Stories of Technology, Innovation, & Entrepreneurship in the Southeast

Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) and The Company Lab (CO.LAB), the Chattanooga-based entrepreneur center, will sign a partnership agreement on Wednesday aimed at moving the lab’s science out of the building and into new Tennessee companies.

The two entities formalized their collaboration on Wednesday in Chattanooga, signing a memorandum of understanding (MOU) that gives startup founders a clearer path to ORNL’s intellectual property, access to researchers, and specialized facilities. The deal tethers the state’s largest research engine directly into one of the state’s most active startup builders.

Key takeaways from the expanded partnership

Under the agreement, the organizations plan to make ORNL’s licensable technology available to entrepreneurs in CO.LAB’s network. The goal is to connect founders with the lab, build new businesses, and support the success of existing programs.

“This partnership creates a bridge between groundbreaking scientific discovery and the entrepreneurs who can bring those discoveries to market,” CO.LAB CEO Tasia Malakasis said.

For example, one of the ways CO.LAB can help support the initiatives of the lab is through partnering with ORNL’s Innovation Crossroads to offer additional programming and partnerships to the entrepreneurial fellows.

A long time coming

Chattanooga has spent the past decade building up a reputation in the same fields that ORNL pioneers with research. For example, the city’s municipal utility, EPB, laid one of the country’s first community-wide gigabit fiber networks and later stood up a commercial quantum network on top of it. EPB’s smart grid has made Chattanooga a testbed for next-generation energy systems.

ORNL, meanwhile, ranks among the nation’s leading centers for quantum information science, advanced energy and materials, and next-generation mobility.

Put those two profiles side by side, and a partnership seems to make perfect sense, at least U.S. Rep. Chuck Fleischmann seems to think so.

“Strengthening the Chattanooga-Oak Ridge connection has always been one of my top priorities,” Fleischmann said. “By joining ORNL’s world-class research with The Company Lab’s leadership in entrepreneurship and innovation, we’re creating a pipeline from cutting-edge discoveries to real-world solutions in energy, mobility, and quantum technologies. These are the kinds of collaborations that grow our economy, support good-paying Tennessee jobs, and make sure our state continues to lead the way in American innovation.”

Shuan Gleason, ORNL’s Director of Partnerships, framed the MOU as an indication of where the economy is heading.

“ORNL’s mission is to deliver scientific discoveries and technological breakthroughs that advance the Department of Energy’s priorities, strengthen U.S. competitiveness, and create pathways for those innovations to reach the marketplace through strong partnerships like this one,” he said. “As transformative technologies like quantum computing, advanced energy, and next-generation mobility reshape the global economy, regions that invest early in innovation, commercialization, and talent development will be best positioned to lead. Together, ORNL and CO.LAB are helping ensure Tennessee is one of those regions—attracting deep-tech companies, retaining world-class talent, and building a more competitive economy for the future.”

But the real test of the partnership comes after the signatures dry: whether a memorandum on paper turns into licenses signed, emerging entrepreneurs, and founders that decide to build a life beyond thier business in Tennessee.

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