Research Joint Ventures — Atlas of Innovation

Definition

A research joint venture is a formal collaboration between a funder, usually a government agency, and an external research institution. Government agencies often formalize research joint ventures through agreements like Cooperative Research and Development Agreements (CRADAs). These ventures share resources, knowledge, and expertise to tackle shared scientific challenges or develop breakthrough technologies. Rather than providing direct funding, governments typically contribute in-kind resources, such as infrastructure, data, or personnel, which are matched with tools and funding from the research organization.

Why might a research joint venture be the right funding approach?

Research joint ventures are most effective when working on innovation challenges that benefit from government resources and the complementary expertise of both the public sector and external researchers.

Joint ventures are best suited for innovations that exhibit one or more of the following characteristics:

Complex projects that require shared expertise and infrastructure: Government labs often hold unique resources like specialized technical infrastructure, expertise, or datasets. Research institutions often bring funding, talent, and access to cutting-edge methods. By combining these assets, joint ventures enable research that neither party could achieve as effectively alone.
Public-private knowledge and technology transfer: Government involvement enables the structured transfer of government-developed innovations to the private sector and academic communities. The collaborative structure ensures reciprocal learning during the project’s development and allows for residual benefits, even if a single project fails.
Strong complementarities between public-private stakeholders: Collaborative ventures are most successful when both partners bring unique contributions to the table, such as government-owned supercomputing resources paired with academia-led AI algorithm research.

Joint ventures offer important advantages over other funding mechanisms:

Improved coordination: Joint ventures can help facilitate knowledge transfer and data-sharing and can prevent duplicative R&D efforts. By formalizing partnerships, joint ventures can ensure that public-sector goals directly inform private-sector or academic research.
No cash commitment required: Research joint ventures are especially useful in situations where the government faces fiscal constraints. In-kind contributions eliminate the need for agencies to identify funds while still providing them substantive engagement in innovation efforts.
Deep collaboration enables tailored problem-solving: Unlike funding mechanisms that keep government involvement at an arm’s length, a joint-venture structure enables shared governance and decision-making. This ensures regular, meaningful engagement between public R&D teams and external collaborators.

What can go wrong?

While joint ventures offer significant advantages in some settings, several challenges can undermine their effectiveness if not properly managed:

Complex governance structures: Governance of shared resources and joint responsibility often results in slow decision-making, particularly when operational structures lack clear hierarchies or resolution protocols.
Intellectual property (IP) negotiations: Disputes over IP rights, arising from unclear agreements on licensing, royalties, or patent ownership, may stymie progress or dissuade private-sector participation.
Misaligned priorities and accountability risks: Conflicting goals for external researchers and public stakeholders could hinder progress. For example, private sector teams may prioritize shorter-term benefits relative to government partners.

Policymakers can mitigate these challenges by pre-defining roles, responsibilities, and conflict-resolution frameworks in the collaboration agreement to prevent governance bottlenecks, including by: using established IP templates such as those found in CRADAs, enforcing alignment reviews, incorporating project milestones, and setting explicit performance metrics.

Examples

Research joint ventures are used across agencies to combine federal resources with outside expertise. US government agencies commonly structure these partnerships through CRADAs. Examples include:

Satellite collision avoidance (NOAA - SpaceX): The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) worked with SpaceX under a CRADA to improve coordination on automated collision avoidance and satellite conjunction assessment screenings. The CRADA enables NOAA to evaluate the company’s software without direct funding and while protecting SpaceX’s IP.
Decarbonization technology (Argonne National Laboratory - Constellation Energy): In September 2022, the Argonne National Laboratory and Constellation Energy signed a CRADA to accelerate innovation in carbon-free power. This collaboration reduces costs for the government lab, provides potential benefits to the company, and ensures clear IP terms for both sides. For example, early efforts include using Constellation’s nuclear energy generation to produce hydrogen via electrolysis, with an aim to decarbonize hard-to-abate sectors such as heavy transportation and backup power. Argonne gains access to Constellation’s nuclear power, allowing it to perform research without building its own infrastructure. In return, Constellation benefits from Argonne’s research, since it could illuminate future markets for Constellation.
Open space science (NASA - various researchers): NASA’s Science Mission Directorate partners with universities and external researchers through CRADAs, such as the CubeSat Launch Initiative, which helps launch university-built satellites. These missions collect data that is used to improve agricultural practices, monitor air quality, and support other research. The CRADA lets NASA advance research by sharing launch resources and expertise instead of providing direct funding, as would be typical of a contract or grant. The agreement also sets clear terms for data sharing and IP, ensuring researchers publish findings for NASA and the public to use.

Research joint ventures represent a middle path between fully in-house research and more arm’s-length funding models. Depending on the level of government engagement and control desired, policymakers can push research outward through grants to external researchers at universities and non-profits or pull it inward to intramural science at federal labs. Joint ventures sit between these extremes.

Coordinated research programs: Like coordinated research programs, research joint ventures can involve coordination across government, academia, and the private sector. However, coordinated research programs involve one lead program manager for a specific program, whereas research joint ventures require broader shared oversight.
Research grants: Grants provide funding to external researchers — often in academia or non-profit institutions — to advance projects with scientific or societal relevance. While they are typically executed independently of the government, grants can still be targeted toward specific public priorities through topic-specific solicitations or program design.
Intramural science: Conducted entirely within government institutions, intramural science is ideal for sensitive, infrastructure-heavy, or long-horizon projects. It offers the highest degree of public control but can face challenges with accountability and recruitment.

Definition

Why might a research joint venture be the right funding approach?

What can go wrong?

Examples

Related funding approaches

Further reading