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

众所周知，与大学的技术转让相比，联邦实验室向私营部门的技术转让较少。这是不幸的，因为联邦实验室比大学获得更多的政府研究资金（例如，加州联邦实验室的研发支出一直超过加州大学所有10个校区的研发支出）。联邦实验室也有一个技术转移的组成部分，可以说目前还没有实现其潜力。因此，该项目的总体目的是从联邦实验室的科学家和管理人员那里收集数据，以确定我们如何推进联邦资助研究的商业化。我们的项目对那些在联邦实验室管理和管理技术转移的人具有重要的政策和管理意义。考虑到大学和联邦实验室之间的技术转移差距已经引起了相当大的关注，这也是相当及时的。此外，管理着17个主要国家实验室（如桑迪亚、利弗莫尔、布鲁克海文、伯克利、洛斯阿拉莫斯）的能源部目前正在审查其联邦实验室的技术转让政策和程序。我们收集的数据将用于研究促进联邦实验室研究商业化的三种潜在机制：(1)评估科学家个人、实验室和组织的“创业取向”；(2)探索外国出生科学家身份对企业家身份、角色冲突和从事技术转移倾向的影响；(3)管理和组织问题，如激励的作用，组织正义（工作场所公平和公平），倡导，领导，工作与生活的平衡，以及技术转移和战略制定的组织文化。具体来说，我们收集的科学家个人和管理这些科学家的人的数据，以及联邦实验室更普遍的技术转移过程，将有助于确定管理实践，从而提高商业化程度，设计出更有效的创业项目和倡议。我们的发现也将提高我们对联邦实验室中希望将其研究商业化的科学家所面临的潜在障碍的理解。该项目不仅会引起科学和创新政策和技术转移学者的极大兴趣，而且也会引起管理和组织心理学领域更广泛的“微观”或组织行为学者的极大兴趣。此外，这项研究将对联邦实验室的管理者和立法者产生明确的政策影响。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

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.