Government-funded R&D goes mainstream

Page 2 of 2 One such example is ATI’s leadership in a series of clinical trials using copper to control bacteria in hospitals. Research has determined that copper is a naturally antimicrobial engineering material shown to kill bacteria in laboratory studies. For instance, in U.S. military populations, respiratory illnesses account for 25% to 30% of outpatient hospital admissions. In addition, the Defense Department reported an increase in the number of bloodstream infections due to bacteria in U.S. military hospitals where service members injured in Iraq, Kuwait and Afghanistan were being treated. Those data are the basis for the DOD-sponsored studies to determine the antimicrobial effectiveness of copper, brass and bronze. The studies were awarded to the Copper Development Association, the information, education, marketing and technical development arm of the copper, brass and bronze industries in the United States. The studies, which are being carried out under the Telemedicine and Advanced Technologies Research Center, a section of the Army Medical Research and Material Command, are implemented by ATI. The Ralph H. Johnson Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center and the Medical University of South Carolina are two of the hospitals participating in the study. Assuming copper lives up to the claims, the use of the element in hospitals already has documented cause. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has estimated that about 2 million hospital-acquired infections occur every year in the United States, resulting in nearly 100,000 deaths and costing more than $5 billion annually in this country alone. The question is: If it can be put to good use in hospitals, how soon before copper door handles and copper countertops are the norm? “With a lot of our programs, we build a consortium of government agencies and commercial enterprises to work on the programs,” said Bill Mahoney, SCRA’s president and CEO. “When one of our consortia executes a program for the Army or Navy, there is in place a general public-use license, and if you’re a member of that consortium, you get access to intellectual property that’s created. “In this case, the U.S. Copper Development Association is handling the commercial side of things. They’ve signed the agreement to take the rights and share it with its membership. The government retains the intellectual property rights, and the consortia is the agent.” The agreement is one of the Cooperative Research and Development Agreements, a mechanism developed under the 1986 Federal Technology Transfer Act. The agreements are contracts to conduct joint R&D projects, where the government laboratory contributes personnel and equipment, while the partner contributes these assets and funding as well. The number of such agreements signed by government agencies has increased steadily in recent years. Mahoney called such sharing of intellectual property an “open-source collaboration” for research and development. “That’s a new vogue in corporate America, and a good way for stuff to get out into the marketplace,” he said. OPEN-SOURCE DEVELOPMENT Another example of government-to-mainstream technology is the meal packaging developed for warfighters. The packaging materials required not only containment that ensures long-term barrier protection against temperature, humidity, vermin and handling, but also tamperproof security against environmental attacks. The project, being developed under ARDI, uses advanced polymeric nano-structured composites that aid in keeping the packaging systems lightweight while providing optimal protection. Mahoney said the notion of such packaging making its way onto store shelves is “not just possible but probable, considering the companies in our consortia and our consortia-wide licensing agreements.” Mahoney called it “an ‘open-source’ type of development. “The traditional model has you hang on to intellectual property,” he said. “But in this case, it’s developed — or at least funded — by the government. And the government belongs to the people, which means the government cannot keep the IP to itself. It must make it available, and that’s where we come in with our ability to manage these programs.” Mahoney noted that the funding most often awarded to SCRA is for applied research rather than for basic research. “There are different monies for applied research than for basic research,” he explained. “With the Homeland Security directorate, for instance, 50 percent of their investments are in studies that have to be delivered within 24 months or less. With something like that, we usually end up with an operational product through a manufacturer that we subcontract. Sometimes it’s a mix of applied and basic research, and we would sub that to the universities. But most of the time when a federal agency calls, they’re looking for an operational outcome. “It’s what we like to call a ‘win-win-win-win’ type of business multiplier. Not only does the government not have to pay overhead for the research, but our cost structures are lower, so in the end, the technology gets out there more cost-effectively too.” << Start < Prev 1 2 Next > End >>