The Missing Middle: The Role of the DOE National Laboratories in Connecting Academia to Industry, Maturing Technology, and Promoting National Security

Discussions of innovation often turn to certain sectors of industry, such as those in Silicon Valley, Seattle, or Austin; or to leading research universities, such as Stanford University, MIT, the University of California, Berkeley, or the University of Chicago. The motivations for each of these two sectors are different and not always compatible. In the middle sits the third leg of the US research ecosystem: the 17 US Department of Energy (DOE) Laboratories. Primarily government funded and contractor operated, the DOE labs leverage diverse technical staff and world-class experimental and computation facilities to drive innovation across a broad range of scientific and engineering areas. While some of the DOE labs focus on discovery science or applied energy research, others, such as the three National Nuclear Security Administration Laboratories (NNSA), use mission-driven research to design and steward the nation’s nuclear weapons and other critical national security technologies.



This talk will provide an overview of the DOE National Lab system, the purpose of Federally Funded Research and Development Centers, the nature of mission-driven research, the role of the NNSA labs in technology maturation and technology transfer, and how to partner with the labs.