Federal technology transfer: Teaching it

This paper recommends development of teaching materials and cases on technology transfer for undergraduate and graduate courses in business and engineering. Its focus is the process of transferring technology from the federal laboratories to business organizations.     

The transfer of Federal technology and the community college

The State of Ohio has developed a transfer mechanism using its technical and community colleges. A pilot program began in 1979. The program includes eleven of the State's technical and community colleges and the Ohio State University acting as program manager. This paper reports on a program which is a cooperative effort with the Federal Laboratory Consortium that represents some 200 Federal laboratories and the Ohio technical and community college network. The role of the Ohio Technology Transfer Organization (OTTO) is explained and Federal Laboratory Consortium demonstration projects are discussed.     

透过技术转移规律看政府的职能定位

两地之间技术水平差距越大,技术转移的动因就越强。而现实中,技术又总是首先沿梯度最小的方向转移。技术转移和创新区域发展,客观上要求政府提供必要的服务,创造条件减小技术转移的梯度,促进技术转移的顺利进行。在当前实施创新型国家发展战略的背景下,政府更应以"仆人"的角色来履行其公共服务职能,不但要当创新的排头兵,还要做创新的导航员,更要做创新环境的营造者。     

Red tape and technology transfer in US government laboratories

The purpose of this paper is to gauge the effects of red tape and bureaucratization on the technology-transfer activities and effectiveness of government laboratories in the United States. Two central questions are addressed: Do laboratories involved significantly in technology transfer have more red tape than others? and Does the level of red tape have an effect on technology-transfer success? Objective and perceptual measures of red tape are used. Technologytransfer effectiveness is measured in terms of getting other organizations to adopt technology developed in the laboratory (“out the door” success) and of the commercial impact of transfers. Data are derived from questionnaire responses provided by directors of 276 federal- and state-government laboratories. Results indicate that laboratories involved in technology transfer do not have higher levels of red tape. Out-the-door technology-transfer success relates strongly to low degrees of perceived red tape, whereas high ratings for commercial impact are associated with actual low levels of red tape in acquiring project funding and lowcost equipment.     

Computer aided manufacturing technology transfer needs in Florida

Automation and computers could improve the profitability of a manufacturing organization. While automation is primarily used to perform physical manufacturing tasks, computers are used for both information-type tasks and physical manufacturing tasks. If the manufacturing operations and personnel, as well as the flow of information, material, and energy, could be integrated to perform well-planned sequences of tasks to manufacture families of products in cells, the rewards would be enhanced profitability, quality, and safety. Such an integration is generally termed “computer-integrated manufacturing” (CIM). This paper summarizes a survey designed to determine the current and future service/training needs in CIM-related technologies of Florida manufacturing industries. It also identifies a role for a technology transfer center in offering training/technical services in CIM or related technologies to these companies.     

The impact of Federal Alcohol and Drug Abuse block grants on state and local government substance abuse program expenditures: the role of federal oversight

Are the federal Alcohol and Drug Abuse (ADA) block grant funds substituting for or supplementing state and local government spending on substance abuse? Using panel data on state and local government substance abuse programs, this study explores the fiscal effects of the ADA block grant money and the increased enforcement (after 1989) of federal restrictions on state spending of ADA block grants. The findings here reveal that for the current period, the federal ADA grant has no statistically significant effect on state and local government substance abuse spending both before and after 1989, and the increased enforcement of federal restrictions on the ADA grants after 1989 does not change this result. An additional finding is that lagged ADA grants have had a large effect on substance abuse spending both before and after 1989--a feature of the program not considered in previous studies.     

Effectiveness of state mandates to maintain local government health services for the poor

State governments have used several types of mandates to assure that local governments fulfill state-defined responsibilities, including public health care for the poor. This article reports the findings of a study of procedural public-participation mandates and financial sanctions imposed by California to hold counties to their obligations to provide indigent health care. An inventory of the laws' implementation in all California counties found noncompliance by some counties, although all counties complied after a state Health Services Department unit was established to monitor the counties and provide them with state aid. Case studies in eight counties identified factors that influenced the effectiveness of the laws in modifying or reversing county proposals to close county hospitals or reduce other health services. Policy guidelines are suggested for states that want to develop mandates to enforce indigent-care responsibilities of local governments.     

The federal government and technology transfer implementing the 1986 act: Signs of progress

The Technology Transfer Act of 1986 clearly brought into focus the importance of technology-transfer activities in the federal government. Recognition of the potential benefit to be realized by access to results of federally sponsored research was acknowledged at the highest levels of government. While many departments and agencies had been transferring technology within the limits of existing authority and budgets, the act stimulated them as well as less-aggressive agencies to further strengthen their transfer operations. This paper reviews the status of selected agency technology transfer in 1985, describes important progress since passage of the act in 1986, and notes issues that remain to be resolved.     

Transferring NBS technology to small manufacturers through state and local centers

Transferring research results from federal laboratories to small, local industries poses major conceptual as well as practical difficulties. To address the problem, this paper provides a model of a technology-transfer system in which a federal laboratory—the National Bureau of Standards's Automated Manufacturing Research Facility—is linked to small manufacturers through state-and community-based technology centers, where the various instituions in the system are matched along dimensions of (a) level of government, (b) stage in cycle of innovation, (C) education of prototypical worker, and (d) nature of capital-revenue base.     

