Technical Assistance, Use of Facilities, Work For Others (WFO)
Technical Assistance
Technical assistance provides to a private sector party by laboratory/facility personnel to further technology transfer
- Laboratory must approve of the laboratory/facility personnel consulting arrangement
- Conflict of interest on the part of the laboratory staff must be avoided
Use of Facilities
User facilities are unique, complex experimental scientific facilities, including equipment and expertise at a government laboratory, designated by the government for use by the technical community, universities, industry, other laboratories, and other government facilities.
- Includes designated user facilities and other user resources
- Research may be conducted on a proprietary or non-proprietary basis
- Full cost recovery is required for proprietary R&D
- Class patent waiver granted in which title goes to the user and the user’s proprietary data can be protected
- For non-proprietary R&D, title to inventions goes to the user but data generated are freely available.
- If funded under another government contractor or international agreement, users are subject to those intellectual property clauses
- Reference Part 29 of the Procurement Policies and Procedures (doc, pdf)
Work for Others (WFO)
Work performed by a laboratory or DOE facility for a non-DOE entity that is fully funded by the non-DOE entity.
- WFO may be R&D or non-R&D service arrangements
- Work pertains to the mission of the respective lab or facility, but does not affect the achievement of DOE requirements, and does not directly compete with capabilities available in the private sector
- Title to invention of sponsor or laboratory operator goes to sponsor under class patent waiver and sponsor’s proprietary data will be protected
- Government retains a non-exclusive royalty free license to any WFO invention
- Conflict of interest must be considered (e.g., Disclosure to sponsor of laboratory regarding background intellectual property)
- Each WFO project must have a Proposal Information Form (pdf, doc) completed and each project must be approved by the DOE
- Reference Part 30 of the Procurement Policies and Procedures (doc, pdf)