collaborating by forming a technical — or strategic — alliance provides the added benefit of sharing your expertise and resources without modifying your legal business structure. the key to a successful relationship lies in solidifying your alliance within terms and conditions outlined in a formal technical partnership agreement. a focus on maintaining or increasing a competitive advantage, reducing the effects of competition and realizing cost savings are among the most common, both in business-to-business and in business-to-supplier technical partnerships. a formal, contract-style structure most often is the best option to choose in creating a technical partnership agreement. a formal structure uses articles, numerals and letters to separate points in the agreement into sections and subsections.

nrel uses agreements for commercializing technology (act) when a partner seeks highly specialized or technical services to complete a project. nrel uses a cooperative research and development agreement (crada) when a partner and the lab intend to collaborate on a project. this crada is for a joint research project between nrel and a partner to develop, advance, or commercialize an nrel-developed technology without funds changing hands. the partner provides nrel with the necessary resources and fully covers the costs of the work to be performed. with this spp, a nonfederal entity pays nrel to conduct a research-oriented project. a technical services agreement (tsa) is suitable for projects $500,000 or less in value, up to three years in duration, and funded entirely by the sponsor for services which would not be expected to result in any inventions.