§ 37.210 To what types of recipients may I award a TIA?

(a) As a matter of DoD policy, you may award a TIA only when one or more for-profit firms are to be involved either in the:

(1) Performance of the research project; or

(2) The commercial application of the research results. In that case, you must determine that the nonprofit performer has at least a tentative agreement with specific for-profit partners who plan on being involved when there are results to transition. You should review the agreement between the nonprofit and for-profit partners, because the for-profit partners' involvement is the basis for using a TIA rather than another type of assistance instrument.

(b) Consistent with the goals of civil-military integration, TIAs are most appropriate when one or more commercial firms (as defined at § 37.1250) are to be involved in the project.

(c) You are encouraged to make awards to consortia (a consortium may include one or more for-profit firms, as well as State or local government agencies, institutions of higher education, or other nonprofit organizations). The reasons are that:

(1) When multiple performers are participating as a consortium, they are more equal partners in the research performance than usually is the case with a prime recipient and subawards. All of them therefore are more likely to be directly involved in developing and revising plans for the research effort, reviewing technical progress, and overseeing financial and other business matters. That feature makes consortia well suited to building new relationships among performers in the defense and commercial sectors of the technology and industrial base, a principal objective for the use of TIAs.

(2) In addition, interactions among the participants within a consortium potentially provide a self-governance mechanism. The potential for additional self-governance is particularly good when a consortium includes multiple for-profit participants that normally are competitors within an industry.

(d) TIAs also may be used for carrying out research performed by single firms or multiple performers in prime award-subaward relationships. In awarding TIAs in those cases, however, you should consider providing for greater involvement of the program official or a way to increase self-governance (e.g., a prime award with multiple subawards arranged so as to give the subrecipients more insight into and authority and responsibility for programmatic and business aspects of the overall project than they usually have).