DOE laboratories have primarily used the following types of agreements to transfer technology to U.S. businesses and other organizations: CRADAs: A DOE laboratory and its nonfederal partner(s) agree that their scientists will collaborate on a research project of mutual interest and consistent with the laboratory’s mission. Both parties may contribute personnel, services, and property to the CRADA project, and the partner(s) can provide funding for the laboratory’s research. However, the DOE laboratory cannot provide funding to the partner(s). Intellectual property rights to technology developed under the CRADA are negotiated in advance. In general, the inventing partner retains ownership rights, while the other partner receives appropriate licensing rights. Technical assistance for small businesses: Both NNSA’s and the Office of Science’s laboratories used dedicated funds (provided by the Technology Partnership Program and the Laboratory Technology Research Program, respectively) to provide technical assistance to small businesses. Work-for-others agreements: A DOE laboratory agrees to conduct a defined scope of work or list of tasks that is consistent with DOE missions and which does not place the laboratory in direct competition with the private sector. The nonfederal entity pays for the entire cost of the project. While intellectual property rights are negotiable, the nonfederal entity typically retains title rights to any inventions. Technology licensing agreements: A DOE laboratory grants a business an exclusive or nonexclusive license to use its intellectual property in return for a licensing fee and/or royalties. User facility agreements: A DOE laboratory permits outside organizations to use its unique research equipment and/or facilities to conduct research. For nonproprietary research, almost all of the users are supported by federal grants, typically through the National Science Foundation or DOE. For proprietary research, the private organization pays the full cost for using research equipment or facilities and retains title rights to any intellectual property. Table 1 shows the dedicated funding that the Congress has made available for technology partnerships through the Technology Partnership Program for NNSA’s laboratories and weapons production facilities and the Laboratory Technology Research Program for DOE’s Office of Science laboratories. The Technology Partnership Program, which provided funding for DOE’s nuclear weapons laboratories and production facilities, peaked at $214 million in fiscal year 1996 and was subsequently phased out by fiscal year 2001. The Laboratory Technology Research Program, which provided funding for DOE’s Office of Science laboratories, also declined from a peak of $47 million in fiscal year 1995 to $3 million in fiscal year 2002. DOE requested $3 million for the Laboratory Technology Research Program for fiscal year 2003 and has announced that it will terminate this program once previously approved projects have been funded. In the early 1990s, DOE created the Office of Research and Development Management within the Office of the Under Secretary to promote and oversee technology transfer at DOE’s laboratories and production facilities. In March 1996, at the direction of the Congress, DOE disestablished this office and eliminated all of its staff positions. Subsequently, in 1999, DOE established a Technology Transfer Working Group, composed of representatives from 25 DOE organizations, to oversee and coordinate technology transfer policies. The working group has no permanent staff positions. The 12 DOE laboratories surveyed have substantially reduced their participation in CRADAs and technical assistance to small businesses in recent years, primarily because DOE research program funding has not replaced dedicated funding for technology partnerships. On the other hand, the number of work-for-others agreements, technology licenses, and user facility agreements has increased during the past 10 years. (See tables 5 and 6 in app. I for data on each laboratory’s technology transfer activities and nonfederal entities’ financial support.) Finally, two laboratories have identified non-DOE sources to support their efforts to provide local small businesses with technology assistance. Table 2 shows that active CRADAs at DOE laboratories—which peaked at 1,111 in fiscal year 1996—dropped by more than 40 percent to 606 in fiscal year 2001. In particular, CRADAs that continued from the prior year dropped from 861 in fiscal year 1996 to 440 in fiscal year 2001. Much of this decline occurred in fiscal year 2000, when 360 CRADA projects ended. (See table 7 in app. I for each laboratory’s newly executed and continuing CRADAs.) The initial growth and subsequent decline in CRADAs over the past 10 years mirrors the change in DOE’s dedicated funding for technology partnerships through NNSA’s Technology Partnership Program and the Office of Science’s Laboratory Technology Research Program. Since peaking in fiscal year 1996, the drop in CRADAs has been greatest at the laboratories for which dedicated funding constituted a substantial share of partnership funding. For example, from 1996 through fiscal