Apr. 14—Sandia National Laboratories is not just science. It's business, too. It's business that has an important role in the regional and national economy.

Although known primarily for research into nuclear science, Sandia has a broad range of science and tech experimentation and innovation. Along with other Department of Energy labs, it also has a legal mandate to share advances with the public.

U.S. law states: "It is the continuing responsibility of the Federal Government to ensure the full use of the results of the Nation's Federal investment in research and development. To this end the Federal Government shall strive where appropriate to transfer federally owned or originated technology to State and local governments and to the private sector."

These inventions cover a wide spectrum, including electronics, advanced materials, semiconductors and various computer-related technologies, including cybersecurity and artificial intelligence.

That makes the Department of Energy a major engine of innovation in the United States. DOE's 17 national laboratories surpass all federal agencies in invention disclosures, patent applications and issued patents.

Sandia itself has been recognized as a leader among Department of Energy laboratories.

Sandia's Deputy Labs Director and Chief Operating Office David Gibson laid out some of reasons for that success at a recent news conference.

"The results of a recent study that looks at the economic impact from technology transfer and development over the last 20 years shows we have had an impact of over $140 billion over that time frame," Gibson said. "Within that $140 billion are $72.2 billion in product sales, $22.52 billion in new product sales to government, $14.1 billion in new tax revenue created and over 607,000 new jobs created."

Sandia's analysis estimated federal, state and local governments collected $9.9 billion in taxes during that time period.

That included $6.4 billion in total federal taxes and $3.5 billion in total state and local tax revenues. In sum, Sandia's analysis found, for every dollar of direct sales generated through all agreements, 30 cents was collected in taxes by federal, state and local governments.

Gibson said although Sandia's core mission is to ensure that the U.S. nuclear stockpile is safe, secure and reliable, its mission is also to solve complex national security problems through innovation and discovery. To do that, discoveries can't just sit on lab shelves and gather dust. If appropriate, they are commercialized by private entities.

Commercialization

Mary Monson, Sandia's senior manager of technology partnerships and business development, said her team's focus is centered on innovation and getting lab-developed technologies into the private sector and contribute to strengthening the local, regional and national economies.

"Two ways we do that," Monson said, "through Cooperative Research and Development Agreements or CRADAs and Patent License Agreements or PLAs. CRADAs enable labs to collaborate with external parties to jointly develop technologies and leverage each other's expertise and resources. PLAs give licensees and typically for-profit companies the rights to make, use and sell lab-owned inventions."

The study of Sandia's economic impact looked at the output of those CRADAs and PLAs between 2000 and 2020, examining how they translated into product sales, tax revenue and job creation. The analysis quantified the national economic impact of technology transfer agreements established by Sandia.

Sales resulting from various agreements and their ripple effects supported job growth. On average, the analysis found, an estimated 20,689 jobs were supported annually between 2000 and 2020, the 21-year period in which this study evaluated economic outcomes and impacts.

Goodyear

The longest-running business partnership Sandia's had is with The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co.

"In the early 1990s the tire company turned to Sandia for our expertise in advanced help in improving tire performance," Monson said. "All these years later that partnership continues and remains strong."

Michael Skroch, Sandia's manager of simulation modeling sciences, is the liaison for the Goodyear/Sandia CRADA.

"We often fail to realize the complexity of tires," he said. "They're very complex. We and our families rely upon the safety of these tires every day. Our economy also relies on these tires every day. And the Goodyear partnership enables that."

The partnership has worked recently on developing a quieter tire. Its also led to past development of the Assurance TripleTred, and all-weather tire launched in 2004.

One of the engineering approaches is to test tires by simulating road conditions, the proverbial rubber hitting the road. Sandia and Goodyear developed a virtual way to show a tire's performance using a virtual test machine to simulate road conditions. The Virtual Flat Trac reduces the need to test actual tires on Goodyear's own machines in other locations.

According to Sandia, The Virtual Flat Trac was developed using Sandia's Sierra suite of analysis codes, said Vicki Porter, the labs' Goodyear technology liaison.

