Technology Transfer

Technology transfer from the labs of Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the University of Tennessee to the offices of area for-profit technology companies plays a leading role in empowering the Knoxville region to build a world-class environment in a wide variety of industry sectors.

Innovation Valley has been extremely successful to date due to the development activities coordinated by the East Tennessee Economic Development Agency, the Oak Ridge Economic Partnership and the Knoxville Area Chamber Partnership.

The Oak Ridge National Laboratory is primarily a multi program laboratory which is involved in research and development, energy and environmental projects for national defense.

The Oak Ridge National Laboratory was originally set up to provide design and engineering services for the military's non nuclear components, but evolved to include a wide spectrum of national security research and development projects.

The Oak Ridge National Laboratory works in cooperation with various private concerns, state and federal organizations, academic institutions and other laboratories on mutual interest issues. The Oak Ridge National Laboratory is profoundly involved in Technology Transfer which is a process for offering companies access to scientific experts, facilities and inventions at federal laboratories in order to provide a range of environmental, economic and various other benefits to the nation.

Through the Oak Ridge National Laboratory's research in conjunction with the private sector and through the licensing of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory's technology to a variety of private industry, the transfer of technology developed at the lab is seeded throughout the nation. In the last two decades, the Oak Ridge National Laboratory has transferred the lab's technology in over 400 separate cases, totaling $85 million in cooperative funding for research, including over 1,000 patent applications and more than 130 licensing agreements with many U.S. companies.

The available technologies through the Oak Ridge National Laboratory's Tech Transfer program are not limited only to national security subjects, but also include biological and environmental sciences, computing and computational sciences, energy and engineering sciences, physical sciences, and new technologies.

The Oak Ridge National Laboratory's Economic Development and Partnership program assists with the start-up of new private entities through the process of licensing technology and creating partnerships for research.

Other aspects include the expansion of private concerns into innovative markets via the applied aspects of new technology, and the identification and implementation of technical solutions to a variety of problems that might jeopardize the profitability of those businesses. A strong emphasis is placed on the economic development of the Knoxville Oak Ridge Innovation Valley area and on structuring the nanotechnology business innovation segment.

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