How to Work with the Lab?

To help minority-owned businesses that are new to technology transfer process, the Federal Laboratory Consortium (FLC) has developed seven steps to help you access the federal resources needed to become a successful minority innovator. This comprehensive set of tools will help any entrepreneur navigate the federal innovation ecosystem.

To learn how you can work with a federal laboratory, please review the seven steps below and visit the FLC website today!

1. Identify your R& D Needs: Do you have an idea, invention, or product you’d like to further develop? There are 300+ federal laboratories have a wealth of facilities, equipment and expertise to help you succeed as a minority-owned business!

2. Search laboratory resources and technologies:: To learn more about laboratory resources, search FLCBusiness,  a comprehensive laboratory resource database, and Available Technologies an extensive listing of federal technologies that are available for licensing.

3. Find a suitable T2 process: After you have identified a laboratory, facility, equipment, and/or laboratory program that you would like to access, get started by searching the T2 Mechanisms database to review sample partnership agreements.

4. Assess the next steps for commercialization: Depending on your R&D needs, there may be several types of partnership agreements to help support your business innovation. Now is the time to determine a suitable partnership type.

5. Contact a laboratory representative: Now that you’ve determined your ideal commercialization path, it’s time to reach out to the lab. To do so, you can search by laboratory profile in FLCBusiness to help you find the pertinent contact information. The laboratory representative will help you determine the best route for accessing the lab, facility, equipment or expertise you wish to utilize.

6. Negotiate an agreement path: It’s time to initiate, negotiate, and complete an agreement between you and the federal laboratories. Given the mechanism path that was agreed upon, this stage in the process can take some time to complete so both the laboratory and the private-sector parties can achieve what they hoped to gain from the initiated agreement.

7. Commercialize: You’ve reached the end of the transfer process, and it’s now time to commercialize! You’re now on the path to access technology and facilities never before utilized.