A Simpler Contract Approach is Being Introduced for DARPA

October 19, 2016

Got Something to Sell to the Pentagon? It’s About to Get Easier

Source: Defense One, Mohana Ravindranath, October 13, 2016

A new office just opened to help the Defense Department’s high-tech agency buy more easily from first-time sellers.   

In the past, companies that had never sold to the government found it difficult to prove their qualifications to federal buyers.

Today, several agencies are trying to eliminate experience requirements, part of a deliberate effort to acquire cutting-edge technology from commercial companies that have, until now, avoided the federal marketplace.

The Pentagon’s research and development agency is one prominent example: the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s Microsystems Technology Office is introducing a “simpler contracting approach” for companies that haven’t sold to DARPA and haven’t won large Pentagon contracts, according to a recent announcement.

That initiative is supposed to help the agency connect with companies specializing in machine learning, sensors, hardware security and other technology that draws both commercial and government buyers, according to DARPA. The agency is using “Other Transactional” authority that would let it create customized agreements between buyer and seller—negotiating the terms for intellectual property, accounting and reporting so the contracts look closer to what tech companies expect in the private sector instead of being limited by the Federal Acquisition Regulations.  READ MORE….

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