An Investigation Into the Methods, Models, and Approaches Employed to Transfer Federal Laboratory Technologies with a Special Focus on Public Education Applications PDF Download

Author: Robert Stetson Gorham (Jr)
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Languages : en
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Book Description
"Technology Transfer" is well referenced in federal law and regulation. In federal laws promulgated in 1993, Congress made 67 separate references to "technology transfer." There are literally hundreds of agency references to "technology transfer" within federal agencies. Handsome sums, hundreds of millions of dollars are available to enhance its effectiveness. Yet what is "technology transfer"? Why is it important? More specifically who are the people charged with transferring technology and what motivates them? This study is an attempt to focus on the federal technology transfer officers who manage the federally mandated Offices of Research and Technology Application (ORTA). The study examines how these managers view their mission and how do they believe they must operate. The study examines the proposition that there may be an operational model which might bring the fruits of federal research into more active daily use. This study employs the Technology Transfer Act of 1986 as a legal frame of reference drawing on appropriate regulations and subsequent laws which supplemented the 1986 Act. This battery of law and regulation mandated the creation of an ORTA office in all of the largest federal research laboratories. The laws mandate minimum levels of financial support to assist "transferring" federal technology. Scores of reference documents were analyzed describing how technology should be transferred. Few of these documents were written by the men and women actually charged with transferring federal technology. This study is an investigation of ORTA activities, written from the perspective of an ORTA. This study is partially a methodology exercise. It is partially a quantitative investigation, detailing responses by nearly 55% of all federal ORTAs. In the end this study is an evaluation study. It examines models for transferring technology which exist across the labs. Drawing upon data collected from 55% of all ORTAs, the study proposes strategies which might enhance federal technology transfer activities. The focal point for this study was the transfer of federal technology to US public schools.