Witnesses urge modernization of technology‑transfer laws and new approaches for commercializing federally funded research

Several witnesses told the committee that accelerating the movement of federally funded research into commercial use requires revisiting statutory and institutional practices.

Dr. Heather Wilson said technology transfer is an area needing “big thinking.” She proposed rethinking current intellectual-property arrangements for federally funded research, including the possibility of a national IP bank that would centralize commercialization processes and let universities concentrate on research and talent development. “Let the universities focus on doing the research and developing the talent and let someone else commercialize the IP,” she said.

Dr. Walter Copan urged preserving the integrity of the Bayh–Dole Act while modernizing other statutes such as the Stevenson–Wydler Technology Innovation Act to improve entrepreneurial outcomes and increase the return on public R&D. He recommended repeatable public–private partnership templates and flexible contracting vehicles for industry engagement.

Why it matters: witnesses said the U.S. advantage depends not only on producing new knowledge but on getting it to market. Several members and witnesses argued that current university and lab technology-transfer offices are heterogenous in capacity and that stronger national frameworks could increase startup formation, reshoring of manufacturing and wider diffusion of federally supported innovations.

Next steps: the committee requested technical options, including legislative text or pilot proposals, that could be used to test alternative IP commercialization models and to assess how changes would affect universities, national labs, small businesses and the public interest.