Federal Labs Transfer Tech to Lower Bar to Innovation

A somewhat overlooked initiative among the innovation industry could be the network of federal laboratories that conduct tax-funded R&D across science and technology disciplines, according to the Federal Laboratory Consortium (FLC) that promotes, educates and facilitates technology transfer (T2), the process by which federal technologies are licensed to industry.

“Federal laboratories’ cutting-edge facilities, technologies and expertise are made available to innovators throughout the United States to lower the bar to innovation by leveraging taxpayers’ investment in R&D to bring those technologies to market faster,” says Paul Zielinski, FLC chairman. “Some of the most recognizable technologies we use today—like GPS, memory foam,Gardasil vaccine and others—were first developed in a federal laboratory. It was only through the T2 process that these technologies made powerful economic and societal impacts.”

FLC maintains a one-stop-shop database for federal laboratory information available for collaborative partnership. A short video titled Accessing Federal Laboratory Resources with FLC Business explains how to leverage federal resources such as laboratory facilities, equipment, technologies for licensing, funding and expertise for business advancement, according to Zielinski.