Open-Door POLICY

Since 2014, ARL has developed a diversified, national hub-and-spoke infrastructure to more effectively partner across the national and international S&T ecosystem, tapping into technology centers across the country to gain access to regional talent that previously was underrepresented in Army labs and centers. Examples include multiple ARL collaborations in areas from bioscience to additive manufacturing, under an agreement with the University of Texas; new and expanded long-term relationships with historically black colleges and universities and minority institutions and their research staffs; 3D Systems, a company that has a reputation as an international leader in three-dimensional manufacturing; a NATO-aligned joint project with ARL and Bulgarian and Ukrainian institutes on the theoretical foundations of realtime analysis of cyber intrusion events; and a collaboration with General Motors Co. on the spray and combustion behavior of a novel, variable-area, high-pressure diesel injector at real engine conditions. Since establishing Open Campus, ARL has realized an average annual growth rate of 40 percent in the volume of CRADA actions, and ARL's S&T funding has been matched by $51 million in-kind for projects that address Army-specific problems. If a current ARL civilian employee decides to pursue an entrepreneurial opportunity, the employee resigns from federal service but is eligible for "priority consideration" for up to five years from the date of separation for positions that are similar to the one they vacated. Since 2015, eight employees have separated from ARL to pursue entrepreneurial opportunities in areas such as cybersecurity, solid-state batteries, natural language processing, high-performance computing and manufacturing technologies. A dramatic increase in newly signed patent license agreements realized since the start of Open Campus is projected to continue. Since 2014, ARL has developed a diversified, national hub-and-spoke infrastructure to more effectively partner across the national and international S&T ecosystem.