A Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) is an agreement between one or more laboratories and one or more non-federal entities (participant usually include industry, nonprofit organizations, or academia, domestic or foreign). The agreement allows collaboration that may include the laboratory’s technologies, processes, materials, research and development (R&D) capabilities, or technical know-how.
The participant benefits from access to the laboratory's unique technologies, capabilities, and expertise; the option to negotiate an exclusive license in a field of use within the scope of work of the CRADA to inventions that result from work performed under the CRADA (subject inventions); and protection, for up to five years, of information generated under the CRADA and marked by the partner as protected. Partners’ proprietary information developed outside of the CRADA and brought into the collaboration is treated with confidentiality without time restriction. To offset costs of the collaboration, CRADA participants must contribute cash or in-kind resources such as personnel, equipment, facilities, etc. As most national laboratories are full cost recovery, a funding source for the laboratory work must be identified before work can start.
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) requires either 1) advance payment of the entire amount or 2) a pay plan that requires the first payment to include a 60-day minimum (some require 90) reserve and in some instances funding for the first 30 days of work. DOE has developed a model CRADA that establishes uniform terms and conditions for doing business with the laboratories.