Dr. Daniel J. O'Neil
Dr. Daniel J. O'Neil founded CRADA International, Inc. (formerly the CRADA Corporation) in Atlanta, Georgia in 1993 following the successful design and implementation of a research and revenue growth strategy for a flagship state university. The corporation, which is headquartered in Atlanta, operates through an extended network of consultants and associate firms located in Washington DC, Newport Beach, Aspen, Colorado and in Europe. CRADA International Inc., a technology and business development consultancy, provides a range of services in strategic planning for the marketing, acquisition and performance of R&D, engineering and educational services; for the formation of strategic alliances among small and medium-sized high-tech firms, universities, research organizations, and government agencies; and for technology deployment. It is engaged in the definition and resolution of major science policy issues with universities and colleges, industry, businesses, and state and federal government funding agencies, and with international agencies. CRADA assists and networks with small and medium-sized high tech firms, with minority and women-owned businesses, with industrial development groups and with federal agencies and Capitol Hill, as well as with universities and colleges in the USA, Europe and the Former Soviet Union. CRADA's expertise includes strategic marketing, identification of new and emerging funding sources (providing a 1-2 year lead time over research competitors) through active networking and monitoring of Congress and the administration, promotion of bicameral and bipartisan support of university initiatives, protection and marketing of intellectual property, development of spin-off firms and research-technology parks, and compliance management. It actively assists industrial firms with SBIR and STTR competitions. It assists non-profit organizations in defining funding sources among philanthropic organizations, corporate foundations and state/federal endowment programs. O'Neil, after his invitation by President Clinton to join a select group of U.S. specialists to participate in the historic White House Conference on Trade and Investment in Northern Ireland, has continued involvement with technology initiatives with the UK, Irish and U.S. governments. He was responsible for the conceptual design of a university-government-industry center for the advancement of science and technology in Northern Ireland.Dr. O'Neil, a scientist-engineer and educator with an outstanding career in research and development management in both the public and private sectors, is currently a Director and Vice President of CRADA International, Inc and holds an appointment as adjunct professor of chemical engineering and co-director of the International Sensor Technology Program at the New Mexico Institute for Mining & Technology (New Mexico Tech.) From 1998-2001 he was the Director of the New Mexico Engineering Research Institute and Research Professor at the University of New Mexico, one of the top 50 public research universities in the United States. He serves on several boards and committees at national and state level.
He was selected as the first Vice President for Research of the University of Oklahoma (the university's budget for FY93 exceeded $475 million with research-related expenditures exceeding $100 million annually). He was also Director of OU's $50 million state-of-the-art Sarkeys Energy Center and Dean of the Graduate College. At that time he also was tenured Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry. Under Dr. O'Neil's direction OU rapidly revised and expanded its research, scholarship, training, and public service programs and reached expenditure and income levels in excess of $100 million per annum and moved its national ranking from 98th place overall to the Top 50 in total R&D expenditures by public universities in the USA. During his tenure OU captured twenty multimillion dollar projects/awards which were competed for nationally or internationally. The latter included programs in Russia, Venezuela, Thailand, and the Gulf region. The record-setting pace was achieved through strategic planning which emphasized partnerships with industry and government in the fields of energy and the environment, biotechnology, health and medicine, advanced materials and manufacturing technologies, and strengthening the 3rd largest continuing education program in the United States. Programs in education, psychology and the history of science were national leaders. He was actively involved in the acquisition of grants from major foundations in support of scholarships, fellowships, travel, and administrative support of interdisciplinary centers for creative activity in the arts and humanities. Initiatives included a significant increase in internal fiscal support of young faculty and a balanced portfolio of pan-university support for all colleges and disciplines. O'Neil was a state leader and adviser to the governor, chancellor, and state legislature as well as to Oklahoma's U.S. congressional delegation on science & technology policy, programs, and higher education issues. He serves/served on several national committees, boards, and panels relative to education, energy, science & technology, and workforce conversion/Defense technology industrial base (DTIB) issues. He was a board member of the Oklahoma Center for the Advancement of Science and Technology which oversaw strategic planning and investment in agricultural science and technology, the health sciences and advanced engineering and technology programs. He was active at the federal level and was on the state committee for EPSCoR which managed the experimental programs for the stimulation of competitive research for all federal agencies through research consortia of Oklahoma State University, the University of Tulsa and the University of Oklahoma. His economic/industrial development experience included strategic planning responsibility for the 1,700 acre University Research Park, founding (and first president) of the University of Oklahoma Research Corporation the funding of the Oklahoma Biomedical Research Tower, small business innovation research promotion, marketing of Oklahoma to major corporations, attraction of capital investment and promotion of a $350 million capital bond issue.
