Mark Smith of Sandia National Labs
Untapped Gold at the Labs
April / May 2005
Volume 3 Number 2
Can a national laboratory help you get to market faster? Cut manufacturing cost? Increase product quality? Connect you with key partners? They can, and they do it often.
In 1999, Ktech Corporation was a small technology services and manufacturing company. The firm was contacted by Mark Smith of Sandia National Laboratories' Joining and Coating Department about a promising but challenging technology called "cold spray." Cold spray applies coatings by spraying fine powders in a supersonic jet at low temperature and has a number of significant advantages: the low temperatures mean no detrimental thermal changes to the substrate; electrical and heat conductance is excellent; and very dense coatings are possible, allowing greater resistance to corrosion and wear. Rick Blose, manager of engineering development for Ktech, quickly saw the market potential—€”the customers were interested and the applications were there. But so were some significant obstacles. The existing technology could not meet commercial requirements. Nozzle performance was not adequate. Powder delivery systems also had to be improved, and the resulting coatings needed further characterization. "Mark Smith saw that cold spray could mature into a very useful technology," recalls Blose, "and he knew the key industry and public-sector players."
Smith quickly assembled the Cold Spray Consortium, consisting of Sandia, Ktech and six other companies (including four Fortune 500 firms). Working at Sandia under a three-year Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA), the consortium developed solutions to the commercialization issues. Ktech developed the hardware and has become the manufacturer of the equipment. The company also used $740,000 in applications research funding from multiple Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grants from the Department of Defense and the National Science Foundation. As the exclusive license holder for systems sold in the U.S., Ktech is now actively pursuing market development while gaining application research revenue from aerospace, electronics and semiconductor companies.
Access to Promote U.S. Competitiveness
Ktech's experience is typical of technology-oriented private entities—€”entrepreneurs, startups, venture capitalists, large enterprises, and nonprofits—€”that have networked within the federal laboratory system and received significant benefits as a result. These benefits include cost-free access to leading experts in multiple fields of technology; low-cost access to world-class facilities; training, particularly for small businesses; valuable contact networks, and, in some cases, funding. The landscape of these resources is both broader and deeper than most in the private sector realize, says Gary Jones, Sandia's manager of partnership development. "We do significant amounts of partnering here. Many lab resources and personnel are available to entrepreneurs, startups and large companies."
A core part of the mission of the national laboratories is to support U.S. competitiveness through technology; access to the labs by private enterprise is a key element of these efforts. This holds true for both the defense-oriented labs (Sandia, Los Alamos and Lawrence Livermore) and the science-oriented labs (Lawrence Berkeley, Argonne, Pacific Northwest and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory).
"The challenge is to increase people's awareness of what's available," says Norma Dunipace, manager of partnership development at Lawrence Livermore. "The perception is that national laboratories are highly secure facilities and it's hard to get in. In reality, commercial enterprises can use the labs to explore almost anything."
A Source of First-Class Technology
The potential benefits available to companies are significant, allowing them to solve problems faster, work at lower cost and get products to market more quickly. "We have a source of technology that is first class, and we're also very interested in solving complex problems to make the country more economically viable in the world marketplace," says Dunipace. These benefits take many forms:
Expert help: Most of the world's technology communities—€”from electronics to biotechnology to communications to advanced materials—€”count federal lab researchers as among their best experts. Laboratory technicians, analysts and principal investigators tend to be at the forefront of their fields.
World class facilities: The labs include dozens of facilities that are best-in-class, and sometimes unique in the world. Argonne's Advanced Photon Source is a typical example. The western hemisphere's brightest x-ray source, it is used by 2,000 users annually for applied research in the fields of materials, biology, physics and chemistry, among others.
Significant cost avoidance: Most uses of the lab by outside entities are done on a "full cost recovery" basis, meaning labor and materials are fully reimbursed. But the significant capital cost of the facility itself is free to the user. "When companies use the Weapons Neutron Research Facility to test semiconductors, they're not paying for what may be a $1 billion facility," says Donna Smith, technology transfer division leader at Los Alamos. "It's very cost effective, but most people don't know that these facilities exist."
Full or partial funding: While most commercial activities within the labs are on a cost recovery basis, a variety of funding mechanisms exist that enterprises may be able to take advantage of.
According to Los Alamos' Smith, the overall benefit for private-sector users is substantial. "Users get a very cost-effective solution, use of equipment they don't have to buy, and access to researchers with 20 years of experience in a particular topic. They get their questions answered and can get back to their core business."
While the potential benefits to private companies are considerable, the very depth and breadth of the opportunities explains in part the relatively low level of utilization by the commercial sector. The landscape is a large and varied web of facilities, capabilities, experts and funding sources. With so many different possibilities, and no central clearing house of opportunities, companies who aren't looking for the value simply won't find it. The structure of this web does not lend itself to "one-stop" access.
The key to unlocking the value is to network with the technology transfer office at each of the federal labs. Because of their structure and position, these offices are remarkably powerful contacts. Say, for example, you are a biotechnology startup. You should identify, and have a conversation with, the key biotechnology researchers at each appropriate lab. The way to find those people is by calling the technology transfer office; they are well-connected within their lab, as well as across labs, and can direct you to the right people.
