Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA)
The CRADA is one of the principal mechanisms used by federal labs to engage in collaborative efforts with non-federal partners to achieve goals of technology transfer. It intended to be a flexible mechanism that can be adapted to a variety of types of collaborative efforts between federal and non-federal organizations and that can be implemented relatively easily within a relatively short time. As a technology transfer mechanism, the CRADA is an extremely useful tool in moving federally funded R&D into the private sector.
CRADAs can be utilized at Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) research facilities located at VA medical centers throughout the country. CRADAs establish the terms of sponsored collaborative research, generally with non-federal industry partnersand are specifically designed to protect the parties' prior inventions while allowing the government and private sector research partner(s) to negotiate management of any new discovery or intellectual property that may result from the collaboration.
CRADAs are governed by Title 15 Commerce and Trade, Chapter 63, Technology Innovation, Section 3710a Cooperative Research and Development Agreements. Related statutes are found in other parts of Title 15 and Title 35 Patents, Chapter 18, Patent Rights in Inventions Made with Federal Assistance. Selected statutes, regulations, VA policies and model VA CRADAs are accessible in the CRADA Resources section.
From the initial discussions between an investigator and a prospective collaborator through execution of a signed CRADA, coordination among various stakeholders is required. To facilitate this process, information of particular interest for each entity that may be involved in negotiating the CRADA has been collected in this section.
For more information contact the VA Technology Transfer Program staff.