CUED

Facilitating Federal Technology Transfer to Small and Medium Sized Business
and State and Local Government

The technology outputs of the federal laboratories also require the definition to include these three components of technology transfer. Most of the major products of federal R & D are not discrete technologies that can be used by smaller business or state and local government, but technical information and expertise. This results from the lack of federal R & D conducted primarily to respond to these groups' needs. Most of this R & D is conducted to respond to federal government needs and therefore may require the identification of secondary uses in order to satisfy the needs of our user groups. Even when a secondary use is identified, in many cases it may be necessary to further develop the product or process because either the technology is not at the stage of commercialization or it must be adapted to fit the specific need of the user.

Present federal technology transfer programs have been successful when the technology recipient and the federal agencies' R & D missions are closely related. (The U.S. Dept. of Agricultures' Cooperative Extension Service is a well-known mission related technology transfer program). The need for identification of secondary uses, and the resulting need for adaptations of technologies, distinguishes the primary focus of this report from existing technology transfer efforts. When a secondary use must be identified before utilization, the link between potential users and technologies becomes much less direct. These difficulties, coupled with the specific needs of the targeted user groups for technical information and technical assistance, necessitates a new technology transfer mechanism.

Several recommendations are made in this report. One is the establishment of a federal laboratory data base to include this information and an ordered search process that could make more efficient use of laboratory personnel and expertise. Another involves a consistent method for commercial evaluation of technologies and standard criteria for private sector use of federal laboratory expertise. Our proposed conclusions and recommendations are designed to lead to increased access to federal technologies and technical information by all potential users. They contain specific measures designed to provide smaller business and state and local governments with a greater ability to utilize federal technology. These recommendations are discussed in three sections:

A) Modifications to the Federal Laboratory Secondary Utilization System
B) Transfer Mechanism for Smaller Business and State and Local Government
C) Implementation of the Industrial Extension System Model

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UIC-Center for Urban Economic Development