Workshop: Organizational Issues in Technology Transfer at Federal Laboratories; November 13-15, 2017, Phoenix, Arizona

该项目的目的是举办一个研讨会，以推进联邦实验室的技术转移任务，这是美国国家创新体系的重要组成部分。1980年，国会在两党的大力支持下颁布了两项具有里程碑意义的立法，以促进从大学和联邦实验室向私营部门的技术转移。第一个是主要适用于大学的Bayh-Dole法案。第二个是适用于联邦实验室的史蒂文森-维德勒法案。随后又出台了另外两项旨在促进联邦实验室研究商业化的立法，即1986年的《联邦技术转让法》和2000年的《技术转让商业化法》。Bayh-Dole引发了大学技术转移的大幅增加，学术界对此进行了深入研究。不幸的是，人们对联邦实验室的技术转移知之甚少。此外，联邦实验室的技术转移成果似乎也落后于大学。此外，联邦实验室的管理人员几乎没有分析工具，也没有现有的研究来帮助他们有效地管理技术转让。本次研讨会将通过制定对学者、实验室管理人员和决策者有用的研究议程来填补这一空白。讲习班将具体讨论组织问题，这些问题已被证明会影响大学的技术转让绩效，包括学术科学家和工程师从事技术转让的倾向。这些因素包括宏观或制度因素，如战略、结构、组织文化和组织间关系。组织问题还包括微观或个人层面的因素，例如科学家是否认为他们在工作场所受到公平对待，教师参与技术转让的激励措施，以及科学家作为学术企业家的新角色所面临的斗争。这些类型的问题，以及其他问题，也可能与联邦实验室有关。通过考虑微观和宏观层面的问题，讲习班将是高度跨学科的性质。研讨会将召集：(1)管理、心理学、战略、社会学、公共政策和经济学等领域组织问题的权威学术专家；(2)在联邦实验室进行技术转移研究的学者相对较少；(3)创新与管理前沿期刊编辑，管理学、社会学、公共政策等领域的思想领袖；(4)主要公共政策和管理学院的博士生；(5)主要联邦实验室及其资助机构的管理人员。研讨会的一个关键目标是制定一个研究议程，该议程将同时推进技术转移组织问题的学术研究，同时确定工具和策略，使联邦实验室的管理人员能够推进他们的技术转移任务，实现史蒂文森-怀德勒法案和其他旨在刺激联邦实验室研究商业化的立法精神。

The purpose of this project is to host a workshop that will advance the technology transfer mission of federal laboratories, which constitute an important component of the U.S. national innovation system. In 1980, Congress enacted two landmark pieces of legislation, with strong bipartisan support, to facilitate technology transfer from universities and federal laboratories to the private sector. The first was the Bayh-Dole Act, which applied mainly to universities. The second was the Stevenson-Wydler Act, which applied to federal labs. This was followed by two additional pieces of legislation that were also designed to facilitate the commercialization of research at federal labs, the Federal Technology Transfer Act of 1986 and the Technology Transfer Commercialization Act of 2000. Bayh-Dole unleashed a substantial rise in university technology transfer, which has been studied intensively by academics. Unfortunately, much less is known about technology transfer at federal labs. It also appears that technology transfer outcomes at federal labs have lagged behind those achieved by universities. Also, managers at federal labs have few analytical tools and little existing research to help them manage technology transfer effectively. This workshop will fill this gap by developing a research agenda that will be useful to scholars, lab managers, and policy makers. The workshop will specifically address organizational issues, which have been shown to affect university technology transfer performance, including the propensity of academic scientists and engineers to engage in technology transfer. These include macro or institutional factors, such as strategy, structure, organizational culture, and inter-organizational relations. Organizational issues also include micro or individual-level factors, such as whether scientists perceive that they are being treated fairly in the workplace, incentives for faculty engagement in technology transfer, and struggles that scientists have with their new role as academic entrepreneurs. These types of issues, as well as others, are also likely to be relevant to federal labs. By considering both micro- and macro-level issues, the workshop will be highly interdisciplinary in nature. The workshop will convene: (1) leading academic experts on organizational issues in management, psychology, strategy, sociology, public policy, and economics; (2) the relatively few academics who have conducted research on technology transfer at federal labs; (3) editors of top journals in innovation and management studies and other thought leaders in management, sociology, and public policy; (4) doctoral students from leading schools of public policy and management, and (5) managers of major federal labs and the federal agencies that sponsor them. A key goal of the workshop will be to develop a research agenda that will simultaneously advance academic research on organizational issues in technology transfer, while at the same time, identifying tools and tactics to enable managers of federal labs to advance their technology transfer mission and fulfill the spirit of Stevenson-Wydler and other legislation that is designed to stimulate the commercialization of research at federal labs.