Policy and Legislative Analysis

The OTT Division of Policy Staff represents the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) both internally and externally on intellectual property and technology transfer issues affecting recipients of NIH funds. This function involves several key responsibilities.

First, the Division provides NIH administrators, scientists and funding recipients with technical assistance to implement policies and regulations and to assist resolving unique and multifaceted technology transfer problems.

An additional responsibility for the policy staff includes making determinations on behalf of the NIH, such as requests to:

• Waive rights to a grantee/contractor invention subject invention to the inventor
• Waive the United States manufacturing requirement
• Assign title to a grantee/contractor invention to third parties

The policy staff also conducts studies in order to improve the management of technology transfer activities by both NIH and external staff. This includes conducting evaluations and on-site visits.