FLC Awards Recognize Federal Lab Success Bringing Technologies to the Public

Released: January 9, 2023

(WASHINGTON, DC – January 9, 2023) – The Federal Laboratory Consortium (FLC) has bestowed honors on 10 federal agencies for their efforts to bring impactful technologies to the public.  

The FLC represents 300 federal labs, agencies, and research centers nationwide, creating partnerships to shepherd technologies out of government labs and into the marketplace, where they improve the economy, society, and national security—a collaborative process called technology transfer. 

This year’s winners represent government-led projects focused on a range of technologies, from agriculture to defense, which will be awarded in person during the FLC National Meeting, March 28-30, at the Hilton Cleveland Downtown. Media is welcome to attend. 

“Our competitive awards honor the nation’s best at bringing new technology to the marketplace to sustain our global economic leadership,” said Paul Zielinski, Executive Director of the FLC.   

The 2023 FLC Award winners are listed below by award category: 

EXCELLENCE IN TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER AWARD: Honors outstanding work by federal labs in collaborating with industry, academia, or other labs to bring technologies from the lab to the marketplace. 

U.S. Department of Defense 

• MIT Lincoln Laboratory, Video Analytics Software Accelerates Forensics for Homeland and Commercial Security  

• MIT Lincoln Laboratory, Keylime: Enabling Trust in the Cloud, Edge, and Internet-of-Things  

• U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC), Economical, Durable, and Rapid Asphalt Repairs  

• U.S. Army Medical Research and Development Command, ECTemp/iHATT    

U.S. Department of Energy 

• Oak Ridge National Laboratory, ORNL’s Licensing of MAVNet Novel Communication Protocol to Horizon31  

• Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Electrifying the Entrepreneurial Spirit of a Food-Waste-to-Fuel Startup  

• Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Mobile Source Transit Security (MSTS) System  

U.S. Department of the Interior 

• U.S. Geological Survey, Nozzle Mixing Apparatus and Methods for Treating Water in Ship Ballast Tanks  

U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs 

• Minneapolis Adaptive Design & Engineering (MADE) Program, Habit Camera  

 

IMPACT AWARD: Honors federal labs whose technology commercialization efforts have made a tangible and lasting impact on society or the marketplace. 

U.S. Department of Agriculture 

• Agricultural Research Service, Saturated Buffers: Preventing Nitrogen Runoff  

• Agricultural Research Service, Aquatic Animal Health Research Unit (AAHRU), One Fish, Two Fish, a Healthier New Fish  

U.S. Department of Defense 

• U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC), HABITATS: Groundbreaking Technology Converts Harmful Algal Blooms into Valuable Resources  

 

INTERAGENCY PARTNERSHIP AWARD: Recognizes agency and/or laboratory employees from at least two different agencies who have collaboratively accomplished outstanding work in transferring a technology from lab to market.  

U.S. Department of Agriculture in partnership with NASA 

• Agricultural Research Service, Environmental Microbial & Food Safety Laboratory (EMFSL) and NASA Kennedy Space Center, Automated Multimodal Sensing for Space Crop Production Plant Health Monitoring  

U.S. Department of Commerce in partnership with U.S. Department of Health and Human Services 

• National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and National Institutes of Health (NIH), Interagency Effort to Modernize iEDISON and Establish Long-Term Stewardship  

U.S. Department of Energy in partnership with the U.S. Department of Defense 

• Sandia National Laboratories, Army Rapid Capability and Critical Technology Office, and Naval Sea Systems Command and Strategic Systems Programs, Hypersonic Glide Body Transition to Production for Army and Navy  

 

STATE AND LOCAL ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AWARD: Celebrates technology-focused partnerships between federal labs and state or local economic development groups that have had a positive impact. 

U.S. Department of Energy 

• Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge Reimagined: Nuclear Hub for a Carbon-free Energy Future  

U.S. Department of Defense 

• National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, NGA Accelerator – Technology Transfer in Action with Missouri Technology Corporation  

 

TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER INNOVATION AWARD: Recognizes the successful use of innovative or unconventional approaches, such as in-house competitions, to significantly increase the lab’s technology transfer partnerships and results.  

U.S. Department of Defense 

• U.S. Naval Research Laboratory, DON/NRL Trade Secret Licensing Program  

U.S. Department of Homeland Security 

• Science & Technology Directorate, Facilitating the Swift Advancement of Technology Innovations for Homeland Security  

 

ROOKIE OF THE YEAR AWARD: Honors one or sometimes two federal laboratory employees who has demonstrated outstanding work in the past year despite being relatively new to the technology transfer profession  

• Chris Bond, National Energy Technology Laboratory, U.S. Department of Energy  

• Jonathan Spielman, Federal Bureau of Investigation, U.S. Department of Justice  

 

HAROLD METCALF AWARD FOR FLC SERVICE: Celebrates one federal laboratory employee who has provided significant service over time to the FLC as an organization.  

• John Eisemann, APHIS Wildlife Services, National Wildlife Research Center, U.S. Department of Agriculture  

 

REPRESENTATIVE OF THE YEAR: Is given to the FLC Representative who has made the most significant contribution to the FLC in the past three years. 

• Karen Presley, National Security Agency, U.S. Department of Defense  

 

LABORATORY DIRECTOR OF THE YEAR AWARD: Given to a federal laboratory director, who is typically not a technology transfer professional, for his or her notable support of the lab’s technology commercialization efforts. 

• Dr. Eric Moore, U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command (DEVCOM), Chemical Biological Center (CBC), U.S. Department of Defense 

 

About the FLC  
The Federal Laboratory Consortium for Technology Transfer (FLC) is a formally chartered, nationwide network of more than 300 federal laboratories, agencies, and research centers that foster commercialization best practice strategies and opportunities for accelerating federal technologies from out of the labs and into the marketplace. To learn more, visit www.federallabs.org.  

 

Media contact:   
Carolina Olivieri  
FLC Marketing and Communications Director   
1+202-960-1781  
[email protected]