DOE’s TIR Program Continues Collaborations Between National Labs and the Private Sector

Energy Department’s TIR Program Continues to Build Science-Based Collaborations

The Department of Energy’s national laboratories are a world-class American science and technology innovation network. Significant opportunities exist to lower the barriers for industry to find and connect with the best national lab research and development (R&D) expertise and innovative technology resources to help them solve their most important challenges. Collaboration and innovation are critical to strengthening American manufacturing, boosting our competitiveness, and growing jobs. The Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy’s (EERE) Technologist in Residence (TIR) program is helping to streamline engagement and increase collaborative R&D between national labs and private sector companies.

The TIR program pairs a senior technical staff member from industry with a senior technologist from a national lab to identify technical challenges of the company and propose new collaborative R&D efforts to advance science-based solutions to the company’s issues. This partnership facilitates lab and industry researchers to work together to more deeply understand the true nature of industry’s most important problems and national lab capabilities that can be best brought to bear to solve them. In addition to bringing rigorous technical knowledge to the partnership, the lab technologist helps the industry partner navigate and leverage the resources and expertise across all of the national labs.

Now in its second year, the Energy Department recently announced six new lab-industry industrial pairs for the second cohort of TIR. These new pairs will be funded by the Advanced Manufacturing Office (AMO) and will focus on addressing specific industry challenges.

• Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Pioneer Natural Resources
  Oak Ridge National Laboratory will partner with Pioneer Natural Resources to leverage national laboratory innovation infrastructure to foster economic competitiveness and energy security. Areas of focus will include: advanced materials and coatings for corrosion mitigation, smart parts and sensors, efficient manufacturing practices, infrastructure and advanced material design, and additive manufacturing.

• Idaho National Laboratory and DuPont
  Senior technologists at Idaho National Laboratory and DuPont will explore and identify DuPont’s technical priorities for their Cellulosic Ethanol Division, leveraging Idaho National Lab’s capabilities and expertise at the Biomass Feedstock National User Facility.

• Argonne National Laboratory and Kyma Technologies Inc.
  Argonne and Kyma will identify technical challenges in the fields of semiconductor crystalline substrate and epitaxial wafer materials with applications in advanced power electronics, optoelectronics, solid-state lighting and photovoltaics.

• Brookhaven National Laboratory and Henkel Corporation North America
  Brookhaven National Laboratory will advance Henkel’s engagement in the areas of advanced materials development for energy storage, functional nanocoatings and materials for additive manufacturing. Brookhaven and the specific technological needs identified by Henkel R&D leadership in three areas: 1) advanced materials for energy storage, 2) functional nanocoatings, and 3) materials for additive manufacturing.

• Sandia National Laboratories and Lumileds
  Sandia and Lumileds will explore collaborative scopes of work focused on semiconductor materials and devices for lighting and related applications with the express goal of enabling light sources with extremely small footprints and/or added functionality. This partnership will develop a long-term strategic relationship and enhance transparency into the national lab complex for Lumileds.

• Argonne National Laboratory and Honeywell UOP
  Argonne and Honeywell UOP will identify scopes of work for next-generation fossil and non-fossil energy and chemicals production, based on novel process concepts and improved catalysts. Argonne’s senior technologist will foster connections to relevant capabilities in the national lab system to address Honeywell UOP’s unique R&D needs.

AMO supports early stage applied research and development of new materials, information, and processes that improve American manufacturing’s energy efficiency, as well as platform technologies for manufacturing energy products. Technology innovation in energy and manufacturing provides a foundation for the future economic growth and jobs in the U.S.

Twice a year, AMO hosts a meeting with these pairs, as well as representatives from across the national lab enterprise. The aim is to lower the barriers for lab-industrial partnerships. In addition, they serve to enhance transparency into the national laboratory innovation infrastructure for the private sector; they build awareness of high-impact industrially relevant technology challenges to researchers within the national laboratory system; and they broaden the networks of technologists in national laboratories and in industry to more effectively focus on industry needs and leverage the national laboratory system in research and development.

The partnership will run for up to two years and will catalyze long-term working relationships with the labs that extend well beyond the program timeframe.