The Bay Area has an embarrassment of riches in many ways, and among these are its four national laboratories: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, and Sandia National Laboratories. Having four powerhouse labs at their door can be overwhelming to companies looking to collaborate with national labs. Which labs conduct research in their areas of interest? Should they reach out to one, or all four?
Fortunately, the proximity of these laboratories also offers opportunities for them to collaborate. In 2019, the four labs jointly submitted a proposal to DOE’s Office of Technology Transitions (OTT) to build awareness and develop partnerships with local industry and start-ups. The collaboration initiative grew into the Lab Innovation Networking Center (LINC), which now works to streamline the connections between the four Bay Area labs and industry. Ultimately, the goal was to accelerate industry connections and collaborations with the labs and to help improve products, start new companies, and drive industry innovation. Todd Pray, Berkeley Lab’s Chief Strategic Partnerships Officer, was elected to lead the Lab’s participation in LINC.
On January 28 of this year, LINC hosted its first event, a virtual webinar titled “Open the Door to Innovation,” for startups and small businesses, featuring all four labs. Dan Krotz and Kelly Owen from the Strategic Communications team supported outreach and helped get the word out to local businesses, as did the other labs and FedTech, which helped organize the event. Berkeley Lab speakers included Horst Simon, Berkeley Lab’s Deputy Director for Research, Noel Bahktian, Executive Director of the Lab’s Energy Storage Center, and Todd Pray.
The event was a rousing success. It was attended by more than 600 participants. The Q&A chat box brimmed over with questions from companies and responses from lab representatives (there were 192 posts during the two-hour event). A post-event survey indicated that, following the event, attendees were 38 percent more likely to pursue a partnership with a national lab.
“Thanks to the great presentations by our speakers and engagement of the many Berkeley Lab attendees who responded to many questions posed by industry, it was a valuable experience for us,” said Todd.
In the words of one survey respondent, “This event opened up massive possibilities for us in terms of collaborations with fed labs.”
Given high interest among attendees in future LINC events, additional events are in the works for this spring and fall. For more information, contact Todd Pray at SPO.