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Small Business News

Small Business News

News | Dec. 8, 2023

OSBP Helps Advance Diverse Businesses to Join DIB and GIB

By Suzanne Zurn Office of Small Business Programs

December 8, 2023  –  

On Dec. 6, Mr. Farooq Mitha, Director, Office of Small Business Programs (OSBP), was a guest speaker for the Economic Opportunity Session at MARKETPLACE, the Wisconsin Governor’s Annual Conference on Diverse Business Development. With a particular focus on small businesses, the event connected business owners with state, federal, and local government as well as private sector business opportunities. The conference provided a chance for businesses owned by minorities, women, veterans, LGBTQ+ people, and people with disabilities to learn from and connect with resource providers, government representatives, corporate buyers, and business professionals. The MARKETPLACE event has been running for 42 years and attracts more than 700 attendees annually.

Events like MARKETPLACE are one way that OSBP connects industry to the Defense Industrial Base (DIB) and Government Industrial Base (GIB) to help fulfill our mission to maximize opportunities for small businesses to contribute to national security by providing combat power for our troops and economic power for our nation. To learn more about our services and to download a Guide to Working with the DoD, please visit our website at https://business.defense.gov.

DoD Small Business News

OSBP and NIST Partner for Small Businesses

The U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) Office of Small Business Programs (OSBP), the principal advisor to the Secretary of Defense on small business matters, and  U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC) National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Hollings Manufacturing Extension Partnership Program (MEP) signed a memorandum of agreement on May 02, 2021 to collaborate on strengthening the national security of the small business industrial base.

The new partnership links two DOD organizations with a common mission to assist small businesses and  to achieve shared objectives:

  • Provide training and technical support to small-and-medium U.S. manufacturers engaged or planning to engage with the defense sector.
  • Promote and co-sponsor joint training events beneficial to national security, with an emphasis on cybersecurity for defense manufacturing.
  • Establish direct and consistent relationships at multiple organizational levels within both Parties to document and share complementary assistance best practices.  
  • Develop clear objectives, benchmarks and goals to measure success, added value, and synergy of collaborations between NIST MEP and OUSD(A&S) OSBP.

The OSBP and NIST partnership enables more DOD collaboration and support of small and medium manufacturers (SMMs). They will Collaborate to support the ongoing development and security of the Defense and Industrial Base.

This partnership will combine OSBP’s expertise in leveraging small businesses to close capability gaps for our armed forces with the MEP National Network.  The MEP operational base provides an opportunity for OUSD(A&S) OSBP to serve as a resource for the MEP Program of MEP Centers engages defense sector and defense-relevant manufacturing clients to promote and provide technologies, prototypes and products for National Security missions.