NASA helping regional industry
- By Dibya Sarkar
- May 28, 2001
Under a new five-year, $6.8 million contract, a new NASA research center
will help industry in the mid-Atlantic region gain access to and market
new technologies developed by the space agency.
"The key component is providing access for Virginia's businesses and providing
NASA a conduit to reach all businesses in Virginia and the mid-Atlantic
region," said Robert Harrell, vice president for regional operations at
Virginia's Center for Innovative Technology (www.cit.org).
CIT, a state-chartered, nonprofit group that promotes technology and business
throughout the commonwealth, will act as Virginia's affiliate to the Mid-Atlantic
Regional Technology Transfer Center (TeCC), which also has agreements with
similar organizations in Maryland, Delaware, West Virginia and Pennsylvania.
TeCC (www.teccenter.org) and its state affiliates
will match and market new, commercially viable technologies primarily developed
at NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va. But Harrell said it does
not preclude businesses from dealing with other NASA labs throughout the
country.
Harrell, who is Virginia's director for TeCC, said a company interested
in a new technology could simply license and market the product or collaborate
with a NASA scientist for further research and development, enter into a
contractual license agreement and then market the resulting product.
TeCC, he said, would publicize about a dozen new NASA technologies each
month. About 40 percent of the contract would go to marketing the technologies
in the five-state region, while the remaining contractual funds would support
the center's operations.
Nationwide, more than 1,000 companies are matched with NASA scientists and
research.