A summary of NIST’s recommended actions is reproduced below. More details on the intended actions, including what regulatory or legislative changes may be required to implement the solutions, are provided in the paper.
Some of the recommended actions would facilitate lab-corporate collaborations, and may also create new opportunities for tech-based economic development organizations to work with federal agencies and labs:
- Expanding the use of Agreements to Commercialize Technologies, a Department of Energy pilot that is sometimes easier to implement than CRADAs;
- Establishing more nonprofit foundations to facilitate tech transfer from federal R&D agencies;
- Continuing support for SBIR/STTR;
- Increasing agencies’ use of entrepreneurship programs, including I-Corps, for both extramural and intramural training;
- Allowing entrepreneurial leave for federal R&D staff; and,
- Developing a portal for easier identification of federal R&D assets.
NIST is formally accepting comments on the paper through Jan. 9, 2019. Thoughts can be submitted to roi@nist.gov. SSTI members interested in the process are also encouraged to contact SSTI Policy and Development Director Jason Rittenberg (614.901.1690 | rittenberg@ssti.org).