commercial wireless carriers that are 

slated to begin sharing the spectrum with NOAA satellite operations in 2020. A 2.4-

meter Earth Station satellite dish capable of capturing Polar Operational Environmental 

Satellite (POES) satellite imagery was used to test the degree of interference that could be 

tolerated, and a robust command and control system was built to command, verify, and 

log interference transmitted to RFIMS candidate solutions under test. A 6.5 m 

Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES) receiver dish is being 

procured to support future Meteorological Satellite Testbed activities. The ITS built a 

Spectrum Survey System (SSS) to prototype near-real time monitoring, data collecting, 

and reporting methods that might be used by RFIMS. This system can also be used to 

analyze potential sharing concerns in other frequency bands.

• In FY 2018, several companies used the Table Mountain site under a CRADA to safely 

test and demonstrate LADAR technologies under development in atmospheric conditions 

and at distances relevant to potential applications, to fully test the functionality of new 

antenna designs during product development, and to safely and accurately test an 

Adaptive Tactical Laser System (ATLAS) compensated beacon adaptive optics (CBAO) 

system under development. Applications for these technologies include detection and 

tracking of wind shear and wake vortices, remote wind measurements for the offshore 

wind energy industry, mission-critical communications, electronic warfare, direction 

finding/geolocation, and sensing of hazardous liquids and gases.

• For the past 11 years, the University of Colorado’s Research and Engineering Center for 

Unmanned Vehicles safely and accurately tested collective and autonomous sensing and 

communication technologies for small-unmanned aircraft used for atmospheric science 

applications such as the study of tornadogenesis.
36

Department of Defense (DoD)

The Defense Laboratory Office (DLO) provides overall policy guidance for and oversight of 

Department-wide technology transfer efforts. The DLO ensures, to the maximum extent 

practicable, that DoD developed technologies demonstrating commercial viability are integrated 

into the private sector; that technologies developed outside of the DoD that demonstrate national 

security utility are transferred into the DoD acquisition process; and that those technologies 

demonstrating both commercial and national security applications are made available to the DoD 

as well as industry and academia.

The DoD is unique in applying the principles, practices, and tools of technology transfer in the 

execution of its mission. The DoD funds and develops mission-focused technology, and 

technology transfer statutory authorities enable it to promote and facilitate the commercialization 

of that technology for both military and civilian purposes. Concurrently, DoD is a technology 

buyer as it strives to purchase new technology embodied in products and systems to meet the 

challenges faced by our warfighters. In many instances, technology transfer and technology 

transition are becoming a seamless path to fielding new technology critical to responding to the 

new and dynamic threats of asymmetric warfare, the global war on terrorism, and the everexpanding role of civil assistance and disaster recovery worldwide. In the 1980’s, when much of 

the technology transfer legislation was enacted, the federal government, including DoD, was the 

principle-funding source for R&D. Consequently, technology transfer was viewed as a “spin out” 

to the marketplace, a stimulus to the domestic economy, and a return on investment for taxpayer 

funded R&D. Today, the majority of U.S. R&D is industry funded. This shift in funding has led 

to a greater emphasis on technology transfer as a collaborative effort between DoD labs and their 

partners in industry, academia, and state and local government.

Each of the Military Services, DoD Agencies, and Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) 

maintain technology transfer websites to inform the public and make available general 

information.

DoD Research & Engineering Enterprise

U.S. Army Research Laboratory

Office of Naval Research
37

DoD Invention Disclosures and Patenting

Between FY 2014 and FY 2018, new inventions disclosed decreased by 7%, from 902 

disclosures in 2014 to 839 disclosures in FY 2018. Patent applications filed increased by 18% 

from 898 in FY 2014 to 1,060 in FY 2018. Patents issued decreased by 7%, from 648 in FY 2014

to 600 patents in FY 2018.

DoD Invention Disclosures and Patenting

Patents issued to DoD in FY 2018 covered many technology areas including the top categories of

Measurement (14%), Telecommunications (8%), Other Special Machines (8%), Computer 

Technology (6%), and Optics (6%).30

30 Source: Prepared by Science-Metrix using USPTO data indexed in PatentsView in 2019. Used with permission.

FY 2014 FY 2015 FY 2016 FY 2017 FY 2018

New Invention Disclosures 902 743 782 978 839

Patent Applications Filed 898 875 858 869 1,060

Patents Issued 648 620 624 630 600
38

USPTO Patents Assigned to DoD by Technology Area: FY 2018

DoD Licenses31

Total active licenses increased by 12%, from 430 licenses in FY 2014 to 480 licenses in FY 

2018, while new licenses increased by 600% to 168. From FY 2014 to FY 2017, total active 

invention licenses increased by 83% to 514 and new invention licenses increased by 300% to 24. 

From FY 2014 to FY 2018, total active income bearing licenses increased by 50% to 306. 

31 DoD was unable to report data on Income Bearing Exclusive Licenses for FY 2014 and FY 2015, for Invention 

Licenses, Total Active for FY 2018, and for New Invention Licenses for FY 2018.
39

DoD Licenses

DoD Income from Licensing32

From FY 2014 to FY 2018, total earned royalty income decreased by 27% to $6.8 million.

32 DoD was unable to report total income for FY 2016 through FY 2018 or invention license income for FY 2017 

and FY 2018.

FY 2014 FY 2015 FY 2016 FY 2017 FY 2018

Licenses, Total Active 430 560 515 552 480

New Licenses 2 4 6 9 3 5 162 168

Invention Licenses, Total Active 280 431 286 514 n.a.

New Invention Licenses 6 6 9 5 7 2 4 n.a.

Income Bearing Licenses, Total Active 203 203 185 396 306

Income Bearing Exclusive Licenses n.a. n.a. 209 196 151
40

DoD Income from Licensing ($ thousands)

FY 2014 FY 2015 FY 2016 FY 2017 FY 2018

Total Income, All Active Licenses $11,280 $9,169 n.a. n.a. n.a.

Invention Licenses $10,468 $8,203 $554 n.a. n.a.

Total Earned Royalty Income, (ERI) $9,294 $7,621 $5,823 $7,415 $6,802
41

DoD Collaborative R&D Relationships

Between FY 2014 and FY 2018, total active CRADAs increased by 52%, from 3,263 in FY 2014

to 4,976 agreements in FY 2018, while new CRADAs increased by 38%, from 686 in FY 2014

to 949 in FY 2018. Traditional CRADAs increased by 10%, from 2,748 in FY 2014 to 3,010 in 

FY 2018. Other collaborative relationships increased by 282% from 515 in FY 2014 to 1,966 in 

FY 2018.

DoD Collaborative R&D Relationships

FY 2014 FY 2015 FY 2016 FY 2017 FY 2018

CRADAs, Total Active 3,263 2,377 2,603 2,995 4,976

New CRADAs 686 786 774 813 949

Traditional CRADAs, Total Active 2,748 2,130 2,273 2,424 3,010

Other Collaborative R&D Relationships 515 247 330 571 1,966
42

DoD Downstream Success Stories

Walter Reed Army Institute of Research (WRAIR): Antimalarial Drug Tafenoquine

With no vaccine yet available, malaria persists as one of the top infectious disease threats to U.S. 

military service members and support staff stationed overseas. A serious and sometimes fatal 

disease, malaria is transmitted by Anopheles mosquitoes infected with one of several species of 

the causative agent, the protozoan Plasmodium. Although only about 1,700 U.S. cases are 

diagnosed each year, the vast majority are found in travelers returning from endemic areas that 

include sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East, and South Asia. Malaria occurs in more than 100 

countries and territories globally and threatens almost half of the world’s population. The World 

Health Organization (WHO) estimates that 216 million clinical cases of malaria occur annually, 

causing 445,000 deaths. The disease has long wreaked havoc globally on both public health 

systems and local/national economies, and WHO’s strategies are now targeting the reduction of 

global incidence by at least 90 percent by 2030.

Tafenoquine recently became the first new prophylactic drug against this global health threat 

approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in more than 18 years. An 8-

aminoquinoline chemical derived from primaquine, the drug was first synthesized in 1978 by 

scientists at Walter Reed Army Institute of Research (WRAIR). Following extensive WRAIR 

research on the candidate drug, a technology transfer effort by the U.S. Army Medical Materiel 

Development Activity (USAMMDA) now adds an important weapon to the U.S. military’s 

antimalarial repertoire, protecting troops during overseas deployments.

In 2013, USAMMDA accelerated Army efforts to transition the WRAIR tafenoquine technology 

as a prophylactic drug seeking FDA approval. The tafenoquine team compiled a list of requisite 

criteria for successful tech transfer of tafenoquine and contacted several pharma companies, 

focusing on each company’s interest in and capabilities to achieve the additional tafenoquine 

research and development needed to take the drug to FDA review and subsequent marketing.

The tafenoquine team at USAMMDA subsequently selected 60° Pharmaceuticals as the best fit 

to commercialize tafenoquine and best protect deployed Department of Defense (DoD) 

personnel. A notable factor in the company’s selection was the expertise of former 

WRAIR/USAMMDA scientist Geoffrey Dow, the company’s co-founder and current CEO, who 

has more than 20 years’ experience in tropical diseases, including antimalarial drug 

development.

In December 2017, 60° Pharmaceuticals submitted technical documents on tafenoquine to the 

FDA for U.S. licensing. The company had to ensure that its tafenoquine tablets are in full 

compliance with FDA regulations regarding quality, bioavailability, and other factors. The 

company also submitted a market licensing application to the Therapeutic Goods Administration 

in Australia (approved September 2018). It has committed to provide the drug commercially, 

with anticipated launches in U.S. and Australian markets this year.

Army: SHRAILTM (the Sirkin-Hiles Rail)

Despite dramatic advancements in combat medicine, medical litters or stretchers have changed 

little over the conflicts of the past century, and surgeons in far-forward situations often are 
43

unable to use standard surgical tools in the absence of an operating room table equipped with a 

retractor, arm boards, intravenous poles, lights, and other instruments.

Conceived by two U.S. Army combat surgeons, the SHRAILTM (Sirkin-Hiles Rail) medical 

device is a lightweight rail system that allows medical personnel to attach a small surgical rail to 

the side of a standard litter that, in turn, serves as a standard attachment point for any needed 

medical equipment. Consisting of four anodized aluminum rails with color-coded locking nuts, 

the SHRAIL weighs 15 pounds and can be collapsed and carried in a backpack, making it 

available in a broad range of battlefield scenarios.

Despite the seeming simplicity of the solution, previous efforts to create a portable, lightweight 

support system for surgical tools on standard litters had failed. What Army Col. Jason Hiles and 

Maj. Max Sirkin did was to envision an elegant, easy-to-assemble solution that met the size, 

weight, and time constraints of medical personnel operating in austere combat and far-forward 

scenarios.

In December 2017, Morzine Medical, LLC, entered into a patent licensing agreement with the 

U.S. Army Medical Materiel Development Activity (USAMMDA) in conjunction with the U.S. 

Army Medical Research and Materiel Command’s Medical Technology Transfer office. Morzine 

Medical, which manufactures other austere surgical products including a stationary operating 

table, developed a commercially available SHRAILTM and is preparing to market it as a 

commercial off-the-shelf product. The company proved to be an ideal partner to commercialize 

the USAMMDA technology, having already successfully penetrated the field medicine market 

through U.S. military sales of its Doak M4 Portable Surgical Table. The SHRAILTM medical 

device was a perfect fit to expand the company’s product line and provide a resource for 

purchase of the product for the military.

Along with helping to save lives in combat situations, the technology has commercial 

applications, including remote search-and-rescue operations, humanitarian efforts, and the ability 

to create overflow critical care capacity in civilian hospitals in the event of a mass casualty 

event. For the U.S. Army, commercial transfer is a necessary component of ensuring that the 

SHRAIL meets its potential of saving the lives of seriously injured warfighters in combat 

settings or remote locations. Licensing the patented technology to a commercial developer 

exploring these potential markets makes it far more likely that the lifesaving device will be 

manufactured at scale and made available to the military to assist austere medical operations in 

combat and far-forward situations.

Navy: Laser Analysis and Sorting Instrument (LASI)

The Laser Analysis and Sorting Instrument (LASI) is a Navy-patented device and method of 

using lasers to separate and characterize particles in fluids. Developed at the U.S. Naval 

Research Laboratory (NRL), the technology uses a combination of advanced optics and 

microfluidics. A fluid flow pushes samples containing particulates through a network of flowing 

channels, where laser light interacts with streaming particles to create optical forces unique to 

those particles. Different particles, such as red blood cells or bacteria, react differently based on 

factors like size, surface morphology, shape, refractive index, and internal structures. By 

measuring cell responses, the instrument can identify and sort single cells based on their 
44

physical, biochemical, and biological characteristics. The NRL team—Dr. Sean Hart, Dr. Rita 

Manak, Alex Terray, and Amanda Horansky McKinney—were principally responsible for the 

successful LASI technology transfer to LumaCyte, LLC, a research, instrumentation, and 

analytics company based in Charlottesville, Virginia. Formal transfer of the NRL-developed 

technology to LumaCyte occurred under a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement 

(CRADA) signed in March 2014, followed by a Patent License Agreement (PLA) executed in 

the same month.

The technology transfer effort built upon professional relationships among the team members 

that began years earlier at NRL, where co-inventors Dr. Hart and Terray worked together for 

more than a decade developing LASI technology. These relationships underlie the unique aspect 

of this transfer: the uncommon technology transfer process of an NRL inventor (Dr. Hart) 

leaving the lab to create a company (LumaCyte) specifically to transition his invention, while his 

co-inventor (Terray) remained at NRL, running the LASI program and serving as the Navy lab’s 

lead during the technology transfer. Under the CRADA and PLA agreements negotiated by 

NRL’s technology transfer experts (Dr. Manak and Horansky McKinney), the two LASI 

researchers sustained a constant, symbiotic exchange of information that yielded a muchimproved commercial product.

This effort led directly to LumaCyte’s LASI-based RadianceTM instrument now on the market, 

which offers a more rapid, highly sensitive automated analysis and sorting of cell mixtures. By 

depending on the cell’s intrinsic properties, LASI has the noteworthy feature of not requiring the 

addition of antibody or genetic labels typically used to tag cells pre-assay. This is a significant 

advance over similar instrument technologies. There is a constant need for more powerful 

laboratory tools across the myriad fields within biological research, development, and 

technology. Anticipated beneficiaries of the Navy technology include R&D programs in vaccine 

manufacturing, cell therapy, infectious disease, drug discovery, and cancer diagnostics and 

treatment.
45

Department of Energy (DOE)

DOE is one of the largest supporters of technology transfers within the federal government. The 

Department plays a key role in moving new technologies developed in research labs across the 

country into the commercial marketplace, fueling the innovation engine that powers the U.S. 

economy. Bridging the gap between research and development (R&D) and commercial 

deployment is crucial to DOE’s mission to enhance U.S. security and economic growth through 

transformative science and market solutions. By creating globally competitive industries in the 

United States, the DOE enables significant cost-savings for industries and consumers and creates 

jobs for Americans.

The DOE's National Laboratories address the critical scientific challenges of our time – from 

combating climate change to discovering the origins of our universe – and possess unique 

instruments and facilities, many of which are found nowhere else in the world. They address 

large scale, complex R&D challenges with a multidisciplinary approach that places an emphasis 

on translating basic science to innovation. Among the many things that the National Laboratories 

do, some include the following:

• Conduct research of the highest caliber in physical, chemical, biological, computational,

and information sciences that advances our understanding of the world around us;

• Advance U.S. energy independence and leadership in energy technologies to ensure the 

ready availability of clean, reliable, and affordable energy;

• Enhance global, national, and homeland security by ensuring the safety and reliability of 

the U.S. nuclear deterrent, helping to prevent the proliferation of weapons of mass 

destruction, and securing the Nation’s borders; and

• Design, build, and operate distinctive scientific instrumentation and facilities, and make 

these resources available to the research community.

DOE oversees the construction and operation of some of the Nation’s most advanced R&D 

facilities, located at National Laboratories and universities. These state-of-the-art facilities are 

shared with the science community worldwide and offer some technologies and instrumentation 

that are available nowhere else. 

DOE laboratories and facilities that are actively engaged in technology transfer include the 

following:

Office of Science: 

• Ames Laboratory (Ames) 

• Argonne National Laboratory (ANL) 

• Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) 

• Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (FERMI) 

• Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) 

• Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) 

• Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) 

• Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) 
46

• SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory (SLAC) 

• Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility (JLAB)

National Nuclear Security Administration: 

• Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) 

• Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) 

• Sandia National Laboratories (SNL) 

• Savannah River Site 

• Kansas City National Security Campus (formerly the Kansas City Plant) 

• Y-12 National Security Complex, Pantex Plant

• Nevada National Security Site (formerly the Nevada Test Site)

Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy: 

• National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL)

Office of Nuclear Energy: 

• Idaho National Laboratory (INL)

Office of Fossil Energy: 

• National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL)

Office of Environmental Management: 

• Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL)

Science and engineering are not linear. The DOE’s system of National Labs, user facilities, 

research centers, and shared research facilities, makes the pursuit of discovery—and the many 

solutions that result—both a collaborative enterprise and a shared national resource. 

Collaboration with industry, academia, and other federal and state agencies is essential to 

develop, demonstrate, deploy, and commercialize the output from DOE’s broad R&D 

investments. 

The Office of Technology Transitions (OTT) mission is to expand the commercial impact of the

DOE’s research and development portfolio to advance the economic, energy, and national 

security interests of the Nation. OTT develops DOE’s policy and vision for expanding the 

commercial impact of its research investments and streamlines information and access to DOE’s 

national labs and sites to foster partnerships that will bring innovations from the labs into the 

marketplace. OTT works alongside the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, the 

Office of Environmental Management, the Office of Fossil Energy, the Office of Nuclear 

Energy, NNSA’s Office of Strategic Partnership Programs, and the Office of Science to advance 

the Department's technology transfer and commercialization goals and objectives for the 

Department's laboratories, plants, and sites.

More information about DOE’s technology transfer activities is available online with the Office 

of Technology Transitions and NNSA’s website.
47

DOE Invention Disclosures and Patenting33

Between FY 2014 and FY 2018, new inventions disclosed increased by 10%, from 1,588 in FY 

2014 to 1,748 disclosures in FY 2018. Patent applications filed declined by 24%, from 1,144 in 

FY 2014 to 868 FY 2018, while patents issued increased by 4%, from 822 in FY 2014 to 854

patents in FY 2018.

DOE Invention Disclosures and Patenting

Patents issued to DOE in FY 2018 covered many technology areas including Electrical 

Machinery, apparatus, energy (14%), Measurement (10%), Materials, metallurgy (8%),

Chemical Engineering (7%), and Biotechnology (7%).

34

33 The data in this section arises from all DOE National Laboratories—the majority of intellectual property arising 

from federal funding at the DOE National Laboratories is owned, assigned to and licensed by the Laboratory 

Management and Operating Contractors, and not the Department of Energy.

