Greetings from D.C. The House Science and Technology Committee, Subcommittee on Research and Science Education, held a hearing on June 10 to address a series of issues concerning university technology transfer. While the primary focus was on moving technology from academic lab to market, the federal labs were not completely absent from the discussion or the recommendations of several panel members.

The most important item to come out of the hearing for the federal technology transfer community was, however, the explicit statement by Subcommittee Chairman Daniel Lipinski (D-Il-3rd) that the "Technology and Innovation Subcommittee [also within the House Science and Technology Committee] intends to carry out a comprehensive review of the Bayh-Dole and Stevenson-Wydler Technology Innovation Acts later this year." Recall that this same subcommittee began oversight hearings on both of these acts in 2007, but only completed their review of Bayh-Dole; Stevenson-Wydler was delayed …. until now apparently. Stevenson-Wydler is the foundation legislation for much of the intramural technology transfer efforts within the federal labs.

To read the full, original article click on this link: Federal Laboratory Consortium for Technology Transfer

Author: Gary Jones