The Dept. of Defense’s Mentor-Protégé Program helps eligible small businesses expand their footprint in the defense industrial base.
Under the program small businesses are partnered with larger companies. In the past five years, DoD’s MPP has successfully helped more than 190 small businesses fill unique niches and become part of the military’s supply chain.
Mentors and Protégés are responsible for finding their counterpart – the agency is not allowed to participate in the teaming process.
A Mentor firm must be currently performing under at least one active approved subcontracting plan, and be currently eligible for the award of Federal contracts. Mentor applications must be approved by the Office of Small Business Programs before an agreement is submitted.
A Protégé firm must be a
- small disadvantaged business (SDB)
- qualifying organization employing the severely disabled
- women-owned small business (WOSB)
- service-disabled veteran-owned small business (SDVOSB)
- located in a historically underutilized business zone (HUBZone)
- small business that is a non-traditional defense contractor
- small business that currently provides goods or services in the private sector that are critical to enhancing the capabilities of the defense supplier base and fulfilling key agency needs
Mentors can receive reimbursement either directly (reimbursement for allowable costs of developmental assistance provided to a protégé) or via a credit towards their subcontracting goals.
Semi-annual reports, annual performance reviews and two-year-out reports are required for each agreement.
A list of Approved Mentors and Active Agreements is available at the agency’s website.
The 2018-19 Program Request for Proposal has been posted to FedBizOpps,. Responses are due by August 30th