NASA Glenn actively promotes partnerships between industry, academia, and other government agencies to work cooperatively with its researchers to develop products based on Glenn technology and/or to solve NASA technological needs. Partnerships also are formed when making Glenn facilities available to outside users.

We at NASA Glenn have worked hard at making the process of working with us streamlined. The graphic to the right shows the process.

External organizations can work with Glenn leveraging our:

• Intellectual Property (IP)
• Research, Development, Test & Evaluation (RDT&E) Services
• Facilities Test Services(FTS)
• Subject Matter Expert (SME) Services

› Partnering opportunity sectors

Common Vehicles for working with Glenn

Space Act Agreements
The Space Act Agreement (SAA) is the most common mechanism for partnering with NASA. These agreements are very similar to the Cooperative Research and Development Agreements offered by other government agencies, but are based on NASA’s enabling legislation. Space Act Agreements can be nonreimbursable or reimbursable. These agreements can cover access to research and testing facilities, to SMEs, or to RDT&E services. A SAA includes a defined Statement of Work which lays out out who will do what and when, including milestones. In these agreements the intellectual property rights and data rights are determined upfront. SAAs come in two types.

Nonreimbursable SAAs are collaborative agreements in which NASA and another party each contribute resources. These resources can include personnel, facilities, expertise, equipment or technology—with no transfer of funds. Each party agrees to fund its own participation in the activity for their mutual benefit. Reimbursable SAAs involve the payment of funds to NASA in exchange for the use of NASA resources—personnel, facilities, expertise, equipment or technology. The terms, conditions and schedules are negotiable, but NASA must be paid in advance for each stage of the effort. The SAA can be used with a wide-range of partner types.

Licenses
Licenses provide you with access (exclusively or non-exclusively) to NASA inventions for commercialization purposes. NASA is tasked with helping industry benefit from their inventions by widely disseminating the technologies for scientific, academic, industrial, and commercial use. In order to protect the Government’s interests, the technologies are patented, marketed, and licensed to industry partners for commercial applications.

The licenses can come in many different types with regard to exclusivity. As expected, requests for exclusivity come with some additional requirements—such as posting on the Federal Register. Many of Glenn’s patents and patent applications are available for licensing and can be found on the Innovation Projects Available Technologies (link opens new browser window) page. The IPO Web site provides you access to the technologies, templates for Parts I and II of the License application, a sample Pro Forma Income Statement, as well as a FAQ section.
› Find out more about licensing (link opens new browser window)

Software Usage Agreements
Software Usage Agreements provide access to NASA software. Depending on the stage of development and NASA mission-related goals, software usage agreements are used for:

• Beta-testing software
• Delivering software to partners who have existing grants, contracts, cooperative agreements, and space act agreements
• For use of the software by other federal agencies, commercial entities, and academia

Glenn provides details about their software in their Software Catalog (link opens new browser window). In this catalog, you can search by keyword or specific software titles. You can then electronically request access to that software. The SUA is used for any type of organization.