September Special Focus: CalCharge

In preparation for its mid-October launch, CalCharge and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have completed work on their innovative Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) that is expected to become a national model for industry engagement with the national laboratories.

Energy storage innovators need cost-effective and clear pathways to access the expertise, facilities, and resources needed to accelerate the development and commercialization of their technologies. Through its Technology Assessment and Acceleration programs, CalCharge is forging a series of strategic relationships that will better leverage existing resources and dramatically expand access to the array of world-class research and testing facilities found in the national labs, universities, and other organizations in California.

Working with Berkeley Lab, CalCharge has finalized the first of these signature relationships. Through an extremely innovative and dramatically streamlined Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA), member companies will be able to access services, facilities and personnel at Berkeley Lab significantly faster, and at a lower expected cost, than through traditional bilaterally negotiated contracts.

Through this best-in-class CRADA, CalCharge members will be able to:

• Develop and commence a collaborative research project in a fraction of the time required to negotiate an individual company CRADA.
• Design smaller scale projects than would be cost effective through an individual company CRADA.
• Divide larger projects into tiered stages that can be conducted in rapid sequence.
• Designate intellectual property generated during the project as Protected CRADA information and prevent its public disclosure and publication.
• Obtain an exclusive license and/or title to any subject inventions developed during the cooperative research project

For more information on CalCharge and to request membership information when it becomes available, please email membership@calcharge.org