For example, in FLC’s 2009  annual report to the President and Congress, FLC defined its mission as  to help federal labs transfer technologies developed through the federal  government’s R&D efforts. FLC Has Not Fully Communicated with and Obtained Feedback from Potential Customers when Designing and Implementing Clearinghouse Initiatives

FLC has taken steps to communicate with potential customers, including  small business and entrepreneurs, but has not fully communicated with  and obtained feedback from them to assess potential customers’ needs  and incorporate leading practices when designing and implementing  technology transfer clearinghouse initiatives, resulting in missed  opportunities to better meet potential customer needs. Currently, FLC is  developing a third initiative—FLCBusiness—to provide additional  information on available technology transfer opportunities. However, FLC did not assess the information needs of potential  customers of federal lab technologies to ensure the Available  Technologies tool would provide relevant information in a format that  customers consider useful, as called for by leading practices. For example, FLC officials said  that when designing the Available Technologies tool, they conducted  testing to make sure searches on the site functioned as intended, but that  potential customers were not involved in this testing. Moreover, after  developing the tool, FLC did not communicate with potential customers to  collect feedback from them consistent with leading practices regarding  the extent to which the tool met customers’ needs or how it might be  improved before implementing it. FLC faces challenges in its ability to more fully communicate with  potential customers to facilitate technology transfer from federal labs  without also engaging FLC’s agency and lab members. Representatives from some  other organizations that provide information on federal technology  transfer opportunities said they only have information about technology at  a small number of federal labs, and one organization said it charges  users or labs a fee for use of its tools. FLC Has Not Measured the Performance of Its Clearinghouse Initiatives

Although FLC collects some data related to the use of its clearinghouse  initiatives, it has not used performance goals and measures consistent  with federal agency leading practices to measure results and does not  have the information necessary to determine the extent to which its efforts  help achieve FLC’s overall strategic goals. FLC  also collects data on the general use of the Available Technologies tool,  such as the number of unique views of web pages and the average time  spent on a web page. initiatives, FLC has not established performance measures for these  initiatives that would help it assess the extent to which the initiatives are  achieving FLC’s goals of outreach and networking or how performance  might be improved. Officials from federal agencies told us that any improvements to FLC’s  initiatives based on customer feedback would require a significant  collaborative effort on the part of FLC and its agency and lab members,  given the relatively small size of FLC’s annual budget and available staff. By working  collaboratively with agency and lab members to collect feedback on its  web-based initiatives’ usefulness, FLC can take full advantage of its  members’ collective knowledge and expertise to better communicate with  potential customers consistent with federal internal control standards and  leading practices to determine those customers’ needs, enhancing the  clearinghouse initiatives in achieving their technology transfer goals. Without performance  measures, FLC cannot fully demonstrate in its annual report to Congress  its progress toward the achievement of its goals of outreach and  networking, limiting the information that the administration and Congress  receive on the effectiveness of FLC’s initiatives. Recommendations for Executive Action

To more effectively fulfill its expanded role in providing a clearinghouse of  information on available federal technology transfer opportunities, we  recommend that the Chair of FLC, in coordination with the other members  of the Executive Board, take the following four actions:
Work collaboratively with agency and lab members to take steps to  better communicate with potential customers during the design and  implementation of FLC’s clearinghouse initiatives, including  conducting customer needs assessments, conducting customer  testing of current and future web-based initiatives, and collecting  customer feedback on all FLC initiatives to make the initiatives more  useful.
Why GAO Did This Study

The federal government spends about one-third of its annual $145 billion research and development budget at hundreds of federal agency labs. Technology generated by this research may have application beyond agencies' immediate goals if commercialized by the private sector. For example, federal research has contributed to innovative products, including antibiotics and the Internet. FLC—a nationwide consortium of federal labs—helps labs transfer technology to the private sector. In recent years, FLC created new initiatives to provide a clearinghouse—a central point for collecting and disseminating information—for technology transfer opportunities.
GAO was asked to review FLC's efforts to provide information on technology transfer opportunities. This report assesses (1) the extent to which FLC has communicated with potential customers when designing and implementing its clearinghouse initiatives, and (2) how FLC measured the results of those initiatives. GAO reviewed relevant laws and FLC guidance, and interviewed a nonprobability sample of officials from four federal agencies with the highest research budgets, and a spectrum of eight customer groups, among others.

What GAO Found

The Federal Laboratory Consortium for Technology Transfer (FLC) has taken steps to communicate with potential customers, including small businesses and entrepreneurs, but has not obtained feedback from them to assess their needs when designing and implementing technology transfer clearinghouse initiatives. This resulted in missed opportunities to better meet potential customer needs. For example, in 2012, when developing a web-based search tool to help potential customers identify relevant federal technology transfer opportunities across federal laboratories (labs), FLC discussed how to implement the tool with its federal member labs and agencies. However, FLC did not assess the information needs of potential customers to ensure the tool would provide relevant information in a format that customers consider useful, as called for by leading practices and federal internal control standards on communicating with and obtaining information from stakeholders. FLC officials said they conducted testing to ensure the new website functioned as intended before launching it, but did not involve potential customers in these tests. Moreover, after developing the tool, FLC did not communicate with potential customers to collect feedback from them consistent with leading practices regarding the extent to which the tool met their needs or how it might be improved before implementing it. Potential customers of FLC's initiatives expressed concerns about the extent to which FLC's recent web-based search tool would meet their needs, specifically noting that the tool:
affords customers limited ability to compare technologies across labs; and
FLC faces challenges in communicating with potential customers without also engaging its agency and lab members, given the relatively small size of FLC's annual budget and available staff. By working collaboratively with agency and lab members to collect feedback, FLC can enlist their help in enhancing the information provided through its initiatives.
FLC collects data on the use of its clearinghouse initiatives but has not developed and used performance goals and measures consistent with federal agency leading practices. For example, FLC collects data on the general use of its clearinghouse initiatives, such as the number of technology transfer inquiries it receives, the number of unique views of its web pages, and the average time spent on a web page. However, FLC has not developed performance goals or measures related to the key strategic goals to which its clearinghouse initiatives contribute. Without performance measures, FLC is unable to determine whether its initiatives are having their desired effect or how their performance might be improved. FLC also cannot fully demonstrate in its annual report to Congress its progress toward the achievement of its relevant strategic goals, limiting the information that the administration and Congress receive on the effectiveness of FLC's initiatives.

What GAO Recommends

GAO recommends, among other things, that FLC work collaboratively with agency and lab members to increase communication with potential customers to obtain feedback and improve its clearinghouse initiatives, and develop performance measures. FLC generally agreed with the report's findings and recommendations.