34 Source: Prepared by Science-Metrix using USPTO data indexed in PatentsView in 2019. Used with permission.

FY 2014 FY 2015 FY 2016 FY 2017 FY 2018

New Invention Disclosures 1,588 1,645 1,760 1,794 1,748

Patent Applications Filed 1,144 949 999 937 868

Patents Issued 822 755 856 817 854
48

USPTO Patents Assigned to DOE by Technology Area: FY 2018

DOE Licenses

Total active licenses decreased by 19%, from 5,861 in FY 2014 to 4,742 in FY 2018. New 

licenses increased by 16%, from 573 in FY 2014 to 662 in FY 2018. Total active invention 

licenses decreased by 46%, from 1,560 in FY 2014 to 844 in FY 2018. New invention licenses 

decreased by 42%, from 171 in FY 2014 to 100 in FY 2018. Income bearing licenses decreased 

by 21%, from 4,215 in FY 2014 to 3,323 in FY 2018, and income bearing exclusive licenses 

increased by 28%, from 141 in FY 2014 to 181 in FY 2018.

DOE Licenses
49

DOE Income from Licensing

Total income from all active licenses decreased by 44%, from $37.9 million to $21.1 million. 

License income from invention licenses decreased by 48%, from $32.9 million in FY 2014 to 

$17.2 million in FY 2018. Total earned royalty income decreased 56%, from $23.4 million in FY 

2014 to $10.2 million in FY 2018.

DOE Income from Licenses ($ thousands)

DOE Collaborative R&D Relationships35

Between FY 2014 and FY 2018, total active CRADAs increased by 41%, from 729 in FY 2014

to 1,027 in FY 2018. New CRADAs increased by 79%, from 174 in FY 2014 to 311 in FY 2018.

35 DOE was unable to report Traditional CRADAs, Total Active and Other Collaborative R&D Relationships for FY 

2018.

FY 2014 FY 2015 FY 2016 FY 2017 FY 2018

Licenses, Total Active 5,861 6,310 5,410 4,045 4,742

New Licenses 573 648 621 567 662

Invention Licenses, Total Active 1,560 1,336 943 916 844

New Invention Licenses 171 155 145 128 100

Income Bearing Licenses, Total Active 4,215 4,577 3,963 3,057 3,323

Income Bearing Exclusive Licenses 141 9 8 231 190 181

FY 2014 FY 2015 FY 2016 FY 2017 FY 2018

Total Income, All Active Licenses $37,885 $33,137 $31,149 $36,567 $21,085

Invention Licenses $32,869 $28,966 $27,364 $33,436 $17,237

Total Earned Royalty Income, (ERI) $23,384 $21,245 $16,273 $13,216 $10,239
50

DOE Collaborative R&D Relationships

FY 2014 FY 2015 FY 2016 FY 2017 FY 2018

CRADAs, Total Active 729 746 783 935 1,027

New CRADAs 174 185 264 330 311

Traditional CRADAs, Total Active 698 732 739 910 n.a.

Other Collaborative R&D Relationships 0 0 0 0 n.a.
51

DOE Downstream Success Stories

“Innovation Powered by DOE” is a new public-facing dashboard that allows one to search and 

filter by title, popular topic, industry sector and subsector, DOE National Laboratory or Site, 

state or province of over 450 DOE technology transfer and commercialization success stories of 

public and private partnerships driven by DOE’s National Laboratories and Site with partners all 

over the globe. Recent successes include:

Ames Laboratory: Acid-free rare-earth magnet recycling

One invention with two dramatic outcomes is the result of a new acid-free rare-earth magnet 

recycling process invented by scientists at the Critical Materials Institute (CMI) and Ames 

Laboratory. During the recycling process, magnets are dissolved in water-based solutions, 

allowing scientists to recover more than 99 percent purity rare-earth elements. In addition, 

cobalt is recovered from cobalt-containing magnet wastes. The rare-earth materials recovered 

are used in making new magnets while the recovered cobalt shows promise for use in making 

battery cathodes. 

The technology resulted from analyzing industrially generated wastes from three U.S. magnet 

manufacturing and processing companies. A U.S. hard disk drive shredding company supplied 

shredded HDDs. In addition, the Ames Laboratory Materials Preparation Center reduced 

magnets from the research into metal ingots, and collaboration is ongoing with a commercial 

partner, Infinium Metals, to produce metal ingots at larger scale. 

Ames Laboratory and CMI scientists Ikenna Nlebedim and Denis Prodius, and Anja-Verena 

Mudring, formerly of Ames Laboratory and currently of Stockholm University, developed the 

innovative recycling process. Nlebedim, lead investigator, says, “The unique strength of this 

technology is that it eliminates operational hazards and negative environmental impacts 

associated with acid-based dissolution process without sacrificing purity, efficiency, and 

potential economic impact.” Patents for the process have been filed, and the recycling process 

has earned a prestigious 2018 Notable Technology Development Award from the Federal 

Laboratory Consortium (FLC).

Sandia National Laboratories: Sandia Launches a Bus into Space

Sandia National Laboratories recently launched a bus into space. Not the kind with wheels that 

go round and round, but the kind of device that links electronic devices (a USB cable, short for 

"universal serial bus," is one common example).

The bus was among 16 total experiments aboard two sounding rockets that were launched as part 

of the National Nuclear Security Administration's HOT SHOT program, which conducts 

scientific experiments and tests developing technologies on nonweaponized rockets. The 

respective flights took place in April 2018 at the Kauai Test Facility in Hawaii.

The pair of flights marked an increase in the program's tempo.
52

"Sandia's team was able to develop, fabricate, and launch two distinct payloads in less than 11 

months," said Nick Leathe, who oversaw the payload development. The last HOT SHOT 

flight—a single rocket launched in May 2018—took 16 months to develop.

The sounding rockets are designed to achieve an altitude of about 1.2 million feet and to fly 

about 220 nautical miles down range into the Pacific Ocean. Sandia uses refurbished, surplus 

rocket engines, making these test flights more economical than conventional flight tests common 

at the end of a technology's development.

The HOT SHOT program enables accelerated cycles of learning for engineers and 

experimentalists. "Our goal is to take a 10-year process and truncate it to three years without 

losing quality in the resulting technologies. HOT SHOT is the first step in that direction," said 

Todd Hughes, NNSA's HOT SHOT Federal Program Manager.

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL): LLNL Licenses Breakthrough Laser 

Technology for Industrial and Therapeutic Applications

Lumitron Technologies, Inc. has acquired the key licenses from the Lawrence Livermore 

National Laboratory that will bring to market a new generation of advanced x-ray and gammaray systems.

Lumitron's game-changing HyperVIEW x-ray platform is set to revolutionize many fields of 

human endeavor including key aspects of the medical and security industries. Unlike existing 

commercial endeavors which have produced x-rays in essentially the same manner for more than 

120 years, Lumitron's proprietary x-ray technology represents a generational leap in scientific 

innovation, according to UCI's Prof. Chris Barty, Lumitron's Chief Technical Officer and former 

CTO of LLNL's National Ignition Facility and Photon Science Directorate, home of the world's 

largest laser system, the National Ignition Facility, and America's largest nuclear fusion project.

"Lumitron brings the precision and unique capabilities of billion-dollar-scale, particleaccelerator-based synchrotron x-ray light sources to the point of need in a form factor similar in 

size to a modern CT machine," says Prof. Barty, a world-renowned leader in the fields of laser 

science, x-ray and gamma-ray source development and novel photonics applications further 

explained. "Just as the laser has revolutionized the production and use of visible light in much of 

modern technology, the HyperVIEW has the potential to provide a transformational view into the 

human body and beyond."

"Existing clinical x-ray systems are generally limited to a resolution of just under 1mm. By 

contrast, the Lumitron HyperVIEW technology is capable of imaging objects up to 1000x 

smaller and of detection and analysis of the elemental and isotopic composition of the object. 

The HyperVIEW technology can also capture motion at the picosecond time-scale, that is 1000th 

of a billionth of a second."

According to Prof. Barty, the HyperVIEW technology presents the potential to create the first 

true Theranostics machine capable of both remarkable imaging detail and cellular level 

treatment, simultaneously. The implications for medical applications in particular are astounding.
53

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL): Micro Aerosol Disinfecting System Aides 

in Battle Against Coronavirus

Salt water is converted into a powerful micro-aerosol disinfectant that kills 99.999 of bacteria 

viruses and spores including the COVID-19 virus. This disinfectant is now in use by the Florida 

State Firefighters Association (FSFA).

First responders are on the frontline in the battle against 

COVID-19, often exposing themselves, equipment, and 

vehicles to the deadly virus. FSFA has added a new 

disinfection technology developed at PNNL in their effort 

to control and mitigate the ongoing spread of the virus. 

The technology, known as Paerosol, was licensed to a 

South Carolina company called NanoPure in 2018.

Recent testing conducted by Mako Medical Laboratories 

in North Carolina has provided preliminary results 

demonstrating Paerosol’s effectiveness at eliminating the 

COVID-19 viral particles. 

The PNNL initially developed a prototype of the Paerosol 

technology through a now-concluded Department of 

Energy program. The technology was further developed 

with internal PNNL funding and support from the 

Defense Threat Reduction Agency. It was licensed to Watertech, now called NanoPure, in 2015. 

The company has sold hundreds of units and is seeking approval from the Environmental 

Protection Agency to sell and ship the salt solution directly to customers.

The FSFA has deployed multiple response units in the state of Florida and has disinfected dozens 

of fire stations, restaurants, businesses, hospitals, schools, and first response vehicles. According 

to the FSFA, Paerosol is simple to use, cost effective, and requires no technical training, no site 

preparation, and no clean up. 

The FSFA has reached out to other fire department agencies across various states to expand the 

services model nationwide. The FSFA also plans to begin disinfecting personal protective 

equipment, such as masks, as well as food processing facilities and transportation systems, such 

as subways, buses, and airplanes. 

The PNNL-developed Paerosol technology is 

being used by the Florida State Firefighters 

Association to disinfect emergency vehicles, fire 

stations, and more.

Source: Department of Energy.
54

Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)

Research at HHS is conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the 

Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and the National Institutes of Health (NIH). 

The mission of Technology Transfer at HHS is to facilitate partnerships with a wide array of 

stakeholders and effectively manage the inventions conceived by scientists working at the NIH, 

FDA, and CDC. In doing so, HHS Technology Transfer supports the larger HHS mission to seek 

fundamental knowledge about the nature and behavior of living systems and the application of 

that knowledge to enhance health, lengthen life, and reduce illness and disability.

Working on behalf of NIH, FDA, and CDC, Technology Transfer offices across HHS apply 

responsive, and sometimes creative approaches to meet the needs of all parties involved, 

operating with a goal of moving scientific research and discovery forward for the benefit of 

public health. Technology Transfer at HHS does the following:

• Protects U.S. intellectual property and the discoveries conceived by NIH, FDA, and CDC 

intramural researchers. This includes working with researchers to determine if an 

invention warrants patent protection, overseeing the filing of Employee Invention 

Reports (EIRs), and coordinating the patenting, filing, and prosecution process.

• Serves as a bridge through marketing and communications, connecting the inventive 

discoveries made by scientists in the NIH, FDA, and CDC research programs to 

commercial partners with the capability of developing these technologies into products 

and services to benefit public health. Without technology transfer, the full potential of 

these inventions would not be realized, and the public would not receive the full benefit 

of these biomedical discoveries.

• Facilitates partnerships with outside parties to allow for joint collaboration. 

• Negotiates licenses and collaborative agreements such as CRADAs to ensure the timely 

development of federal technologies, which contribute to society by driving economic 

growth and productivity; these collaborations leverage the strengths of each institution to 

advance basic and clinical research objectives.

• Monitors the development of these technologies to ensure commercialization milestones 

are reached, products are brought to the market, and royalty fees are paid.

• Facilitates the transfer of thousands of research materials and data into and out of HHS.

The NIH’s annual technology transfer report is available online.

More information about HHS technology transfer activities is available on the following 

websites:

CDC | NIH | FDA

HHS Invention Disclosures and Patenting

Between FY 2014 and FY 2018, new invention disclosures decreased by 8%, from 351 in FY 

2014 to 322 disclosures in FY 2018. Patent applications filed increased by 17%, from 216 in FY 
55

2014 to 253 in FY 2018, while patents issued increased by 38%, from 453 in FY 2014 to 624 

patents in FY 2018.

HHS Invention Disclosures and Patenting

Patents issued to HHS in FY 2018 covered many technology areas including Biotechnology 

(34%), Pharmaceuticals (31%), Analysis of biological materials (12%), Organic fine chemistry 

(7%), and Medical technology (6%).

36

36 Source: Prepared by Science-Metrix using USPTO data indexed in PatentsView in 2019. Used with permission.

FY 2014 FY 2015 FY 2016 FY 2017 FY 2018

New Invention Disclosures 351 321 320 354 322

Patent Applications Filed 216 222 269 289 253

Patents Issued 453 501 579 554 624
56

USPTO Patents Assigned to HHS by Technology Area: FY 2018

HHS Licenses

Between FY 2014 and FY 2018, total active licenses increased by 20%, from 1,555 in FY 2014

to 1,867 licenses in FY 2018. New licenses increased by 58%, from 212 in FY 2014 to 335 in 

FY 2018; total active invention licenses increased by 19%, from 1,186 in FY 2014 to 1,411 in 

FY 2018; and new invention licenses increased by 150%, from 117 in FY 2014 to 292 in FY 

2018. Total active income bearing licenses increased by 16%, from 845 in FY 2014 to 978 in FY 

2018, while income bearing exclusive licenses increased by 321%, from 34 in FY 2014 to 143

licenses in FY 2018.
57

HHS Licenses

HHS Income from Licensing

Between FY 2014 and FY 2018, total income from all active licenses decreased by 19%, from 

$137.2 million in FY 2014 to $110.7 million in FY 2018. The income from invention licenses 

decreased by 19%, from $133.8 million in FY 2014 to $108.2 million in FY 2018, while total 

earned royalty income decreased by 4%, from $116.8 million in FY 2014 to $111.6 million in 

FY 2018.

FY 2014 FY 2015 FY 2016 FY 2017 FY 2018

Licenses, Total Active 1,555 1,767 1,750 1,806 1,867

New Licenses 212 279 278 334 335

Invention Licenses, Total Active 1,186 1,354 1,721 1,354 1,411

New Invention Licenses 117 232 221 282 292

Income Bearing Licenses, Total Active 845 843 837 907 978

Income Bearing Exclusive Licenses 3 4 119 145 130 143
58

HHS Income from Licensing ($ thousands)

FY 2014 FY 2015 FY 2016 FY 2017 FY 2018

Total Income, All Active Licenses $137,249 $151,727 $132,833 $134,567 $110,709

Invention Licenses $133,814 $147,512 $130,701 $132,536 $108,276

Total Earned Royalty Income, (ERI) $116,765 $114,102 $110,193 $135,963 $111,628
59

HHS Collaborative R&D Relationships

Between FY 2014 and FY 2018, total active CRADAs increased by 8%, from 532 in FY 2014 to 

577 in FY 2018, while new CRADA agreements decreased by 11%, from 98 in FY 2014 to 87 in 

FY 2018. Traditional CRADAs increased by 23%, from 376 to 465. Other collaborative R&D 

relationships decreased by 27%, from 154 to 112.

HHS Collaborative R&D Relationships

FY 2014 FY 2015 FY 2016 FY 2017 FY 2018

CRADAs, Total Active 532 400 590 588 577

New CRADAs 9 8 112 134 112 8 7

Traditional CRADAs, Total Active 378 202 391 462 465

Other Collaborative R&D Relationships 154 150 147 126 112
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HHS Downstream Success Stories

National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS): 3D Tissue Platforms for 

Drug Discovery

With the assistance and expertise of the Office of Strategic Alliances (OSA), NCATS has 

executed agreements with Rockefeller University and Columbia University in New York City to 

develop 3-D printed skin tissues that can be used to investigate possible therapies for diseases 

such as cancer and psoriasis. Traditional drug development involves analyzing the effects of 

potential drugs in 2-D laboratory-grown cells or in laboratory animal models, both of which have

limitations. Through these collaborations, NCATS intramural researchers and their collaborators 

are using the techniques of 3-D bioprinting to combine living cells with scaffolding materials, to 

create testing platforms of laboratory grown human tissues that closely mimic natural tissues in 

human organs. Such 3-D tissue models will more closely mimic the complexity of tissues in the 

human body in a reproducible, automated, and scalable manner and can be used for compound 

testing and could accelerate drug development.

National Cancer Institute (NCI): CRADA Makes Possible Clinical Trial to Evaluate 

Therapy for Rare Brain Cancer 

A CRADA allows NCI and Celgene to collaborate to conduct a Phase II clinical trial to evaluate

Celgene’s proprietary agent, Marizomib, in patients with recurrent, low-grade ependymomas.

Ependymomas—a rare brain cancer that begins in the cells lining the spinal cord canal,

ventricles, or choroid plexus—have a high rate of recurrence. The clinical outcome for patients

with advanced ependymomas is generally poor, due to a lack of standard therapy options. 

Through this collaboration, NCI and Celgene will evaluate targeting of the constitutively

activated NF-κB signaling pathway via Marizomib in patients with recurrent ependymomas. 

Marizomib has the potential to quickly receive marketing approval because it was already 

granted orphan designation by the FDA for the treatment of malignant gliomas. Overall, this 

collaboration aims to provide better health care management and increased progression-free 

survival in patients with recurrent ependymomas.

NCI: CRADA Enables Three-Way Collaboration for Preclinical Research into Ovarian 

Cancer Prevention

A Materials CRADA between NCI’s extramural Division of Cancer Prevention (DCP), the NCI 

CCR Center for Advanced Preclinical Research (CAPR), and Amgen, Inc., enables a three-way

collaboration to conduct preclinical studies that will evaluate ovarian cancer prevention.

Specifically, in preclinical studies proposed and funded by DCP, the partners will utilize and

evaluate Amgen’s proprietary agent, mu-RANK-Fc recombinant fusion protein, in CAPR’s

proprietary genetically engineered mouse models to study the effects of pharmacological

inhibition of the RANK/RANKL signaling pathway on the development of ovarian cancer.

Potentially, the study results should provide data on the effects of RANKL inhibition on ovarian

cancer development and progression. Under the terms of the Materials-Cooperative Research and 

Development Agreement (M-CRADA), the preclinical studies will utilize CAPR’s GEM models 

to also study the impact of inhibition of the RANK/RANKL signaling pathways on the cellular 

proliferation of breast, ovary, and fallopian tubes. Furthermore, it is hoped that these studies will 

complement a pre-surgical trial currently being developed by NCI DCP’s Cancer Prevention 
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Clinical Trials Consortia to investigate the effect of denosumab treatment on tubal/ovarian 

proliferation in BRCA1/2 mutation carriers.

The NCI’s Technology Transfer Center (TTC) recommended an approach that streamlined the 

TT process by consolidating the agreements needed to support the study into one CRADA. To 

accomplish this, rather than establishing a separate agreement with CAPR, the CAPR

investigator was named as a co-PI on the study because CAPR will be performing the research 

studies with funding provided by DCP.

NCI: Agreements Aid in Development of Algorithms to Detect Cervical Precancers 

The TTC executed 14 Data Transfer Agreements (DTAs) with institutions worldwide for the

development of algorithms for detection of cervical precancers based on cervical images. In its 

“Cervix Image Sharing Protocol (CISP)” study, the Clinical Genetics Branch of NCI’s Division 

of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics (DCEG) aims to develop better screening and diagnostic 

tools for cervical cancer, using machine learning algorithms to better guide treatment in low 

resource settings. Under the DTA developed by TTC, NCI provides institutions with digital 

cervical images and accompanying clinical data from large epidemiological studies on HPV and 

cervical cancer screening. These training sets are used to develop algorithms to detect cervical 

precancers. This effort supports DCEG’s goal to foster development of cervical cancer 

prevention solutions for all kinds of settings—including low resource settings that rely on robust, 

low-cost screening, and triage tools.