year 2001, the number of new CRADAs dropped from 12 to 7 and total active CRADAs dropped from 55 to 30 at the Office of Science’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. The Laboratory Technology Research Program was the DOE source of funding for 68 percent of these CRADAs. The termination of Technology Partnership Program funding resulted in more than a 60-percent drop in active CRADAs at NNSA laboratories. According to technology transfer managers at the DOE laboratories we visited, their laboratories are likely to have fewer CRADAs in the future because of DOE funding constraints. For example, the number of CRADAs at Oak Ridge National Laboratory dropped from 256 in fiscal year 2000 to 79 in fiscal year 2001 primarily because of funding constraints. In addition, as a result of unanticipated cuts in fiscal year 2002 funding for the Laboratory Technology Research Program—from $10 million in fiscal year 2001 to $3 million in fiscal year 2002—the Office of Science funded only 5 of the 12 multi-year CRADA proposals previously approved for funding by its peer review process. The partners for the other seven approved CRADAs were informed that funding for their projects would not be available in fiscal year 2002. The Office of Science has announced that these 12 CRADAs will be the last ones funded by the Laboratory Technology Research Program, which will be terminated. The three laboratories that have historically relied on DOE program funds to support CRADAs have participated in at most 50 CRADAs per year each. For example, total CRADAs at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory have grown from 14 in fiscal year 1996 to 21 in fiscal year 2001, primarily because the Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Program, whose mission includes working with industry, has provided funding support for most of these CRADAs. CRADAs at the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory peaked at 50 in fiscal year 1996 and subsequently fell to 32 in fiscal year 2001. Figure 1 shows that CRADA funding from all sources peaked at over $500 million in fiscal year 1995. Since then, DOE funding has declined while partners have provided a greater proportion of CRADA support through funding and in-kind contributions. These trends reflect the decline in the total number of active CRADAs and the fact that DOE’s research programs generally have not provided the funding support for CRADAs that NNSA’s Technology Partnership Program and the Office of Science’s Laboratory Technology Research Program had previously provided. Funding from some DOE programs has increased, however. For example, the Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Program, which provided $16.6 million for CRADAs in fiscal year 1996, provided $40.1 million of the $81 million in total DOE funds for CRADAs in fiscal year 2001. (See tables 8 and 9 in app. I for the financial support of CRADAs by DOE research programs and partners.) With the decline in DOE funding support for CRADAs, the bulk of support for CRADAs has come from the laboratories’ partners. Before fiscal year 1997, CRADA partners primarily provided in-kind contributions that covered the costs incurred by their scientists. Since then, CRADA partners have provided more funding to cover part, or all, of the DOE laboratory’s costs for CRADAs. In fiscal year 2001, CRADA partners provided 76 percent of the total financial support for CRADAs through funding and in-kind contributions—specifically, partners paid all of the costs for 23 percent of active CRADAs and jointly funded the DOE laboratory’s costs for 15 percent of active CRADAs. (See table 10 in app. I for the type of financial support that partners provided.) While these funds enabled the DOE laboratories to leverage their resources, technology transfer managers at several laboratories noted that many ongoing CRADAs were terminated early and potentially beneficial CRADA projects were stopped during negotiations because a business learned that it would have to pay a substantial part, or all, of the laboratory’s research costs in addition to its own costs. In recent years, about 33 percent of the CRADAs were with small businesses, 50 percent were with large or intermediate businesses, and 13 percent were with universities or consortia. (See table 11 in app. I.) Table 3 shows that the DOE laboratories’ other technology transfer activities funded by businesses and other nonfederal entities have grown substantially in the past 10 years—work-for-others agreements are more than four times greater and technology licenses and user facility agreements are eight times greater. Businesses and other nonfederal entities have provided more funding for work-for-others agreements than for all other types of technology transfer activities combined. Funding from nonfederal entities for work-for-others agreements increased from $31 million in fiscal year 1992 to over $188 million in fiscal year 1999. In fiscal year 2001, there were 1,527 work-for-others agreements funded at $147 million. Although the nonfederal entity is required to pay all of the project costs, many businesses use a work-for-others agreement, rather than a CRADA.