Innovative Partnership Development

NASA's Strategic Plan calls for "development of portions of NASA's technology and capability portfolio by partnering with…the commercial, academic, and other external sectors…to expand the Agency's ability to identify new technologies and new technology sources…and gain access to a wider variety of technologies than the Agency could develop in-house." Consistent with the Plan, IPP engages a broad spectrum of entities from these sectors for the purposes of identifying and facilitating opportunities for partnering to develop dual use technologies, which provide technology alternatives for NASA's Mission Directorates. The technologies developed through partnerships are targeted to fill in gaps in Mission Directorate portfolios that are a consequence of diminished budget resources. Therefore, IPP acts as a catalyst for leveraging limited NASA resources with outside partner resources to provide a wide range of technologies important to NASA's missions. As a byproduct, IPP also provides all US citizens and entities with the opportunity to contribute to NASA's exploration mission. IPP typically facilitates over 200 new partnerships with the private and other external sectors each year.

Some Activity Measures

In 2008:

• IPP facilitated the Agency’s entering into about 160 Space Act Agreements with private and other external entities for development of dual-use technology targeted to Mission Directorate technology needs.
• IPP provided $3.34 million in funding for 16 Seed Fund partnerships for development of a broad spectrum of technologies addressing specific Mission Directorate technology gaps. Partner and Field Center contributions of cash and in-kind resources will leverage these funds by a factor of about 2.5. Over the past three years, IPP has provided a total of $19M in funding for 82 Seed Fund projects involving 94 partners in 35 states and Canada; IPP’s aggregated funding will have been leveraged by a factor of about 3.8 at the completion of these projects.
• IPP facilitated the signing of 26 license agreements and about 800 Software Use Agreements.
• IPP facilitated the reporting of about 1,100 new invention disclosures. As a result of IPP’s efforts, over 110 NASA patent applications were filed and 112 patents awarded in 2008. Revenues realized from licenses of NASA-sponsored technologies exceeded $4 million in 2008.
• IPP completed three Centennial Challenge events and awarded $447,000 in combined prize money at two of them.

NASA Technologies of Interest Links

GRC Technologies
NASA TechTracS/Techfinder
NASA SBIR/STTR Funded Technology Search
NASA Tech Briefs
NASA SBIR/STTR Technology Mall
Ames Research Center Technology Partnerships Division
Dryden Flight Research Center IPP Fact Sheets
NASA SBIR/STTR Abstract
NASA SBIR/STTR Awards
NASA Scientific and Technical Information
NASA Spinoff Online

Software Resources

NASA's Software Repository
GSFC Software Catalog
The Software Release Process
GRC Free Software
NASA Open Source Software
Other NASA Software
GSFC Software
ARC Software
GRC Software
GSFC Software
JPL Software
MSFC Hardware
COSMIC Software Collection

License Process

ARC Apply for a License
GRC License Process
JSC Licensing Opportunities

Research Facilities Available for Commercial and Academic Use

NASA Glenn Research Facilities
Detector Development Laboratory
Environmental Integration and Testing Facility
Heat-Treating Furnace

Video Gallery

Small Business Program Hallmarks of Success Videos