Office of Technology Transfer (OTT)

The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) includes an Office of Technology Transfer (OTT), the establishment of which goes back to the 1980 Steven-Wydler Act. The OTT is responsible for facilitating the adoption of USDA research discoveries, which ultimately benefit farmers with new varieties that are disease, pest, and stress tolerant and produce higher yields. This provides broad public benefits, including public release of information, tools, and solutions (e.g. germplasm, plants and other materials), adoption and enhancement of research outcomes by partners through collaborative research, formal cooperative research and development agreements, direct Federal, state, or local technical assistance, or through licensing of biological materials or protected intellectual property directly to not-for-profit entities and for-profit private sector firms.