EAGER: Management and Organizational Issues in Technology Transfer at Federal Laboratories: Data Collection and Analysis to Advance Commercialization of Federally-funded Research

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It is well known that there is less technology transfer from federal labs to the private sector, as compared to technology transfer from universities. That is unfortunate since federal labs receive more government funding for research than universities (e.g., the R&D expenditures of the federal labs in California consistently exceed those for all 10 University of California campuses). The federal labs also have a technology transfer component, which arguably is not currently being realized to its potential. Accordingly, the overall purpose of this project is to collect data from scientists and managers at federal labs in order to determine how we can advance commercialization of federally-funded research. Our project has important policy and managerial implications for those who govern and manage technology transfer at federal labs. It is also quite timely, given that the technology transfer gap between universities and federal labs has attracted considerable attention. Also, the Department of Energy, which runs 17 major national labs (e.g., Sandia, Livermore, Brookhaven, Berkeley, Los Alamos) is presently reviewing technology transfer policies and procedures at its federal labs.The data we collect will be used to study three potential mechanisms for advancing the commercialization of research at federal labs: (1) assessing the “entrepreneurial orientation” of individual scientists, labs, and organizations; (2) exploring the role of foreign-born status of scientists on entrepreneurial identity, role conflict, and the propensity to engage in technology transfer; and (3) managerial and organizational issues, such as the role of incentives, organizational justice (workplace fairness and equity), championing, leadership, work-life balance, and organizational culture in technology transfer, and strategy formulation. Specifically, the data that we collect on individual scientists and those who manage these scientists, as well as the technology transfer process more generally at the federal labs, will help identify managerial practices that enhance commercialization and the design of more effective entrepreneurial programs and initiatives. Our findings will also improve our understanding of the potential roadblocks that exist for scientists at federal labs who wish to pursue commercialization of their research. The project will be of great interest not only to scholars of science and innovation policy and technology transfer, but also to the broader community of “micro,” or organizational behavior scholars in the fields of management and organizational psychology. Moreover, this research will yield clear policy implications for managers of federal labs, as well as legislators.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.