National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease (NIAID): Rapid Diagnostic Kits for 

Onchocerciasis and Lymphatic Filariasis

Onchocerciasis, commonly known as river blindness, is caused by the parasitic worm 

Onchocerca volvulus (Ov) and is transmitted to humans through the bite of the blackfly. It causes 

itching, skin disfiguration, and, with chronic exposure, permanent blindness. Worldwide, 169 

million people are at risk of infection. Lymphatic filariasis (LF), commonly known as

elephantiasis, is a painful and profoundly disfiguring disease, transmitted by mosquitos carrying 

parasitic worms. Of the three species known to cause LF, Wuchereria bancrofti (Wb) accounts 

for 90 percent of cases, including all cases on the African continent. Nearly 900 million people 

worldwide are at risk of infection.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has targeted LF for global elimination and 

onchocerciasis for elimination in select countries in Africa by 2020. Accurate surveillance data 

are required to inform program decisions around stopping treatment and detecting signs of 

reinfection.

Dr. Thomas Nutman and his colleagues at NIAID discovered Ov16, a recombinant antigen 

derived from Ov that can be used to detect Onchocerciasis before it is clinically apparent, and 

Wb123, an antigen specific to Wb with no cross reactivity against other closely related filariae.

These two innovations were licensed to PATH in 2013 and 2014 respectively. By April 2016, 

three rapid diagnostic kits became commercially available. They are as follows: SD BIOLINE

Onchocerciasis IgG4 rapid test, the Ov16 monoplex test for Oncoerciasis; SD BIOLINE 

Lymphatic Filariasis IgG4 rapid test, the Wb123 monoplex test for LF; and SD BIOLINE
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Onchocerciasis and Lymphatic Filariasis IgG4 rapid test, the Ov16/Wb123 biplex test for

combined surveillance. As of mid-2018, more than half a million of these diagnostic tests have

been used in 18 countries worldwide.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC): Mosquito Trap for Control and 

Surveillance of Mosquitoes Including Carriers of Zika and Other Viruses

An autocidal gravid ovitrap (AGO trap) was developed by researchers within the Division of

Vector-Borne Diseases at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) as a low-cost, 

pesticide-free method for controlling mosquito populations. The AGO trap requires no power 

and is economical to manufacture. It has shown efficacy for at least two months without 

replacement of its inexpensive consumable components, in marked contrast to weekly 

application of pesticides that can be unsafe for use around children, pets, and livestock. 

In August 2018, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office recognized the CDC with a “Patents for

Humanity Honorable Mention” for this low-cost, simple-to-assemble, and easy-to-maintain 

mosquito trap to reduce the spread of disease in resource limited settings.

Food and Drug Administration (FDA): New CRADA with Apple and FDA Allows 

Assessment of Patient Symptomology Using Mobile Sensor Technologies 

The wearable medical device market is forecasted to more than double in the next five years,

according to ReportsNReports.com. A new collaboration between NCI, Apple, and the FDA

exemplifies the research taking place to explore the potential patient benefits of mobile health

technologies. The objective is a feasibility study in clinical trials utilizing Apple’s proprietary

mobile sensor technologies to assess behavioral and physiological symptomology of patients

enrolled in NCI intramural protocols. A growing number of mobile health solutions are enabling

the tracking, diagnosis, and management of various physiological processes and disease

conditions. Many common devices such as smartphones (e.g., iPhone) have integrated robust

sensors to collect and track data. This collaboration focuses on using a stream of sensor data

that can augment clinical, imaging, and laboratory-based evaluations to provide a more

accurate, detailed and quantitative picture of the patients’ symptomology, functional status,

response to therapy, and quality of life.

Current methods for evaluating cancer patients include clinical, laboratory, and imaging

examinations in the physician’s office–and primarily involve physical examinations and patient

interviews. These evaluation methods are intermittent, providing a snapshot of the patient’s

status at the time of assessment. They are also largely subjective, relying on physician

judgement and the patient’s ability to recall events and describe their symptoms and experience.

Given these limitations, the use of remote sensor technologies could provide an objective,

frequent, and near-real time stream of data in a machine-readable format. Data would be free

of human bias, potentially enhancing the ability of both clinicians and patients to manage the

complexities of cancer care. For example, continuous biometric data could provide actionable

insights into fluctuations for patient activity level, as well as cognitive function and mood

throughout treatment. It is theorized that biometric data could also empower patients to

become active participants in their own care, by providing them with quantitative feedback on

daily activities and status. The TTC worked with FDA’s Technology Transfer Office to negotiate 

the agreement.
63

Department of Homeland Security (DHS)

As the designated DHS Office of Research and Technology Applications (ORTA; 15 USC 

§3710(b)), the Technology Transfer and Commercialization Program (T2C) manages technology 

transfer and commercialization activities for the Department, including DHS Components and the 

DHS laboratory network. T2C works directly with the DHS Office of General Counsel Technology 

Programs Law Division (OGC-TPLD) to protect, manage and license DHS intellectual property. 

T2C also has delegated responsibility for establishing research collaborations and partnerships 

through Cooperative Research and Development Agreements (CRADAs) and providing additional 

resources or support to develop and move technologies from lab to market. 

More information about DHS technology transfer activities is available on the following website:

http://www.dhs.gov/technology-transfer-program.

Revitalization

Throughout fiscal year (FY) 2018, S&T was in the midst of developing a new organizational 

structure to improve its ability to more rapidly transfer technology capabilities to DHS 

Components and Homeland Security Enterprise (HSE) end users, enable quick response to 

emerging threats, and improve research and development (R&D) business practices to make it 

easier for industry, including the start-up community, to work with S&T. 

The new structure went into effect at the beginning of FY19, and enables the agency to be more 

agile and responsive: ready to move quickly to respond to changes in the threat environment and 

to make use of existing technologies that can be adapted and leveraged to expedite the development 

of vital capabilities. Another critical element is the ability to more rapidly transfer capabilities to 

where they are most needed, working closely with S&T’s DHS Component partners and industry 

to deliver effective solutions.

The core of the revitalization is the three-pronged operating model blueprint that:

1) focuses first on understanding customers’ needs through strategic and transparent 

engagement, leveraging S&T’s expertise in operational analysis and systems engineering 

to help customers refine their needs; 

2) applies a deliberate, team-based approach that leverages S&T’s full range of capabilities, 

beginning with seeking out ready-made or easily adaptable solutions that can be delivered 

quickly and cost-effectively; and 

3) efficient, transparent, and accountable execution when a solution must be adapted or 

developed.

To accomplish this, S&T has reorganized into four primary offices that work collaboratively.

• The Office of Mission and Capability Support will conduct the majority of program 

management in support of borders, immigration, maritime, first responders, detection 

capabilities, and physical and cybersecurity.

• The Office of Science and Engineering will include operations and requirements analysis, 

systems engineering, standards, technology scouting, test and evaluation, and transition.
64

• The Office of Innovation and Collaboration will focus on industry and international 

partnerships through the Office of Industry Partnerships’ individual program offices 

including the Technology Transfer and Commercialization Branch, the Silicon Valley 

Innovation Program, and the Small Business Innovation Research Program in collaboration 

with International Partnerships, Federally Funded Research and Development Centers 

(FFRDCs), the Office University Programs, and the Office of National Laboratories

operates five laboratory campuses, dedicated to conducting Research, Development, Test 

and Evaluation (RDT&E) in HSE related mission areas as well as maintaining coordination 

with DOE National laboratories to deliver networked laboratory capabilities to the HSE.

• The Office of Enterprise Services will include all S&T support functions such as 

administration, communications, finance and budget, and the chief information office. 

Streamlined CRADA Process

As part of the revitalization effort, T2C evaluated its internal policies and procedures and moved 

forward to streamline the CRADA process. CRADAs assist DHS by facilitating collaborations 

with non-federal entities to leverage the expertise and resources of both parties. DHS relies heavily 

on CRADAs to test and evaluate technologies in operational environments. This allows DHS R&D 

program managers (PMs) to support the development and delivery of technology solutions to 

homeland security end users. The CRADA Program works with PMs and OGC-TPLD to refine 

CRADA statements of work and negotiate terms and conditions with CRADA partners. 

In FY18, T2C worked with the DHS OGC-TPLD to develop and implement a new standard 

template for DHS CRADAs. This streamlined template is much shorter and easier for our partners 

to understand and populate, containing only the basic language required for a CRADA and moving 

activity-specific information into the statement of work. The new template reduced the overall 

time required to develop, review, and execute a CRADA by an average of 45 days, resulting in 

most CRADAs taking an average of 75 days to move through the process. 

T2C works across the revitalized S&T matrixed organizational structure and uses its tools and 

mechanisms to promote the delivery of technology solutions supported through DHS S&T 

funding. This model allows S&T to leverage its science, engineering, and business engagement 

capabilities more rapidly to innovate and field solutions.
65

DHS Invention Disclosures and Patenting

In FY 2018, DHS reported 22 new inventions disclosures. From FY 2014 to FY 2018, DHS 

reported an 183% increase in patent applications filed, with 6 in FY 2014 to 17 in 2018, and a 

167% increase in patents issued, with 3 in FY 2014 to 8 issued FY 2018.

DHS Invention Disclosures and Patenting

Patents issued to DHS in FY 2018 covered multiple technology areas including Measurement 

(39%), Control (14%), Other special machines (14%), Analysis of biological materials (14%), 

and Biotechnology (7%).37

37 Source: Prepared by Science-Metrix using USPTO data indexed in PatentsView in 2019. Used with permission.

FY 2014 FY 2015 FY 2016 FY 2017 FY 2018

New Invention Disclosures 44 12 24 25 22

Patent Applications Filed 6 12 17 19 17

Patents Issued 3 5 3 2 8
66

USPTO Patents Assigned to DHS by Technology Area: FY 2018

DHS Licenses

In FY 2018, DHS managed 5 active license agreements. Out of the 5 active agreements, two 

were income bearing.

DHS Licenses

FY 2014 FY 2015 FY 2016 FY 2017 FY 2018

Licenses, Total Active 2 4 5 5 5

New Licenses 0 3 1 0 0

Invention Licenses, Total Active 2 4 5 5 5

New Invention Licenses 0 3 1 0 0

Income Bearing Licenses, Total Active 1 4 1 1 2

Income Bearing Exclusive Licenses 0 0 0 0 0
67

DHS Income from Licensing

From FY 2014 to FY 2018, DHS reported a 1100% increase in Total Earned Royalty Income 

from $3 thousand in FY 2014 to $36 thousand in FY 2018.

DHS Income from Licensing ($ thousands)

FY 2014 FY 2015 FY 2016 FY 2017 FY 2018

Total Income, All Active Licenses $ 3 $ 5 $12 $20 $36

Invention Licenses $ 0 $ 0 $12 $20 $36

Total Earned Royalty Income, (ERI) $ 3 $ 5 $12 $20 $36
68

DHS Collaborative R&D Relationships38

Total active CRADAs increased by 72%, from 158 in FY 2014 to 272 agreements in FY 2018. 

New CRADAs increased by 34%, from 88 in FY 2014 to 118 new agreements in FY 2018.

DHS Collaborative R&D Relationships

38 DHS was unable to report Non-Traditional CRADAs, Small Business related and Other Collaborative R&D 

Agreements for FY 2018.

FY 2014 FY 2015 FY 2016 FY 2017 FY 2018

CRADAs, Total Active 158 230 343 397 272

New CRADAs 8 8 9 8 114 106 118

Traditional CRADAs, Total Active 121 200 272 272 272

Other Collaborative R&D Relationships 3 1 3 0 7 1 7 1 0
69

Department of the Interior (DOI)

Technology transfer for the DOI includes a range of activities designed to disseminate scientific 

and technical information and knowledge between the DOI, other federal agencies, and nonfederal entities. It includes, but is not limited to, publications, exchange of scientific and 

technical information, protecting and licensing intellectual property rights, and sharing, (or 

otherwise making available) for scientific or technical purposes, the expertise and specialized 

scientific material and resources which the DOI manages. In general, technology transfer 

activities within the DOI are consistent with its mission to protect and manage the Nation’s 

natural resources and cultural heritage; provide scientific and other information about those 

resources; and honor trust responsibilities or special commitments to American Indians, Alaska 

Natives, and affiliated Island Communities.

This section describes the actions that the DOI took in FY 2018 to advance technology transfer. 

These range from developing new technologies that would help identify various substances in 

water to improved methods to measure water quality in high biofouling environments. These 

activities demonstrate the innovation, expertise, and dedication of the Department’s employees, 

including its many scientists and engineers, to help reduce risks to public health, safety, and the 

environment from natural and man-made hazards. 

The DOI’s bureaus have varying levels of involvement with scientific and technical research,

innovation, and technology transfer. In FY 2018, as in previous years, the majority of 

technology transfer activities reported by the Department under the Federal Technology Transfer 

Act of 1986 (FTTA) were undertaken by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), which is the 

largest research and development (R&D) organization in the Department, both in terms of 

funding and personnel. Typically, USGS accounts for roughly two thirds of the Department’s 

R&D funding. 

The DOI’s scientists, engineers, and other technical personnel advance the state of knowledge 

related to the resources it manages and ensure that this information is accessible to resource 

managers, private industry, and the general public. The vast majority of the Department’s 

technology transfer activities use traditional technology transfer mechanisms, such as 

publications of peer reviewed papers and reports, webpage postings, fact sheets, and 

presentations at meetings and conferences. In 2018, DOI personnel authored or co-authored over 

12,300 reports, books, fact sheets, and other publications, including almost 4,500 scientific 

publications. 

Bureaus also use other conventional approaches to share scientific and technical resources and 

expertise with each other, universities, and other entities to address resource management issues. 

For example, seven DOI bureaus are active participants in the network of 17 Cooperative 

Ecosystem Studies Units (CESUs), a collaboration among 15 Federal agencies and more than 

400 non-federal partners (including universities, Tribes and tribal organizations, state agencies, 

museums, aquariums, arboretums, and conservation organizations). Each CESU is hosted by a 

university.
70

In addition, some bureaus and/or offices have offered prizes to help develop new or improve 

existing technologies. The bulk of the prize competition activities at DOI are undertaken by the 

Bureau of Reclamation’s Water Prize Competition Center (WPCC). In FYs 2017-2018, the 

WPCC completed, had underway, or launched 15 prize competitions which included 14 from the 

WPCC, and one jointly offered by the National Invasive Species Council, DOI’s Office of 

Hawaiian Affairs, and other DOI bureaus. Reclamation plans to launch 17 more competitions 

over the next few years.

Bureaus that are active in research and development, or have research capabilities that 

complement U.S. commercial interests, may also utilize technology transfer agreements 

authorized by the FTTA to join forces with non-federal partners. Such agreements allow the 

Department’s bureaus and private sector industries to pool their expertise and resources to jointly 

create and advance technologies that could help fulfill agency missions while helping U.S. 

industries innovate and commercialize technologies, which can strengthen our national economy 

and create jobs. 

DOI's annual technology transfer report is available online.

More information about DOI technology transfer activities is available online.
71

DOI Invention Disclosures and Patenting

From FY 2014 to FY 2018, new inventions disclosed increased by 50%, from 6 in FY 2014 to 9

disclosures in FY 2018. Patent applications filed increased by 75%, from 4 in FY 2014 to 7 in 

FY 2018. Patents issued increased by 200%, from 2 in FY 2014 to 6 in FY 2018.

DOI Invention Disclosures and Patenting

The patents issued to DOI in FY 2018 covered multiple technology areas including the 

following: Measurement (42%), Other special machines (14%), Analysis of biological materials 

(12%), Audio-visual technology (12%), and Chemical engineering (8%).

39

39 Source: Prepared by Science-Metrix using USPTO data indexed in PatentsView in 2019. Used with permission.

FY 2014 FY 2015 FY 2016 FY 2017 FY 2018

New Invention Disclosures 6 7 8 12 9

Patent Applications Filed 4 8 4 5 7

Patents Issued 2 3 1 3 6
72

USPTO Patents Assigned to DOI by Technology Area: FY 2018

DOI Licenses

From FY 2014 to FY 2018, total active licenses decreased by 6%, from 18 in FY 2014 to 17

licenses in FY 2018. New invention licenses increased from 0 in FY 2014 to 2 in FY 2018. DOI 

reported no total active invention licenses or new invention licenses in FY 2018. From FY 2014 

to FY 2018, DOI reported a 7% decrease in total active income bearing licenses, from 14 in FY 

2014 to 13 in FY 2018.

DOI Licenses
73

DOI Income from Licensing

Between FY 2014 and FY 2018, total income from all active licenses decreased by 12%, from 

$58 thousand in FY 2014 to $51 thousand in FY 2018. The income from invention licenses 

decreased by the same amount, as all income received came from invention licenses. Total 

earned royalty income also decreased by 12%, from $58 thousand in FY 2014 to $51 thousand in 

FY 2018.

DOI Income from Licensing ($ thousands)

FY 2014 FY 2015 FY 2016 FY 2017 FY 2018

Licenses, Total Active 1 8 2 0 2 2 1 5 1 7

New Licenses 0 3 0 0 2

Invention Licenses, Total Active 1 6 1 8 2 0 1 3 0

New Invention Licenses 0 3 0 0 0

Income Bearing Licenses, Total Active 1 4 1 8 1 7 1 3 1 3

Income Bearing Exclusive Licenses 5 7 8 7 0

FY 2014 FY 2015 FY 2016 FY 2017 FY 2018

Total Income, All Active Licenses $58 $106 $83 $50 $51

Invention Licenses $58 $106 $83 $50 $51

Total Earned Royalty Income, (ERI) $58 $106 $83 $50 $51
74

DOI Collaborative R&D Relationships

From FY 2014 to FY 2018, total active CRADAs increased by 23% from 601 to 740 agreements. 

The number of new CRADAs decreased by 0.2% from 423 in FY 2014 to 422 in FY 2018.

Traditional CRADAs increased by 51%, from 35 in FY 2014 to 53 agreements in FY 2018.

Other collaborative R&D relationships decreased by 15%, from 292 in FY 2014 to 249 in FY 

2018.

DOI Collaborative R&D Relationships

FY 2014 FY 2015 FY 2016 FY 2017 FY 2018

CRADAs, Total Active 601 826 873 841 740

New CRADAs 423 586 511 477 422

Traditional CRADAs, Total Active 3 5 3 8 3 7 5 8 5 3

Other Collaborative R&D Relationships 292 318 319 247 249
75

DOI Downstream Success Stories

United States Geological Survey: ShakeAlert – An Earthquake Early Warning System

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) has formed partnerships with both public and private 

entities to develop an earthquake early warning (EEW) alert system called ShakeAlert. The 

system has the potential to have a significant impact because earthquakes pose a national 

challenge, with more than 75 million Americans living in areas of significant seismic risk. The 

Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has estimated that the average annual loss 

from earthquakes is $5.3 billion.