Technology transfer people generally have specific industry backgrounds and they specialize in terms of both their field of technology (such as chemistry, biotechnology, semiconductors, etc.) and the laboratory facilities and programs within their area of expertise. According to Lawrence Livermore's Dunipace, these are the key contacts and should become a company's main point of entry to the lab environment: "This is the person you want to know," she says. Los Alamos' Smith agrees. "When someone brings us a problem, we ask our technical folks within the lab: do we have something to bring to their party, or do we know someone who does?" Not surprisingly, the labs are also well-connected with each other. "The labs maintain very good networking among the technology transfer offices." says Larry Adcock, assistant manager of science and technology programs for the National Nuclear Security Administration. "If you come to one of them with a problem, generally they can point you to the right resources across multiple labs and other DOE facilities."
For our example biotechnology startup, this simple contact with the technology transfer offices could quickly result in a half-dozen experts added to their network, awareness of a few previously unknown facility or capability opportunities, two new suppliers, and a possible funding source. Since few people within any technology field are as well-connected as the technology transfer office specialists, companies utilizing these contacts develop networks that become a strategic advantage for the enterprise. "There are hundreds of entities utilizing the technology transfer offices," says Los Alamos' Smith. "But within those, there is a core set of players that have —€˜figured it out' and use us frequently."
Navigating a Complicated Landscape
The technology transfer offices help outsiders to navigate what is a fairly complicated fabric. According to Sandia's Jones, this is their forte. "We like working with partners in areas that we are interested in, where there is a mutual interchange. Many times it's like detective work, where no one yet knows how to solve the problem."
The actual landscape of opportunities, made up of various programs, protocols and capabilities, is complicated. Within the Department of Energy system, more than 140 different facilities are available to commercial entities, spanning the complete breadth of technologies and research areas. The basic facility categories are Approved User Facilities and Designated User Facilities:
Approved User Facilities: These focus on applied science applications, and are used regularly by outside entities. Usage guidelines vary by facility, but "Approved" indicates the facility has already addressed the basic security, safety and environmental issues, and is ready for regular access by outsiders. Generally, these are one-of-a-kind, multi-million-dollar facilities. Typical examples include the Laser Applications Laboratory (at Argonne), the Materials Science Laboratory (at Los Alamos) and the Applied Process Engineering Laboratory (at Pacific Northwest). Companies utilizing these facilities generally define the investigation or experiment and own any resulting intellectual property.
Designated User Facilities: "Designated" facilities are funded by DOE or NSF, and focus on basic science investigations. Examples include the Center for Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (at Lawrence Livermore), the National Flow Cytometry Resource (at Los Alamos), the Combustion Research Facility (at Sandia), the Advanced Photon Source (at Argonne), and DOE's five Nanoscale Science Research Centers (now under development). Generally, these facilities are accessed on a proposal basis, with outside entities proposing research investigations according to published guidelines. Accepted proposals are funded by DOE. The number of outside users per year at major facilities is measured in the low thousands.
There are various program mechanisms by which private entities can access these facilities (see sidebar, Avenues for Access.)
Paying the Bill
Generally, commercial entities pay actual cost (labor and material) to use lab facilities. But there are many exceptions. Grant-based research in the Designated User Facilities is extensive. Also, non-proprietary use of a facility may be free. For example, if a company wants to characterize the structure of a protein, is willing to have the results in the public domain, and a lab facility shares the same interest, the facility may agree to fund the exploration. There are also multiple small business programs that include funding, sometimes significant funding. SBIRs and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) programs are congressionally mandated mechanisms that fund phased investigations by small businesses in areas of interest to the government.
The extensive opportunities within the national laboratory system are available to those who make the effort to find and tap them. Los Alamos' Smith says, "I often see a reluctance on the part of small companies who think, —€˜My problem isn't big enough for a national lab'. And these are companies that have some amazing challenges to work on." For their part, the labs are very motivated to increase utilization. "Interesting problems from outside the lab help us to accomplish our lab mission in better ways, "says Lawrence Livermore's Dunipace. "It's a win-win situation."
Scott Schafer is a freelance writer based in Sacramento, Calif.
Some Tech Transfer Contacts:
The key to finding value within the national laboratories is to start with the key contacts in the technology transfer offices. Each office has their own specialists covering a number of technology areas. First-stop contacts are listed below, along with the best lab websites for private enterprises. Notes Sandia's Jones, "Every one of the laboratories' websites is a gold mine."
Argonne National Laboratory
Office of Technology Transfer 800-627-2596
http://www.techtransfer.anl.gov/
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Technology Transfer Department/510-486-6467
http://www.lbl.gov/Tech-Transfer/index.html
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
Industrial Partnerships and Commercialization/925-422-6416
http://www.llnl.gov/IPandC/
Los Alamos National Laboratory
Technology Transfer Division/505-665-9090
http://www.lanl.gov/partnerships/
National Renewable Energy Laboratory
Technology Transfer Team/303-275-3028
http://www.nrel.gov/technologytransfer/
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Economic Development Office/509-375-2803
http://www.pnl.gov/main/business/
Sandia National Laboratories
Technology Partnerships and Commercialization/505-284-2001
http://www.sandia.gov/bus-ops/partnerships/index.html
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