How to Partner

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.

Intellectual Property (IP) developed by the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) national laboratories is typically held by the national laboratory and licensed by working with the responsible technology transfer organization within the laboratory where the technology was developed. Because of the unique set of laws related to IP generated at DOE laboratories, licensing agreements for these technologies include some provisions that may not be present in a license agreement between private entities (e.g., march-in-rights, government-use rights, and indemnification of the federal government). Learn more in the licensing guide.

Typical financial and milestone terms present in a commercial license include:

• An issue fee, which is non-refundable and due upon execution of the agreement
• A running royalty, which is most commonly based on a percentage of sales
• A minimum annual royalty
• Other financial terms appropriate to the technology and market, such as milestone payments and patent cost reimbursements
• Equity ownership terms which may be negotiated in some cases in lieu of cash payments
• Milestone commitments for development (e.g., alpha & beta products) and introduction of commercial product in marketplace Licenses may be exclusive for a particular field of use or geographic region, or non-exclusive.

Most of the technologies available for licensing will require additional development before they are commercially viable. An Option Agreement is available that protects an entity’s right to license a technology at a future time. Option Agreements are generally available for a time period of one year. Many labs will approve an extension to the Option Agreement if sufficient milestones toward making the technology commercially viable have been met. Several of the technologies available for licensing can be found on the Lab Partnering Service. These technologies can be viewed under the ‘Lab Technologies’ tab as marketing summaries, which provide business friendly descriptions of the technology, or the patent itself via the Visual Patent Search. Online contact forms are provided to get directly in touch with the licensing representative from each laboratory through ‘connecting’ with the relevant expert.

Many Labs offer a Technology Assistance Program, which leverages the expertise of laboratory scientists and engineers to help members of the small business community solve important challenges free of charge.

Examples of assistance include:

• Advising on existing or emerging products
• Providing advanced technology for hardware and software applications
• Improving production and manufacturing processes
• Resolving technical problems
• Performing scientific peer reviews
• Recommending energy conservation and environmental technologies

Funds for technical assistance are limited and are only available at certain national laboratories.