The USGS, through its CRADA authority, collaborated with several organizations—including 

the California Geological Survey, Caltech Seismological Laboratory, Berkeley Seismological 

Laboratory, USGS Menlo Park, USGS Pasadena, and the California Governor's Office of 

Emergency Services—to form the California Integrated Seismic Network (CISN) to monitor 

earthquakes and collect data to support improvements to earthquake resilience. The CISN also 

collaborated with other seismic networks, such as the Advanced National Seismic System 

(ANSS), to detect earthquakes’ first wave (p-wave) and the more damaging subsequent 

transverse and surface waves. This collaboration enables USGS and ANSS to leverage their 

substantial investment in sensor networks, data telemetry systems, data processing centers, and 

software for earthquake monitoring activities residing in these network centers.

Earthquake early warning systems like ShakeAlert work because the warning message can be 

transmitted almost instantaneously while shaking waves from the earthquake travel through the 

Earth at speeds of a few miles per second. When an earthquake occurs, seismic waves—

including compressional (P) waves, transverse (S) waves, and surface waves—radiate outward 

from the epicenter. The faster but weaker P waves trip nearby sensors, causing alert signals to be 

sent out, giving people and automated electronic systems some time (seconds to minutes) to take 

protective actions before the arrival of the slower but stronger S waves and surface waves. 

Computers and mobile phones receiving the alert message can calculate the expected arrival time 

and intensity of shaking at your location. 

USGS image created by Erin Burkett (USGS) and Jeff Goertzen (Orange County Register).
76

USGS: Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University CRADA – “Quantifying 

Floodplain Ecological Processes and Ecosystem Services.” 

Floodplain and wetland areas lie at the intersection of terrestrial and aquatic systems, serving as 

biogeochemical “hotspots” for material transformations and nutrient processing within a 

watershed. During flood events, when the bulk of downstream discharge and pollutant loading 

occurs, floodplain topographic features and vegetation slow the water velocity. This allows for 

settling and deposition of sediments and increases the opportunity for nutrient uptake and 

processing. The capacity of the floodplain ecosystem to retain sediment, nutrients, and 

floodwaters provides critical ecosystem services to local and downstream communities in the 

Delaware River Watershed (DRW). Ecosystem services are defined as the benefits to people 

provided by or via the natural environment. For example, nutrient retention within a floodplain 

supports high water quality, which is important for fish and other wildlife. As a result, 

recreational activities (such as fishing, boating, wildlife watching), would (or should) increase, as 

would the value of those services. However, the ability of floodplains to provide functions and 

services vary depending on human land use and management decisions, as well as natural 

hydrogeomorphic variation. To make informed decisions about location-specific tradeoffs 

between land use planning and conservation, stakeholders need a better understanding of the 

services provided by floodplains in their specific areas.

Quantifying ecosystem services by linking ecosystem function to values, offers a framework to 

assess the value provided by floodplains and the tradeoffs associated with land management 

decisions. 

Currently, there is a lack of knowledge specific to the Delaware River Watershed on how 

floodplain ecosystem functions translate into ecosystem services and values. The intention of this 

CRADA with the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University is to fill this knowledge 

gap by leveraging and building upon floodplain function and ecosystem service methods 

developed for the Chesapeake Bay watershed. This will be accomplished through a combination 

of fieldwork, mapping, and modeling for the DRW. This assessment of floodplain condition and 

associated ecosystem services will help identify areas for targeted management in order to 

maintain areas with high ecosystem service values, and to restore areas that could provide the 

most ecosystem service benefits. 

The goals of this project are to 1) inform Delaware River Watershed Initiative (DRWI) to 

conserve and restore water quality and overall ecological health, and 2) facilitate strategic 

targeting of conservation and restoration actions within the floodplain of the DRW. 

United States Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS): National Conservation Training Center

The FWS Conservation Library at the National Conservation Training Center (NCTC) in 

Shepherdstown, West Virginia, provides a searchable collection of selected documents, images, 

historical artifacts, audio clips, publications, and video, most of which are in the public domain. 

FWS also makes internal publications, reports, and other information available to the public 

through the FWS website. Collections of current and legacy publications (including biological 

and technical publications) are available online from the NCTC library catalog and websites. 

NCTC also maintains links to biological and technical publications, as well as additional 

publications regarding birds, wetlands, fish hatcheries, and National Wildlife Refuges. 
77

NCTC also hosts publicly-accessible webinars dealing with a variety of scientific and technical 

issues that affect the nation’s fish and wildlife resources. During FY 2018, NCTC hosted 60 

online science, technology, and educational webinars; 70 e-courses; and 33 podcasts related to 

managing the nation’s fish, wildlife, and plant resources. These are an important component of 

FWS’s traditional technology transfer activities.

FWS: Aquatic Invasive Species

The FWS Aquatic Invasive Species program works to prevent the transfer and introduction of 

exotic, introduced, non-native, and other potentially harmful species and to develop early 

detection and rapid response capabilities. For example, the program worked with numerous 

partners to develop methods for detecting miniscule amounts of free-floating DNA 

(environmental DNA or eDNA) in water samples to confirm the presence (or absence) of species 

at levels undetectable by traditional sampling methods. This innovative technology is now being 

applied widely in monitoring programs and, as it continues to be further developed and refined, 

will significantly benefit both FWS programs and partners by allowing earlier detections of 

invasive species. 

The FAC program is also applying rapid screening tools it has developed to help determine a 

species’ risk for invasion. Knowledge of both low- and high-risk species will help industry, 

states, and consumers make more responsible choices about which species to acquire and use. In 

addition, these tools will help state agencies make decisions on potentially invasive species and 

work with industry to manage risky species in their jurisdictions. For example, Michigan’s 

Public Act 537, established new protections to minimize the risk of invasive species that require, 

among other things, the use of FWS’s risk assessment protocol.

Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement (OSMRE): National Technical 

Training Program (NTTP)

Established in 1985, NTTP is an ongoing training program designed to aid the bureau’s mission 

by increasing the technical competence and professionalism of State, Tribal and OSMRE 

regulatory and reclamation staff. The NTTP provides comprehensive training in the skills 

needed to carry out the mandates of SMCRA. The entire program, from identification of training 

needs through course development and presentation, is a cooperative effort between State, 

Tribal, and OSMRE offices. The NTTP utilized 160 subject matter expert instructors (mostly 

volunteers) from State, Tribal, and DOI offices in FY 2018, to teach classes. The instructors are 

experts in mining regulatory and reclamation practices who keep abreast of changing 

technologies, evolving methodologies, and policies to ensure the training reflects the best 

protection and land restoration practices. 

In FY 2018, NTTP trained 873 students from State, Tribal and OSMRE programs. It offered 39 

training sessions covering technical, legal, and programmatic subjects ranging from best 

practices and technologies to protect society and the environment from the adverse effects of 

surface and underground mining, to methods to restore land use capabilities. The course subjects 

are, where possible, tailored to conditions and characteristics specific to each mining region, and 

offered in or near those regions. Course subjects include a wide variety of technical areas for a 

variety of practical applications including the design of abandoned mine land restoration, proper 
78

inspection tools and techniques, soils and revegetation, identification and handling of acid/toxic 

forming materials, water quality assessment, legal aspects of enforcement procedures, and 

preparation of evidence and testimony. In FY 2018, the program achieved an overall 

effectiveness rating of 90 percent, based on student and supervisor responses regarding the value 

of the training in their current positions.

National Park Service (NPS): Benefits-Sharing Agreement 

Yellowstone National Park executed a non-traditional CRADA with a small business that plans 

to commercialize research results from a study of microbial mats collected from thermal areas in 

the park. The company is providing non-monetary benefits related to a genetic monitoring 

program for the purpose of conserving genetic diversity within the park. The company will 

provide monetary benefits upon successful commercialization of its discoveries. 

Bureau of Reclamation (Reclamation): Test New Mussels Resistant Coatings for 

Reclamation Infrastructure. 

Reclamation conducts research across a broad portfolio of technologies for corrosion protection 

and methods to reduce fouling of infrastructure by mussels. This includes research into durable, 

“foul-release” coatings that would negate mussels’ ability to attach to the infrastructure. 

Reclamation’s Materials and Corrosion Laboratory (MCL) entered into a material transfer 

agreement to test new protective coatings that contain super hydrophobic additives for corrosion 

protection capabilities in coatings applications. 

Reclamation’s MCL conducted a side-by-side laboratory comparison with and without a 

superhydrophobic additive in different coating systems to determine if there is any benefit in 

corrosion protection. The results showed improvement in corrosion protection for cyclic 

exposure while some mechanical and appearance properties decreased compared to the parent 

Doublet Pool, Yellowstone National Park. Research on microorganisms found in extreme environments, such as this thermal 

feature, has led to some significant discoveries and practical applications. Credit: NPS/Yellowstone National Park
79

system. The only logical use for this new superhydrophobic additives would be for atmospheric 

exposure but would have some obstacles to overcome. 

The testing results were shared with the company who provided their protected super 

hydrophobic additives while gaining a better understanding of possible new market applications 

for their technology. Testing this new additive allowed Reclamation to continue to gain 

knowledge and develop new and better coatings for its water infrastructure.
80

Department of Transportation (DOT)

The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) is the Federal steward of the Nation’s 

transportation system. DOT consists of multiple modal Operating Administrations (OAs) 

that carry out mission-related Research, Development, and Technology (RD&T) programs in 

support of the DOT strategic goals: Safety, State of Good Repair, Economic Competitiveness, 

Quality of Life in Communities, and Environmental Sustainability. DOT’s Technology Transfer 

Program, which is housed in the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Research and Technology 

(OST-R), is responsible for coordinating, documenting, and supporting technology transfer 

activities across the Department. 

The DOT defines technology transfer as the process of transferring and disseminating 

transportation related scientific information to stakeholders who may apply it for public or 

private use. The DOT’s current approach to technology transfer is diverse and unique to each 

mode of transportation. Each modal OA conducts mission-specific deployment activities tailored 

to its mode and type of research. Agency specific technology transfer activities may be found

online.

Technology transfer activities are executed by DOT agencies and their laboratories:

• Federal Aviation Administration (FAA): William J. Hughes Technical Center (WJHTC),

Atlantic City, NJ, and Civil Aerospace Medical Institute, Oklahoma City, OK;

• Federal Highway Administration (FHWA): Turner-Fairbank Highway Research Center 

(TFHRC), McLean, VA; 

• Office of the Assistant Secretary for Research and Technology (OST-R): John A. Volpe 

National Transportation Systems Center (Volpe Center), Cambridge, MA;

• National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA): Vehicle Research and Test 

Center (VRTC), East Liberty, OH; and

• Federal Railroad Administration (FRA): Transportation Technology Center, Pueblo, CO.

DOT’s annual technology transfer report is available online.

More information about DOT’s technology transfer activities is available on the following 

websites.

FAA | FHWA | OST-R | FRA
81

DOT Invention Disclosures and Patenting

In FY 2018, DOT reported 12 invention disclosures and 2 patent applications. No new patents 

were awarded.

DOT Invention Disclosures and Patenting

FY 2014 FY 2015 FY 2016 FY 2017 FY 2018

New Invention Disclosures 3 0 0 3 12

Patent Applications Filed 0 5 0 7 2

Patents Issued 1 1 1 0 0
82

DOT Licenses

In FY 2018, DOT reported 5 active license agreements and one invention license. All active 

licenses were reported as income bearing licenses. DOT reported no new invention licenses in 

FY 2018.

DOT Licenses

FY 2014 FY 2015 FY 2016 FY 2017 FY 2018

Licenses, Total Active 1 2 2 5 5

New Licenses 0 1 2 1 1

Invention Licenses, Total Active 1 2 0 0 1

New Invention Licenses 0 0 0 0 0

Income Bearing Licenses, Total Active 1 2 2 5 6

Income Bearing Exclusive Licenses 1 0 0 0 0
83

DOT Income from Licensing

Between FY 2014 and FY 2018, total income from all active licenses decreased by 43%, from 

$23 thousand to $13 thousand. In FY 2014 through FY 2018, DOT reported zero income from 

invention licenses. Total Earned Royalty Income was reported to be $13 thousand in FY 2018, a 

43% decrease from FY 2014.

DOT Income from Licensing ($ thousands)

FY 2014 FY 2015 FY 2016 FY 2017 FY 2018

Total Income, All Active Licenses $23 $12 $15 $20 $13

Invention Licenses $ 0 $ 0 $ 0 $ 0 $ 0

Total Earned Royalty Income, (ERI) $23 $12 $15 $20 $13
84

DOT Collaborative R&D Relationships

Between FY 2014 and FY 2018, total active CRADAs increased by 24%, from 51 to 63

agreements, while new CRADAs agreements declined by 30%, from 10 in FY 2014 to 7 in FY 

2018. Traditional CRADAs increased from 7 in FY 2014 to 63 in FY 2018. Other collaborative 

R&D relationships increased by 947% from 30 in FY 2014 to 314 in FY 2018.

DOT Collaborative R&D Relationships

FY 2014 FY 2015 FY 2016 FY 2017 FY 2018

CRADAs, Total Active 5 1 4 8 6 8 6 5 6 3

New CRADAs 1 0 9 2 2 6 7

Traditional CRADAs, Total Active 7 4 8 6 2 6 6 6 3

Other Collaborative R&D Relationships 3 0 3 5 152 355 314
85

DOT Efforts to Streamline Technology Transfer Operations

The importance of 

T2 within U.S. DOT 

is reflected in its 

Strategic Plan for FY 

2018 to FY 2022, 

which was released 

in February 2018. 

Citing Innovation as 

one of the four main 

strategic goals in the 

plan, U.S. DOT 

strives to lead in the 

development and 

deployment of 

innovative practices 

and technologies that 

improve the safety and performance of the Nation’s transportation system. 

Under that strategic goal, Deployment of Innovation is a key objective, and T2 is identified as 

one of the strategies to be used to accomplish that objective. The relationship of T2 to the 

Department’s research and development (R&D) process and to stakeholder engagement is shown 

in the figure.

Additional information on DOT efforts to streamline technology transfer operations can be found

online in the DOT Technology Transfer Annual Reports.

DOT Downstream Success Stories

Federal Railroad Administration (FRA): PTC Braking Algorithm

The PTC is an emerging train control technology intended to enhance safety. The underlying 

concept of the technology is that movement authorities and speed restrictions are transmitted 

digitally to the controlling locomotive of each train. The locomotive monitors the train’s location 

with respect to its authority and speed limits. It then automatically applies brakes to prevent the 

train from violating any limit in the event of human failure. A necessary element of PTC is a 

braking algorithm that can accurately predict how a train’s speed and stopping distance will 

respond to automatic applications of the brakes.

Evaluating the modeled performance of braking algorithms for freight trains was once a monthslong process, which slowed the rate at which railroads could implement improvements in those 

algorithms. In 2018, FRA funded the development of improved evaluation methodologies for 

PTC braking algorithms, which were then added to the capabilities of the PTC Test Bed and the 

Transportation Technology Center in Pueblo, Colorado. The U.S. railroads (including all seven 

Class I freight railroads operating in the United States) and suppliers are actively using the PTC 

Test Bed and the subject methodologies to refine the performance of their PTC systems. With the 

improved evaluation methodologies, a standard set of modeled scenarios can be completed in a 

matter of days, accelerating the implementation of improvements to braking algorithms.

Source: U.S. DOT.
86

The figure below shows the potential gain in efficiency by enabling trains to travel at higher 

speeds for longer periods. In the figure, EA stands for Enforcement Application, which is the 

train speed at which PTC will enforce and deploy the brakes if the train operator ignores the PTC 

enforcement warning. The difference between the green and red curves shows the improvement 

that was achieved as a result of FRA’s R&D.

National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA): Development of a VehicleCentric Security Credential Management System

Connected vehicle applications will rely upon the exchange of information among vehicles, 

roadway infrastructure, traffic management centers, and wireless mobile devices. This 

cooperative exchange of messages generates data that applications use to issue alerts and 

warnings to drivers about the driving situation around them. It also enables applications to 

determine mobility and environmental conditions. However, a cooperative system can only work 

when drivers are able to trust the alerts and warnings issued by their connected-vehicle devices, 

which are based, at least in part, on information received from other connected-vehicle devices.

To ensure safety and the protection of privacy, a security credential management system (SCMS) 

is needed to enable users to determine the validity and integrity of information received from 

other system users. In collaboration with a consortium of automotive original equipment 

manufacturers (OEMs), the Department designed and developed a proof-of-concept SCMS for 

V2V and vehicle-to-infrastructure communication. Development of this proof-of-concept helped 

spur the development of private-sector security solutions that are now serving the marketplace.

As of August 2018, multiple technology companies are leveraging the technological lessons 

from the SCMS proof-of-concept to provide commercial services to automotive companies that 

are deploying vehicle-to-everything (V2X) technology. Such commercial services did not exist 

prior to the Department’s R&D of the SCMS proof-of-concept. The SCMS proof-of-concept is 

also being used for FHWA-funded deployments of V2X, including the Connected Vehicle Pilot 

sites and participants in the ATCMTD grant program.

Source: FRA
87

Federal Highway Administration (FHWA): Partially Automated Truck Platooning 

Demonstration

Fuel consumption of commercial trucks is significantly influenced by air resistance at highway 

speeds. The FHWA’s Exploratory Advanced Research (EAR) program, administered by 

TFHRC, has sponsored research on technologies that enable long-haul trucks to travel together 

more closely in a “platoon,” which reduces aerodynamic drag and improves fuel economy. Even 

small improvements in fuel efficiency can have a significant payoff given the large number of 

miles traveled by long-haul trucks in the United States each year. This research has been 

performed by partnerships that include truck manufacturers and university researchers.

The EAR Program seeks to combine 

single-vehicle adaptive cruise control 

with additional onboard sensors and 

V2V communication, to exchange 

information between the trucks and 

automatically adjust engine and brakes in 

real time as conditions vary. This system, 

known as cooperative adaptive cruise 

control (CACC), exchanges operational 

information between the trucks and can 

automatically adjust engine and brakes to 

maintain longitudinal control (speed and 

separation distance). Drivers are 

responsible for lateral control (steering 

and lane-keeping) and monitoring 

roadway and traffic conditions. The system makes it possible for the CACCequipped trucks to travel closer together with more precise control than manual operations alone, 

thus allowing for potential fuel savings.

After four years of research, FHWA and numerous project partners conducted a demonstration of 

three-truck platoons on I-66 in northern Virginia and continued to analyze the results in FY

2018. The FHWA is continuing to fund research and to engage the trucking industry, in order to 

identify and answer the key issues that must be addressed prior to market introduction of heavy 

truck CACC.

Source: FHWA.
88

Federal Aviation Administration (FAA): S76A Helicopter

In collaboration with 

industry, academic, and 

government partners, the 

FAA operates a one-of-akind national flying 

laboratory resource. The 

Sikorsky S76A helicopter 

performs flight testing in 

support of aviation research 

activities to improve 

helicopter safety. Research 

projects using the S76A 

helicopter support FAA and 

U.S. Helicopter Safety 

Team initiatives, including 

Helicopter Flight Data 

Monitoring for Aviation 

Safety, Information 

Analysis and Sharing, 

Enhanced Helicopter Vision Systems, and 

other efforts. The S76A helicopter is instrumented with the latest recording technology for audio, 

video, and flight data, including dozens of cameras, cockpit microphones, flight data recorders, 

enhanced vision systems, and head-worn displays. The Federal Lab Consortium for Technology 

Transfer (FLC) showcased the Sikorsky S76A helicopter in its 2019 FLC Planner.

