A Y-12 Engineer loads a microwave furnace prior to a test melt. Y-12 is considered a world leader in microwave metal and ceramic processing technologies and has more than 50 patents and disclosures in the field of microwave research.
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Partnerships

Discover — Solve — Prepare — Validate

Partnerships are a vital component of maintaining the robust science, technology and manufacturing base that is essential to our nation's long‑term security. Partnerships encourage the generation of new ideas and breakthrough technologies that neither partner could have achieved alone.

Through its partnerships, Y‑12 is reaching out to government, universities and private industry to provide solutions to some of America's toughest security, information technology, manufacturing and technological problems.

Working with Y‑12 is straightforward. You can pursue a normal contractual agreement with Y‑12 for services. Cooperative Research and Development Agreements (CRADAs) allow our partners access to government‑funded research, personnel, capabilities and facilities to conduct specified research and development in areas of mutual interest. Y‑12 also offers opportunities for private companies to license Y‑12 technologies through our successful Technology Transfer program.

Y‑12 also is an active participant in the Department of Energy's Mentor‑Protégé program. Through this program, Y‑12 assists small disadvantaged firms certified by the Small Business Administration under Section 8(a) of the Small Business Act, other small disadvantaged businesses, women‑owned small businesses, Historically Black Colleges and Universities and other minority institutions of higher learning as well as small business concerns owned and controlled by service‑disabled veterans.

The Mentor‑Protégé program provides Y‑12 a mechanism for entering into integrated working agreements and for providing non‑financial assistance to these entities. The agreements are designed to enhance the protege's business and technical capabilities, to foster long‑term business relationships between these small businesses and DOE prime contractors and to increase the overall number of small businesses receiving awards. The Mentor Protégé program leverages the core competencies and special expertise found in each organization that contribute to meeting the national security needs of the United States and its allies.