2020 Wrap – OTT's Year in Review

The year is coming to a close, and we’re sure that nobody disagrees when we say it’s been a doozy. Amidst an unprecedented health crisis and distressed economy, the U.S. Department of Energy made its biggest efforts yet to streamline and reinforce the public benefit of DOE-powered innovations.

The Office of Technology Transitions (OTT) works to maximize the impact from U.S. taxpayer investment in our R&D complex and support the creation of viable, commercial U.S. technologies that enhance our competitiveness and bolster our national security. OTT has worked aggressively to develop policies and programs that boost engagement with DOE, and, along with the National Laboratories and Program Offices, have facilitated several successful engagements and outcomes that support U.S. technological leadership. OTT has served as an effective force multiplier for new policies and practices, encouraging a new way of thinking about commercialization that begins at the lab bench.

We spent the past year hosting some truly exciting events, participating in others, and growing our team of commercialization experts and support staff. When the specter of the pandemic began threatening American lives and ground our economy to a halt, OTT mobilized to provide its own brand of support to the response. Below, you will find a few highlights of our activities over the past year, as well as a small preview of what we have in store for 2021 and beyond!

CES

In January, OTT teamed up with DOE’s Artificial Intelligence & Technology Office (AITO) for the Department’s first-ever visit to CES, one of the world’s largest technology showcases. While there, OTTers spread out in all directions to make new connections with the innovation community and bring attendees back to the DOE booth—where the office offered interactive demos of its flagship Lab Partnering Service.

It was especially exciting to see so many new products made possible by DOE-powered innovations. From quantum dot LED (QLED) televisions, to new sensing technologies and ultra-light materials, CES serves as a great example of the importance of turning research into reality and using basic science to unlock new technologies that improve lives and drive competitiveness. 

InnovationXLab

This year was another strong one for the InnovationXLab summit series, managed by OTT. OTT organizes these landmark events to showcase the world-renowned research and facilities across the Department’s National Labs, and facilitate a two-way exchange of information between industry and lab experts from across the DOE R&D complex.

In 2020, OTT hosted three successful InnovationXLab events. In January, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) held the Biomanufacturing Summit at the University of California, Berkeley, convening a conversation with key private-sector players on opportunities to partner with the National Labs to advance this fast-moving field. A first for an InnovationXLab event, LBNL organized an intellectual property bundling event, grouping chunks of IP into distinct categories with the hopes of simplifying the licensing process for America’s innovators.

For our fall summits, Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) and the National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) worked incredibly hard to adjust to our new conditions and provide two highly successful virtual events. BNL’s Quantum Information Science & Technology (QIST) summit saw over 1,300 registrants, the largest InnovationXLab summit so far, and centered on a roster of compelling speakers, unique programming, and strong networking opportunities. NETL’s CarbonX Summit, focusing on carbon capture, utilization, and storage, incorporated engaging speakers from across the nascent carbon sector, offering perspectives on relevant topics that are vital to the growth of our nation’s carbon economy and environmental health.

We look forward to growing this series next year and continuing to forge the way for new, innovative collaborations to expand the commercial impact of the incredible DOE lab portfolio.

Energy Storage Grand Challenge

In December 2020, OTT published the Energy Storage Grand Challenge Energy Storage Market Report. This groundbreaking publication summarizes published literature on the current and projected markets for the global deployment of seven energy storage technologies in the transportation and stationary markets through 2030. This unique report is part of a larger DOE effort to promote a full-spectrum approach to technology development and maturation, embodied by the ESGC slogan of “Innovate Here, Make Here, Deploy Everywhere.”

The Energy Storage Market Report is part of the Technology Transitions track of the ESGC Roadmap. The Technology Transition Track supports the transition of DOE’s R&D activities to markets through field validation, demonstration projects, public-private partnerships, bankable business model development, and the dissemination of high-quality market data. 

EPIC

OTT launched its first funding opportunities in 2020 with the announcement of the Energy Program for Innovation Clusters (EPIC). This two-part, $5-million program seeks to give a leg up to innovation‑accelerating organizations—think incubators and accelerators—to create and strengthen regional innovation ecosystems for energy technology. Funding was split between two separate but connected opportunities: the EPIC Prize and the EPIC Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA).