Source: Federal Lab Consortium for Technology Transfer.
89

Department of Veteran Affairs (VA)

The VA is the cabinet level agency whose mission statement strives to fulfill President Lincoln’s 

promise: “To care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow, and his orphan.”

The VA works to meet that promise through the service and honor of the men and women who 

are America’s Veterans, by holding all employees to the core values of Integrity, Commitment, 

Advocacy, Respect, and Excellence. The VA has three administrative elements whose goals are 

to provide encompassing and integrated care for our nation’s veterans and their families:

• Veterans Health Administration (VHA), whose mission is to honor America’s Veterans 

by providing excellent health care that improves their health and well-being;

• Veterans Benefits Administration, whose mission is to provide benefits and services to 

the Veterans and their families in a responsive, timely, and compassionate manner in 

recognition of their service to the nation; and

• National Cemetery Administration, whose mission is to honor Veterans and their eligible 

family members with final resting places in national shrines, and with lasting tributes that 

commemorate their service and sacrifice to our Nation.

For over 90 years, the VA Research program has improved veterans’ lives through scientific 

discovery, health care innovation, and service delivery. The Office of Research and 

Development (ORD) is the division within the Veteran’s Health Administration which aspires to 

discover knowledge, develop VA researchers and health care leaders, and create innovations that 

advance health care for our Veterans and the Nation. The research program within the 

Department of Veterans Affairs has an illustrious past in which its researchers have won three 

Nobel prizes in medicine, seven Lasker Awards, one Malcolm Baldrige Quality Award, and have 

also created the largest Genomic Medicine sample collection program in the world (the Million 

Veteran Program). 

As of FY 2018, ORD is headquartered in Washington, DC but includes an estimated 2,500 VA

investigators and 10,000 research staff located at over 100 VA Medical Centers nationwide. 

Over sixty percent of VA Medical Centers have an embedded on-site research program which 

mirrors the diversity of the VA hospitals in size, scope, and complexity. These research 

programs receive guidance and competitive intramural funding from VA ORD but manage their 

research offices and programs independently. The VA research differs from other federal 

research programs in that it is completely funded with intramural dollars. The VA investigators 

can apply for other federal and private funds, but non-VA employees or appointees cannot 

receive VA research funding. The VA hospitals and research programs work with the Office of 

Academic Affiliations to partner with academic institutions and universities to broaden available 

resources for both patient care and research. By partnering with others who have common 

research interests, ORD is able to leverage resources, deepen innovations, and expand the impact 

of federal research investments. 

ORD provides oversight of four research services and three supportive programs, each headed by 

a director, supervised by the Chief Research and Development Officer (CRADO), who in turn 

reports to the Deputy Under Secretary for Health for Policy and Services. Together, these offices 
90

form a cohesive whole, directed to explore all phases of veterans' healthcare needs and interact 

with a number of world-renowned research centers nationwide. The four research services are as 

follows:

The Biomedical Laboratory Research & Development Service (BLR&D) conducts research that 

explores basic biological or physiological principles in humans or animals but does not involve 

intact human beings. For example, it includes research on animal models and investigations of 

tissues, blood, or other biologic specimens from humans. The Genomic Medicine Program and 

the Million Veteran Program are housed within BLR&D.

The Clinical Science Research and Development Service (CSR&D) conducts research which is

focused on intact human beings as the unit of examination. Examples include interventional and 

effectiveness studies, clinical, epidemiological, and technological studies.

The Health Services Research and Development Service (HSR&D) pursues research at the 

interface of health care systems, patients, and health care outcomes. The HSR&D underscores all 

aspects of VA healthcare: specifically, quality, access, patient outcomes and healthcare costs. 

The Rehabilitation Research & Development Service (RR&D) is dedicated to the well-being of 

America's veterans through a full spectrum of research from approved rehabilitation research 

projects, through evaluation and commercialization to final clinical application. 

As of FY 2018, the three supportive programs housed within ORD include VA Technology 

Transfer, the VA Non-Profit offices, and the Program for Research Integrity Development and 

Education (PRIDE) which provides oversight and programmatic certification for human research 

compliance. Each of these supportive programs provide overall support to all ORD services and 

programs while also supporting field researchers, and in the case of technology transfer, supports 

all VA employees with any inventions.

The ORD’s mission is focused on improving the future of healthcare for veterans, and

Technology Transfer provides a pathway within VA to move research or employee innovations

and inventions from concept to benefitting the veteran, fulfilling Technology Transfer’s mission 

motto of “Bringing Research Advancements for Veterans to Everyone” (BRAVE).

More information about VA technology transfer activities is available online.
91

VA Invention Disclosures and Patenting

Between FY 2014 and FY 2018, new inventions disclosed increased by 72%, from 289 in FY 

2014 to 496 disclosures in FY 2018. Patent applications filed increased by 120%, from 116 in 

FY 2014 to 255 in FY 2018, while patents issued increased by 95%, from 37 in FY 2014 to 72

patents in FY 2018.

VA Invention Disclosures and Patenting

Patents issued to VA in FY 2018 covered many technology areas including Medical technology 

(31%), Pharmaceuticals (31%), Biotechnology (15%), Organic fine chemistry, (6%), and 

Furniture, games (4%).40

40 Source: Prepared by Science-Metrix using USPTO data indexed in PatentsView in 2019. Used with permission.

FY 2014 FY 2015 FY 2016 FY 2017 FY 2018

New Invention Disclosures 289 219 241 589 496

Patent Applications Filed 116 116 104 163 255

Patents Issued 37 54 54 50 72
92

USPTO Patents Assigned to VA by Technology Area: FY 2018

VA Licenses41

Between FY 2014 and FY 2018, income bearing licenses increased by 1400%, from 14 to 210 

and exclusive income bearing licenses increased by 2178%, from 9 in FY 2014 to 205 in FY 

2018.

VA Licenses

41 VA is unable to report total active licenses, new licenses, total active invention licenses, and new invention 

licenses for FY 2018 because this information was not preserved.
93

VA Income from Licensing

Between FY 2014 and FY 2018, VA reported that total income from all active licenses increased 

by 105%, from $336 thousand in FY 2014 to $690 thousand in FY 2018. Income from invention 

licenses and earned royalty income were the same as income from all active licenses.

VA Income from Licensing ($ thousands)

FY 2014 FY 2015 FY 2016 FY 2017 FY 2018

Licenses, Total Active 197 200 261 262 n.a.

New Licenses 3 3 1 1 n.a.

Invention Licenses, Total Active 197 200 260 261 n.a.

New Invention Licenses 3 3 1 0 n.a.

Income Bearing Licenses, Total Active 1 4 1 6 4 2 4 2 210

Income Bearing Exclusive Licenses 9 1 1 3 5 3 6 205

FY 2014 FY 2015 FY 2016 FY 2017 FY 2018

Total Income, All Active Licenses $336 $494 $316 $491 $690

Invention Licenses $336 $494 $316 $491 $690

Total Earned Royalty Income, (ERI) $336 $494 $316 $491 $690
94

VA Collaborative R&D Relationships

Between FY 2014 and FY 2018, total active CRADAs decreased by 27%, from 2,317 to 1,688

agreements in FY 2018. New CRADAs decreased by 1%, from 517 in FY 2014 to 512 new 

agreements in FY 2018. Traditional CRADAs decreased by 29%, from 2,126 in FY 2014 to 

1,518 in FY 2018. No other collaborative R&D relationships were reported.

VA Collaborative R&D Relationships

FY 2014 FY 2015 FY 2016 FY 2017 FY 2018

CRADAs, Total Active 2,317 2,305 2,613 1,785 1,688

New CRADAs 517 509 502 575 512

Traditional CRADAs, Total Active 2,126 2,113 2,359 1,619 1,518

Other Collaborative R&D Relationships 0 0 0 0 0
95

VA Efforts to Streamline Technology Transfer Operations

The TTP launched an online learning module educating VA employees on the basics and 

benefits of technology transfer. In FY 2018 the CRADO initiated an annual requirement for VA 

research investigators to complete the training. This training resulted in an increase in the 

invention disclosure rate and overall awareness of technology transfer at the VAMCs. Feedback 

from the module has been well received and TTP is planning on developing additional modules 

focusing on the particulars involving invention disclosures and patents.

The TTP conducted an assessment to determine improvements to existing infrastructure. As a 

result, TTP entered into a partnership with the Department of Commerce’s National Technical 

Information Service (NTIS) to make technology improvements for efficiency in operations. 

Through this collaboration, they identified the need to develop an online invention disclosure 

portal that could intake different types of invention disclosures. In the past, TTP decided to 

accept the academic affiliate invention disclosure in lieu of the VA form in order to increase the 

disclosure rate. Each academic affiliate has their own unique disclosure form, thus requiring a 

custom intake portal that can read the forms. The new intake portal will further streamline 

operations, eliminate errors, and enable the use of artificial intelligence (AI) for ownership 

analysis as well as a commercialization potential analysis.

Their assessment also identified a need for improvements to the existing IP database utilized by 

TTP. This database serves as a knowledge management system that is aligned with TTP’s 

workflows to manage VA’s IP portfolio. The TTP is exploring options to have a database that is 

Cloud based and performs as a Software as a Service (SaaS) to enable on-line collaboration with 

non-VA partners.

The TTP narrowed the number of patent counsel firms providing services to TTP. This change 

has dramatically improved the quality of patent applications and reduced the number of TTP 

personnel hours required to manage the contracts.

VA Downstream Success Stories

An exclusive license was granted to a small biotech firm, Meiogen Biotechnology, for U.S. 

patent application No. 62/571,900 and PCT application PCT/US18/55888, “Compositions and 

Methods of Interferon Alpha Binding Proteins.” The technology was co-invented by two VA 

researchers at the Atlanta, GA, VA Medical Center. The invention provides compositions 

comprising of interferon-alpha binding protein (B18R) and combined anti-retroviral therapy 

(cART) to treat HIV associated neurogenerative disorder (HAND). The technology is currently 

undergoing further clinical research. Ultimately, this invention will provide a novel therapeutic 

option for subjects with HAND.

An exclusive license was granted to Northern Arizona University (NAU) for the VA invention 

“Otoprotective Uncaria Tomentosa,” covered by U.S. patent No. 9,457,009 (“Methods and 

Compositions for Preventing and Treating Auditory Dysfunctions”) and related patent 

applications. This invention was created by Dr. O’neil Guthrie at the Loma Linda VA Medical 

Center. The invention provides a novel therapeutic option for otoprotection and/or hearing 

recovery following injury. The inventor, who is no longer at VA, has continued development of 
96

the invention at NAU. This license agreement is allowing NAU to work with a 

commercialization partner to further advance the combined innovations of VA and NAU.

An exclusive license option was granted to Axial Biotherapeutics, Inc., for the VA invention 

“Method of Treating Autism and Therapies for Gastrointestinal and Neurological Disorders,” 

covered by US Patent Nos. 9,168,275 and 9,707,207. This invention was created by Dr. Sydney 

Finegold at the West Los Angeles VA Medical Center. The invention provides a method of 

treating autism associated with colonization of pathogenic bacteria in the gastrointestinal tract of 

a patient with early onset autism.
97

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)

The EPA’s FTTA Program was established to promote collaboration between private sector and 

federal researchers. The EPA offers exceptional opportunities to develop and commercialize new 

technologies. Through the authority given to EPA by the FTTA, EPA facilitates the transfer of 

new technologies to the marketplace while protecting the intellectual property rights of all 

parties.

Partners in the FTTA Program have the benefit of collaborating with world-class EPA scientists 

involved in leading-edge research. Collaboration enhances the quality of research projects and 

helps move environmental technologies into the marketplace, resulting in better protection of 

human health and the environment.

The EPA’s annual technology transfer report is available online,

More information about EPA technology transfer activities is available online.
98

EPA Invention Disclosures and Patenting

Between FY 2014 and FY 2018, new inventions increased by 40%, from 5 disclosures in FY 

2014 to 7 in FY 2018. Patent applications filed decreased by 33%, from 9 in FY 2014 to 6 in FY 

2018, while patents issued decreased by 20%, from 5 in FY 2014 to 4 in FY 2018.

EPA Invention Disclosures and Patenting

Patents issued to EPA in FY 2018 covered many technology areas including Environmental 

Technology (50%), Biotechnology (25%), Civil engineering (6%), Electrical machinery, 

apparatus, energy (6%), and Measurement (6%).

42

42 Source: Prepared by Science-Metrix using USPTO data indexed in PatentsView in 2019. Used with permission.

FY 2014 FY 2015 FY 2016 FY 2017 FY 2018

New Invention Disclosures 5 7 6 13 7

Patent Applications Filed 9 4 1 4 6

Patents Issued 5 7 3 3 4
99

USPTO Patents Assigned to EPA by Technology Area: FY 2018

EPA Licenses

Between FY 2014 and FY 2018, total active licenses decreased by 23%, from 40 licenses in FY 

2014 to 31 licenses in FY 2018. New licenses decreased by 83%, from 6 to 1. All active licenses 

were invention licenses. Income-bearing licenses declined by 27%, from 33 in FY 2014 to 24 in 

FY 2018, while exclusive income-bearing licenses declined by 25%, from 8 to 6.

EPA Licenses
100

EPA Income from Licensing

Between FY 2014 and FY 2018, EPA reported that total income from all active licenses 

increased by 43%, from $439 thousand in FY 2014 to $628 thousand in FY 2018. All income 

from licenses came from invention licenses. Total earned royalty income increased 42%, from 

$439 thousand in FY 2014 to $628 thousand in FY 2018.

EPA Income from Licensing ($ thousands)

FY 2014 FY 2015 FY 2016 FY 2017 FY 2018

Licenses, Total Active 4 0 3 7 3 5 3 8 3 1

New Licenses 6 0 8 5 1

Invention Licenses, Total Active 4 0 3 7 3 5 3 8 3 1

New Invention Licenses 6 0 8 5 1

Income Bearing Licenses, Total Active 3 3 3 1 3 1 3 1 2 4

Income Bearing Exclusive Licenses 8 7 7 7 6

FY 2014 FY 2015 FY 2016 FY 2017 FY 2018

Total Income, All Active Licenses $439 $232 $466 $412 $628

Invention Licenses $439 $232 $466 $412 $628

Total Earned Royalty Income, (ERI) $439 $232 $466 $412 $628
101

EPA Collaborative R&D Relationships

Between FY 2014 and FY 2018, total active CRADAs decreased by 62% to 49 agreements in FY 

2018, from a previous 129 in FY 2014. New CRADAs decreased by 69%, from 35 in FY 2014 to 

11 new agreements in FY 2018. Traditional CRADAs decreased by 6%, from 52 in FY 2014 to 

42 in FY 2018. In FY 2018, 91 other collaborative R&D were reported.

EPA Collaborative R&D Relationships

FY 2014 FY 2015 FY 2016 FY 2017 FY 2018

CRADAs, Total Active 129 9 7 5 5 5 1 4 9

New CRADAs 3 5 2 3 1 4 8 1 1

Traditional CRADAs, Total Active 5 2 5 0 5 5 5 1 4 9

Other Collaborative R&D Relationships 0 0 4 8 8 9 9 1
102

EPA Downstream Success Stories

EPA’s Technology Removes Ammonia from Drinking Water

Under the Safe Drinking Water Act, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) sets maximum 

contaminant levels that apply at the entry point into a distribution system rather than within the 

distribution system. Because monitoring contaminants is not normally conducted at the 

consumer’s tap, their presence can go undetected. If nitrification resulting from elevated 

ammonia levels in the source water occurs in the distribution system, elevated levels of nitrites 

and nitrate can reach the consumer.

EPA designed and patented a technology to oxidize ammonia in drinking water before it reaches 

the distribution system, which avoids nitrification in the distribution system and other problems 

associated with the presence of ammonia. Since 2014, EPA’s National Risk Management 

Research Laboratory in Cincinnati, Ohio, has partnered with AdEdge Water Technologies, LLC, 

a small business in Duluth, Georgia, to further develop and commercialize the technology. 

Together, the EPA and AdEdge have collaborated to evaluate a two-stage aerobic treatment 

system for the removal of ammonia from drinking water. The treatment approach enhances the 

natural nitrification process during which, in the presence of oxygen, ammonia is converted to 

nitrite and then to nitrate. AdEdge holds a license on this technology and has marketed it as 

NoMonia, an innovative water treatment technology to remove ammonia, arsenic, iron, and 

manganese.

Many regions in the United States have excessive ammonia in groundwater from natural and 

agricultural sources. While ammonia in water does not pose a direct health concern, nitrification 

of significant amounts of ammonia may. Ammonia in water may create high chlorine demand for 

disinfection (if addressed by breakpoint chlorination). In the presence of total organic carbon, 

excess chlorine is a concern because it creates a disinfection by-product. High ammonia levels 

may interfere with the removal of other regulated contaminants such as arsenic, iron, and 

manganese. Ammonia in raw water may also result in nitrification in the distribution systems, 

and can cause corrosion, poor taste, and odor issues. Legacy treatment approaches for the 

removal of ammonia, such as ion exchange or reverse osmosis, generate high total dissolved 

solids (TDS) wastewater, a challenge that the NoMonia biological treatment process eliminates. 

As a product of the collaboration, a pilot demonstration was concluded in August 2017 in 

Gilbert, Iowa. The pilot demonstration provided the city, AdEdge, and the EPA with multiple 

data sets to further establish critical design parameters for a full-scale treatment system. AdEdge 

is working with the community and their engineering firm to design a full-scale system based on 

the pilot results. Additional pilot demonstrations are anticipated in other areas, such as Illinois 

and Minnesota. The technology has also been licensed by WesTech Engineering, Inc.

Federal Laboratory Consortium for Technology Transfer (FLC) Award for Post-Fire 

Assessment Tool

The Federal Laboratory Consortium (FLC) for Technology Transfer awarded the 2018 

Interagency Partnership Award to the Environmental Protection Agency, in conjunction with 

USDA’s Agricultural Research Service, National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC), Bureau of 

Land Management, National Weather Service (NWS), and the University of Arizona. Scientists 
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from all parties transferred the Automated Geospatial Watershed Assessment (AGWA) tool to 

NIFC member agencies to speed the completion of post-fire watershed assessment. The tool 

identifies and targets treatments and resources where they are most needed to reduce threats of 

destructive surface erosion, flooding, and property loss. Functionality has been incorporated into 

the Automated Geospatial Watershed Assessment Tool (AGWA) to assess the impacts of 

wildland fire on runoff and erosion.

The AGWA is a GIS interface jointly developed by Phillip Guertin, Professor, University of 

Arizona; David C. Goodrich, Research Hydraulic Engineer, Agricultural Research Service; Shea 

Burns, Senior Research Specialist, University of Arizona; B. Scott Sheppard, Hydrologist, 

Tongass National Forest; Jane Barlow, GIS Analyst, Tucson Water; Thomas T.J. Clifford, 

Assistant Field Manager, Boise District Office; Carl Unkrich, Hydrologist, Agricultural Research 

Service; and William G. Kepner, Research Ecologist, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. 

