The short answer is: You can’t — at least not on your own. Congress designated the members of the FLC as the federal labs and their parent agencies. The Consortium’s members are the organizations, not individuals. But individuals do play important roles in the FLC’s operations.

Congress further defines a federal laboratory as:

• Any federally funded laboratory,
• Any federally funded research and development center, or
• Any cooperative research center or National Science Foundation Research Center 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.

The FLC uses the Master List of FFRDCs maintained by NSF to determine which labs are designated as FFRDCs. If you wish to be considered a lab, or are a new lab, the FLC works with your Agency Representative to determine the status. The agency determines which labs are on the list, and can update the list with the NSF.  For more information see 15 USC 3703(4) and the FLC Bylaws.

There are no individual dues for the FLC. By law, each parent agency pays 0.008% of its intramural research and development budget per year to support the FLC. These funds are used to initiate and support activities and programs that benefit federal tech transfer offices and their employees. All funds are collected and maintained by NIST. For more information see 15 USC 3710(e)(7).

Technology transfer professionals who work for federal laboratories and agencies are officially known as Consortium participants. They achieve this status automatically just by being employed by a member lab or agency.

Each member lab or parent agency may designate one representative to participate in FLC elections, which can involve electing new Executive Board members or approving changes to the Consortium bylaws, policies and procedures. Laboratory representatives and agency representatives, collectively referred to as Consortium representatives, are also allowed to run for national and regional FLC offices.

Laboratory representatives provide a link between the FLC and the lab. In addition to voting responsibilities, lab reps maintain the FLC’s records for the lab, coordinate lab submissions to FLC programs, and encourage their lab mates to actively participate in the FLC community.

Agency representatives support the FLC’s mission, encourage lab participation in Consortium activities, and serve as institutional links between the FLC and their respective agencies. They make the FLC aware of changing agency missions and priorities, and help the Consortium adapt as needed to accommodate and support those changes.

Most FLC activities are open to non-members at the same rates as members. After all, we want to form partnerships. The FLC does form partnerships with external organizations that share a similar mission and objective. More information is available under Partners.