Federal laboratory missions,products, and competitiveness

A number of initiatives over the past decade have tried to increase the federal laboratory system's impact on U.S. competitiveness, largely based on assumptions that the system is a reservoir of readily available technology appropriate to industry's competitive needs. However, there is a virtual absence of empirical data on the nature of research and development in the national laboratory system and the character of its R&D “products.” This paper reviews the limited data on R&D in the national laboratory system available from the General Accounting Office, the National Science Foundation, and the National Comparative Research and Development Project. The findings suggest that technologies available within the system are likely to emerge from the most strongly mission-oriented R&D, and are therefore the least likely to spin off and diffuse throughout the industrial base. Once the hardware needs of the Department of Defense (DOD), the Department of Energy (DOE), and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) are excluded, most of the system's R&D output is fundamental knowledge, which flows through public domain literature and requires substantial additional processing to become commercial products. The implications are (1) there is no reason to believe the current federal laboratory system can directly enhance U.S. competitiveness; (2) in order for labs to contribute to competitiveness, they must have more explicit missions to do so; and (3) policy expectations of commercial impacts are inconsistent with policy requirements that labs conduct precommercial basic and applied research.     

Nondiscrimination on the basis of disability in state and local government services--Department of Justice. Final rule

This rule implements subtitle A of title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act, Public Law 101-336, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of disability by public entities. Subtitle A protects qualified individuals with disabilities from discrimination on the basis of disability in the services, programs, or activities of all State and local governments. It extends the prohibition of discrimination in federally assisted programs established by section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 to all activities of State and local governments, including those that do not receive Federal financial assistance, and incorporates specific prohibitions of discrimination on the basis of disability from titles I, III, and V of the Americans with Disabilities Act. This rule, therefore, adopts the general prohibitions of discrimination established under section 504, as well as the requirements for making programs accessible to individuals with disabilities and for providing equally effective communications. It also sets forth standards for what constitutes discrimination on the basis of mental or physical disability, provides a definition of disability and qualified individual with a disability, and establishes a complaint mechanism for resolving allegations of discrimination.     

Just the Fax: Federal Express meets the information age-Lessons learned in technology transfer

On July 2, 1984, the first ZapMail message was sent from Federal Express chairman Frederick W. Smith to six members of FedEx's corporate board of directors in separate cities across the country (Zemke 1986). It worked. However, by late September 1986, after suffering over $300 million in operating losses, Federal Express decided it didn't (Keller and Wilson 1986). Why? This postmortem of ZapMail draws on management and innovation theory and research, as well as historical accounts of communication technology development and market conditions from 1984 through 1986, to analyze the failure of FedEx's once-promising electronic delivery service. An analysis of the fax market in 1995 and FedEx's subsequent successful adoption of information technologies conclude this paper.     

Amendment of the fee exemption for federal, state and local government employees--DEA, Justice. Final rule

This final rule limits the exemption from payment of application fees for registration or reregistration to Federal, state, or local government operated hospitals or institutions. This will eliminate the need for DEA to dedicate manpower or other resources to controlling abuse of the fee exempt status.     

University technology transfer,regional specialization and local dynamics: lessons from Italy

The Journal of Technology Transfer - Academic research on knowledge transfer has focused on the United States, the highest technologies, elite US research universities, and, for the most part, has...     

Lessons from history: Origins of the federal laboratory consortium for technology transfer

Editor’s Note: The Federal Laboratory Consortium today consists of over 600 member research laboratories and centers from 16 federal departments and agencies. The FLC brings these laboratories together with potential users of government-developed technologies in the private sector and state and local governments. The FLC also develops and tests transfer mechanisms, addresses barriers to the transfer process, provides training, highlights grass-roots transfer efforts and focuses on national initiatives where technology transfer has a role. The author played a pivotal role in establishing the Consortium and managing the network during its early years.     

关于地方政府公信力建设的思考——以“躲猫猫”为例

公众对政府的信任贯穿于政府与公众的整个互动关系之中,它是政府治理社会的基石和灵魂.随着经济社会的发展,网络等快捷传媒促进了公众与政府的互动,使公众的参与意识大大增强.与此同时,一些个案也折射出新的形势对地方政府公信力提出了新的要求.因此,如何进一步保持并提升地方政府公信力就成为摆在政府面前的重要课题.本文从理论、体制和社会三个层面着重分析了影响地方政府公信力的因素,并就如何进一步提高地方政府公信力提出了相应的对策.     

Evaluation of technology transfer by peer review

We report the outcome of an experiment in the field of program evaluation. Because of the rapid outward growth of technology transfer from federally funded laboratories, it was judged necessary to devise a new, yet effective, way of evaluating technology transfer programs and comparing them to conventional research and development projects. Specifically, technology transfer projects within the High-Temperature Superconductivity program of the Department of Energy were subjected to peer review evaluation by a panel of researchers who themselves conduct technology transfer activities. The evaluation criteria and procedures resembled those used for peer review of basic research, but were adapted to the characteristics of technology transfer projects. We include both the viewpoints of a laboratory being evaluated and of the panel chairman. We comment on the degree of success of this evaluation, and draw some conclusions about how it might be modified for the future.