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Technology transfer in Federal laboratories facilitates the dissemination of new technologies and research materials developed by Government scientists. This technology transfer fuels further innovation and commercialization by the extramural research and development community, ultimately resulting in an improvement in the public health and an increase in the competitiveness of U.S. industry. Federal legislation mandates and defines the Government’s technology transfer activities. The key pieces of legislation are the Federal Technology Transfer Act of 1986 and the National Technology Transfer and Advancement Act of 1995.

The NIAID Office of Technology Development (OTD) accomplishes technology transfer by facilitating the transfer of significant research advances and resources to the broader scientific community and the development of collaborative relationships between NIAID scientists, industry, and academia. NIAID uses various mechanisms to accomplish these ends, including Material Transfer Agreements (MTAs), Cooperative Research and Development Agreements (CRADAs), Materials-CRADAs (M-CRADAs), Confidential Disclosure Agreements (CDAs), Clinical Trial Agreements (CTAs), Drug Screening Agreements (DSAs), Research Collaboration Agreements (RCAs), and, through the NIH Office of Technology Transfer (OTT), the patenting of inventions and the negotiation of various license agreements.

NIAID scientists report inventions to OTD by submitting Employee Invention Reports (EIRs). The EIRs are reviewed by OTD and, with the assistance of the NIAID Technology Evaluation Advisory Committee (TEAC), are evaluated for the appropriateness of filing domestic and foreign patent applications. In fiscal year (FY) 2006, OTD reported 39 EIRs to OTT, of which 23 have patent applications filed. At the end of FY 2006, NIAID had 443 active U.S. patent properties, including 214 issued patents and 229 pending patent applications.

NIAID had 154 active license agreements at the end of FY 2006 for both patented inventions and biological materials. Twenty-nine new licenses were executed during FY 2006. These licenses generated about $13.8 million in royalty income, which was first used to pay NIAID inventors their share according to Federal law and NIH policy. The Institute also distributed royalty income to intramural laboratories to support research projects and equipment acquisition that otherwise would not have been accomplished with appropriated funds. The remaining royalties were used to pay OTD’s entire operating budget, including patent prosecution fees, OTD staff salaries, associated office expenses, and overhead charged by OTT.

In FY 2006, a total of 218 MTAs, of which 53 were with for-profit companies, 7 CTAs, 56 CDAs, 4 CRADAs, 13 M-CRADAs, 4 RCAs, and 17 other agreements were negotiated by OTD and executed. During this year, OTD completed work on 151 matters for NIAID’s extramural divisions. NIAID scientists were performing research under 27 regular CRADAs and 46 M-CRADAs in FY 2006. The following table provides a history of NIAID’s patent, license, and CRADA activities.

NIAID Technology Transfer Activities

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