Through an intuitive interface, the user selects an outlet from which AGWA delineates and 

discretizes the watershed using a Digital Elevation Model (DEM). The watershed model 

elements are then intersected with terrain, soils, and land cover data layers to derive the requisite 

model input parameters. Based on a small sample of pre- and post-fire rainfall-runoff data, a 

method was developed to adjust model parameters as a function of the pre-fire vegetation cover 

and fire severity maps.

A pioneering aspect of the technology transfer process involved embedding AGWA team 

members with Interagency Burned Area Emergency Response (BAER) teams on actual postwildfire deployments. This allowed AGWA team members to increase their understanding of 

BAER workflow, information requests, decision processes, and reporting requirements. Between 

fire seasons, the AGWA team attended BAER pre-season workshops and taught a two-day 

AGWA training course with computer tutorials derived from prior wildfires. Feedback during 

the training sessions prioritized improvements that would further enhance AGWA for BAER 

team use. Thus far, AGWA has been downloaded over 15,600 times and can track usage across 

178 countries on six continents and 5,281 cities. In another advantageous application of 

AGWA’s technology transfer, BAER leaders requested the assistance of the NWS with post-fire 

flash flood warnings. As a result, the AGWA/KINEROS2 model has been evaluated in seven 

NWS Weather Forecast Offices for real-time flash flood forecasting in 47 watersheds. All 

agencies involved in this effort embraced the technology transfer of AGWA through in-kind 

support, extensive interagency communication, and a passion to improve the nation’s response to 

the increased number of wildfires.

Sensor Network Leak Detection at Industrial Facilities – Collaborating to Detect Fugitive 

Emissions

Industrial facilities, such as petrochemical facilities, experience unintended leaks that release 

fugitive emissions into the air. These fugitive emissions are currently regulated by federal and, 

in some cases, state rules that require manual monitoring of industrial equipment on a specific 

frequency (e.g., quarterly or annually) followed by equipment repairs to address the emissions. 

These fugitive emissions can degrade air quality, produce waste, and create unsafe working 

conditions. It is therefore beneficial from the shared perspective of industrial facilities, workers, 

regulators, and nearby communities, to develop cost-effective detection and management of 

fugitive emissions. If unanticipated emissions that require mitigation can be detected and fixed in 
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a timely manner, stakeholders benefit from safer working environments, cost savings through 

reduced product loss and more efficient work practices, lower air shed pollutant impacts, and 

improved transparency and community relations. 

The EPA Next Generation Emission Measurement team is working collaboratively with industry, 

state and local regulators, instrument/information companies, and academic groups to explore 

new technical approaches for in-facility fugitive emission detection and mitigation. As the major 

project in this topic area, an EPA Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) 

was initiated in 2017 with Flint Hills Resources (FHR), a refinery operator, and Molex, a 

connector and sensor company. The “Leak Detection and Repair (LDAR) Innovation CRADA” 

seeks to develop, test, and deploy new remote sensing approaches for fugitive leak detection that 

will enable the emissions management strategies of the future. The CRADA asks the question: 

“Can we use next generation emission monitoring technology to do a better job of protecting the 

environment and worker safety and save companies money?” The CRADA specifically 

investigates the utility and implementation variability of in-facility sensor network approaches as 

alternatives to currently required manual LDAR procedures that are expensive to perform. For a 

typical refinery this can exceed $4 million annually, and there is often considerable lag time 

between leak checks performed during each required LDAR cycle. 

The team assembled for the CRADA consists of industrial facility and program management 

experts, refinery processing, LDAR, sensor design, and data analytics scientists and engineers. 

With this well-rounded research team, work is progressing quickly. As of December 2018, four 

concept tests were designed and completed. Two of the tests were conducted at the EPA next 

generation emission monitoring test range in Research Triangle Park, NC, and the third and 

fourth tests were conducted at a small FHR facility in Texas. Using simulated leaks (controlled 

release of isobutylene and ethylene gas), each test produced valuable information on the ability 

of prototype sensor networks to detect leaks of various emission levels and compared results 

with manual leak detection (Method 21) and optical gas imaging (OGI). 

The first four tests provided important information used by Molex to develop a next-generation 

sensor design for use in a pilot test at two FHR refinery process units in 2019. When the new 

system detects a low-level leak, it estimates and then refines a potential location via triangulation 

of sensors, and then sends an alert to designated personnel. An unanticipated result from the 

third test was the sensor network began to immediately detect a previously unknown emission 

source on the site that could not be detected with Method 21 or OGI, proving the inherent value 

of the concept on monitoring fugitive emissions levels in a process unit. 

The partners anticipate the following outcomes from the second phase of the CRADA:

• Validation of the sensor-based approach as an alternative LDAR method through 

detecting large leaks more quickly, e.g., within a few hours to a couple of days;

• Development and validation of sensor placement, performance validation, and a response 

procedure following sensor detection; 

• Evaluation of the effectiveness of the new method in monitoring fugitive emissions in 

industrial facilities as compared to current practices; and

• Establishment of a data management and quality assurance system to support the sensor 

hardware and software.
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EPA Partners to Use European Satellite Data to Improve Inland Water Monitoring

Under a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) initiated in 2015, EPA’s 

National Exposure Research Laboratory and Brockmann Consult have been testing various 

satellite algorithms for deriving chlorophyll-a in lakes and reservoirs based on the European 

Space Agency Copernicus Sentinel satellite missions. The lab views satellite remote sensing as a 

key innovation in exposure science. New approaches are needed to facilitate the collection of 

real time, reliable water quality information that relates to ecological pressures, human health, 

well-being, and economies. Using the European Sentinel satellites has provided unprecedented 

monitoring capabilities for inland waters. 

New methods and approaches are required to turn data from the Sentinel satellites into 

information for water management. This CRADA has been a case study to demonstrate the 

applicability of Sentinel data to different lake types and management issues. Optical remote 

sensing techniques can improve monitoring by providing information on the spatial and temporal 

dynamics of water quality. Brockmann Consult is working to develop enhanced service 

infrastructure to ingest and process the large amount of data and to make them accessible to a 

larger user community in a user-friendly way. This CRADA allows the EPA lab to access to big 

data from the European Space Agency Sentinel missions to address relevant management science 

questions, and Brockmann Consult to learn how users may access, use, and interpret Sentinel 

datasets.
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Pictured above center is a section of Lake Huron where an algorithm originally developed in the 

European Union was tested for U.S. waters and validated against data from the Water Quality 

Portal. The bottom two charts are the monthly chlorophyll-a averages for two different sites 

within Lake Huron. The bottom left chart represents more dynamic and eutrophic waters and the 

bottom right location is more homogeneous with lower chlorophyll-a concentrations.
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National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)

Written into the 1958 Space Act that established NASA is a directive to “provide for the widest 

practicable and appropriate dissemination” of the results of its missions. It has thus always been 

part of NASA’s DNA to capture and share with the public its discoveries, data, and new 

technologies, encouraging industry to adopt these innovations as a way of repaying the nation’s 

investment in space and aeronautics. To this end, the agency established a formal Technology 

Transfer (T2) Program in 1962 that has been in continuous operation ever since, making it 

NASA’s longest-running mission.

Over the decades, subsequent laws and regulations have reiterated and strengthened the 

requirement that NASA find efficient and effective ways to broadly share the benefits of its 

discoveries and technology. In response, NASA’s Technology Transfer Program has 

continuously evolved and developed new tools to serve its goals and manage its workflow.

The program processes more than 1,500 new technology disclosures created by NASA 

innovators each year, assessing each for its commercial potential and patenting those that are 

particularly promising. It manages the agency’s technology portfolio, negotiates license 

agreements, and handles requests for NASA software. Meanwhile, T2 publishes an annual 

outreach publication called Spinoff to share with the public new success stories of technology 

transfer and commercialization. Spinoff has featured more than 2,000 NASA spinoffs since its 

debut in 1976.

The NASA’s effective marketing and promotion of its portfolios has led to a steady increase in 

public and government interest in NASA technology for secondary applications. Patent 

licensing, invention disclosures, and software usage agreements continue to follow a historicallypositive trend. Managing this increased interest requires constant and continuous process 

improvements across all areas of the technology transfer pipeline. Below are some highlights of 

the program’s achievements in 2018.

Program Achievements in 2018

Transferring the NASA Technology Transfer System (NTTS) Software Platform to Federal 

Agencies 

NASA’s Technology Transfer System (NTTS) is an enterprise software tool developed in-house 

over the last decade to manage the workflow of capturing, maintaining, and transferring new 

technologies and software. The platform provides T2 personnel with tools to facilitate the whole 

of the technology transfer process, and it enables NASA to track T2 activities in fine-grained, 

quantifiable detail. As NTTS has evolved, other government agencies, universities, and even 

commercial operations have approached the agency to see whether they can acquire the software 

for their use. Thus, in 2018, the T2 program formally began exploring avenues to share NTTS.

NTTS Overview

To give an overview of the system’s capabilities, the following paragraphs describe in brief the 

tools and products NTTS supplies to NASA’s T2 program.
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Website content management.

The Technology Transfer Program used NTTS as the basis of a redesign of its flagship 

website—NASA’s T2 Portal—which now serves as a public-facing web portal to access program 

data (https://technology.nasa.gov). Because the program uses NTTS as a centralized database to 

host all of its content, T2 has been able to spin off additional technology-transfer-related 

websites using a common set of user interfaces and application programming interfaces (APIs). 

As of FY 2018, there are a number of NASA technology portals, public websites powered by 

NTTS, including among others:

• Field center websites. Nine NASA field center T2 offices have their own portals, 

featuring the same user interface as the agency-level website but drawing only centerspecific content from NTTS for their content.

• Software catalog. NASA’s comprehensive catalog of software—the first of its kind 

among federal agencies—was first assembled in late 2014, creating a splash in press 

coverage and sparking a sharp increase in software usage agreements executed with the 

space agency. The NTTS hosts all of the catalog’s content and now powers the catalog’s 

website (https://software.nasa.gov). More recently, a module has been added to NTTS 

that automates the process to initiate a software usage agreement, using a simple, 

intuitive web-based application, saving work for NASA and getting software into the 

hands of potential users faster.

• T2 public APIs. The same tools used by the program to build some of the above websites 

are made available to developers who wish to build and integrate services with the 

Technology Transfer Program’s abundant data resources.

NTTS Internal Web Application for Intramural Reporting. 

The NTTS contains a suite of internal-only web applications and private APIs that allow NASAdesignated users to perform administrative tasks and day-to-day operations as part of their 

intramural technology transfer activities.

Electronic New Technology Report (e-NTR). 

The e-NTR is a web application designed to make new technology reporting as easy as possible 

for researchers. It significantly reduces the number of questions researchers must answer, 

compared to previous paper-based forms, and guides them through the process via an intuitive 

interface.

Innovator Dashboard. 

Based on feedback from researchers, NASA realized that one way to incentivize invention 

disclosures was to provide better information and status updates regarding what happens to 

technologies after they have been reported. The Innovator Dashboard allows NASA researchers 

to see at a glance all of the technologies they have reported and their current status—how many 

are being or have been patented, for instance, or new publications regarding the technology, or 

whether a license agreement is in process.

Business and Marketing Communications Tools. 

The NASA has been able to leverage NTTS capabilities to automate and enrich the creation of 

compelling marketing collateral. One of the Technology Transfer Program’s crowning 
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achievements in this area was the development of a standardized technology fact sheet template 

whose content can be generated in real-time from up-to-date NTTS content.

Automated Licensing System. 

In the four years following the launch of a consolidated patent portfolio on the T2 portal, the 

agency experienced more than a 100 percent increase in annual patent licenses executed. We 

believe making license opportunities visible and easier to take advantage of plays a key role in 

increasing the rate of transfer from government to industry. Looking to build on this success, the 

program’s development team built an automated licensing system on top of NTTS called 

ATLAS (Automated Technology Licensing Application System) to streamline and automate the 

tedious and complicated process of licensing technologies. It provides a clean, intuitive, and 

easy-to-navigate interface for interested individuals and businesses.

Metrics Reports. 

By pulling data from NTTS, a wealth of information can be extracted for internal analysis on 

nearly every facet of program operations. Tracking this quantifiable data over time provides a 

solid basis for identifying strengths and weaknesses, setting goals for improvements, and 

strategizing future operations.

Transferring NTTS

In 2018, NASA and the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) entered into 

a reimbursable agreement to provide the Air Force with a customized NTTS platform and data 

system for their needs. Delivery of the finished product is expected within 24 months, and the 

Air Force will then work with NASA to provide the software to other DOD agencies.

In addition to AFRL, in 2018 and into 2019 NTTS was transferred via Software Usage 

Agreements (SUAs) to the following U.S. Agencies: 

• Environmental Protection Agency

• Food & Drug Administration

• Centers for Disease Control & Prevention

• National Institutes of Health

• Defense Health Agency

• Department of Energy National Energy Technology Lab

Significant Program Metrics 

In FY 2018, key program metrics covering technology transfer remain strong, including the 

following:

New Technology Reports.

New Technology Reports saw a 5 percent increase from the previous year. This success can be 

attributed to the agency’s efforts in conducting monthly in-reach events at each NASA field 

center, educating approximately 2,800 innovators in 2018 on their duty to report new 

technologies while increasing their awareness of recently updated T2 products that benefit them, 

such as e-NTR. Attendees also received some of our popular print products: Inventor Notebooks, 
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posters, and calendars—which T2 has found is a cost-effective way to incentivize invention 

disclosures.

U.S. Patent Applications Filed.

New patents filed continued to meet the program’s recent annual average in 2018. It is worth 

noting that, even though the T2 program has continued to file about the same number of patents

each year, our license numbers have climbed significantly over time. This is the fruit of a more 

strategic approach to patenting inventions, where NASA is now careful to patent and maintain 

only those technologies the agency believes have significant potential for licensing and 

commercialization. Our approach helps save taxpayer dollars from being potentially wasted on 

patent maintenance fees for inventions that are unlikely to produce a license.

Patent Licenses.

Prior to NASA’s concerted effort to increase patent licensing, the agency averaged 22 licenses 

executed per year (as of fiscal years 2010–2012). Thanks to program improvements since that 

time, including many tools described above, the T2 Program has achieved a new level of 

performance. In FY 2018 the program continued a positive trend of patent licenses executed, 

bringing the annual average to 101 licenses over each of the past three years, an increase of 359 

percent from the previous average performance.

Software Usage Agreements.

Software Usage Agreements (SUAs)—that is, instances where NASA releases software to a 

requestor—also continued a historically-positive trend. From FY 2016–2018, NASA saw an 

average of 3,554 SUAs, a 220 percent increase from an average of 1,111 SUAs during FY 2010–

2012. Much of this success can be traced to the formation of the Software Catalog and website 

mentioned above; thanks to these central repositories, it is easier than ever for users to discover, 

request, and acquire NASA software.

In July 2018, the T2 Program also launched an innovative web platform called the Remote 

Sensing Toolkit. This online toolkit helps users discover, and create tools using NASA software 

to analyze, NASA satellite data.

Positive Findings from 2018 OIG Audit

In FY 2012, NASA’s Office of the Inspector General (OIG) audited the T2 Program and made 

several recommendations related to NASA’s technology transfer policy. In particular, OIG cited 

NASA’s need to implement procedures to ensure that all relevant personnel are fully aware of 

their responsibilities in the policy, the need to coordinate with programs and projects on 

commercialization planning, and the need for periodic training across the agency on technology 

transfer responsibilities as described in the NASA technology transfer policy.

A follow-up audit was performed in 2018, in which OIG found that the program had made 

concerted efforts in recent years to improve the overall awareness of NASA’s Technology 

Transfer Program through increased communication and outreach, meeting the recommendations 

provided following the 2012 audit. Those efforts have resulted in a considerable increase in the 

numbers of NTRs submitted, patent applications filed, and licenses negotiated. The report’s 
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findings conclude that NASA’s T2 Program made the right steps following the 2012 audit to 

address the original findings.

Program Consolidation Efforts

In order to compensate for several years of budget decreases, standardize and streamline routine 

processes, simplify customer interactions with our program, and increase security, in 2018 the T2 

Program initiated a consolidation effort, reorganizing key program functions such that they are 

centralized at a host NASA field center rather than spread across the agency. In 2018, we

identified four areas in need of consolidation and assigned tasks to the host centers to be 

completed by the end of 2019: 

• Contract closeout: Going forward, the T2 office at Glenn Research Center will manage 

contract and grant closeout for the entire agency.

• SUA processing: Going forward, the T2 office at Stennis Space Center will process all 

SUAs for the entire agency.

• Commercialization assessment contract: Going forward, the T2 office at Marshall Space 

Flight Center will conduct commercial assessments of intellectual property for the entire 

agency. By creating a single contract to provide these assessments, we hope to remove 

inconsistencies in results and improve strategic coordination across all centers. 

• Marketing: In 2018, the T2 Program began organizing a formal marketing team from 

multiple field centers, coordinated by headquarters personnel. Prior to this year, 

marketing activities have been scattered among the field center T2 offices and largely 

uncoordinated. Agency-level marketing campaigns will be implemented to increase web 

traffic, increase awareness of the program, and develop new leads and licenses. 

NASA Invention Disclosures and Patenting

Between FY 2014 and FY 2018, new inventions disclosed increased by 4% from 1,701 in FY 

2014 to 1,775 disclosures in FY 2018. Patent applications filed increased by 3%, from 140 to 

144, while patents issued increased by 3%, from 120 to 123 patents in FY 2018.
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NASA Invention Disclosures and Patenting

Patents issued to NASA in FY 2018 covered many technology areas including Measurement 

(21%), Transport (8%), Semiconductors (6%), Telecommunications (6%), and Computer 

technology (6%).43

43 Source: Prepared by Science-Metrix using USPTO data indexed in PatentsView in 2019. Used with permission.

FY 2014 FY 2015 FY 2016 FY 2017 FY 2018

New Invention Disclosures 1,701 1,550 1,554 1,690 1,775

Patent Applications Filed 140 129 129 165 144

Patents Issued 120 123 103 114 123
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USPTO Patents Assigned to NASA by Technology Area: FY 2018

NASA Licenses

Between FY 2014 and FY 2018, total active licenses increased by 55%, from 349 in FY 2014 to 

540 licenses in FY 2018, while new licenses increased by 106% to 105. Total active invention 

licenses increased by 64%, from 297 to 488 while new invention licenses increased by 120%, 

from 45 to 99. Total active income bearing licenses increased by 56%, from 176 to 274, while

income-bearing exclusive licenses decreased by 56%, from 9 in FY 2014 to 4 in FY 2018.

NASA Licenses
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NASA Income from Licensing

Between FY 2014 and FY 2018, NASA reported that the total income from all active licenses 

increased by 10%, from $2.1 million in FY 2014 to $2.3 million in FY 2018. The income from 

invention licenses increased by 18%, from $1.7 to $2.0 million. Total earned royalty income 

decreased by 1%, from $2.1 million in FY 2014 to $2.0 million in FY 2018. 

