A Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) is a written agreement between a private company and a government agency to work together on a project. Created as a result of the Stevenson-Wydler Technology Innovation Act of 1980, as amended by the Federal Technology Transfer Act of 1986 (FTTA), a CRADA allows the Federal Government and non-federal partners to optimize their resources, share technical expertise in a protected environment, share intellectual property emerging from the effort, and speed the commercialization of federally developed technology.

Geography is interested in partnering with the private sector in the following areas related to the cartographic, geographic, and information sciences:

• The National Map
  

The Geography Discipline is currently involved in several CRADAs with private sector partners:

• Maps a la carte, Inc. (TopoZone.com)
  Open Source software for serving geospatial data over the Internet.
  
  
• ESRI, Inc.
  Spatial data modeling, management, access, and delivery.
  
  
• Pictometry, Inc.
  Enhancement of oblique imagery by adding DOQ imagery.
  
  
• NGMaps (formerly Wildflower Productions)
  Research and development of a public-oriented map-on-demand printing station. Press Release
  
  
• Florida International University
  Research and development in seamless geospatial data archival, retrieval, display, navigation, and delivery. Press Release
  
  
• Beartooth Mapping, Inc.
  Development of a system for Print-On-Demand image maps.



• Pixxures, Inc.
  Prototypical development and testing of spatial data Internet deployment technologies.



• LookClickPrint, Inc.
  Development of museum-quality art products using USGS image and spatial data sources. Press Release

Geography has completed the following CRADAs with private sector partners:

• Unisys Corporation
  Automated feature extraction and classification from image sources.
  
  
• Sprint Corporation
  Advanced high-speed networks for remote access, image processing, and delivery of large data sets.
  
  
• 3M Corporation
  On-demand printing in support of national geospatial data.
  
  
• ESRI Incorporated
  Digital Line Graph (DLG) editing, symbolized display, and plotting.
  
  
• Etak, Incorporated
  Digital geographic data collection and revision.
  
  
• LizardTech, Incorporated
  Research and development of prototype product for effective delivery of large-sized raster data.
  
  
• Topographic Engineering Center/Earth Data Technologies
  Digital camera calibration technology.
  
  
• Now What Software
  Cooperative product development and production.
  
  
• Laser Scan, Incorporated
  Research and design of prototype geospatial data transport and update capabilities in a distributed database environment.
  
  
• Chicago Map Corporation
  National Atlas project.
  
  
• Clean Lakes, Incorporated
  Monitoring of East African aquatic ecosystems.
  
  
• Microsoft Corporation
  U.S. Geological Survey and Microsoft Cooperative Research and Development Agreement: Geospatial data browsing and retrieval site.
  
  

If your company has ideas for potential mapping CRADA partnerships with the USGS, please contact:

For information on patents, licensing, and other partnership opportunities, please contact:

For information on other types of partnerships that are available with Geography, see the USGS Mapping Partnership Program.