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,

• 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.

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.

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

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:

(1) Leverage the COEs’ and PIs’ extensive experience and successes to provide
project-specific guidance
(2) Develop trusted relationships with government entities and DHS Components
that will be the recipients of R&D project outputs
(3) Develop trusted relationships with high technology industry partners with
successful track records in working with the DHS Components
(4) 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.