42 U.S.C. § 19311 — Lab-Embedded Entrepreneurship Program

(a) In general. The Secretary must competitively award grants to National Laboratories to start or support Lab-Embedded Entrepreneurship Programs. (b) Purposes. These programs give entrepreneurial fellows access to National Laboratory research facilities, expertise, and mentors, so they can do research and gain skills needed to bring their research ideas to market. (c) Entrepreneurial fellows. A fellow in one of these programs must get: chances for entrepreneurial training, professional development, and contact with leaders from academia, industry, government, and finance who can advise or partner with them; financial and technical support for research, development, and commercialization work; fellowship awards covering living costs, health insurance, and travel; and any other resources the Secretary decides are appropriate. (d) Program activities. Each National Laboratory that gets funding under this section must give its fellows access to the Lab's facilities and expertise, chances to engage with outside stakeholders, and opportunities to develop markets and customers. (e) Administration. National Laboratories that get these grants must prioritize helping the fellow succeed, both professionally and in developing their technology. (f) Partnerships. In running a program, a National Laboratory may partner with outside groups, including a nonprofit, a college or university, a federally owned corporation, or a group of two or more of those. (g) Metrics. The Secretary must support building short-term and long-term measures of how well grant-funded programs are meeting their purposes. (h) Evaluation. Following the reporting rules in a separate section, the Secretary must send Congress an evaluation of how effective these programs are, based on the metrics from subsection (g). (i) Coordination. The Secretary must plan and coordinate these grants and must find and share best practices with the National Laboratories that receive them. (j) Interagency collaboration. The Secretary must work with other federal agencies, including the Department of Defense and other agencies that run federal laboratories, on chances to partner with the funded National Laboratories. (k) Authorization of appropriations. Congress may provide the Secretary $25,000,000 for each year from 2023 through 2027 for this program.