(a) A TIA requires one or more for-profit firms, not acting in their capacity as the contractor of a FFRDC, to be involved either in the:

(1) Performance of the RD&D project; or

(2) The commercial application of the results.

(i) In those cases where there is only a non-profit performer or a consortium of non-profit performers or non-profit performers and FFRDC contractors, if and as authorized, the performers must have at least a tentative agreement with a specific for-profit partner or partners who plan on being involved in the commercial application of the results.

(ii) In consultation with legal counsel, the contracting officer should review the agreement between the performers and their for-profit partner to ensure that the for-profit partner is committed to being involved in the commercial application of the results.

(b) A TIA may be particularly useful for 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, other nonprofit organizations, or FFRDC contractors, if and as authorized) because:

(1) If multiple performers are participating as a consortium, they may be more equal partners in the performance of the project than usually is the case with a prime recipient and subrecipients. All of the performers are more likely to be directly involved in developing and revising plans for the RD&D 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 technology base, a principal objective for the use of a TIA.

(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.

(c) A TIA may be used for carrying out RD&D performed by single firms or multiple performers (e.g., a teaming arrangement) in prime award-subaward relationships. In awarding a TIA in those cases, however, consideration should be given to 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 the programmatic and business aspects of the overall project than they usually have).