Software Royalty Reinvestment Fund (SRRF)

Using Royalty Income to Further Commercialize Caltech/JPL Software

The Software Royalty Reinvestment Fund (SRRF) will fund projects at JPL for "software technology development, and transfer and commercialization activities" as described in the NASA Caltech Prime Contract, Clause H-37, "Agreement on Computer Programs" in NNN12AA01C aka "1201." One half of Caltech’s net revenue from licensing of software developed at JPL, after disbursement to the authors and inventors of such software, shall be used to fund a Software Royalty Reinvestment Fund (SRRF). The JPL Software Royalty Reinvestment Fund (SRRF) Operating Procedure provides guidance on how the SRRF monies are collected, managed, and distributed to various software technology development efforts in order to increase software commercialization at JPL.

The main objectives of the SRRF are to contribute to software innovation in industry and enhance commercial competitiveness and therefore generate greater returns (benefits) on NASA’s investment in software development for NASA, industry and the nation. SRRF will invest in projects to upgrade specific software packages developed at JPL that have potential use by U.S. Industry to both improve the transferability and licensing of the software package, and increase the value of the software to NASA mission programs. Candidate software packages should be at Technology Readiness Level (TRL) 4 or higher. The SRRF will not be used to fund research or development on new algorithms, software architecture development, or in general, development associated with software in the TRL 1–TRL 3 range.

For those years when there are sufficient funds available, the JPL Software Release Authority (SRA) will issue a call for proposals for the SRRF. A call will be issued at the start of the new fiscal year followed by down selection, proposal presentations, proposal selection and proposal funding. SRRF funded projects are required to provide periodic progress reports throughout the year.