How does innovation work within the developmental network state? New data on public-private agreements in a U.S. Department of Energy laboratory

Abstract

Abstract The value of the Department of Energy (DOE)-owned national laboratories to the U.S. national innovation system has long been a subject of debate. Advocates have drawn attention to the central role of the labs in the development of technologies including advanced batteries, solar energy breakthroughs, imaging technologies, and various IT endeavors, among others. Critics have recurrently suggested that the labs’ innovative capacities have been undermined by a lack of engagement with commercial firms and managerial tactics. Perhaps surprisingly, what has often been missing from the debate is a thorough review of data on the public-private partnerships in which the labs engage with private firms. This paper draws on heretofore non-public data on one type of contractual arrangement - Work-For-Others (WFO) agreements - in which the labs perform contract work for private firms. We review 10 years of WFO data for a single DOE laboratory. Our analysis provides an initial picture of the surprisingly diverse geography and array of firms that employed the labs as contract R&D providers, as well as of key characteristics of these agreements. Although our data capture only a single laboratory’s agreements, the findings reinforce the importance of looking at the complex, overlapping network of programs within the U.S. federal system that support private sector innovation.