Technology transfer (i.e., the process by which technology or expertise developed in federal labs for one purpose is used for another purpose) is a collaborative effort between the federal labs and outside organizations and traditionally includes: Technology licensing—businesses can license federal technologies, such as patented inventions, in order to integrate them into their products; although not every new or improved technology developed through federal lab research can be commercialized. Cooperative research and development agreements (CRADA)— under a CRADA, federal labs collaborate with nonfederal partners to carry out research projects that will directly benefit lab missions and the partners’ R&D goals, and a lab may contribute personnel, equipment, or other resources to a project, while its CRADA partners may contribute funds or resources, or both. Work for others—under a nonfederal work-for-others agreement, a federal lab is paid to conduct research on behalf of a nonfederal sponsor, such as a university or corporation. User facility agreements—under a user-facility agreement, scientists or researchers from outside organizations can use federal lab equipment for their own research, sometimes in collaboration with federal lab staff. According to a report prepared by the Interagency Workgroup for Technology Transfer in response to the Presidential Memorandum of 2011, other important means of technology transfer include publishing scientific articles and other technical publications, as well as making software developed by federal researchers available for download.Figure 1 provides an example of how technology developed in a federal lab for one purpose may be transferred to the private sector for another purpose. Since the early 1980s, the federal government has enacted several laws related to technology transfer from federal labs. One of the first technology transfer laws, the Stevenson-Wydler Technology Innovation Act of 1980, articulated the need for a strong national policy supporting domestic technology transfer and required federal labs to establish an office of research and technology applications and devote budget and personnel resources to promoting technology cooperation and the transfer of federal technologies. These offices (which we refer to as technology transfer offices) are generally responsible for coordinating each lab’s efforts to identify technologies available for transfer, obtaining patents or other legal protections for lab technologies, and negotiating technology transfer agreements with outside parties. In addition, the administration has emphasized the importance of technology transfer from federal labs. For example, in his October 2011 memorandum, President Obama directed federal agencies to take actions to accelerate technology transfer and support private sector commercialization in an effort to promote innovation and increase the economic and societal impact of federal R&D investments. Moreover, President Obama’s fiscal year 2015 budget identified a new Lab-To-Market cross-agency priority goal to support innovation, economic growth, and job creation. Specifically, the goal outlines several actions to, over the next four years, accelerate and improve the transfer of technologies from federal labs to the commercial marketplace, including optimizing the management, discoverability, and ease-of-license of federally funded patents and increasing the utilization of federally funded research facilities by entrepreneurs and innovators. Even with this emphasis on technology transfer, we and others have identified a number of challenges associated with technology transfer from federal labs. These challenges include the following: Technology transfer is often not a priority for lab managers and funding tends not to allow for widespread technology transfer outreach. Scientists may not understand the potential commercial applicability of their innovations. Rules and requirements that labs must follow in transferring technology, as well as a lack of standardization thereof, increase the complexity and length of time of the negotiation process with potential partners, and create a disincentive to working with the labs. Lab technologies are often not well-developed enough for use in market-ready products and may require investment of additional time and money to develop. Companies are often not aware of the potentially useful technologies being developed in federal labs. Companies and entrepreneurs often prefer access to and personal contact with researchers to turn an early stage innovation into a market-ready product, and this may be difficult because conflict-of- interest rules that ensure that public employees do not unfairly benefit from federally funded inventions prevent scientists from being involved in business ventures. One of the federal efforts to facilitate technology transfer from federal labs to the private sector and others was the creation of FLC. FLC was established by law in the Federal Technology Transfer Act of 1986 to, among other things, (1) develop training for federal lab employees engaged in technology transfer and (2) facilitate communication and cooperation between federal lab technology transfer offices and regional, state, and local technology transfer organizations. The Federal Technology Transfer Act also established requirements for FLC’s membership and funding. Since its establishment in 1986, FLC’s mission has evolved. Earlier in its history, FLC’s efforts, in large part, focused on providing training and networking for federal technology transfer staff. However, FLC has, in recent years, taken on more responsibility for helping federal agencies provide potential