About The Technology Partnerships Office

NIST's Technology Partnerships Office (TPO) works with regional, state and local economic development organizations, technology incubation centers, public-private business development initiatives and other organizations and partnerships to facilitate the transfer of technologies developed within NIST laboratories to the private and nonprofit sectors through licensing and/or collaboration. NIST scientists conduct research, create technologies and make discoveries in nearly every scientific and technological field. TPO encourages the commercialization of these results through the following services and programs:

• Cooperative Research and Development Agreements (CRADA);
• Material Transfer Agreements (MTA);
• Facility Use Agreements (FUA);
• NIST Associates and Guest Researchers;
• Intellectual Property (inventions, patents, licenses, trademarks); and
• Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Program.