Hidden Gem: The Federal Laboratories at Naval Base Ventura County

By my count, I've shared six posts about 'hidden gems' in the Ventura County region. They all involve the Navy installation in the County. I promise that I'll edge out of the military sector soon, but frankly this is my wheelhouse right now. Today, I'm going to circle back around on NAVFAC, NSWD-PHD, and NAWC-WD at a slightly higher level to amplify a motivation for writing this 'hidden gem' series.

The purpose of this series is to show how our region is rich in human, technology, cultural, and natural resources that we can leverage together for regional Good. In this post, I want to highlight ways that the Navy helps its neighbors leverage the resources of its bases and commands.

Each of the three Navy commands I've written about (NAVFAC, NAWC-WD, NWSC-PHD) have distinct missions in the Navy, yet they are all united by the fact that each is recognized as a federal Science and Technology Reinvention Laboratory. Title 10 of the U.S. Code, Section 4121 gives these laboratories special privileges that other naval commands don't have. Some of those privileges are bureaucratically obtuse to me, and I won't explore them. Others deserve attention here.

The federal code gives these laboratories agency to conduct research that supports their mission, to engage in technology transfer work (to and from the private sector), and engage in workforce development that feeds the needs of the laboratories to recruit and retain scientific and engineering talent.

To do all this, these laboratories are given special tools for this that you need to know about. They are:

• Cooperative Research and Development Agreements (CRADAs): allows a laboratory to collaborate with an indutry partner via resource sharing and the development of shared intellectual property;
• Partnership Intermediary Agreements (PIAs): an agreement with an economic development or non-profit agency that provides for the laboratory solution sourcing, outreach events, and community management in the context of the laboratory's mission and technology needs; and,
• Education Partnership Agreements (EPAs): establishes a pathway for Navy collaboration with an institution of higher education for STEM and business career pathways and research, leveraging university expertise and facilities for research and workforce development.

Another tool available to the Navy (even if a Science and Technology Reinvention Laboratory is not involved) is the Commercial Service Agreement (CSA). A CSA allows a non-defense entity to rent access to a Navy resource. Suppose a company (or municipality or academic institution) is developing a technology that would benefit from access to a Navy command's facility that has no civilian commerical counterpart. That company could enter into a CSA with that command to buy access that facility for the purpose of developing its product.

Naval Base Ventura County is the only Navy base in the world that is home to three federal laboratories. Together, these labs offer the region technology resources available nowhere else on the globe: a vast controlled ocean test range, a vast aerial test range in the Mojave, the largest drone ship in the world, expertise in autonomous systems, a deep water port, diverse civilian engineering expertise, climate change experts, a myriad of employment opportunities, etc. All this is in our backyard, hidden behind an opaque Department of Defense fenceline that I hope I've been able to breach in these post. These resources can be leveraged by our community to strengthen our local economy and hone our workforce to attract business and industry. How do we do it? Who is going to do it? These are very good questions.

Let me know if you have any questions about the federal laboratories and the privileges that let regional partners leverage laboratories for regional Good. If you have pointers for non-military 'gems' in the region, let me know about them.

In the meantime, let me know if you have any questions about NAWC-WD. Drop them in the comments. And if you know of a hidden gem in the area you think people should know about, do the same. If you want to see a version of this post with hyperlins for some of the content, you can find one at https://www.jasonemiller.org.

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