MENTOR Protégé PROGRAM
The Mentor Protégé Program was created as a pilot program (Public Law 101-510) in 1990. The program was created by former Senator Sam Nunn and implemented by former Defense Secretary William Perry. Mentor-Protégé Program (MPP) was established as a pilot program and has periodically been reauthorized by Congress. The MPP was reauthorized under the Fiscal Year 2020 (FY20) National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA).
The Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) Mentor Protégé Program (MPP) assists eligible Small Businesses (protégé) in developing their qualifications and ability to compete for prime contract and subcontract awards by partnering with large businesses (mentors), who provide developmental assistance under individual, project-based agreements to help meet the DTRA mission. The DTRA is participating in the MPP and has advertised a Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) in the fall of 2020 for white papers for the MPP.
Solicitation process:
The solicitation process is basic and transparent. It is a 2-step process:
- a call for white papers to describe the technology transfer along with an endorsement from a DTRA Program Manager, Subject Matter Expert, Department or Directorate head stating that the technology transfer will help address a one of their top prioritie
- a request for proposal (RFP) by invitation to only those Mentor-Protégé (MP) teams whose technology transfer we wish to pursue.
This process will reduce the commitment of resources to the MP team in the beginning because they won’t have to do a full proposal until they are certain we wish to pursue their technology transfer. We work with the contracting office, who will advertise the MPP solicitation, receive proposals, conduct the price analysis, and award the MPA after the MPP PM, DTRA Office Small Business, and DCMA representative conduct the technical evaluation.
Mentor-Protégé Agreement (MPA)
A Mentor-Protégé Agreement (MPA) consists of business infrastructure developmental assistance and technology transfer. Example of Developmental Assistance include activities like Human Resources training, Business Development, Capture Management and Proposal Development training, or training on implementing a DCAA-compliant accounting system. Technology transfer can include implementation of quality management systems, certifications, or it can work on specific technology that provides a benefit to a Program Manager, Subject Matter Expert, Department or Directorate. The purpose of the program is to provide incentives to mentors to develop the capabilities of the protégé with the objective of increasing the capability of our industrial base.
Types of Mentor-Protégé Agreements:
- Reimbursable: reimburses mentors for allowable mentoring expenses, up to $1M/year for up to 3 years.
- Credit: provides small business subcontracting credit to the mentor for the socioeconomic categories of the protégé using a multiplier (4X for direct labor costs; 3X for subcontracts, and 2X for other direct costs [ODCs]); Defense Contract Management Agency (DCMA) administers credit agreements.
- Hybrid: provides small business subcontracting credit for 1 year and reimburses for up to 2 additional years. DCMA administers the credit portion and we jointly manage the reimbursable portion with DCMA.
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