NASA Income from Licensing ($ thousands)

FY 2014 FY 2015 FY 2016 FY 2017 FY 2018

Licenses, Total Active 349 375 452 506 540

New Licenses 5 1 7 4 107 119 105

Invention Licenses, Total Active 297 321 387 440 488

New Invention Licenses 4 5 6 9 9 7 109 9 9

Income Bearing Licenses, Total Active 176 193 245 258 274

Income Bearing Exclusive Licenses 9 1 2 1 4 8 4

FY 2014 FY 2015 FY 2016 FY 2017 FY 2018

Total Income, All Active Licenses $2,095 $3,395 $3,149 $2,682 $2,301

Invention Licenses $1,729 $2,828 $2,750 $2,126 $2,036

Total Earned Royalty Income, (ERI) $2,063 $3,250 $2,746 $2,118 $2,041
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NASA Collaborative R&D Relationships

The National Aeronautics and Space Act (Space Act), 51 U.S.C. §§ 20101-20164, provides 

NASA with the unique authority to enter into a wide range of “other transactions,” frequently in 

the form of Space Act Agreements. The NASA uses Space Act Agreements to engage in 

collaborative research projects with various partners to advance NASA’s mission and program 

objectives, including international cooperative space activities. Space Act Agreements differ 

from traditional cooperative research and development agreements (CRADAs) and therefore in 

this report, Space Act Agreements are included under the category “Other Collaborative R&D 

Relationships.” 

Between FY 2014 and FY 2018, Space Act Agreements increased 4%, from 2,091 agreements in 

FY 2014 to 2,182 in FY 2018.

NASA Collaborative R&D Relationships

FY 2014 FY 2015 FY 2016 FY 2017 FY 2018

CRADAs, Total Active 1 8 1 2 0 0

New CRADAs 1 7 5 0 0

Traditional CRADAs, Total Active 1 8 1 2 0 0

Other Collaborative R&D Relationships 2,091 2,113 2,204 2,174 2,182
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NASA Downstream Success Stories

Always in popular demand, Spinoff has featured more than 2,000 commercial products since its

debut in 1976. In 2018, Spinoff told the stories of 49 companies across 20 U.S. states that are 

selling products derived from NASA technology. Fresh content is published regularly on 

Spinoff’s website, which receives 2–3 million unique visitors per month, and is also routinely 

featured on NASA’s homepage. Spinoff also maintains a robust social media presence.

Free print copies of the publication are distributed to the White House, each member of 

Congress, the United Nations, other government agencies and laboratories, universities, as well 

as members of the public who request the book. The entire publication is available in multiple 

formats online at https://spinoff.nasa.gov.

Examples of successful technology transfer stories featured in Spinoff 2018 include:

Radar Device Detects Heartbeats Trapped under Wreckage

The NASA often analyzes weak signals hidden in noise, like alterations in a satellite’s path that 

indicate gravity fluctuations in a planet. With funding from other government agencies, the Jet 

Propulsion Laboratory adapted the technology to create FINDER, which uses radar to detect the 

breathing and heartbeats of victims trapped under rubble. Edgewood, Maryland-based R4 Inc.,

licensed the technology and continues to develop it. The device has already seen its first sales 

and saved its first earthquake victims.

Sterilizing Fogger Cleans Ambulances with a Breeze

When paramedics come racing, the last thing anybody worries about is where the ambulance was 

earlier that morning. But traces of those earlier calls could be lingering—and they could be 

spreading disease. With help from the Regional Economic Development Program at Glenn 

Research Center, Kent, Ohio-based Emergency Products + Research designed a device that 

sterilizes the rig and gear to make it safer for the patients and the paramedics. It’s already being 

adopted across the country.

Innovative Design Propels Small Jet Faster, Farther with Less Fuel

Honda is best known for budget-friendly, fuel-efficient family cars—not high-powered jets. But 

that’s just what Honda Aircraft, a division of Honda based in Greensboro, North Carolina, sells. 

The HondaJet’s innovative design was validated at Langley Research Center’s National 

Transonic Facility, one of only two wind tunnels like it in the world. The NASA facilities and 

expertise gave Honda confidence to move into production. Since late 2015, the company has 

delivered more than 100 of its affordable and speedy private jets around the world.

Design Software Transforms How Commercial Jetliners Are Built

Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software that simulates aerodynamics has been a major 

boon to aircraft designers. The NASA funded the creation of Pegasus 5, a preprocessor that 

greatly decreases the work necessary to prepare a design for CFD analysis. Ames Research 

Center took over the program and refined it with Seattle-based Boeing Commercial Airplanes, 

which has used it to design a number of its airliners. Pegasus 5 opens up CFD preprocessing to 

less experienced users, speeds it up, and drastically reduces user error.
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Organic Compound Turns Toxic Waste into Harmless Byproducts

A team of university researchers discovered that a particular metabolite neutralizes hydrazine, a 

hazardous chemical often used as rocket propellant. Extensive NASA testing, mostly by 

Kennedy Space Center, proved the safety of using alpha-ketoglutaric acid to neutralize 

hydrazine, and after Kennedy developed procedures for doing so, the university licensed the 

resulting product to let Marietta, Georgia-based Hydrazine Neutralizing Solutions Inc., market it 

as ZeenKleen. Customers for the product line include nuclear power plants and, potentially, the 

plastic and pharmaceutical industries.

Early NASA “Dream Computer Program” Still Optimizes Designs

Half a century after it was created at Goddard Space Flight Center, NASTRAN remains at the 

cutting edge of computer-aided engineering as perhaps NASA’s most successful software 

spinoff. It has helped design everything from cars and turbines to buildings and roller coasters. 

Its code is also incorporated into many commercial programs, including Newport Beach, 

California-based MSC Software’s Apex platform, which makes modeling and simulation up to 

10 times faster and allows computer-aided engineering to be introduced earlier in the design 

process.
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Chapter 3

Conclusion

Technology transfer is an active and essential mission of federal R&D laboratories. By 

leveraging our Nation’s innovative nature and investing in science and technology, we 

strengthen our economy and U.S. competitiveness in world markets. In recent years, agencies 

have engaged in efforts to increase the rate and efficacy of technology transfer activities and 

thereby improve the economic and societal impact from federal R&D investments. 

This report provides a summary of the technology transfer activities of all 11 federal agencies 

that are actively involved in R&D. This summary is derived from each agency’s annual 

technology transfer reports that are located online.

44

Statistical data provided in this report indicate that for all agencies covered by this report, 

between FY 2014 and FY 2018 there has been a 11% increase in invention disclosures, a 4% 

increase in patent applications, and an 9% increase in patents issued. In FY 2018, the largest 

number of federal patents issued involved the technical areas of measurement (13%), 

biotechnology (8%), electrical machinery, apparatus, energy (7%), other special machines (6%), 

pharmaceuticals (5%), and telecommunications (5%).

Between FY 2014 and FY 2018, total active licenses increased by 6%, new licenses increased by 

47%, invention licenses decreased by 7%, and new invention licenses increased by 41%. 

Income-bearing licenses decreased by 5%, and exclusive income-bearing licenses increased by 

72%. 

Between FY 2014 and FY 2018, income from all licensing decreased by 23%, income from 

invention licenses decreased by 23%, and total earned royalty income decreased by 14%.

Between FY 2014 and FY 2018, CRADAs increased by 25%, and new CRADAs increased by 

25%. Traditional CRADAs increased by 0.5% and other collaborative R&D relationships 

increased by 0.5%. 

In CY 2018, federal researchers published 70,957 papers. More than half of these papers were in 

the fields of health sciences (26%), biological and biomedical sciences (19%), engineering (15%) 

and physics (12%). In FY 2018, 18,896 papers cited in U.S. patents were authored or coauthored 

by federal researchers. Of these papers, 91% involved research in the fields of biological and 

biomedical sciences (36%), health sciences (23%), physics (13%), engineering (12%), and 

chemistry (7%). 

In summary, this report shows that agencies have made steady progress in their efforts to 

improve the transfer of technologies from federal laboratories. Collectively, agencies reported 

increases in the majority of technology transfer measures described in this report; however, 

respondent agencies collectively reported a decrease in licensing income from FY 2014 to FY 

44 Values reported in this section reflect data for agencies for which all data were available. Agencies with 

incomplete data were not included in these calculations to accurately describe changes over time.
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2018. Additionally, agencies are now engaged in efforts to assess the impact of these efforts to 

show how federal technology transfer promotes economic growth, the creation of new products, 

and increased employment opportunities.
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Appendix A

Federal Invention Disclosure and Patenting

Agency Metric FY 2014 FY 2015 FY 2016 FY 2017 FY 2018

USDA New Inventions Disclosed 117 222 244 166 320

Patent Applications Filed 119 125 109 111 120

Patents Issued 83 94 60 68 67

DOC New Inventions Disclosed 47 61 64 43 77

Patent Applications Filed 25 32 25 46 56

Patents Issued 19 20 16 34 28

DoD New Inventions Disclosed 902 743 782 978 839

Patent Applications Filed 898 875 858 869 1,060

Patents Issued 648 620 624 630 600

DOE New Inventions Disclosed 1,588 1,645 1,760 1,794 1,748

Patent Applications Filed 1,144 949 999 937 868

Patents Issued 822 755 856 817 854

HHS New Inventions Disclosed 351 321 320 354 322

Patent Applications Filed 216 222 269 289 253

Patents Issued 453 501 579 554 624

DHS New Inventions Disclosed 44 12 24 25 22

Patent Applications Filed 6 12 17 19 17

Patents Issued 3 5 3 2 8

DOI New Inventions Disclosed 6 7 8 12 9

Patent Applications Filed 4 8 4 5 7

Patents Issued 2 3 1 3 6

DOT New Inventions Disclosed 3 0 0 3 12

Patent Applications Filed 0 5 0 7 2

Patents Issued 1 1 1 0 0

VA New Inventions Disclosed 289 219 241 589 496

Patent Applications Filed 116 116 104 163 255

Patents Issued 37 54 54 50 72

EPA New Inventions Disclosed 5 7 6 13 7

Patent Applications Filed 9 4 1 4 6

Patents Issued 5 7 3 3 4

NASA New Inventions Disclosed 1,701 1,550 1,554 1,690 1,775

Patent Applications Filed 140 129 129 165 144

Patents Issued 120 123 103 114 123

Total Metric FY 2014 FY 2015 FY 2016 FY 2017 FY 2018

New Inventions Disclosed 5,053 4,787 5,003 5,667 5,627

Patent Applications Filed 2,677 2,477 2,515 2,615 2,788

Patents Issued 2,193 2,183 2,300 2,275 2,386
121

Federal Licenses

Agency Metric FY 2014 FY 2015 FY 2016 FY 2017 FY 2018

USDA Licenses, Total Active 413 427 441 448 472

New Licenses 31 37 31 40 40

Invention Licenses, Total Active 362 362 370 373 386

New Invention Licenses 29 22 25 31 27

Income Bearing Licenses, Total Active 412 421 439 437 471

Income Bearing Exclusive Licenses 299 292 307 302 324

DOC Licenses, Total Active 38 46 57 68 67

New Licenses 7 13 15 19 11

Invention Licenses, Total Active 38 46 57 68 67

New Invention Licenses 7 13 15 19 11

Income Bearing Licenses, Total Active 26 29 31 35 37

Income Bearing Exclusive Licenses 14 16 20 19 22

DoD Licenses, Total Active 430 560 515 552 480

New Licenses 24 69 35 162 168

Invention Licenses, Total Active 280 431 286 514 n.a.

New Invention Licenses 6 69 57 24 n.a.

Income Bearing Licenses, Total Active 203 203 185 396 306

Income Bearing Exclusive Licenses n.a. n.a. 209 196 151

DOE Licenses, Total Active 5,861 6,310 5,410 4,045 4,742

New Licenses 573 648 621 567 662

Invention Licenses, Total Active 1,560 1,336 943 916 844

New Invention Licenses 171 155 145 128 100

Income Bearing Licenses, Total Active 4,215 4,577 3,963 3,057 3,323

Income Bearing Exclusive Licenses 141 98 231 190 181

HHS Licenses, Total Active 1,555 1,767 1,750 1,806 1,867

New Licenses 212 279 278 334 335

Invention Licenses, Total Active 1,186 1,354 1,721 1,354 1,411

New Invention Licenses 117 232 221 282 292

Income Bearing Licenses, Total Active 845 843 837 907 978

Income Bearing Exclusive Licenses 34 119 145 130 143

DHS Licenses, Total Active 2 4 5 5 5

New Licenses 0 3 1 0 0

Invention Licenses, Total Active 2 4 5 5 5

New Invention Licenses 0 3 1 0 0

Income Bearing Licenses, Total Active 1 4 1 1 2

Income Bearing Exclusive Licenses 0 0 0 0 0
122

Federal Licenses (continued)

Agency Metric FY 2014 FY 2015 FY 2016 FY 2017 FY 2018

DOI Licenses, Total Active 18 20 22 15 17

New Licenses 0 3 0 0 2

Invention Licenses, Total Active 16 18 20 13 n.a.

New Invention Licenses 0 3 0 0 n.a.

Income Bearing Licenses, Total Active 14 18 17 13 13

Income Bearing Exclusive Licenses 5 7 8 7 n.a.

DOT Licenses, Total Active 1 2 2 5 5

New Licenses 0 1 2 1 1

Invention Licenses, Total Active 1 2 0 0 1

New Invention Licenses 0 0 0 0 0

Income Bearing Licenses, Total Active 1 2 2 5 6

Income Bearing Exclusive Licenses 1 0 0 0 0

VA Licenses, Total Active 197 200 261 262 n.a.

New Licenses 3 3 1 1 n.a.

Invention Licenses, Total Active 197 200 260 261 n.a.

New Invention Licenses 3 3 1 0 n.a.

Income Bearing Licenses, Total Active 14 16 42 42 210

Income Bearing Exclusive Licenses 9 11 35 36 205

EPA Licenses, Total Active 40 37 35 38 31

New Licenses 6 0 8 5 1

Invention Licenses, Total Active 40 37 35 38 31

New Invention Licenses 6 0 8 5 1

Income Bearing Licenses, Total Active 33 31 31 31 24

Income Bearing Exclusive Licenses 8 7 7 7 6

NASA Licenses, Total Active 349 375 452 506 540

New Licenses 51 74 107 119 105

Invention Licenses, Total Active 297 321 387 440 488

New Invention Licenses 45 69 97 109 99

Income Bearing Licenses, Total Active 176 193 245 258 274

Income Bearing Exclusive Licenses 9 12 14 8 4

Total Metric FY 2014 FY 2015 FY 2016 FY 2017 FY 2018

Licenses, Total Active 8,904 9,748 8,950 7,750 8,226

New Licenses 907 1,130 1,099 1,248 1,325

Invention Licenses, Total Active 3,979 4,111 4,084 3,982 3,233

New Invention Licenses 384 569 570 598 530

Income Bearing Licenses, Total Active 5,940 6,337 5,793 5,182 5,644

Income Bearing Exclusive Licenses 520 562 976 895 1,036
123

Federal Income from Licensing ($ thousands)

Agency Metric FY 2014 FY 2015 FY 2016 FY 2017 FY 2018

USDA Total Income, All Active Licenses $4,928 $5,067 $4,784 $5,703 $3,835

Invention Licenses $4,733 $4,842 $4,456 $5,378 $3,495

Total Earned Royalty Income, (ERI) $3,611 $3,510 $3,633 $3,504 $2,716

DOC Total Income, All Active Licenses $220 $164 $149 $141 $147

Invention Licenses $220 $164 $149 $141 $147

Total Earned Royalty Income, (ERI) $220 $164 $149 $141 $147

DoD Total Income, All Active Licenses $11,280 $9,169 n.a. n.a. n.a.

Invention Licenses $10,468 $8,203 $554 n.a. n.a.

Total Earned Royalty Income, (ERI) $9,294 $7,621 $5,823 $7,415 $6,802

DOE Total Income, All Active Licenses $37,885 $33,137 $31,149 $36,567 $21,085

Invention Licenses $32,869 $28,966 $27,364 $33,436 $17,237

Total Earned Royalty Income, (ERI) $23,384 $21,245 $16,273 $13,216 $10,239

HHS Total Income, All Active Licenses $137,249 $151,727 $132,833 $134,567 $110,709

Invention Licenses $133,814 $147,512 $130,701 $132,536 $108,276

Total Earned Royalty Income, (ERI) $116,765 $114,102 $110,193 $135,963 $111,628

DHS Total Income, All Active Licenses $3 $5 $12 $20 $36

Invention Licenses $0 $0 $12 $20 $36

Total Earned Royalty Income, (ERI) $3 $5 $12 $20 $36

DOI Total Income, All Active Licenses $58 $106 $83 $50 $51

Invention Licenses $58 $106 $83 $50 $51

Total Earned Royalty Income, (ERI) $58 $106 $83 $50 $51

DOT Total Income, All Active Licenses $23 $12 $15 $20 $13

Invention Licenses $0 $0 $0 $0 $0

Total Earned Royalty Income, (ERI) $23 $12 $15 $20 $13

VA Total Income, All Active Licenses $336 $494 $316 $491 $690

Invention Licenses $336 $494 $316 $491 $690

Total Earned Royalty Income, (ERI) $336 $494 $316 $491 $690

EPA Total Income, All Active Licenses $439 $232 $466 $412 $628

Invention Licenses $439 $232 $466 $412 $628

Total Earned Royalty Income, (ERI) $439 $232 $466 $412 $628

NASA Total Income, All Active Licenses $2,095 $3,395 $3,149 $2,682 $2,301

Invention Licenses $1,729 $2,828 $2,750 $2,126 $2,036

Total Earned Royalty Income, (ERI) $2,063 $3,250 $2,746 $2,118 $2,041

Total Metric FY 2014 FY 2015 FY 2016 FY 2017 FY 2018

Total Income, All Active Licenses $194,516 $203,508 $172,956 $180,653 $139,495

Invention Licenses $184,666 $193,347 $166,851 $174,590 $132,596

Total Earned Royalty Income, (ERI) $156,196 $150,741 $139,709 $163,350 $134,991
124

Federal Collaborative R&D Relationships

Agency Metric FY 2014 FY 2015 FY 2016 FY 2017 FY 2018

USDA CRADAs, Total Active 267 301 238 330 212

New CRADAs 60 80 79 91 61

Traditional CRADAs, Total Active 267 301 238 330 182

Other Collaborative R&D Relationships 5,629 4,730 5,628 6,125 3,369

DOC CRADAs, Total Active 2,307 2,752 2,940 2,932 3,363

New CRADAs 2,111 2,548 2,608 2,443 2,770

Traditional CRADAs, Total Active 233 365 335 413 534

Other Collaborative R&D Relationships 2,981 3,125 3,273 3,181 3,497

DoD CRADAs, Total Active 3,263 2,377 2,603 2,995 4,976

New CRADAs 686 786 774 813 949

Traditional CRADAs, Total Active 2,748 2,130 2,273 2,424 3,010

Other Collaborative R&D Relationships 515 247 330 571 1,966

DOE CRADAs, Total Active 729 746 783 935 1,027

New CRADAs 174 185 264 330 311

Traditional CRADAs, Total Active 698 732 739 910 n.a.

Other Collaborative R&D Relationships 0 0 0 0 n.a.