According to Sandia, Sierra is Sandia's engineering mechanics simulation code suite, which is used to predict the performance of a weapon system in normal operation as well as the response of a system in abnormal environments, such as a crash or fire. For tire engineering, designers enter the tire's geometry, material composition, inflation and tread pattern, along with the vehicle load on the tire. They then predict things like the temperature of the tire, road noise and how it feels for the driver holding the steering wheel during cornering and at various speeds.

While the agreement to work with Goodyear is Sandia's longest running CRADA, tires are just one example of the labs' technologies and capabilities that can be used for automotive applications.

Such work includes reducing emissions through improved combustion science and fuels, more efficient ducted fuel injection, increasing battery storage safety and efficiency at the Battery Abuse Testing Laboratory, improving lithium battery performance for electric vehicles, advancing material and coating technology and developing hydrogen and fuel cell technologies critical for realizing a clean and secure energy future.

Sandia and Public Service Company of New Mexico formalized a CRADA in 2020 to help PNM develop a more resilient, clean electric grid and to meet carbon emissions targets by 2040.

"The partnership is developing new analytical approaches and technologies to help PNM use both distributed and centralized sources for clean energy," Monson said. "Sandia and PNM are testing storage options like batteries, thermal storage and hydrogen in real world scenarios."

Local startups

Kelli Howie, Sandia manager of business development, said the lab's DOE Boost Platform, led by Sandia and partner FedTech, has resulted in partnerships across the United States and closer to home. The goal is to bring national labs, startups, academia and entrepreneurs together to find solutions to community-based energy challenges, especially in rural areas.

"Starting in 2024, we have worked with over 15 communities across the United States and here in New Mexico," Howie said, naming Gridflow, based in Albuquerque, which is focused on grid energy storage."They've licensed the technology, moved into Sandia Science and Tech Park ... and are pursuing several sources of non-dilutive funding.

Howie added: "Also Clean Aqua Solutions, based in Santa Fe, they're using a Sandia technology to address water filtration and treatment. They're working with the Santa Fe Community College ... and currently are working at the labs to license this technology."

An example of an Albuquerque-based startup that has grown out of a Sandia partnership is Advanced hCMOS Systems. The company designs ultrafast cameras of sorts that enable scientists to make measurements previously thought impossible. The company was founded by former Sandia engineers Liam Claus and Marcos Sanchez.

"We developed some ultra high speed imaging sensors while we were at Sandia," Sanchez said last week. "They're being used at Sandia, they're being used at National Ignition Facility at Lawrence Livermore labs, used at the Stanford Linear Accelerator (in fusion research) ... and so we are commercializing that technology now to basically expand who can get access to this technology and making it more accessible to universities and maybe private companies."

And there's even an application to create better cellphone glass with the technology.

"It's what kind of applications use this speed of imaging," Sanchez said. "Our imagers — the shutter speeds on them are like a nanosecond. ... The way glass breaks, the crack propagation in glass is actually one of the areas that uses these high-speed imagers to be able to see when glass is cracking, how is that crack actually being formed in the crystal structure of the glass."

Sanchez said they're also medical applications, military applications and combustion research that could benefit from the technology.

How to get involved

Sanchez has some advice for other tech entrepreneurs looking to go big.

"If there are other companies who want to get involved and have partnerships with the laboratories," Sanchez said, "there's actually a program called TRGR, a state sponsored program from our gross receipts tax dollars, where companies can apply to it, and if they're selected, funding gets sent to the laboratories for a project to be done by the laboratory and all their great facilities that would help a small business.

Sanchez said Sandia has a board array of technologies that could be licensed.

"So if there's a company that is interested in that, they just have to call the Sandia business development hotline and they will give them a list of all the different technologies that are available to be licensed," Sanchez said. "They can have access to experts at the lab to help them develop that technology."

Sandia Labs COO Gibson summed up the work of the labs to partner with private entities and commercialize products and inventions

"Through these partnerships, this work can affect everyday lives," he said.