Accelerating technology transfer: new relationships for academia, industry and government

The budget deficit, reduction in Defense spending and the lack of return in the "peace dividend" has resulted in reduced federal funding for research. A number of programs have attempted to remedy the problem, with the use of collaborative funding as one of the major solutions. However, within the medical research community, there continues to be a very long technology transfer cycle. By mimicking the processes of non-medical high technology research and employing a number of these innovative solutions to medical research could afford the pathway to success. A template of how this could be accomplished through cooperative efforts of academia, industry and government is presented by using examples of success and failure in the past.