Modernizing federal technology transfer metrics

Nearly 40 years ago Congress laid the foundation for federal agencies to engage in technology transfer activities with a primary goal to make federal laboratory research outcomes widely available. Since then, agencies generally rely on universal metrics such as licensing income and number of patents to measure the benefit of their technology transfer program. However, such metrics do not address the requirements set by the current and previous administrations, which require agencies to better gauge the effectiveness and return on investment of their technology programs. Here we evaluate two metrics, filing ratio and transfer rate, and empirically evaluate these metrics using data from Department of the Navy’s most transactionally active laboratory, as well as recently released agency-reported data available from the FY 2015 annual technology transfer report (15 U.S.C. Section 3710). We additionally propose other federally-relevant metrics for which agency data are not currently available. Results presented here indicate that these modernized metrics may potentially fulfill the requirements set by executive guidance. The study findings also point out to other metrics that are relevant to practitioners, program managers, and policymakers in the evaluation of technology transfer programs for better measurement of effectiveness, efficiency, and return on investment.