Overview

DOT’s Office of the Assistant Secretary for Research and Technology leads cross-modal efforts to collaborate with the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy initiatives such as the Lab to Market (L2M) Initiative. L2M’s goal is to increase the economic impact of Federally-funded research and development by accelerating and improving the transfer of new technologies from federal laboratories to the commercial marketplace. One of several efforts of L2M is to increase the use of Federally-funded research facilities by entrepreneurs and innovators.

DOT consists of multiple modal Operating Administrations (OA), which carry out mission-related Research, Development and Technology (RD&T) programs. DOT’s current approach to technology transfer is diverse and unique to each mode of transportation.  Each modal OA conducts mission specific deployment activities tailored to its mode and type of research.  

DOT Licensing and Research Facilities available for collaboration

You may download the list of DOT research facilities to learn more.

Each OA coordinates access to its research facilities, equipment and personnel. Each OA reserves the right to restrict access to resources at their discretion based on their individual and Departmental priorities, current use, and/or need.

Research Centers

DOT fosters technology transfer efforts, coordinates and collaborates with its OAs and with others  outside the Department through partnerships in support of its mission. For DOT technology transfer is the process of transferring and disseminating transportation related, scientific information to stakeholders who may apply it for public or private use.

More information on DOT’s research centers may be found below:

• FAA – William J. Hughes Technical Center
• FAA – Civil Aerospace Medical Institute (CAMI)
• FHWA – Turner-Fairbank Highway Research Center
• OST – Volpe National Transportation Systems Center

Intellectual Property

Operating in close cooperation with the Technology Transfer program, the Intellectual Property office serves to coordinate and develop internal Department policies relating to the evaluation, protection and licensing of, and monitoring and management of licenses for new technologies and discoveries made by the individual modal Operating Administrations and their respective laboratories and research centers. 

The Intellectual Property office, a part of the General Law group in the Office of General Counsel for the Office of the Secretary of Transportation, in addition to collecting invention disclosures and participating in their evaluation, undertakes Inventor’s Rights Determinations, the preparation, filing and prosecution of new patent and other intellectual property applications, and the maintenance of new and existing intellectual property assets.  The Intellectual Property office also works with the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Research and Technology in the development of Department policies related to the treatment and use of facilities and equipment and the handling and dissemination of the science, technology and data developed by the Department.

In furtherance of the Department’s primary goal, which is the continued improvement of the safety and efficiency of the U.S. transportation system, the Intellectual Property office leads committee evaluations of submitted invention disclosures based on whether the protection of the invention can advance the adoption of the research outcome by state and local governments, academia, private enterprise, and the general public and whether the research outcome promotes safety versus efficiency.

DOT Representation

The Technology Transfer Program represents the Department in the following supporting groups:

The Federal Laboratory Consortium (FLC) was organized in 1974 and formally chartered by the Federal Technology Transfer Act of 1986, 15 U.S.C. 3710 (e) (link is external), to promote and strengthen technology transfer nationwide. Today, more than 300 federal laboratories, facilities and research centers and their parent agencies make up the FLC community. Members of the FLC community include world–renowned scientists, engineers, inventors, entrepreneurs, academia, laboratory personnel, and T2 professionals.

The Interagency Working Group for Technology Transfer (IAWGTT) was established in 1987 by Executive Order 12591 (link is external), Section 7, to "convene an interagency task force comprised of the heads of representative agencies and the directors of representative Federal laboratories, or their designees, in order to identify and disseminate creative approaches to technology transfer from Federal laboratories." The responsibilities of coordinating the IAWGTT activities, including the Annual Tech Transfer Report to the President and Congress required by the EO and by 15 U.S.C. 3710(g)(2) (link is external), were delegated to NIST by Department Organization Order (DOO) 30-2A (link is external).

For further information, contact:

Santiago Navarro, Technology Transfer Program Manager
Charles Ducker, Senior Intellectual Property Counsel