HHS CRADAs, Total Active 532 400 590 588 577

New CRADAs 98 112 134 112 87

Traditional CRADAs, Total Active 378 202 391 462 465

Other Collaborative R&D Relationships 154 150 147 126 112

DHS CRADAs, Total Active 158 230 343 397 272

New CRADAs 88 98 114 106 118

Traditional CRADAs, Total Active 121 200 272 272 272

Other Collaborative R&D Relationships 31 30 71 71 0

DOI CRADAs, Total Active 601 826 873 841 740

New CRADAs 423 586 511 477 422

Traditional CRADAs, Total Active 35 38 37 58 53

Other Collaborative R&D Relationships 292 318 319 247 249

DOT CRADAs, Total Active 51 48 68 65 63

New CRADAs 10 9 22 6 7

Traditional CRADAs, Total Active 7 48 62 66 63

Other Collaborative R&D Relationships 30 35 152 355 314

VA CRADAs, Total Active 2,317 2,305 2,613 1,785 1,688

New CRADAs 517 509 502 575 512

Traditional CRADAs, Total Active 2,126 2,113 2,359 1,619 1,518

Other Collaborative R&D Relationships 0 0 0 0 0

EPA CRADAs, Total Active 129 97 55 51 49

New CRADAs 35 23 14 8 11

Traditional CRADAs, Total Active 52 50 55 51 49

Other Collaborative R&D Relationships 0 0 48 89 91

NASA CRADAs, Total Active 1 8 12 0 0

New CRADAs 1 7 5 0 0

Traditional CRADAs, Total Active 1 8 12 0 0

Other Collaborative R&D Relationships 2,091 2,113 2,204 2,174 2,182

Total Metric FY 2014 FY 2015 FY 2016 FY 2017 FY 2018

CRADAs, Total Active 10,355 10,090 11,118 10,919 12,967

New CRADAs 4,203 4,943 5,027 4,961 5,248

Traditional CRADAs, Total Active 6,666 6,187 6,773 6,605 6,146

Other Collaborative R&D Relationships 11,723 10,748 12,172 12,939 11,780
125

Appendix B

Technology Area Classification

Mapping of International Patent Classifications to Technology Area45

Analysis of Biological Materials – Includes the investigation or analysis of specific methods not

covered by other groups. Materials analyzed include food, water, metals, explosives, oils, paints, 

paper, textiles, concrete, resins, wood, and biological materials.

Audio-Visual Technology – Includes but is not limited to advertising, signs, labels or nameplates, seals, arrangements or circuits for control of indicating devices using static means to 

present variable information, scanning details of television systems, color television systems, still 

video cameras, loudspeakers, microphones, stereophonic systems, and printed circuits.

Basic Communication Processes – Includes but is not limited to generation of oscillations, 

modulation, amplifiers, control of amplification, impedance networks, tuning resonant circuits, 

pulse technique, and general coding, decoding, or code conversion.

Basic Materials Chemistry – Includes but is not limited to preservation of bodies of humans or 

animals or plants, nitrogenous fertilizers, explosive or thermic compositions, detonating or 

priming devices, means for generating smoke or mist, manufacture of matches, organic dyes, 

coating compositions, natural resins, preparation of glue, adhesives, drying or working-up or 

peat, cracking hydrocarbon oils, production of acetylene by wet methods, lubrication 

compositions, and detergent compositions. 

Biotechnology – Includes but is not limited to compounds of unknown constitution, peptides, 

apparatus for enzymology or microbiology, micro-organisms or enzymes, fermentation or 

enzyme-using processes to synthesize a desired chemical compound or composition or to 

separate optical isomers from a racemic mixture, and measuring or testing processes involving 

enzymes or micro-organisms.

Chemical Engineering – Includes but is not limited to boiling, evaporating, sublimation, cold 

traps, crystallization, solvent extraction, displacing liquids, degasification of liquids, filters 

comprising of loose filtering material, cartridge filters of the throw-away type, processes of 

filtration, regeneration of the filtering material or filter elements outside the filter for liquid or 

gaseous fluids, separation of different isotopes of the same chemical element, chemical or 

physical laboratory apparatus for general use, spreading solid materials using liquids or using 

pneumatic tables or jigs, centrifuges, flotation, spraying apparatus, treating textile materials by 

liquids, bleaching, drying solid materials or objects by removing liquid therefrom, and plasma 

technique. 

45 Derived from The World Intellectual Property Organization’s International Patent Classification (IPC) 

Correspondence Table and IPC Searchable Classification Database, version 2016.01.
126

Civil Engineering – Includes but is not limited to construction of roads, sports ground, platforms 

and refuge islands, landing stages for helicopters, machines for making railways, bridges, 

devices providing protection against weather, street cleaning, ship-lifting devices, foundations, 

excavations, embankments, dredging, water installation, sewers, water-closets or urinals with 

flushing devices, general building constructions, building materials, skylights, gutters, stairs, 

floors, locks, handcuffs, swimming pools, hinges for doors, windows, or wings, safes or strongrooms for valuables, bank protection devices, ladders, earth or rock drilling, mining or quarrying, 

large underground chambers, and safety devices. 

Computer Technology – Includes but is not limited to digital computers in which all the 

computation is affected mechanically, digital fluid-pressure computing devices, optical 

computing devices, electric digital data processing, analog computers, recognition of data, 

counting mechanisms, image data processing or generation, speech analysis or synthesis, speech 

recognition, and static stores. 

Control – Includes but is not limited to systems for controlling or regulating non-electric 

variables, ticket-issuing apparatus, time or attendance registers, handling or coins or of paper 

currency or similar valuable papers, con-freed or like apparatus, signaling or calling systems, 

traffic control systems, educational or demonstration appliances, ciphering or deciphering 

apparatus for cryptographic or other purposes involving the need for secrecy, and railway or like 

time or fare tables.

Digital Communication – Includes but is not limited to transmission of digital information, 

selective content distribution, and wireless communication networks.

Electrical Machinery, Apparatus, Energy – Includes but is not limited to incandescent 

mantles, lighting devices or systems, nonportable lighting devices or systems, cables, conductors, 

insulators, magnets, inductances, transformers, capacitors, electric switches, electric discharge 

tubes or discharge lamps, electric incandescent lamps, spark gaps, emergency protective circuit 

arrangements, dynamo-electric machines, electric heating, static electricity, and generation of 

electric power by conversion of Infra-red radiation, visible light, or ultraviolet light.

Engines, Pumps, Turbines – Includes but is not limited to steam engines, rotary-piston or 

oscillating-piston machines or engines, steam engine plants, cyclically operating valves for 

machines or engines, lubricating of machines or engines in general, cooling of machines or 

engines in general, internal-combustion piston engines, gas-turbine plants, jet-propulsion plants, 

starting of combustion engines, machines or engines for liquids, wind motors, positive- and nonpositive displacement pumps, generating combustion products of high pressure or high velocity, 

fusion reactors, nuclear reactors, nuclear power plant, conversion of chemical elements, 

obtaining energy from radioactive sources, and nuclear explosives. 

Environmental Technology – Includes but is not limited to fire-fighting, separating dispersed 

particles from gases, combinations of devices for separating particles from gases or vapors, 

disposal of solid waste, reclamation of contaminated soil, gathering or removal of domestic or 

like refuse, water treatment, cremation furnaces, and measurement of nuclear or x-radiation.
127

Food Chemistry – Includes but is not limited to new plants or processes for obtaining them, 

treatment of flour or dough for baking, preserving by canning, dairy products, edible oils or pats, 

coffee, tea, cocoa, coca products, protein compositions for foodstuffs, feeding-stuffs specially 

adapted for animals, brewing of beer, recovery of by-products of fermented solutions, wine, 

preparation of vinegar, production of sugar juices, extraction of sucrose from molasses, and 

drying sugar.

Furniture, Games – Includes but is not limited to tables, desks, office furniture, chairs, child 

furniture, special furniture, household or table equipment, furnishings for windows or doors, 

kitchen equipment, sanitary equipment, toilet accessories, domestic washing or cleaning, 

apparatus for physical training, design or layout of courts, bowling games, card games, indoor 

games, merry-go-rounds, swings, toys, devices for theaters and circuses, racing and riding sports 

equipment and accessories.

Handling – Includes but is not limited to labeling or tagging machines, containers for storage or 

transport of articles of materials, transport or storage devices, handling thick or filamentary 

material, elevators, escalators, moving walkways, cranes, capstans, winches, tackles, pulley 

blocks, hoists, applying closure members to bottles, and filling or emptying of bottles, jars, cans, 

casks, barrels, or similar containers. 

IT Methods for Management – Includes data processing systems or methods, specially adapted 

for administrative, commercial, financial, managerial, supervisory, or forecasting purposes.

Machine Tools – Includes but is not limited to chemical means for extinguishing fires, rolling of 

metal, working or processing of metal wire, making forged or pressed metal products, making 

metal chains, making gears or toothed racks, thread cutting, soldering, welding, abrasive or 

related blasting with particulate material, tools for grinding, hand-held nailing or stapling tools, 

handles for hand implements, workshop equipment, saws for wood or similar material, working 

veneer or plywood, dovetailed work, removing bark or vestiges of branches, and accessory 

machines or apparatus for working wood or similar materials.

Macromolecular Chemistry, Polymers – Includes but is not limited to polysaccharides, 

treatment or chemical modification of rubbers, derivatives of natural macromolecular 

compounds, use of inorganic or non-macromolecular organic substances as compounding 

ingredients, and compositions of macromolecular compounds.

Materials, Metallurgy – Includes but is not limited to foundry molding, casting of metals, 

working metallic powder, non-metallic elements, ammonia compounds, cyanogen compounds, 

compounds of alkali metals, chemical composition of glasses, manufacture of iron or steel, 

processing of pig-iron, production or refining of metals, alloys, and changing the physical 

structure of non-ferrous metals or non-ferrous alloys.

Measurement – Includes but is not limited to measuring linear dimensions, measuring distances, 

surveying, navigation, gyroscopic instruments, measuring volume, weighing, measurement of 

mechanical vibrations, measurement of intensity or velocity, measuring temperature or quantity 

of heat, measuring force, testing static or dynamic balance of machines or structures, sampling, 
128

investigating strength properties of solid materials by application of mechanical stress, 

investigating density or specific gravity of materials, investigating flow properties of materials, 

investigating or analyzing materials by use of optical or thermal means, and investigating or 

analyzing materials by the use of nuclear magnetic resonance, electron paramagnetic resonance 

or other spin effects.

Mechanical Elements – Includes but is not limited to fluid-pressure actuators, fluid dynamics, 

devices for fastening or securing constructional elements or machine parts, shafts, couplings for 

transmitting rotation, springs, means for damping vibration, belts, cables, ropes, chains, fittings, 

gearing, pistons, cylinders, pressure vessels, valves, devices for venting or aerating, pipes, 

frames, casing, lubricating, safety devices in general, steam traps, gas-holders of variable 

capacity, vessels for containing or storing compressed gases, pipe-line systems, and control 

devices or systems insofar as characterized by mechanical features.

Medical Technology – Includes but is not limited to diagnosis, surgery, identification, dentistry, 

veterinary instruments, filters implantable into blood vessels, physical therapy apparatus, 

containers specially adapted for medical or pharmaceutical purposes, methods or apparatus for 

sterilizing materials, devices for introducing media into or onto the body, electrotherapy, 

radiation therapy, ultrasound therapy, and x-ray technique.

Micro-Structural and Nano-Technology –Includes but is not limited to micro-structural 

devices or systems, processes or apparatus specially adapted for the manufacture or treatment of 

micro-structural devices or systems, specific uses or applications of nano-structures, and nanostructures formed by manipulation of individual atoms, molecules, or limited collections of 

atoms or molecules as discrete units. 

Optics – Includes but is not limited to optical elements, spectacles, apparatus or arrangements 

for taking photographs, photosensitive materials for photographic purposes, apparatus for 

processing exposed photographic materials, photomechanical production of textured or patterned 

surfaces, electrography, devices used to stimulate emission, and holographic processes or 

apparatus.

Organic Fine Chemistry – Includes but is not limited to cosmetics or similar toilet preparations, 

general methods of organic chemistry, acyclic or carbocyclic compounds, heterocyclic 

compounds, steroids, derivatives or sugars, nucleosides, nucleic acids, and combinatorial 

chemistry.

Other Consumer Goods – Includes but is not limited to machines for making cigars, smoke 

filters, match boxes, shirts, corsets, outerwear, suspenders, artificial flowers, wigs, masks, 

feathers, hats and head coverings, characteristic features of footwear, buttons, pins, buckles, 

jewelry, coins, walking sticks, umbrellas, purses, luggage, hairdressing or shaving equipment, 

apparatus or methods for life-saving, bookbinding, filing appliances, implements for writing or 

drawing, apparatus or tools for artistic work, saddles, stirrups, upholstering methods, ropes or 

cables in general, musical instruments with associated blowing apparatus, and methods or 

devices for protecting against, or for damping, noise or other acoustic waves in general.
129

Other Special Machines – Includes but is not limited to soil working in agriculture or forestry, 

planting, sowing, fertilizing, harvesting, mowing, threshing, cultivation of vegetables, 

manufacture of dairy products, animal husbandry, shoeing of animals, machines or equipment 

for making, slaughtering, processing meat, machines or apparatus for treating harvested fruit, 

preparing grain for milling, shaping clay or other ceramic compositions, working stone or stonelike materials, shaping or joining of plastics, additive manufacturing, manufacturing or shaping 

of glass, sugar extraction, weapons for projecting missiles without the use of explosive or 

combustible propellant charge, small arms, apparatus for launching projectiles or missiles from 

barrels, weapon sights, targets, explosive charges, blasting, and ammunition fuses.

Pharmaceuticals – Includes but is not limited to preparations for dentistry, medicinal 

preparations characterized by special physical form, medicinal preparations containing organic 

and inorganic active ingredients, medicinal preparations containing peptides, preparations for 

testing in vivo, electrically conductive preparations for use in therapy or testing in vivo, 

radioactive non-metals and metals, specific therapeutic activity of chemical compounds or 

medicinal preparations, and containing or obtained from roots, bulbs, leaves, bark, seeds, grains, 

flowers, stems, branches, or twigs.

Semiconductors – Includes semiconductor devices and electric solid-state devices not otherwise 

provided.

Surface Technology, Coating – Includes but is not limited to apparatus and processes for 

applying liquids or other fluent materials to surfaces, layered products, coating metallic material, 

enameling of metals, nonmechanical removal of metallic material from surfaces, cleaning or degreasing of metallic material by chemical methods other than electrolysis, and single-crystal 

growth.

Telecommunications – Includes but is not limited to transmission systems for measured values, 

waveguides, resonators, aerials, transmission, broadcast communication, multiplex 

communication, secret communication, jamming of communication, telephonic communication, 

and scanning, transmitting, or reproducing documents.

Textile and Paper Machines – Includes but is not limited to appliances or methods for making 

clothes, manufacture of brushes, making articles of paper or cardboard, processes for the 

manufacture or reproduction of printing surfaces, typewriters, stamps, printing plates or foils, 

mechanical treatment of processing of leather in general, preliminary treatment of fibers, 

spinning or twisting, crimping or curling fibers, shedding mechanisms, auxiliary weaving 

apparatus, knitting, braiding or manufacturing of lace, sewing, embroidering, mechanical or 

pressure cleaning of carpets, decorating textiles, and paper-making machines.

Thermal Processes and Apparatus – Includes but is not limited to methods of steam 

generation, superheating of steam, methods or apparatus for combustion using fluid or solid fuel, 

burners, grates, feeding fuel to combustion apparatus, regulating or controlling combustion, 

ignition, domestic stoves or ranges, air-conditioning, fluid heaters, ice production, steam or 

vapor condensers, other heat exchange apparatus, and cleaning of internal or external surfaces of 

heat-exchange or heat-transfer conduits.
130

Transport – Includes but is not limited to vehicle wheels, vehicle tires, vehicle suspension 

arrangements, windows, windscreens, arrangement or mounting of propulsion units or of 

transmissions in vehicles, propulsion of electrically-propelled vehicles, power supply lines or 

devices along rails for electrically-propelled vehicles, vehicles adapted for load transportation, 

arrangement of signaling or lighting devices, vehicle brake control systems, air-cushion vehicles, 

locomotives, body details or kinds of railway vehicles, rail vehicle suspensions, shifting or 

shunting of rail vehicles, guiding railway traffic, hand-propelled vehicles, vehicles drawn by 

animals, trailers, cycle stands, cycle saddles or seats, brakes specially adapted for cycles, rider 

propulsion of wheeled vehicles or sledges, ships or other waterborne vessels, offensive or 

defensive arrangements on vessels, marine propulsion or steering, auxiliaries on vessels, lighterthan-air aircraft, airplanes, helicopters, equipment for fitting in or to aircraft, flying suites, 

parachutes, and cosmonautics.
131

Appendix C

Fields and Subfields of S&E Publications Data46

Agricultural Sciences – dairy animal sciences, agricultural and food sciences

Astronomy – astronomy

Biological Sciences – general biomedical research, miscellaneous biomedical research, 

biophysics, botany, anatomy and morphology, cell biology, cytology, and histology, ecology, 

entomology, immunology, microbiology, nutrition and dietetics, parasitology, genetics and 

heredity, pathology, pharmacology, physiology, general zoology, miscellaneous zoology, general 

biology, miscellaneous biology, biochemistry and molecular biology, virology

Chemistry – analytical chemistry, organic chemistry, physical chemistry, polymers, general 

chemistry, applied chemistry, inorganic and nuclear chemistry

Computer Sciences – Computer Sciences

Engineering – aerospace engineering, chemical engineering, civil engineering, electrical 

engineering, mechanical engineering, metals and metallurgy, materials engineering, industrial 

engineering, operations research and management, biomedical engineering, nuclear technology, 

general engineering, miscellaneous engineering and technology

Geosciences – meteorology and atmospheric sciences, geology, earth and planetary sciences, 

oceanography and limnology, marine biology and hydrobiology, environmental sciences

Mathematics – applied mathematics, probability and statistics, general mathematics, 

miscellaneous mathematics

Medical Sciences – endocrinology, neurology and neurosurgery, dentistry, environmental and 

occupational health, public health, surgery, general and internal medicine, ophthalmology, 

pharmacy, veterinary medicine, miscellaneous clinical medicine, anesthesiology, cardiovascular 

system, cancer, gastroenterology, hematology, obstetrics and gynecology, otorhinolaryngology, 

pediatrics, psychiatry, radiology and nuclear medicine, dermatology and venereal disease, 

orthopedics, arthritis and rheumatism, respiratory system, urology, nephrology, allergy, fertility, 

geriatrics, embryology, tropical medicine, addictive diseases, microscopy

Other Life Sciences – speech/language pathology and audiology, nursing, rehabilitation, health 

policy and services

46 Sources: SRI International; Science-Metrix; National Science Foundation, National Center for Science and 

Engineering Statistics, Integrated Science and Engineering Resources Data System (WebCASPAR) database 

system. Science and Engineering Indicators 2016, Appendix Table 5-24. Used with permission.
132

Psychology – clinical psychology, behavioral and comparative psychology, developmental and 

child psychology, experimental psychology, human factors, social psychology, general 

psychology, miscellaneous psychology, psychoanalysis

Physics – acoustics, chemical physics, nuclear and particle physics, optics, solid state physics, 

applied physics, fluids and plasmas, general physics, miscellaneous physics

Social Sciences – economics, international relations, political science and public administration, 

demography, sociology, anthropology and archaeology, area studies, criminology, geography 

and regional sciences, planning and urban studies, general social sciences, miscellaneous social 

sciences, science studies, gerontology and aging, social studies of medicine