Significant expansion of cooperation with State-level programs; ●Initiation of a diversified approach to the marketing of technology transfer and cooperation to the private and public sectors, through presentations, publications, personal contact, and through professional and trade associations; • Completion of a strategic planning process, which has led to a strengthened Consortium Committee structure and positions the Consortium to support all national efforts; and • Increased activity in the six Consortium geographic regions, including the naming of advisors from the client communities. The Consortium's greatest strengths are: ●The dedicated efforts of individual Representatives acting for their laboratories and Agencies; A highly flexible organization that can seize rapidly on new opportunities; The Consortium Representatives' breadth of contacts - geographically, professionally and personally; and • Association with the Federal Government's massive research and development resources. The greatest barriers to fuller public and private sector utilization of the nation's Federal laboratory assets are organizational cultures and individual attitudes; but these provincial tendencies are abating. The Consortium is very optimistic that technology based cooperation among its members and industry, the State and local sectors, and academe will demonstrate escalating benefits to our society. The FLC leadership, its committee membership and its Agency Liaison Group are listed in Appendix II. Reported by: Cagene E Stark, Dr. Eugene E. Stark, Jr. Chairman NATIONAL INITIATIVES WITH THE PRIVATE AND PUBLIC SECTORS INTRODUCTION: The Federal Laboratory Consortium initiates national programs that are beyond the scope of individual laboratories or agencies. In most of these initiatives, the Consortium represents the broad resources necessary for substantial progress. Another approach with nationwide impact is monitoring the success of individual laboratory initiatives and facilitating their rapid replication. INDUSTRY: The larger companies have ample resources and wide interests that can facilitate a broad range of long-term relationships with the Federal laboratories. The strategy for developing this opportunity is to approach individual companies and their trade associations directly at both executive and technical levels. The Consortium was approached by the Industrial Research Institute (IRI) with the compelling need for linking American industry with the government's manufacturing technology programs. The result was a national conference cosponsored by the Consortium and the IRI, hosted by the Wright Aeronautical Laboratory. The conference focused on computer-integrated manufacturing, with presentations by representatives of the three military services, the National Bureau of Standards, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the Department of Energy. There were representatives from State and local based programs, academe and from more than fifty American companies who overwhelmingly rated this conference extremely valuable in forging relationships with the government technology programs. They also indicated a strong interest in similarlyfocused initiatives in other areas of manufacturing technology. Since 1982, the FLC has sponsored a series of eight intensive Technology Transfer Conferences designed to spark industrial interactions with participating Federal laboratories. In 1987, twelve Federal labs presented some of their newest and most promising technologies to representatives of 39 major companies. The practical one-on-one sessions built into each program have led to substantive collaborations. The next conference in this series is scheduled for December in Atlanta. A similar conference, sponsored by the Association for Chemical Technology Transfer, was organized by the representative from the Food and Drug Administration's National Center for Toxicological Research. At that meeting seven Federal laboratories met with 27 interested technical representatives from the chemical industry. To support the July, 1987 White House Conference on Applications of Superconductivity, the Consortium compiled a description of laboratory activities in this area. The document was in high demand at the Conference and has since been widely disseminated. The Consortium has recently begun approaching corporate CEOs individually to help develop top-level support and encouragement for cooperation with Federal laboratories. The test case went well and encouraged the Consortium and industry representatives to expand this effort. The Consortium's Washington Representative organized a subcommittee of the Industrial Research Institute (IRI) to increase interactions with industry. Marketing the concept of cooperation was identified as the central challenge. Important committee suggestions include a recently published document on laboratory technology transfer successes, and an industry survey that will be conducted soon by the IRI. SMALL BUSINESS: The importance of small business to the nation's competitive position and job creation is well understood. The diverse and disaggregated nature of the small business community poses a unique challenge in developing national initiatives. Our approach has focused on working with State-level programs, participating in government innovation workshops, and replicating the successful experience of individual laboratories. Recently the Consortium has expanded upon this approach by activating the Small Business Subcommittee to develop and coordinate small business programming on both regional and national levels. The Consortium continues to share resources and work with the Ohio Technology Transfer Organization. This experience has enabled us to make contributions to other emerging programs in other States. A recent example is the formation of Centers for Innovative Technology at the community colleges in Virginia. The Consortium assisted in training the directors of these new Centers, specifically on Federal laboratories as a resource. The Consortium's Clearinghouse has been particularly valuable to small businesses having specific technical needs but who are unsure of which laboratory to contact. The Clearinghouse is described later under "Strengthening Technology Transfer." Consortium representatives participated in the National Science Foundation's Federal High Technology Conferences that promote participation in the Small Business Innovative Research program. As a result, more small businesses are seeking cooperation with Federal laboratories in planning and executing their research. The Consortium has recently agreed to work with the Oklahoma State Department of Vocational and Technical Education (VOTECH) in a program linking Federal laboratories to small businesses within Oklahoma. Orientation of the VOTECH field staff to Consortium network resources is planned prior to laboratory presentations in iden |