customers with information on available technology transfer opportunities and for functioning as a clearinghouse. These efforts were bolstered by the President’s 2011 memorandum calling for an online clearinghouse of federal technologies, and FLC took the lead role in establishing such a tool. Changes to how FLC defines its mission from being primarily focused on the federal labs to expanding its focus beyond the federal labs reflect this transition. For example, in FLC’s 2009 annual report to the President and Congress, FLC defined its mission as to help federal labs transfer technologies developed through the federal government’s R&D efforts. In FLC’s 2012 annual report to the President and Congress, FLC defined its mission as to promote and facilitate the rapid movement of federal lab research results and technologies into the mainstream of the U.S. economy. FLC’s standing committees include a state and local government committee and a communications committee, among others. NIST is the legislatively designated FLC host and handles FLC’s finances. Executive Board. FLC is organized into six regions, and each region has a regional coordinator, its own website, social media outlets, regional newsletter, and can implement its own initiatives including training and information meetings for its members. FLC has taken steps to communicate with potential customers, including small business and entrepreneurs, but has not fully communicated with and obtained feedback from them to assess potential customers’ needs and incorporate leading practices when designing and implementing technology transfer clearinghouse initiatives, resulting in missed opportunities to better meet potential customer needs. As stated in FLC’s 2012 annual report, FLC carries out its mission to promote and facilitate the rapid movement of federal lab research results and technologies into the mainstream of the U.S. economy by implementing two primary clearinghouse initiatives—the Technology Locator service and Available Technologies tool—that provide information on available technology transfer opportunities. Currently, FLC is developing a third initiative—FLCBusiness—to provide additional information on available technology transfer opportunities. While FLC officials said they view federal agencies and labs as FLC’s main clients for its training and other activities, the principal customers of the information provided through FLC’s clearinghouse initiatives include the private sector, and state and local government organizations, among others, specifically: Technology Locator service. Since 1987, FLC has provided a Technology Locator service whereby an FLC staff member will try to connect customers with relevant labs based on technology needs submitted by customers through a phone call, e-mail, or online form. FLC’s online form provides a space for potential customers to explain their technology request or problem, desired results, and expectations of a federal lab, among other information. Using this information, FLC will identify laboratory resources and contacts that can respond to specific requests and will facilitate communication between the potential customer and the lab contacts. Once contact is made, further discussion or negotiation of a technology transfer agreement occurs between the potential customer and the lab representative. FLC officials said customers who submit requests usually receive a response within 48 hours. Available Technologies tool. In 2012, FLC released the Available Technologies tool to provide a web-based search tool for collecting and disseminating information on publicly available federally owned inventions and, when available, licensing agreements. The tool can help potential customers identify more than 20,000 available lab technologies across approximately 225 labs by searching the websites of 13 participating agencies. FLC reported spending approximately $30,000 for a contractor to develop the tool, which relies on a customized Google search tool to link potential customers to the existing information on agencies’ technology transfer websites based on key words the customer enters. The key word search can be refined to include or exclude certain words and may also be focused on technologies published within a certain time period. In addition, the Available Technologies tool webpage includes a listing of the latest technologies available for transfer from federal labs. According to FLC, it plans to continue to develop this tool as it gains access to additional data from federal labs through various government-wide initiatives. FLCBusiness. FLC is developing a new web-based search tool called FLCBusiness that is scheduled to become publically available in fall 2014, according to FLC officials, and is intended to allow potential customers to search for technology development programs, available funding, and to learn about the capabilities of federal lab facilities. The tool is designed to allow potential customers to perform key word searches for labs, or funding or technology development programs, and to refine searches to a specific agency, geographic location, or technology area. The tool also is to provide links to additional information on licenses, CRADAs, and other technology transfer methods. As of August 2014, FLC reported spending approximately $150,000 to develop the tool. In addition, FLC has utilized various communication tools, such as social media, outreach by regional FLC members to local technology transfer organizations, its annual meeting, and an online newsletter and news forum, to communicate with potential customers and promote its clearinghouse initiatives and technology transfer success stories.