Partnering for Affordability and Sustainability

Dr. Frank SchowengerdtDirector Space Partnership Development

NASA Headquarters

Presented at theFederal Laboratory ConsortiumMid-Atlantic Regional Meeting

September 14th, 2005

Outline

• Research and Development Contexts• Old Paradigms, New Realities• Affordability• Sustainability• Industry/University/Government Partnerships• NASA’s Experience with Dual-Use Partnerships• Examples of Dual-Use Partnerships• Summary

Research and Development Contexts

Fin

al M

arke

t

Initial Investment

Public PrivateMixed

Pu

bli

cP

riva

teM

ixed

CommercialR&D

TraditionalTechnology

Transfer

ProcurementGovernment

R&D

Partnerships

Old Paradigms

• The dissemination of information (libraries, databases, magazines).

• Commercialization.

• Privatization.

• Technology push (“spin-out”).

• Technology pull (“spin-in”).

• Often an isolated, marginalized operation.

Tech Transfer as:

New Realities

• Mission agencies increasingly procure technology.• Many large companies have closed their research labs.• Many large companies increasingly procure technology,

either through purchase or buyout.

Source: National Science Foundation, National Patterns of R&D Resources: 2002 Data http://www.nsf.gov/sbe/srs/nsf03313/start.htm.

The World has Changed• Federal R&D has declined relative to non-Federal R&D.

• Most of the Nation’s R&D is now done in small businesses and universities.

Affordability

• Agency mission priorities invariably come first.

• And yet many federal agencies seek to break new ground in their missions, “to go where no one has gone before.”

• Thus we must find ways to do R&D more affordably.

• One way is through leveraged partnerships.

* Budget of the United States Government, Historical Tables, U.S. Government Printing Office, 2005. http://www.thewhitehouse.gov/omb/budget/fy05/pdf.hist.pdf

• R&D is a declining percentage of the federal budget: from 11.7% in 1967 to 5.0% in 2003*

Sustainability• The public looks for tangible benefits from its federal

agencies, even where missions are not defined in terms of public benefit.

• Those benefits are critical to program sustainability.

• Sustainability is closely related to affordability because companies won’t bring money into a project unless they see commercial applications.

• Sustainability coupled with affordability implies dual-use research and technology development.

• NASA’s vision for space exploration is an example:

"We must remember that for most people (going to the Moon and Mars) isn't even close to what matters most. Sure, they're interested, but space doesn't define their lives as it does ours. We forget this at our own peril.“

(Jeff Krukin, Space Review, Sept. 2004)

The Importance of Partnerships

• Partnerships are key to affordability.

• Benefits to the public are key to sustainability.

• You can’t have one without the other.

• What’s missing? The Universities.

• The Universities add flexibility, a buffer between the company and the federal government, cost effectiveness, prestige and a critically important educational component.

University Participation Brings

Even Greater Affordability

R&D Expenditures per Invention Disclosure

0

0.5

1

1.5

2

2.5

3

3.5

4

4.5

RPCs

Cal Tech MIT

Columbia Univ.WARF

U Cal System

Univ. of M

ich.

Harvard Univ.NASA

Mill

ion

s o

f D

olla

rs

(Source: "Technology Transfer: Bringing Innovation to NASA and the Nation." Report of the National Academy of Public Administration (NAPA), November 2004, p. 34.) RPC data for FY03 have been added.

The Educational Component

The Technical Workforce Crisis

Percent of Bachelor's Degrees Awarded in Science and Engineering

27.0

28.0

29.0

30.0

31.0

32.0

33.0

34.0

35.0

36.0

37.0

Year

Perc

en

t

Source: National Science Foundation, "Science and Engineering Degrees: 1966-2001" (NSF 04-311).

Sustainability through Education

"Scientific and technical manpower may be the most critical problem NASA faces in sustaining this vision.“(John Douglass, President, The Aerospace Industries Association, at the 1st Exploration Conference, Orlando, February 2005)

• One of the most important societal benefits of R&D is education.

• R&D agencies must have access to a strong pool of scientists and engineers who are knowledgeable in appropriate disciplines.

• At present, we are not making a strategic investment in this aspect of higher education commensurate with the need in fields of greatest importance to our future.

Industry/University/Government Partnerships

IndustryResourcesExpertiseProductsMarkets

GovernmentResourcesExpertiseMissions

UniversityResourcesExpertiseStudents

Examples in:

DARPA

DOC

DOD

DOE

NASA

NIH

NSF

USDA

Many States

• 12 Centers Located at Universities around the country, all strategically aligned to NASA needs

• 107 Industrial, 51 Academic, 48 Government Partners, Leveraging NASA dollars > 2 to 1, Six Commercial Spin-Off Firms Created FY04

• 27 Patent Applications• 213 Refereed, 100 Non- Refereed Publications• 13 B.S., 27 Masters’, 17 Ph.D. Degrees• 174 payloads flown in 20 years on Shuttle, Mir and ISS

RPC Revenues FY2004

28,324,273, 32%

5,690,518, 6%

23,814,986, 27%

6,222,788, 7%

16,323,677, 19%

7,499,148, 9% Total SPD 2004

Other NASA

Other Gov.

Industry

In-Kind

Other

NASA’s Experience with Dual-Use Partnerships

The Research Partnership Centers

Autonomous Medical Care

Medical Informatics Technology Applications Center (MITAC), an RPC at Virginia Commonwealth U.

NASA

Microsoft, TeleVital, Olympus, QRS Diagnostics, U.S. Surgical Corporation, Computer Motion

Telemedicine for Exploration

Telemedicine in rural and underserved regions of the U.S., Romania, Mongolia, Kenya, Brazil, Ecuador, Caribbean

14

Dual-Use Partnership Example

Dual-Use Partnership ExampleHybrid Satellite Networks

Center for Satellite and Hybrid Communications Networks (CSHCN), an RPC at U. of Maryland

NASA

Hughes Network Systems, ViaSat, Lockheed-Martin, Telcordia, Boeing, CISCO, CECOM, DISA.

Hybrid Satellite/Wireless Communication between Astronauts & Robots

Videoconferencing Camera

Family Laser Printer-Scanner

Home LANWireless?

Other PCs and Internet Appliances

Family Large-Screen High Definition Digital TV

With Internet Access

Spaceway™

Broadband-Enabled Set-Top Box

Videoconferencing Camera

Family Laser Printer-Scanner

Home LANWireless?

Other PCs and Internet Appliances

Family Large-Screen High Definition Digital TV

With Internet Access

Spaceway™

Broadband-Enabled Set-Top Box

Internet over Hybrid Broadband Networks on Earth

Dual-Use Partnership ExampleUltra-High Definition TV

Imaging Space Technology Center (ISTC), an RPC at Florida Atlantic U.

NASA

Panavision, BellSouth, Ecliptic, U.S. Navy

Digital Video with 8-Times Resolution of HDTV, for Shuttle Inspection, Homeland Security Apps. Commercial Cinema

Summary

• The R&D context in which tech transfer is done has changed.

• Tech transfer must change, from simply transferring technologies from where they’re created to where they’re needed, and into a dynamic, synergistic partnering context that blurs the distinctions between creation and transfer, and with that the distinctions between “spin-out” and “spin-in.”

• Tri-partite partnerships, wherein universities bring together government and industry users, can help agencies achieve their mission goals, and are proven and powerful engines for technology and economic development that also address the Nation’s technical workforce crisis.