Your Lab and TechLink T2 Impact Assessment
TechLink economic impact assessments measure how technology transfer (T2) agreements contribute to the defense mission and the U.S. economy. Impact reports showcase the value of technology transfer agreements as a vehicle for industry to commercialize federal inventions, bringing new products and services to market and the warfighter.
TechLink's primary focus on securing tech transfer partnerships for DOD labs for more than 25 years provides the backbone for our impact assessment team to research DOD-wide impacts. Since 2017, DOD licensing and cooperative research and development agreements have been assessed regularly to accurately and comprehensively measure the economic impact of T2. Read on to learn more about the impact reporting process and ORTAs’ essential role in economic impact reporting.
Data Preparation
Data preparation is the foundation of a successful economic impact assessment. To kick off every report, TechLink connects with ORTAs at DOD labs to provide key information on existing T2 agreements.
“During data preparation, we ask labs to share the most up-to-date data possible on industry partners and T2 agreements to help inform our outreach. Information such as the principal investigator, contract agreement numbers, contact details, agreement titles, dates, and descriptions help us determine the importance of pursuing each agreement within our report and provide us the information we need to reach industry partners,” explained Michelle Zook, TechLink’s Co-Director Economic Assessment.
TechLink could not measure T2 impacts without ORTAs. At the beginning of each impact assessment, TechLink sends a spreadsheet to ORTAs to collect the information needed with different fields outlined for easy completion by the lab.
Research
With agreement data in hand, TechLink begins the research phase. A dedicated research team prepares the survey they will use to gather economic impact data from industry partners.
"TechLink develops our impact assessment question sets with one goal: to maximize the value of data collected from industry partners,” Zook said. “Our focus in crafting the survey is to gather insights about the impact of T2 that will be valuable to the DOD, congressional stakeholders, industry partners, and the technology transfer community.”
The industry partner survey varies depending on the report being conducted. TechLink almost always measures total sales of new products and services related to the agreement, company size and growth related to the agreement, and other impacts such as follow-on R&D funding or acquisition details.
Outreach
Zook’s team begins the outreach phase by sending industry partners a letter of authorization from the DOD and explaining the survey’s purpose.
“Industry partners can be tough to get in touch with in the age of spam calls and junk mail. Sometimes we’ll call on ORTAs during the outreach phase to verify TechLink’s validity or send copies of documents to a partner,” Zook said. “This assistance is where ORTAs are invaluable to the impact assessment process. It gives the partner peace of mind, so they can speak candidly with TechLink about T2 agreements.”
Once Zook and her research team contact, they schedule time to discuss each agreement's economic impacts. During this call, the researchers collect responses to survey questions to complete the dataset TechLink and its partners will analyze and build upon during the next phase.
Zook explained the importance of gathering data this way: “We rely heavily on industry partners to inform our research to measure the economic impact of T2 as accurately as possible. We want to know their perspective and opinion of the agreement whether it’s on the quantitative or qualitative side."
We might use secondary sources to verify or clarify information given by industry partners, but the human-to-human discussion is the most important part of our research."
Analysis
Before analysis can properly begin, TechLink cleans and aggregates the data so that no individual company can be identified. Then the data is sorted using the North American Industry Classification System to categorize products related to T2 agreements by their corresponding industry. The clean dataset is sent to TechLink’s partners at the Leeds School of Business at the University of Colorado Boulder where the data is analyzed using IMPLAN economic modelling software. IMPLAN measures the direct, indirect, and induced economic impacts of each agreement:
- Direct impacts are the easiest to measure accurately. They include new products and services created, jobs created or sustained, and sales dollars related to T2 agreements.
- Indirect impacts represent the materials and resources needed to carry out production of a new product or service. Examples include materials made, purchased and shipped because of agreements, benefitting material providers and transportation companies.
- Induced impacts are the impacts to local communities because of T2-related employment. Induced impacts include employee spending on childcare and at restaurants, hospitals, stores, and other local businesses and how this spending contributed to job growth in the area.
“Models are a little bit of science and a little bit of art.” Zook explained. “IMPLAN is the gold standard for economic modeling software. It allows us to get as close as possible while adjusting for time and inflation.”
After TechLink receives the IMPLAN modeling results, Zook’s team analyzes the data and begins drafting the final report.
Reporting
The reporting phase includes writing, organizing, and releasing the report. ORTAs can use the final reports to illustrate the importance of T2 to the defense mission and U.S. economy.
“There are a lot of comprehensive, noteworthy numbers published within these reports,” Zook said. “But there are also numbers that ORTAs will find valuable. For example, how many new products or services are attributed to agreements, or the numbers attributed to their lab’s specific licenses or CRADAs, as well as how many companies or universities attribute follow-on research and development funding to agreements."
These are the success stories that can help ORTAs communicate the value of T2 within their labs and with industry partners.”
She continued, “It’s never the numbers you remember, it’s the stories and the people. As a former military member, I was always very proud of my service and our contributions."
TechLink’s economic impact reports should be a point of pride for ORTAs, because they showcase the great technology that comes out of DOD labs and the many contributions the laboratory community has on the defense mission and U.S. economy.”
“DOD labs make an impact beyond the warfighter. They are fighting an economic war at home to keep American jobs going and provide an economic benefit to our country.”
Looking for the latest T2 impacts? Read past impact assessment reports for DOD-wide agreements, TechLink-facilitated agreements, and more.