OTT announced the winners of the EPIC Prize on October 7, 2020. These 20 organizations each received $50,000 to support their operations in energy technology and further bolster the links between the labs, academia, small businesses, and industry.

For the EPIC FOA, for which OTT plans to announce the winners in early 2021, will award up to $1 million to four incubators with a specific focus on the development, testing, and validation of energy technology hardware. Building new energy tech is tough—that’s why it’s important to support the innovators who decide to take on these time- and capital-intensive challenges!

COVID-19 Technical Assistance Program

When the COVID-19 pandemic struck, OTT set out on a virtual listening tour with every National Lab, holding conversations to determine how and where the office could help these institutions and their partners in the fight against the virus. As a result, OTT launched the COVID-19 Technical Assistance Program (CTAP).

CTAP enables U.S. external entities, including state and local governments, small businesses, and non-profit organizations, to tap the technical expertise of DOE’s researchers in short-term consultation engagements to work through and overcome difficult technical or scientific challenges related to combating the novel coronavirus.

In the past, technical assistance arrangements like this have been paid for with indirect funds at the labs, like small royalty payments received from licensed intellectual property. CTAP provides DOE OTT funding to enable and encourage more lab researcher engagement with U.S. external entities, energizing the effective transfer of knowledge out of government and into the hands of our innovators at this critical time.

LPS COVID-19 Portal

In response to the global pandemic, OTT mobilized a team of National Laboratories and private partners to launch the COVID-19 portal and dedicated Visual Patent Search on the Lab Partnering Service (LPS). On the platform, visitors will discover a curated selection of researchers, facilities, and intellectual property identified as potentially useful in the fight against COVID-19. We are proud to have a part in the fight against the coronavirus and to provide an opportunity for our industry partners to go to battle with the support of DOE-powered, Lab-driven innovations. 

Solutions Exchange

The DOE research enterprise is a sprawling behemoth, stretching from coast to coast across 17 National Labs and multiple sites and facilities. Each one of those Labs has their own suite of technology transition activities and personnel. From the outside, this huge complex can be daunting, especially if your business has never engaged with a DOE Lab before. That’s why OTT created Solutions Exchange.

With Solutions Exchange, OTT makes it easier than ever to engage with the National Labs based on the specific challenge you’re facing. Users can access Solutions Exchange by visiting OTT’s Lab Partnering Service in the “How to Partner” section. From there, all that’s left is to fill out a simple questionnaire describing the nature of your challenge. Once submitted, our experts at OTT will analyze the problem, investigate possible solutions, and create a menu of recommended options through which you can engage. As the figurative “front door” to DOE, we work hard to make it as easy as possible to get National Lab innovations on the path toward market and America’s innovators paired up with the researchers and tools they need to succeed.

So head over to Lab Partnering Service now and give Solutions Exchange a try!

Summer Webinar Series

An integral part of our public mission, the OTT spent no shortage of time participating in and hosting online webinars and workshops for the public. This summer, OTT collaborated with The Urban Tech Hub @Company and the New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC) to launch the Funding and Partnering Opportunities with the U.S. Department of Energy webinar series. The series featured 12 events covering current and future funding and partnering opportunities with the Department, as well as other ways to partner and connect with DOE’s R&D enterprise. Thanks to a tremendous group of speakers including DOE senior leaders, program managers, and National Lab staff, each session sparked engaging conversation and attracted a large crowd of startups and innovators looking to connect with the Department’s researchers, technologists, and facilities. In 2021, we will launch our first virtual library on the OTT website, where visitors will find recordings from this landmark summer series and many more. 

Bidirectional EV Webinar Series

In June, OTT hosted a two-part webinar series on electric vehicles (EVs) that allow electricity to flow both directions—from the grid to the vehicle battery and back again—enabling new possibilities for these large, mobile stored energy sources. These bidirectional EVs have the potential to transform how we think about transportation, the grid, and the synergies between the two. Panelists from these webinars included representatives from automakers and utilities, to technology and information technology companies, as well as National Lab experts on batteries and grid integration.

