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Cooperative Research and Development Agreement
A
Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA)
is a legal agreement
between a government entity and one
or more non-government parties, such as private industry
and academia. CRADAs offer both parties an opportunity to
leverage each other’s resources when conducting mutually
beneficial research and development (R&D).
Both
parties share the risks and benefits of collaborative R&D by working together. The goal of a USJFCOM CRADA
is to create a partnership that accelerates R&D efforts
to meet joint warfighting capability requirements.
A CRADA provides unique opportunities for each party. They
can conduct personnel exchange or share facilities, equipment
and other resources. USJFCOM can and does provide a variety
of resources to CRADAs, but federal law prohibits the payment
of government funds to any non-federal partner.
USJFCOM can execute CRADAs in a short period of time and
can easily renew or modify them as appropriate. The government
can grant the collaborating party patent licenses on any
invention made in whole or in part by the laboratory under
the agreement.
In
all cases the government retains a non-exclusive, non-transferable,
irrevocable, paid-up license to use inventions
developed. The parties may treat any data or information
developed under the agreement as proprietary for up to
five years.
Interested
parties should contact USJFCOM’s Office
of Research & Technology Applications (ORTA). The ORTA
will ask for a brief written abstract of the research proposal,
which will form the basis for a CRADA research plan.
The
ORTA will use the abstract to find the best partnering
match
to a research partner within the command. Once the
ORTA identifies a match, it will facilitate a session to
develop the research plan. Research plans identify the R&D
content of a CRADA and specify objectives, tasks, activities,
deliverables and schedules. They also identify what resources
each party will contribute.
A CRADA consists of the completed research plan and a fairly
standard legal section that provides language to specify
the responsibilities of the collaborators and to protect
software, data, and intellectual property. It also addresses
the duration and effective date of the CRADA and specifies
how to handle modifications, disputes and termination. CRADAs
can have durations ranging from months to years.
While
a CRADA is a contract, it is not a part of the government’s
acquisition and procurement process. Federal acquisition
regulations do not apply. A CRADA is effective when both
parties sign the written agreement.
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