Initial Responses to the NAPA Recommendations

1. Initial Responses to the NAPA Recommendations PRELIMINARY Pre-decisional Planning Document Not for public dissemination

2. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT • The National Academy for Public Administration have provided a comprehensive set of recommendations, based on a thorough and painstaking review of the NASA technology transfer program. • We are grateful for the Academy’s work and will faithfully consider and respond to each of the recommendations. Indeed, we have already begun taking action to implement many of these recommendations. Pre-decisional Planning Document Not for public dissemination

3. Leadership Commitment • The NASA Administrator should support an agency-wide technology transfer effort by announcing to all employees that technology transfer is a core element of the agency’s mission that requires the attention and support of NASA’s leadership team, relevant program officials, and its major contractors. • This is already a matter of Agency policy, and both the Administrator and the Associate Administrator for Exploration Systems have and are publicly speaking of the role and importance of technology transfer in the NASA missions and programs. Pre-decisional Planning Document Not for public dissemination

4. Organizational Location • The headquarters technology transfer office and the programs under it should be relocated in the Office of the Administrator in order to give special emphasis to this agency-wide responsibility and to begin holding executives accountable for this function. • The re-location of the IPP to ESMD is an appropriate response, as it is now in the lead Mission Directorate for Agency transformation. Further, the program management have developed a plan for transforming the technology transfer program in consonance with the transformation of the Agency and the recommendations made by the NAPA. Pre-decisional Planning Document Not for public dissemination

5. Spin-in Responsibility • The associate administrators for each mission directorate, supported by the center directors and program heads in the centers, should be held responsible for making better use of technology outside NASA—both through acquisition and through partnerships—to meet the agency’s mission needs. • While we have begun the process of adapting to accomplishing spin-in, this responsibility will be further clarified during internal briefing with the Agency leadership. Further, we are engaged in re-designing the network of external agents, which will require adjustments to internal Agency responsibilities and operations. This is expected to flow outwards from the ESMD over time. Pre-decisional Planning Document Not for public dissemination

6. Spin-out Responsibility • NASA should make the center directors responsible for the spin-out aspects of technology transfer, with the understanding that center funds will support staffing and activities beyond those funded by headquarters. • While in the past we have not been aggressive in holding the center directors to their responsibility, we have taken steps to achieve the intent of this recommendation. One step has been the institution of formal agreements with each of the field centers, stipulating program performance and strengthening reporting requirements. This responsibility will be further clarified during internal briefing with the Agency leadership. Pre-decisional Planning Document Not for public dissemination

7. National Network • The national network should be reformulated and streamlined to provide a more effective vehicle for program implementation. • We have begun this process with the release of a Request for Information to industry, and are now planning the re-design for the role, scope, and responsibilities of the external network members and entities. This will be followed by a formal solicitation for proposals for converting the present network into one which will meet the criteria discussed in the NAPA report. Pre-decisional Planning Document Not for public dissemination

8. Information Technology • NASA should improve its websites to provide one, easy-to-use portal for all technology transfer activities. It should also develop an integrated information system to automate its business operations, using an upgraded NTTS as the base, and make it the standard means for information reporting and information management throughout NASA for technology transfer. • With the further re-alignment of the NTTS with the eGov and Agency IT policies, and consistent with the adoption of a bold vision for the NTTS, planning for improvements to NTTS are underway. These improvements will be vetted against ESMD standards, eGov and program requirements, and the needs of the re-designed external network. To this end, an IPP IT sub-team has been formed and will remain operative until this recommendation is fulfilled. Pre-decisional Planning Document Not for public dissemination

9. Intellectual Property • The headquarters IPP office, in cooperation with OGC, develop processing time performance standards for patent applications, licenses, and partnership agreements. • The implications of this recommendations will be studied at length. The establishing of a MOA with OGC is a first step, which will be followed by a review of shared functions and processes, identification of appropriate performance measures, and insuring that the NTTS accurately reflects performance. Pre-decisional Planning Document Not for public dissemination

10. Performance Measures • NASA should create a forceful system for evaluating its technology transfer efforts. • We believe there are three pieces to this: adoption of a balanced scorecard for performance evaluation; faithful adherence to the PART, under which OMB evaluates the program; and the automation of the annual DoC report, which Congress mandates. In addition, such measures as are adopted will form the basis for managing and evaluating performance of the program. Pre-decisional Planning Document Not for public dissemination