Bridging the persistent gap between R&D and application: A historical review of government efforts in the field of assistive technology

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Article explains why the government funds university-based academics to perform technological product and service improvement tasks normally performed by corporate manufacturers and suppliers in order to develop assistive technology devices and services for people with disabilities. This approach leaves a gap between the specific project outputs (academic papers, patent claims), and their transformation into products, services and related outcomes capable of delivering beneficial socio-economic impacts. In an attempt to bridge the gap, the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research (NIDRR) has invested additional resources over the past 25 years in a series of projects tasked with generating models, methods, and metrics regarding the transformation of research-based discoveries into beneficial devices and services. For example, the currently funded Center on Knowledge Translation for Technology Transfer (KT4TT) has now created and documented an evidence-based framework for planning, implementing, and managing projects meant intending to generate technology-based outputs in the form of prototype devices intended for transfer to the commercial marketplace through established corporations or through start-up enterprises.

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