Rochelle Blaustein, Deputy Director of the Office of Technology Transitions (OTT) congratulates 2018 Federal Laboratory Consortium Awardees from the DOE's National Laboratories
Congratulations to the newest DOE National Laboratory award winners!
Our very own Rochelle Blaustein, Deputy Director of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Technology Transitions (OTT) congratulated nine winning teams of technologists from the DOE’s National Labs and their industry partners for excellence in technology transfer including a team from Sandia National Laboratory, in partnership with Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, for this year’s FLC Technology Focus Award, which specifically targeted excellence in technology transfer in the energy sector. As Ms. Blaustein commented:
The number and diversity of projects celebrated by these awards is just one testament of the treasures that are our National Laboratories. We are proud of the achievements recognized by the awards and the daily accomplishments at the labs as Technology Transfer professionals dedicate themselves to transitioning innovations from the bench to industry.
The awards ceremony was full of proud faces celebrating their victories and well deserved recognition of overcoming tough challenges.
The annual Federal Laboratory Consortium Meeting celebrates excellence in the federal technology transfer community while offering unique networking opportunities and training for its attendees. This year’s national meeting took place in the city of brotherly love: Philadelphia, PA and held in attendance more than 400 technology transfer and industry professionals from across the country. Panel discussion topics included “Fostering Industry-University-Federal Lab Collaboration through IACMI” (the Manufacturing Institute dedicated to ceramics technologies), water technologies and best practices sharing.
During the meeting, Ms. Blaustein presented on a panel focusing on federal lab adaptations of the NSF’s I-Corps model. She elaborated on the DOE’s Energy I-Corps program and its importance. Rochelle explained that Energy I-Corps helps researchers develop the skills necessary to communicate with business-oriented colleagues in industry while providing them a market-focused understanding of the practical application of their R&D results. Both of these objectives support a critical entrepreneurial culture at the bench. Through a systematic “customer discovery” process, researchers learn the importance of listening to the needs of the communities that will make use of their research. They learn that by doing this, they can efficiently tailor their work to ready it most effectively for adoption. The intensive two-month training helps researchers define technology value propositions and develop viable market pathways for their current technologies. Just as importantly, the skills they learn in market feedback will continue through their career as they define future research areas. All panel presentations can be found here.
The technology transfer awards and award for technology focus are listed below.
EXCELLENCE IN TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER
Innovative Oven for Faster, Less Energy-Intensive Carbon Fiber Manufacturing, Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Licensing ORNL’s High-Performance, Low-Cost Alloys to Eck Industries, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Ames Laboratory, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
ORNL’s Co-development and Licensing of Large Area Additive Manufacturing Technologies, Oak Ridge National Laboratory
ORNL Secures Four Licenses for Low-Cost Carbon Fiber Technology, Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Transfer of PNNL’s Solar Thermochemical Advanced Reactor System to STC, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Transfer of PNNL’s Structures for Lossless Ion Manipulations to MOBILion, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Transfer of PNNL Suite of Cybersecurity Solutions to Cynash, Inc., Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Advanced Nanomaterials for Energy Conservation and Temperature Regulation, Sandia National Laboratories
TECHNOLOGY FOCUS AWARD
Successful Collaboration Accelerates Testing of New Blade Designs, Sandia National Laboratories in partnership with Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory
The Office of Technology Transitions congratulates all FLC Award winners for their efforts in technology transfer and commercialization! Stay tuned for more updates on OTT.