His association with the Georgia Institute of Technology began in 1975 and he was instrumental in the institute's efforts which led to a tenfold increase in funding for research and development. R&D funding at the Georgia Tech Research Institute, within GIT, grew from $11 million in 1975 to over $100 million by 1988, with total R&D expenditures exceeding $172 million by 1991 at the university. GTRI is the nonprofit, client-oriented applied research arm of the Georgia Institute of Technology. With about 1600 employees including a faculty of 700 scientists and engineers it is one of the largest technological organizations in the southern United States. Dr. O'Neil managed four of the GTRI research divisions, which accounted for approximately $25 million in grants and contracts in the fields of energy, biotechnology, environmental science and engineering, agricultural and food technology, atmospheric sciences, aerospace, materials and manufacturing science, electro-optics, microelectronics, computer & information technology. O'Neil was personally involved in winning 58 externally-competed contract and grant awards from sponsors which included most US federal agencies, state agencies, local government, and a range of industrial and private sector firms. He was active in the early stage development of the Advanced Technology Development Center, one of the earliest, yet most successful, incubator programs in the US as well as the start-up of the Georgia Productivity Center (first to be legislated by any state in the US). He was a founding member of the University of Georgia-Georgia Institute of Technology Cooperative Agricultural Research Program. He provided personal technical and administrative support to the US Department of Commerce Technology Utilization and Commercialization Center (Minority Business Enterprise), sat on several distinguished panels of federal agencies and represented the United States at several international conferences related to technology and economic development. He was a principal advocate of the new Corporate Liaison Program at Georgia Tech and contributed to patent and licensing policy development. His laboratories were leaders in the creation of intellectual property, in marketing and licensing of technologies with the Office of Technology Transfer.
As a scientist and engineer, O'Neil earned an international reputation as an innovator in process design, development and economics in the fields of bioconversion technology, advanced materials, alternative fuels production, solar and renewable energy, and environmental technology. As an industrial research chemist, he did pioneering aerospace research in carbon fibers, in the synthesis of high polymers, and composites for aerospace firms in California and Connecticut. He was co-developer of corporate R&D headquarters for a major manufacturer of polymer-based products. Later work in the private sector included start-up of an entrepreneurial hi-tech venture in Europe. Investors from the United Kingdom, France and Ireland formed a joint venture with support of the Irish Industrial Development Authority to manufacture advanced glass fiber using electric melting technology - the first such plant in the world - a process later marketed to Turkey and Eastern European countries.
For the past five years he has been active in research and development of technologies for critical infrastructure protection, including information assurance, smart networks, and biological and chemical sensor technologies. He chairs the national committee for critical transportation infrastructure protection for the National Academy of Sciences’ Transportation Research Board (http://trb.org/directory/comm_detail.asp?id=2855) and (http://san-antonio.tamu.edu/trba5021).
Dr. O'Neil was honored in 1997 as a founding faculty member of the University of Limerick (then the National Institute for Higher Education), the first university established in the history of the Republic of Ireland. He was extensively involved with building planning, design and equipping of the technological university complex along with architects and vendors. O'Neil was an innovator in academic curriculum design and development and in academic organizational planning and development. He undertook strategic planning at Northeastern University and introduced cooperative education to Ireland, resulting today in one of the largest "co-op" programs in the world. The university was a "green field" project and was described by the World Bank as its most successful university project. The university became the locus of the 600-acre National Technological Park which initially attracted Varian and Wang among other corporations and start-up high technology firms to invest in the Shannon region. Later, working from the United States at Georgia Tech, O'Neil was the prime mover in the design, financing and establishment of the first independent, non-profit research institute in the Republic of Ireland ( for which he became the first Chief Executive Officer.) The project involved a joint venture of Georgia Tech, the Irish Industrial Development Authority and 22 multinational firms with operations in Ireland, Irish banks and manufacturers, and the University of Limerick. He raised and negotiated $6 million for the European Research Institute of Ireland and negotiated the management and operation contract of the enterprise by Georgia Tech.
Dr. O'Neil has had extensive economic development experience in the United States, in Europe and in developing countries. He has been actively involved firsthand in the design and implementation of incubators and research & technology parks in Georgia, in Ireland, and in Oklahoma. While resident in Ireland, he served on policy and scientific panels of the European Economic Community as well as being a consultant to the EEC. In the USA, he has served on panels of the Board of Science and Technology for International Development of the National Academy of Sciences-National Research Council with specific focus on energy and economic development. He worked intimately with local, regional, state and national governments on both projects and policy aimed at job creation and economic expansion through stimulating indigenous enterprises as well as marketing and attraction of "foreign" industries with particular emphasis on capital-intensive, high value-added manufacturing. Since 1998 he has been active nationally and internationally in development of science policy and programs that address issues of homeland defense, transportation security and biotechnology applications for environmental, health and protection. He works closely with the International Science and Technology Center, Moscow, Russian and several leading research institutes of the Formet Soviet Union for manpower and economic development. Programmatic areas include business planning and stand-up of Russian protobusinesses.
Dr. O'Neil has been listed in Who's Who in the World, American Men & Women of Science, Who's Who in America, Who's Who in American Education, Who's Who in Science and Engineering, International Who's Who in Energy and Nuclear Sciences, among others. He has produced over 100 papers and reports on energy, environment, materials and bio-technologies, as well as on education and science & technology policy matters. O'Neil holds or has held board positions and membership on several professional, business, and governmental bodies. Dr. O'Neil earned bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degrees in chemistry from Northeastern University, Southern Connecticut State University, and the University of Dublin (Trinity College), respectively.
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