NIST Tech Transfer Efforts Lead to Revamp of Tool for Reporting Federally Funded Inventions

The Department of Commerce’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is seeking public feedback on the Interagency Edison System (iEdison) tool where organizations that have received federal funding report their inventions. The renewal effort is aimed at modernizing the system while increasing security to ensure sensitive business information is protected. The revamp will simplify the process for Federal grantees to comply with existing rules.

The revamp of the platform is part of a larger, ongoing effort led by the White House to better facilitate technology transfer. President Trump’s early focus on technology transfer and return on investment of federally funded research has led the Department of Commerce to actions that promote the more efficient transition of that research into the commercial marketplace. “Every year the Federal government invests more than $100 billion in research and development (R&D) through grants and funding agreements with the nation’s universities and other nonfederal organizations,” states a press release sharing NIST’s intentions to remodel the iEdison platform. These investments result in over 7,000 inventions reported through iEdison each year.

The iEdison platform is currently managed by the National Institute of Health (NIH) where I has been housed since the beginning of its operation in 1995. This renewal effort will move the iEdison system under NIST’s management. The transfer comes as a result of a recommendation made by a National Academies report where they recommended the transition of the program to the Department of Commerce.

In the coming months, NIST will seek feedback from stockholders in order to inform the technical development of the new system, which is expected to be fully functioning in 2022.