Lab-to-Market USDA Outcomes 2015 Mojdeh Bahar Assistant Administrator, Office of Technology Transfer Agricultural Research Service, USDA FLC National Meeting, Denver, Colorado
Lab to Market Working Group In FY14, the Lab-to-Market Working group established cross agency goals in five different categories: developing human capital, empowering effective collaborations, opening R&D assets, fueling small business innovation, and evaluating impact.
Developing Human Capital Our goal is creating an entrepreneurial culture within our agency by engaging scientists in the business side of science. I-Corps ARS-Piloting a new model of NSF’s I-Corps™ Program at USDA for Intramural Scientists Training of scientists on TT Program specific IP/TT Strategies
Empowering Effective Collaborations USDA led a sub-topic under this goal, namely Co-funding and Philanthropic Partnerships. Federal labs have utilized their gift authorities to encourage co-funding of projects through public-private partnerships (PPPs). Survey of Gift Authorities across the Departments Agricultural Technologies Innovation Partnership (ATIP Foundation): A PPP Facilitator Model Foundation for Food and Agricultural Research (FFAR)-authorized in the 2014 Farm Bill
Opening R&D Assets Transparency and access to government inventions and facilities are one of the important principles under both Lab-to-Market and Open Data initiatives Listing of facilities that could be used by the general public Pilot Plants List of Available Technologies for Licensing and Collaborations website and data.gov