DOE establishes new tool for joining private sector in technology alliances

摘要

The Energy Department last week announced a final rule grving DOE and its laboratories and production plants a new, more flexible mechanism for collaborating with the private sector on technology development. At the direction of the Energy Policy Act of 2005, DOE is instituting procedures for "technology investment agreements" that would augment such traditional tools as cooperative agreements, grants and contracts. The final rule, published in the May 9 Federal Register, takes effect July 10. It fulfills EPACT's requirement that DOE offer "other transactions" for companies, universities and other entities interested in collaborating with the department but not in long-established ways.