NASA expands mentor-protégé contracting program

NASA is expanding its mentor-protégé contracting program to include a wider variety of small business entities and to provide greater financial incentives for participating companies.

The current program, in effect since March 1995, matches large prime contractors with eligible small businesses as a way to promote more subcontracting opportunities for the protégé firms.

On Friday, NASA posted a notice in the Federal Register, announcing its intention to expand the program to include veteran-owned small businesses, service-disabled veteran-owned small businesses and HUBZone (Historically Underutilized Business Zone) small firms.

Until now only small disadvantaged businesses, Historically Black Colleges and Universities, minority institutions of higher education, and women-owned small businesses were eligible to participate as protégé companies.

Firms participating in NASA's Small Business Innovative Research Phase II program also would be eligible for the first time, according to the draft notice. The SBIR program uses federally funded research dollars to spur technological innovation that can benefit NASA programs and have applications in the commercial sector.

NASA mentors can provide an array of assistance to protégé firms, including financial and personnel management, marketing, business development, and advice in garnering prime and subcontracts. Such agreements can extend up to three years.

"NASA's mentor-protégé program has been designed to provide small businesses assistance in developing and strengthening capabilities that would enable them to perform successfully as prime and subcontractors in support of NASA priorities," said Brian Saleeba, an analyst who works with the program.

As a prerequisite for participation, mentors must provide their selected protégé firm with a subcontracting opportunity on an existing prime contract. NASA does not set a dollar figure for these subcontracts, Saleeba said.

Mentors who provide developmental assistance to SBIR firms also will be eligible to earn a separate award fee at the end of their agreement. This incentivized fee, the specifics of which were not announced in the notice, will not be offered to other types of small businesses.

"The new award fee pilot program is designed to entice more mentors to participate as well as make the process easier for them," Saleeba said.

In addition to the award fee, all NASA mentors can seek reimbursement for costs they incurred through participating in the program.

The proposed changes are just the latest revamp of NASA's mentor-protégé program.

It was suspended at the start of 2007, Saleeba said, because mentors were failing to provide adequate assistance to their protégés. The program was revived this year after it was restructured to provide greater oversight of participating firms.

Currently, nine large contractors serve as mentors, including industry giants Boeing Co., Raytheon Co. and Science Applications International Corp.

At least six other federal agencies, including the Small Business Administration and the Defense and Homeland Security departments also have mentor-protégé programs. The General Services Administration announced plans for a similar project in June.