Research and development agreements between businesses, Sandia Labs reach highest level in three decades

Jason Martinez recalled when Sandia National Laboratories entered into a research and development agreement eight years ago with the San Francisco-based charter tour company Red and White Fleet to investigate the feasibility of running a ferry solely powered by hydrogen fuel cells.

“That one always hits home because it’s tangible,” said Martinez, a business development specialist with Sandia. “It’s not some esoteric piece of science or engineering that is out there.”

Sandia has done this work with hundreds of companies over the decades through Cooperative Research and Development Agreements, or CRADAs, in an effort to jointly develop new technologies using one another’s expertise.

This past fiscal year, which ran from October 2023 through September, Sandia entered 72 CRADAs — its second-highest number ever.

“There’s a lot of great human capital at Sandia National Laboratories,” Martinez said. “And the CRADAs are essentially the gateway … between all the government capabilities and the human capital we have, and the outside world.”

The spike in CRADAs in fiscal year 2024 is part of a post-COVID rebound — more businesses having available liquidity and more frequently connecting with Sandia employees at conferences —and as the U.S. Department of Energy has kickstarted new funding opportunities.

Martinez said CRADAs, developed through the Stevenson-Wydler Technology Innovation Act of 1980, “run a wide spectrum” at Sandia that includes renewables, defense-related applications and bio spaces.

Sandia is currently in agreement with Goodyear, sharing its expertise and resources to study how noisy a tire will be on the road before any physical testing. Sandia is also working with others to explore the use of microneedles in medical applications.

CRADAs are primarily for non-federal entities, and the recent uptick in agreements follows efforts to remove barriers to entry, Martinez said.

Typically, businesses have to be approved by the DOE, which “kind of adds to the time,” Martinez said. However, the labs can identify certain low-risk opportunities that can speed up that process.

“If it’s across the board low risk, then those types of CRADAs do not have to go to the field office for approval, and it reduces time to execution,” he said.

CRADAs must also have in-kind contributions from businesses looking to partner with Sandia. The business provides labor resources. In some cases, companies also respond to solicitations for federal funding, which then goes to Sandia to “work with these folks under CRADAs.”

“So what we’re doing, in fact, is, yes, we’re working on it, and so are they,” Martinez said. “But then we’re getting the benefit of having the insight and the added resources that companies bring as well.”

The partnership between Sandia and businesses has so far proven successful.

Two studies commissioned by the National Nuclear Security Administration — under the purview of the DOE — and Sandia show that CRADAs and patent license agreements between 2000 and 2023 had an economic impact of $140 billion and 600,000 jobs. Sandia also had the third-highest number of CRADAs in the DOE enterprise during that period.

The 72 CRADAs reached in FY24 surpassed the previous second-highest number set in fiscal year 1993 of 68 and only trails 1994’s 84. It is also higher than the last four fiscal years — 2020 through 2023 — which ranged between a low of 34 to a high of 50.

Martinez isn’t sure if the recent increase in CRADAs will continue. But he is hopeful.

“We’re going to have the same processes, the same attitudes, as far as collaboration,” Martinez said. “And so we’re looking forward to continuing an uptick, and we’ll have to see what this new year brings us.”