TADAC Program
NISTAC's network-based national expansion was prompted in part by its highly successful Technology Acquisition, Development and Commercialization (TADAC) Program. In essence, the TADAC program transfers technologies from large corporate urban environments into rural and other regions for economic gain there.
In 1998, TADAC was initiated as a pilot program, co-sponsored by KTEC and K-State, to acquire and deploy dormant and under-utilized technologies from large corporations. The underlying goal was to unleash the national security and regional economic benefits to be found in the unused portions of the patent portfolios of large corporations.
Historically, the Bayh-Dole Act of 1980 has provided a huge stimulus for the patenting and licensing of technologies developed by federally funded research at universities. According to survey data compiled by the Association of University Technology Managers (AUTM), this Act enabled the creation of many new companies and the generation of more than a billion dollars in annual royalties to help support institutional missions. Although it took some time to develop, this success suggests that tapping into unused corporate technologies could generate even greater economic benefits.
Because corporate technologies are developed through market-focused, applied research, they therefore should be much closer to market than technologies developed out of basic research by universities and other not-for-profit institutions. This in turn suggests that corporate technologies generally should be able to be moved to market more quickly than university-derived ones. NISTAC's experience suggests that can be true, in at least some instances. Specifically, NanoScale Materials, Inc., the first company institutionally founded to commercialize technologies developed out of research in K-State, required about eight years to develop and market-introduce its first product line. In contrast, NutriJoy, Inc., the first company founded to commercialize donated technologies, market-introduced its first line of products in less than two years.
Under the TADAC Program through 2004, NISTAC acquired a substantial portfolio of nearly 1000 donated patents and patent applications via over 50 received donations. Although in a few instances, NISTAC targeted and solicited donations of specific technologies to address important identified needs, the donations were primarily acquired through unsolicited offers. As a result of its screening process, NISTAC accepted only about 30% of the technologies being offered to it for donation. In some instances, donations were rejected because the resources to fully develop them were not available in Kansas, and that led to consideration of an out-reach effort to access needed resources in other states through cooperation with other not-for-profit institutions.