Information Directorate part of tech transfer initiative

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The Department of Defense is accelerating the transfer of technologies from government laboratories into the civilian marketplace.

As an initial experiment for the demonstration of new business processes, DOD selected the Air Force Research Laboratory's (AFRL's) Information Directorate here for commercialization of their technology products identified as having dual-use (military and commercial) market potential. These Air Force inventions will now be available for license by New York's innovators and entrepreneurs through a state-wide competition over the coming months. The entrepreneurial teams selected as winners of the competition will then participate in a follow-on startup acceleration program called the New York Furnace Technology Transfer Accelerator (NY Furnace).

The aim of the NY Furnace program is to form, fund, and launch between five and 10 new startups that will license and successfully commercialize one or more Air Force technologies through 2015. To effectively launch the effort, DOD partnered with Arizona State University's (ASU's) Pracademic Center of Excellence in Technology Transfer (PACE/T2), the developers of the furnace system, to support the transfer and commercialization of discoveries from the country's top research laboratories. Since ASU's implementation of the furnace system, there have been 14 new startup companies which have formed thanks to unused technologies derived from a number of public universities and private healthcare groups.

"Beyond their initial development for our servicemen and women, many technologies developed by DOD laboratories possess strong commercial potential, but end up remaining within the labs due to limited means to launch these discoveries into the marketplace." says Dr. John Fischer, Director of the Defense Laboratories in the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering. "This technology transfer competition provides technologies to entrepreneurs, taking taxpayer funded technologies outside the lab and potentially, providing new solutions to the warfighter."

Cutting-edge technologies in a number of areas developed by the Air Force, such as communication, cyber security, and device controls, will be made available for entrepreneurs to draft a commercialization proposal. Winning teams may then receive the support of the state's leading economic development organizations by receiving one of several NY Furnace seed grants. Technologies will also be made available for license to existing companies in aerospace, defense and other industries in New York and across the United States.

"We are thrilled that our lab has been selected for this exciting pilot project," said George Duchak, Director of the AFRL Information Directorate. "We have some of the country's top scientists and engineers working on our campus and I am eager to invite New York's entrepreneurial community to take a closer look at some of our most promising inventions." says.

AFRL's Information Directorate primarily develops cyber/information technologies for aerospace command and control.

The DOD's NY Furnace Accelerator is also attracting the support of a wide range of local, regional, and state-wide economic development organizations, colleges and universities, startup incubators, accelerators, angel investors, and venture capitalists.

"This initiative empowers our community of innovators and serial entrepreneurs to envision commercial applications for these technologies that our colleagues in the Air Force may have never intended." said Mary Carol Chruscicki, Executive Director of the CYBER New York Alliance. "For example, one of the technologies being showcased is self-repairing computer code that protects web-enabled devices against known and unknown cyber threats. Clearly, with the recent 'Heartbleed' password encryption bug, along with other similar cyber threats facing consumers and businesses alike, there are obvious commercial applications for this particular technology."

Entrepreneurs are invited to view the available Air Force technologies and submit a commercialization proposal by visiting http://www.furnacenetwork.com/regions/furnace-newyork/.

There are also more than 6,000 licensable DOD patents. Learn more at: http://www.dodtechmatch.com/DOD/PATENT/INDEX.ASPX.