Army's ECBC engages commercial partner to drive economic growth

By RDECOM ReleaseApril 10, 2012

CRADA signing
Joseph Wienand, acting deputy director, U.S. Army Research, Development and Engineering Command, shares a light-hearted moment with attendees at the April 9 Cooperative Research and Development Agreement signing ceremony. Chris Silva, chief executive... (Photo Credit: U.S. Army) VIEW ORIGINAL

ABERDEEN PROVING GROUND, Md. -- The Edgewood Chemical Biological Center and Allied Minds Federal Innovations, Inc., entered into a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement, or CRADA, in an April 9 signing ceremony at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Md.

Allied Minds Federal Innovations, Inc., is a premiere private equity-funded innovation and technology commercialization company that forms, funds, manages and builds start-ups based on early-stage technology originating from U.S. federally funded research institutions. AMFI is expected to turn scientific breakthroughs into commercial products and then take them to market.

ECBC, an element of the U.S. Army's Research, Development and Engineering Command, supports all phases of the acquisition life cycle -- from basic research through technology development, engineering design, equipment evaluation, product support, sustainment, field operations and demilitarization -- to address unique customer requirements.

At the CRADA signing ceremony, moderator Debra Thedford, associate director, DPI, ECBC, introduced the key participants. Joseph Wienand, acting deputy director, RDECOM, Chris Silva, CEO, AMFI, and John Serafini, director of federal research program, AMFI, each provided short remarks to a small group of attendees from both organizations.

Wienand and Silva then signed the CRADA.

The agreement between ECBC and AMFI is a unique public-private partnership that directly responds to President Obama's October 2011 memorandum that challenges federal laboratories to use technology transfer as a driver for economic growth and the global competitiveness of U.S. industries.

The CRADA will facilitate collaborative research and development, or R&D, of new and existing intellectual property to produce viable dual-use and/or commercial products, services, technologies and spin-off companies from new inventions as well as background patents already developed by ECBC.

Together, ECBC and AMFI have selected Arthur Carrieri's Mueller Matrix technology, a chemical biological standoff detection method, as the initial R&D project to be developed based on ECBC background patents. Product development and commercialization sessions will be held to jointly discover, develop and commercialize subject inventions emerging from the research conducted.