The NOAA Technology Partnerships Office (TPO) builds collaborative relationships between NOAA researchers and regional, national, and global partners, and fosters entrepreneurship and small business growth. Make an impact and grow your innovations with us!
-- Kortney Opshaug, Blue Ocean Gear & Richard Riels, Crab Raft
The NOAA Technology Partnerships Office (TPO) is serving the U.S. economy by investing in impactful solutions, transferring innovative technology to the marketplace, and facilitating strategic partnerships to enhance and deliver on NOAA’s mission.
TPO routinely works in developing partnerships with private entities in marketing commercial technologies to improve NOAA’s data collection efficiency. This supports weather and environmental data collection that private companies could use to deliver novel weather predictions and climate information.
We fund innovative small business proposals for the development of technology, products, and services related to NOAA’s mission with excellent commercial potential.
We ensure rapid and impactful transfer of inventions and innovative technology developed by NOAA researchers to the commercial marketplace.
Public-private partnerships are vital for bringing private sector innovation and agility into the public realm and NOAA’s research and development enterprise.
Rooted in Federal Law, our Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Technology Transfer (T2) programs capitalize on successful commercialization of innovative technologies in support of a strong and resilient U.S. economy.
References:
Federal Tech Transfer Act of 1986
Small Business Innovation Development Act of 1982
A public-private partnership is using AI and cutting-edge technology to monitor the ocean for the critically endangered North American Right Whale.
Staff from the NOAA Office of Research, Transition, and Application (ORTA) will be at the 2026 Annual Meeting of the American Meteorological Society in Houston, TX, giving presentations and co-chairing sessions.
NOAA and Disaster Imaging, Inc. have signed a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) to use assess using drones to conduct damage assessments after severe storms.
The National Hurricane Center and RenaissanceRe Risk Sciences Inc. have signed a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement to improve hurricane forecasting.
NOAA Environmental Modeling Center and Sofar Ocean have signed a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) to improve the accuracy of wave models.