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Suggested Citation:"Appendix E Focusing Questions." National Research Council. 2005. Government/Industry/Academic Relationships for Technology Development: A Workshop Report. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/11206.
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Appendix E
Focusing Questions

GOVERNMENT AGENCY PERSPECTIVE

General Policies and Guidelines
  • What are the top-level agency policies and guidelines that guide technology development and implementation at your agency?

  • Are your technology development goals and objectives focused on agency mission goals and objectives?

  • Does your agency attempt to spin off technology for secondary applications that are not agency mission focused (such as technology commercialization)?

  • Do you have a model for characterizing technology readiness levels? How does this model compare to the NASA model of TRL 1-9 (see attached)?

  • What percentage of technology investment does your agency make in low technology readiness level projects, in medium technology readiness level projects, and in high technology readiness level projects?

Formulation of Technology Requirements
  • How are technology requirements, including goals and objectives, formulated? Is the process centralized or decentralized?

  • Do you use technology roadmaps or other mechanisms to facilitate technology planning and implementation?

  • How do you evaluate/assess technical risk?

  • What mechanisms are used to highlight areas of required breakthroughs and innovations?

  • Do program developers and operators play a role in technology requirements formulation?

  • How are project-specific technology needs and broad-based agency technology needs planned and coordinated?

Suggested Citation:"Appendix E Focusing Questions." National Research Council. 2005. Government/Industry/Academic Relationships for Technology Development: A Workshop Report. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/11206.
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Implementation Strategies
  • Does the agency have guidelines for the percentage of technology funds that are used for intramural technology implementation versus the percentage of technology funds used for extramural technology implementation?

  • Roles of government, university, and industry

    • What are the roles of the following organizations in implementation of technology programs?

      • Agency/national laboratories

      • Universities

      • Industry

      • Small business

    • Aside from SBIRs, how does the agency engage small business creativity?

    • Do the roles of government laboratories, industry, and universities change relative to the low, medium, high technology readiness level investments?

  • What role does technology implementation play in maintaining agency core competency within the agency’s internal laboratories?

  • In the formulation phase, do new program initiatives invest in technology risk reduction projects?

  • Competitive solicitations

    • What role do technology roadmaps play in shaping solicitations and in preparing private industry and universities for solicitations?

    • Is a competitive (or other) process used to select the technology projects that are implemented intramurally? Extramurally?

    • Does your agency conduct direct competitive solicitations between industry and government labs?

  • In a time of risk minimization, how are innovations and breakthroughs fostered by agency solicitations?

  • Have you had any experience with the concept of using captive suppliers to facilitate rapid innovation and to better involve small business?

SMALL BUSINESS PERSPECTIVE

  • What mechanisms are used by the federal agency from which you have funding? Is it primarily through the Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) program or the Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) program?

  • In your opinion, are the SBIR/STTR program goals and objectives focused on agency mission goals and objectives or on broader commercialization goals and objectives?

  • What is one SBIR success story?

  • In your opinions, what are SBIR’s best achievements as related to innovation, agency mission achievement, commercial success, and specific benefit to the public?

Suggested Citation:"Appendix E Focusing Questions." National Research Council. 2005. Government/Industry/Academic Relationships for Technology Development: A Workshop Report. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/11206.
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UNIVERSITY PERSPECTIVE

  • What type of research and technology program would lead to the most innovative contributions (from academia) for NASA’s human and exploration initiatives (e.g., sponsored research centers, university consortium model, individual investigator awards, multiyear awards, technology demonstrations, flight demonstrations, flight experiments)?

  • What research and technology opportunities do you recommend for universities to be full participants in NASA’s Exploration Initiative?

  • Describe intellectual property issues from the university perspective.

  • What is the ideal global collaboration model among universities?

  • What role do peer reviews play in assuring and improving the quality of your sponsored research and technology?

LARGE BUSINESS PERSPECTIVE

  • What is the appropriate use of competitive solicitations/awards and noncompetitive awards in your model?

  • Should government organizations/centers compete directly against industry, and if so, with what guidelines or constraints?

  • In your opinion, were there limitations or barriers to relevant information sharing, and if so what were they and how might they have been eliminated?

  • What were the relationships of your partners, subcontractors, and suppliers to your company/organization and to each other?

  • Was there international company/organization participation, and how was that relationship structured?

  • What were the contracting mechanisms used in your example, at each level of work?

  • Did your example utilize incentives other than cash fees, such as prizes?

  • How were company/organization roles and responsibilities established?

  • What performance metrics were used, and how were they measured?

  • Was the trust in the relationships involved formalized or informal—for example, with regard to conflict resolution and sharing of rights and rewards?

  • What mechanisms were used to attract and retain the workforce?

Suggested Citation:"Appendix E Focusing Questions." National Research Council. 2005. Government/Industry/Academic Relationships for Technology Development: A Workshop Report. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/11206.
×
Page 71
Suggested Citation:"Appendix E Focusing Questions." National Research Council. 2005. Government/Industry/Academic Relationships for Technology Development: A Workshop Report. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/11206.
×
Page 72
Suggested Citation:"Appendix E Focusing Questions." National Research Council. 2005. Government/Industry/Academic Relationships for Technology Development: A Workshop Report. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/11206.
×
Page 73
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NASA’s Human Exploration and Development of Space (HEDS) program within the Office of Space Flight has proposed a new framework for space technology and systems development—Advanced Systems, Technology, Research, and Analysis (ASTRA) for future space flight capabilities. To assist in the development of this framework, NASA asked the National Research Council to convene a series of workshops on technology policy issues concerning the relationship of the various stakeholders in advancing human and robotic exploration and development of space. The second workshop, which is the summarized in this report, focused on the interrelationship between government, industry, and academia in the development of technology. Examples from Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the Department of Defense, and the National Science Foundation were covered in order to discuss best practices of such cooperative efforts as possible lessons for NASA’s space exploration activities.

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