NASA Inventions and Contributions Board -- Office of the NASA Chief Engineer

ICB Home NASA Headquarters NASA Homepage

Over the past 49 years, the ICB has issued over 98,000 awards to NASA and its contractor employees, as well as to other government, university, and industry personnel. The value of the awards that has been paid out exceeds $44 million (2007 dollars), a reflection of the total value of these contributions to the United States of America. The Space Act limits the amount of an award for any single contribution to no more than $100,000 without notification of Congress. The Board is chaired by the NASA Chief Engineer, is composed of representatives from across the Agency. The composition of the Board reflects NASA's finest technical talent whose expertise covers more than 40 fields of science and technology. The four members of the ICB staff are based at NASA Headquarters and assist the Board with the administrative activities of the awards process.

The ICB also acts as the approval body for grants of waiver of NASA's rights to contractor inventions. Changes in the law in 1984 automatically grants waiver for small businesses, certain not-for-profit companies, and universities. NASA, as a title agency, is vested with all rights to large contractor's inventions unless this waiver is granted by the ICB.

Curated by Jesse Midgett, NASA HQ