Three teams of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) scientists, each supported by a Lab business development executive, netted regional awards for technology transfer from the Federal Laboratory Consortium (FLC) last week.
This year’s awards, one for technology development, another for commercialization success and a third for partnership collaboration, were presented Nov. 6 during the FLC’s two-day Far West/Mid-Continent regional meeting at the Hilton Garden Inn in Livermore.
Last week’s FLC gathering marked the first time the organization held one of its regional meetings in Livermore.
“We are excited that LLNL was chosen to be the host for this year’s FLC regional meeting,” said Hannah Farquar, a business development executive (BDE) in the Lab’s Innovation and Partnerships Office (IPO) who represents the Lab with the FLC.
“Livermore is a great location for the meeting being situated in the Bay Area, home to many federal labs, including two national labs. The FLC is a great resource, and regional meetings give us the opportunity to learn from and forge relationships with other federal labs from agencies such as NASA, the Department of Defense, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Forest Service, among others,” Farquar added.
The keynote speaker for this year’s regional conference was Lab Director Bill Goldstein, who delivered a presentation on the importance of tech transfer at the Laboratory, and how the “spin-out/spin-in” nature of tech transfer fits within the Lab’s overall strategy.
Rich Rankin, the head of the Lab’s IPO, welcomed attendees and introduced Goldstein. Several members of Rankin’s IPO staff took part in the conference, which concluded Nov. 7.
IPO Senior Adviser Roger Werne was a member of a panel discussion on diversity and inclusion, BDE Yash Vaishnav served on a panel about biotechnology and tech transfer, BDE Charity Follett spoke about the vitality of protecting software, and Farquar moderated a panel on collaboration, best practices and regional success stories.
Started in 1974, the FLC assists the U.S. public and private sectors in utilizing technologies developed by federal government research laboratories. It is comprised of more than 300 federal government labs and research centers.
Since 2007, with the three awards LLNL captured last week, the Laboratory has now garnered 36 regional awards for technology transfer from the FLC.