About the Technology Partnerships Office

Who We Are

The Technology Partnerships Office (TPO) plays a key role in the support of cutting-edge research that will promote U.S. innovation and industrial competitiveness. TPO achieves this success by helping to connect external partners to the cadre of world-class researchers, facilities, inventions, and knowledge within NIST’s laboratory programs and industry services. TPO also oversees and manages NIST’s intellectual property portfolio and technology licensing and assists external partners with navigating the technology development and commercialization pathway, from the point of discovery and invention development to patenting and licensing.

TPO's Vision: Engaged partnerships that benefit U.S. research, innovation, and industrial competitiveness. 

TPO's Mission: To enable and guide research collaborations and invention development and licensing to advance today’s discoveries in ways that stimulate innovation, foster industrial competitiveness, enhance economic security, and improve our quality of life.

What We Do

TPO provides an excellent customer experience to connect NIST research laboratories with industrial and academic partners and non-profit organizations to develop and commercialize cutting-edge science and technology research.

TPO achieves its mission by applying specialized technology transfer expertise that includes:

• Promoting and facilitating research collaborations between NIST researchers and academic and industrial partners, non-profit organizations, and government agencies
• Negotiating agreements with partners to ensure legal compliance, including licenses, transactional agreements, and collaboration agreements
• Enabling material and data transfers
• Assessing new inventions and reviewing employee invention disclosures
• Conducting technology analysis and competitive landscape of inventions
• Recommending strategies for seeking patent protection on invention
• Protecting intellectual property
• Advising and assisting development and management of intellectual property
• Proposing and implementing innovative development strategies and partnerships for NIST technologies
• Negotiating technology commercialization licenses
• Guiding NIST scientists on all technology transfer matters
• Educating NIST researchers on the beneficial role of technology transfer and providing training for relevant technology transfer duties
• Serving as liaison for individuals, committees, and organizations within and outside the federal government who are interested or involved in matters relating to technology transfer