Battelle Study: NSF, NIST, DOE Lead in Patent Output Per Dollar

The National Science Foundation (NSF), the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the Department of Energy (DOE) far outpace their peer agencies in patenting output per dollar, according to a new study by Battelle's Technology Partnership Practice. Research funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the focus of the study, generated one patent for every $16.9 million invested by the federal government between 2000-2013. Some NIH institutes had an even higher rate of patent generation, with the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NBIB) producing a patent for every $4 million invested.

Using data from the NIH RePORTER database and Thomson Reuter's Thomson Innovation Patent research system, the authors examined the patent output and citation rate for research funded by NIH. Data for other federal agencies relied on U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) data and budget information from the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). As the title of the study, Patents as Proxies Revisited: NIH Innovation 2000-2013, suggests, Battelle relies on patent production as a proxy for the impact of research. A 2014 study by Michael J. Kalutkiewicz and Richard L. Ehman recommended patent generation per dollar and future citations of patents as a useful gauge of the impact of research supported by the federal government. Together, these indicators depict the quantity and quality of the research being done.

Several caveats, however, are offered. The work of NIH is not specifically geared toward stimulating commercializable technologies or patenting. Much of the work supported by NIH is meant to create a foundation for future discoveries, rather than an immediate product. This is also true of other research agencies, including the Department of Defense, which supports classified research that may not be patented.

Though patents may be an imperfect proxy, the analysis done by Battelle offers a useful intermediate metric for estimating the economic impact of federally supported research. Non-defense discretionary programs generated two to five times more patents per dollar than defense agencies (acknowledging that some defense activities are classified). NSF, NIST and DOE far outrank other agencies in patent generation per dollar. NIST leads in patent citations, which Battelle attributes to patent and citation activities of NIST's Advanced Technology Program. NIH ranks fifth in patenting efficiency, but fourth-lowest in citations. Cross-agency numbers are not provided, but the study includes a useful graphic for comparisons.

NIH as a whole generated 5.9 patents for every $100 million it invested in research during the period of the study. On average, those patents were cited 5.14 times in future filings. Within NIH, NBIB-funded research generated 24.9 patents for every $100 million, far more than any other institute. NBIB patents had, on average, 6.6 citations, about average for NIH. The most reference patents were generated by research through the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI). The average NHGRI-supported patent had 11.2 forward citations.

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