Mentor-protégé program brings honors to A&M

For the fourth time, the Alabama A&M University Research Institute (AAMURI) has won a Department of Defense Nunn-Perry Award for supporting a successful mentor-protégé team.

The members of the team are Science Applications International Corp. (SAIC) of San Diego, Calif., serving as mentor, and Oak Grove Technologies of Raleigh, N.C., protégé.

In the 1980s, the government began requiring prime contractors to include small businesses as part of their contract teams. But some small businesses had trouble complying with all the government requirements. Enter the Mentor-Protégé program.

Its goal: To help bigger companies help smaller companies "come up to standard," said professor Daryush Ila, AAMURI executive director.

The AAMURI business team received a Nunn-Perry Award at the annual Department of Defense Mentor-Protégé Conference in California. For the past four years, AAMURI has been a winner of at least one award every year, Ila said. He said that AAMURI is the only academic research institution in Alabama that has supported large companies receiving this award for their work with small businesses.

In order to receive the award, the small business involved must deliver on time, deliver quality and deliver within cost, and must be able to do these things consistently, Ila said.

Ila credited "a flexible contracting system" and a resource network available to the school as reasons for success. "If we can't find someone from the school to do a job, there is the research institute," he said.

The institute is on the A&M campus, but is a separate non-profit organization. The institute partners with 200 to 300 small businesses that can help the mentors and protégés.

James Johnson is the manager for the mentor protégé program at AAMURI. He has been involved with the program since 2002.

Ila said AAMURI can be paid anywhere from $30,000 to $500,000 to assist the mentors and protégés. He estimated the institute has received $3 million to $4 million for its work helping companies.

A&M is a service provider to the mentor, Ila said, noting the mentor gains credits with the federal government for working with an historically black college or university.

Ila said A&M has assisted in many different capacities, including compliance, material management, code development, security compliance, strategic planning, accounting and auditing. "We do a lot of market surveys," Ila said.

For example, a company in Florida conducted environmental work for the government. AAMURI looked at ways to provide more revenue and proposed the company "go to the public market," Ila said.

The Nunn-Perry award is named in honor of former Sen. Sam Nunn and former Secretary of Defense William Perry, whose sponsorship and commitment were instrumental in creating and implementing the DOD Mentor-Protégé program. Awards are determined by the successes of the mentor-protégé team in achieving cost efficiencies, enhancing the protégé's technical capabilities, and increasing new business opportunities for DOD prime contracts and subcontracts.