Lab Partnering Service (LPS) is a free resource created by the Department of Energy to foster tech transfer partnerships among experts from numerous technology areas, investors, and facilities.
Through LPS, businesses, universities, and non-profits can connect with national laboratories to transition DOE lab technology to commercial market. The DOE owns 20 national laboratories that research and develop technologies and capabilities to address matters of national security, environmental stewardship, economic competitiveness and energy sustainability.
Several types of partnering mechanisms are available through LPS and include Small Business Innovation Research/Small Business Technology Transfer (SBIR/STTR) projects in which the DOE national labs would serve as subcontractors on research and development projects leading to technology commercialization.
The agency manages two independent SBIR and STTR programs: the DOE SBIR/STTR Programs Office within the Office of Science and the SBIR/STTR Programs within the Advanced Research Projects Agency –Energy (ARPA-E).
The LPS includes a visual patent tool that provides a visually facilitated search of published U.S. patent applications and issued U.S. patents resulting from DOE-funded R&D. There are 10 categories of patents and several subcategories within each, all of which can be searched by keyword.
Users can each out directly to DOE experts associated with specific technologies, specialties, and labs through the LPS directory. Names, photos, and descriptions for each expert are provided in the directory.
Users are encouraged to contact DOE experts with their innovation questions and inquiries regarding building partnerships.
The Technology Commercialization Fund (TCF) is a $25 million funding opportunity that leverages the research and development funding in DOE’s applied energy programs to mature promising energy technologies with the potential for high impact. The TCF provides an opportunity to bolster partnerships between DOE’s National Labs and private industry.
DOE’s Office of Technology Transitions (OTT) will issue its FY2020 annual TCF solicitation (call for proposals from DOE National Laboratories and Sites) on or about Sept. 10. TCF projects require that half of all project costs come from non-federal sources, including from industry, and from state and local government—or entities they have created. TCF funds are matched with funds from private partners.