The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) announced new partnerships with two organizations through its Partnership Intermediary Agreement Program.
The program was established to leverage the specialized skills of its partners and intermediaries to advance technology transfer and commercialization.
One of the new partnerships is with RTI International (RTI), a nonprofit research and technical services organization based in North Carolina with the capabilities to provide bidirectional transfer of knowledge, resources, and technologies. Through RTI, S&T can tap into its existing relationships with the Southeast Region of the U.S. technology-based economic organizations, start-up accelerators, and industry. RTI will assist DHS S&T by actively marketing DHS-funded technologies and IP to find partners to license and commercialize inventions in the Southeast Region. RTI will also help train entrepreneurs and researchers on start-up methodologies to identify and pitch their innovations to investors; evaluate the DHS innovation ecosystem, identifying best practices to spur growth; and host events to showcase select DHS technologies and accelerate technology transfer commercialization efforts.
The other new partnership is with the non-profit New York State Technology Enterprise Corporation (NYSTEC) to leverage its extensive public safety network of state and local law enforcement and transit authorities within the Northeast Region. NYSTEC will assist DHS S&T with its technology transfer and commercialization functions by identifying new technologies, conducting industry outreach related to DHS technology portfolios, and providing start-up development support through their IgniteU accelerator.