This Q&A (Questions & Answers) forum on best practices and tools is designed to:

• Build support for for ORTA laboratory activites
• Help ORTAs become more effective negotiators of CRADAs and licenses
• Help ORTAs develop cost-effective technology marketing approaches
• Help ORTAs with answers to questions on any technology-transfer-related topic

Please submit your questions regarding best practices for technology transfer via email to the Southeast Region Support Office. Your questions will be posted anonymously on this Best Practices FAQ page, and answered by fellow FLC members and other subject-matter experts.

If you can answer a question on this best practices forum, please email your response to the Southeast Region Support Office. Replies will be posted beneath the original question.

Laboratory Practices To Build Management Support for Technology Transfer

The following is a list of best practices and suggestions that came out of the group discussion at the Southeast Regional FLC conference in Charleston. The topic discussed was "How do you market technology transfer to your laboratory managers?"

• Develop a set of "strategic" metrics that can show how technology transfer outcomes supports a variety of laboratory management objectives. Examples include maintaining running bar charts of
  
  • Number of CRADAs per year
    
  • Number of licensing agreements per year
    
  • Number of other cooperative agreements per year
    
  • Sponsored research $$
    
  • Leveraged research $$ (DOE estimates that for every $1 of royalty income, there is about $10 of sponsored research for a 10:1 ratio.)
    
  • Licensing revenues
    
• Take charts to performance evaluations and management reviews.
  
• Design and deliver patent/intellectual property seminars to laboratory scientists and engineers to demonstrate the potential value (to them) of disclosing inventions/discoveries.
  
• Utilize laboratory technical display opportunities to show technology transfer activities.
  
• Interview top and middle managers at the laboratory (Assistant Lab Director and program managers) and others to calibrate their attitudes about technology transfer, laboratory needs, and what TT can do to help them achieve their objectives.
  
• Develop a log of laboratory facilities to show off to visitors and to promote facilities use agreements---but do not use lab "mission-speak" in developing promotional descriptions targeted to potential industry or academic users.
  
• Keep management informed and out of trouble.
  
• Utilize the FLC Awards program to host presentation ceremonies within the laboratory, and be sure that top & middle management, as well as other S&E's are invited to attend.
  
• Use CRADAs to help integrate business and government technology development activities, since industry is now funding up to 70% of government research.
  
• Work with laboratory procurement office.
  
• Seek ways to use CRADAs to tap into the industry-funded research activity at the laboratory, including "spin-in, funds-in CRADAs, etc.
  
• Identify industry technology acquisition works, such as Boeing's phantom works to explore technologies and technology development areas consistent with those available in the laboratory.