STEM Toolkit

Over the past year, OTT made it a priority to better connect students and universities with the necessary resources they need to engage with the Department in order to keep America at the forefront of the STEM fields. Thanks to our dedicated OTT Innovation Workforce Development team, we published an OTT STEM Toolkit, which includes programs, contacts, internships and more throughout the DOE system and National Labs. We want folks to know that we not only engage and assist today’s professionals, but also aim to inspire the next generation of innovators and entrepreneurs—especially those at historically underserved institutions and organizations—by bringing exposure and awareness to the vast connections and resources the Department has to offer.

Analyzing and Strengthening Innovation Ecosystems

In a new opportunity for OTT to further its outreach into the external community, we hosted a series of workshops with the Michigan Economic Development Corporation (MEDC) on the state’s innovation ecosystem. OTT convened stakeholders from Michigan’s robust manufacturing base, incubators  and accelerators, members of the university community, and policy professionals to explore and examine new ways to streamline the tech-to-market process and build stronger relationships that make technology commercialization a more purposeful and deliberate process.

The series culminated in the publication of a new joint report, Regional Innovation Ecosystems: Spotlight on Michigan, our first co-produced resource to help aspiring innovators gain access to infrastructure and resources to support the development of their technologies.

Technology Commercialization Fund

OTT manages the Technology Commercialization Fund (TCF), which supports the transition of potentially revolutionary technologies from the National Labs into the private sector through a competitive selection process. This year’s fund was a tremendous success, allocating $33 million for 82 projects across the Lab system. The fund requires a 50/50 cost match from a private sector partner, and this year, over 130 partners contributed $36 million to support the commercialization of these DOE-powered innovations. Learn more about the TCF on the OTT website.

Energy I-Corps/SBIR

Energy I-Corps is a key OTT initiative that pairs teams of researchers with industry mentors for an intensive two-month training, where the researchers define technology value propositions, conduct customer discovery interviews, and develop viable market pathways for their technologies.

For Cohort 11 this year, Energy I-Corps launched it's first "all virtual" cohort with 17 teams of researchers from across the National Labs. OTT continues to engage with Energy I-Corps alumni teams to develop their technologies for commercial viability. In FY20, we saw promising increases in key areas this including follow-on funding ($83M+), new licensed technologies (60+ licenses) and new ventures launched (12 new businesses) from Energy I-Corps technologies.

In a first-ever addition to the standard program, OTT partnered with DOE’s SBIR/STTR program this year to launch the first ever Energy I-Corps for SBIR/STTR, supporting 25 awardees through the customer discovery and business development process.

Policy

Developing and streamlining policies that make it easier to transition DOE-powered innovations from the lab toward the market remains a key priority for the OTT team. This year, OTT made several important strides across its broad policy mandate, working with the National Laboratories, other federal agencies, and our external stakeholders to continuously update and improve the DOE tech transitions policy framework.

Policy Highlights:

• In partnership with the National Laboratories, OTT developed new reporting guidance for Cooperative Research and Development Agreements (CRADAs), clarifying guidelines on sufficiency and timing of final CRADA reports. In addition, OTT developed a library of patent licensing practices to guide the development of new licenses for Lab intellectual property and an alternate CRADA clause library to offer drop-in language for special circumstances in some agreements.
• OTT represented DOE by informing the reform of key technology transfer legislation, including the landmark Energy Policy Act (EPAct) of 2005.
• OTT streamlined the data collection process inside DOE, allowing leadership to effective and efficiently steward, analyze and report on the impact of DOE’s R&D investments.
• OTT led DOE to make permanent the Agreement to Commercialize Technology (ACT), a six-year pilot mechanism that offers an alternative approach for Labs to engage with partners and third parties. DOE also established a new pilot—FedACT—which expands ACT agreements to be used when partners are using federal funds for a project.

As you can see here, it’s been a busy year. Looking ahead into 2021, we’re looking forward to making an even bigger splash with new InnovationXLab Summits, enhanced online content for innovators, and improved functionality for products like Lab Partnering Service. Most of all, we will continue to seek out and implement new ways to make it easier than ever to discover, connect, and partner with this incredible Department and all of its Labs, facilities, researchers, tech transfer experts, and all-around incredible people. On behalf of all of OTT, we wish you a happy, safe, and fulfilling New Year!