CREATE R&D Transition and Commercialization Projects

CREATE has long been recognized as a leader in R&D Transition and Commercialization. CREATE currently has responsibilities in three active contracts in this domain, including,

S&T Analysis and Management of Innovation Activity (STAMINA) – Lead research team on the DHS Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) Analysis and Management of Innovation Activity
SENTRY – Transition Co-Lead on the Office of University Program (OUP), Center of Excellence (COE), Soft Target Engineering to Neutralize the Threat Reality
ADAC-ARCTIC – Strategy Director for Technology Transfer and Commercialization, Office of University Program (OUP), Center of Excellence (COE), Arctic Domain Awareness Center (ADAC) Addressing Rapid Changes through Technology Innovation and Collaboration (ARCTIC)

Summaries of these three projects are provided below.

STAMINA

Planning for and evaluating R&D transitions that respond to homeland security threats, risks, or resilience requires effective assessment methodologies and tools. This is critically important given the outsized importance of informing Congress and the General Public of the impact and value of S&T R&D investments, as shown in the accompanying figure. CREATE’s STAMINA team has been executing on a multi-year, multi-million-dollar contract to conduct activities to enhance S&T’s Transition Program objectives to provide research-based guidance, tools, methods, and analyses to improve the planning, capture, and reported benefits of S&T’s R&D transitions.

Now in its fourth year of supporting S&T, CREATE is addressing key aspects of R&D transition to enhance the S&T Transition Branch’s capabilities, such as,

Defining R&D lifecycle process transition-related needs
Providing methodologies for developing quantitative and impactful descriptions of R&D benefits
Extending traditional Benefit-Cost Analysis (BCA) to include transition risks and uncertainties for use in the Benefit-Cost-Risk Analysis (BCRA) of R&D projects related to counterterrorism, threats, and emergencies
Creating a procedural framework for the evaluation of R&D transition product uptake impact benefit value to Component operations and/or to non-DHS stakeholders

Research, studies, analysis, and tools developed under this effort are intended to support DHS’s wide range of R&D solutions transitioned by S&T in support of the Homeland Security Mission.

R&D Appropriations provide the funding for S&T’s R&D Programs, Projects, and Activities, which lead to Transition Products that are reported via the NDAA 2017 process to Congress. The better job we do at transitioning R&D to the Customers and End-Users and in communicating the operational impact of those transition products, the better the opportunities for S&T R&D budget to grow.

SENTRY

The SENTRY COE addresses the many challenges of protecting soft targets and crowded places in our homeland. It conducts stakeholder-informed R&D to better secure soft targets and crowded places. CREATE’s efforts on this award seek to maximize the likelihood that SENTRY’s R&D results, including both technologies and knowledge products (TKPs), transition to DHS’ operational component end-users. The goal is to assist OUP and SENTRY leadership in navigating the transition-related aspects of its R&D Stage-Gate process shown in the accompanying figure, ensuring that transition best practices are applied in all SENTRY processes, projects, and activities, from project selection and initiation, through execution and transition implementation, at project close, and beyond transition and implementation to transition impact tracking.

Transition-specific support includes,

Identification of transition pathways that are responsive to operational component requirements, needs, and gaps
Assisting R&D investigators in the engagement of industry partners with the relevant expertise for successful product transition and commercialization development
Conducting expert-based analysis process to enable faster, more domain-relevant transition-focused evaluations

ADAC-ARCTIC

The mission of ADAC-ARCTIC is to create tools, technologies, knowledge products, and highly qualified persons that will serve the Homeland Security Enterprise to improve Arctic homeland security. ADAC-ARCTIC’s strategy for technology transition has four components:

Leverage the COEs’ and PIs’ extensive experience and successes to provide project-specific guidance
Develop trusted relationships with government entities and DHS Components that will be the recipients of R&D project outputs
Develop trusted relationships with high technology industry partners with successful track records in working with the DHS Components
Employ appropriate and diverse pathways to successfully transfer and transition impactful knowledge and technology products, educational materials, and students to DHS operational components, industrial partners, and the commercial marketplace

USC is supporting implementation of ADAC ARCTIC’s transition strategy through a stage-gate process shown in the accompanying figure. CREATE will also assist ADAC-ARCTIC leadership by developing diverse pathways to successful transfer and transition, emphasizing diligent invention disclosure and protection of IP by the researchers, and developing an entrepreneurial culture among faculty and students to facilitate industry engagement for commercialization.