The Department of Energy published a policy amendment to authorize national laboratories to use technology transfer funds for precommercial technology demonstrations. This action amends rules under the Energy Policy Act of 2005 limiting the use of T2 funds to only three purposes, DOE said in a Federal Register notice.
The 2005 law allowed DOE to use the funds only for intellectual property activities, supporting the potential for technology transfers and the dissemination of T2 opportunities. The DOE Research and Innovation Act includes an amendment to allow the funds for use in support of early stage and precommercial technology demonstrations.
The amendment also supports DOE’s T2 activities required by the Stevenson-Wydler Technology Innovation Act of 1980.