Where's The Next Big Thing In Tech? Try A Government Funded Lab

Research from government and university labs has brought us technologies as ubiquitous as the internet, microwaves, and GPS. But the path from laboratory bench to market success goes uphill, and it’s a steep hill at that. Most projects never make it out of the lab, and instead of helping us stream Youtube videos or warm up leftovers, are left to languish, unused, forever. It’s a cruel irony, given that today’s tech economy is driven by the relentless search for innovation. But this uphill path is not insurmountable, especially not with the right partner to guide the way. If venture capitalists, investors, and companies are truly serious about sourcing the latest tech, they’d do well to look to the government. Here’s how.

Nadia Carlsten, PhDPeople who work in research fields refer to the gap that happens between the lab and commercial success as the dreaded valley of death. “Out of, say, 100 funded research projects, maybe 20 will produce something that has broader applications in the market,” said Kannan Krishnaswami, a technology commercialization manager at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL). Of those 20 projects, “maybe five will end up generating revenue for the laboratory through royalties, licensing or other business arrangements.”

But what of those other projects, and all the missing potential there? The problem is not that the projects are useless. Many private-sector players don’t fully understand what part they can play in moving technology from the lab to the marketplace, and so they stay out of the scene altogether. Granted, many government agencies, research labs, and universities do have technology transfer offices (TTOs) specifically tasked with bridging the “valley of death,” but the journey from research to commercialization has traditionally proven challenging for them. A successful tech transfer usually involves licensing a researcher’s technology to an outside company or spinning off the project into a standalone startup, and this requires particular skillsets and industry connections—ones that neither researchers nor TTOs can typically access...