Posts Tagged: "ROI Initiative"

After months of anticipation, the just released draft paper Return on Investment Initiative to Advance the President’s Management Agenda: Unleashing American Innovation signals that the Administration is serious about addressing a wide range of long neglected issues undermining effective technology commercialization.The paper, generated under the leadership of Commerce Under Secretary Walter Copan, who heads the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), is “a discussion document”  based on feedback from a series of public meetings and written comments for improving the return on investment from $150 B spent annually on government-supported R&D… The suggested action is to “authorize scientists and engineers at Federal Laboratories to engage in entrepreneurial activities that support technology transfer and commercialization.”… The report effectively addresses a wide variety of problems in the system. Many have lingered for decades but the government lacked the leadership and the will to address them. It looks like that may be ending. That’s a good thing for American taxpayers.

It would be a tragic mistake to blame federal tech transfer underperformance on Bayh-Dole. Bayh-Dole needs no amending. Bayh-Dole demonstrates how secure patent rights are the lynchpin to society’s getting the greatest benefit from federal research dollars.

Ironically, now that the Trump Administration’s prioritizing economic as well as scientific returns on investment from federal research, one of EPA’s best examples is gone. Others who share this faith are waiting to see what becomes of the Administration’s ROI initiative. One thing’s for certain, it’s going to take more than lofty pronouncements to steer this ship in a new direction. Until there are meaningful rewards for transforming federal laboratory discoveries into useful products, tech transfer will remain little more than window dressing.  With the Chinese right on our heels, that’s a luxury we can no longer afford.