The Academic Partnership Engagement Experiment (APEX) is a Partnership Intermediary Agreement (PIA) with the Department of the Air Force.
What is a Partnership Intermediary Agreement (PIA)?
A partnership intermediary is an agreement between the government and an intermediary organization such as state and local governmental agencies and nonprofit entities operated by or on behalf of a state or local government to perform partnership intermediary services. These services increase the likelihood of success in the conduct of cooperative or joint activities with small business firms and educational institutions that need technology-related assistance from a federal laboratory. As such, the APEX partnership intermediary performs services that support the Department of the Air Force, U.S. Air Force 2030 Science and Technology Strategy, U.S. Air Force Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) / Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) program and U.S. Air Force Technology Transfer and Transition program, including identification of appropriate technologies for licensing and commercialization and new technologies in the private sector that the U.S. Air Force can utilize and transfer to operational use.
Furthermore, APEX is a part of a larger PIA ecosystem that is comprised of the following entities:
Also, APEX executes its mission by collaborating with the following academic, small business and government entities:
