NASA, OHIO Procurement Technical Assistance Center partner to present national small business webinar

NASA Office of Small Business Programs (OSBP) and Ohio University Procurement Technical Assistance Center (OHIO PTAC) at the Voinovich School of Leadership and Public Affairs are partnering to offer a free national webinar, “How to do Business with NASA Glenn Research Center,” at 1 p.m. Wednesday, May 20.

Through the webinar, NASA hopes to help small business owners learn how to participate in NASA’s prime contracting and subcontracting opportunities. NASA OSBP aims to promote and integrate small businesses into the competitive base of contractors that help pioneer the future of space exploration, scientific discovery and aeronautics research.

Webinar guest speakers will include Eunice Adams-Sipp, small business specialist at NASA’s Glenn Research Center, and Karen Wivell, OHIO PTAC Cleveland procurement specialist.

In 2018, OHIO PTAC and NASA collaborated to offer a two-day joint conference at Ohio University to help small business owners discover millions of dollars in contracting opportunities in the aerospace industry services. The two-day event attracted more than 400 business personnel.

“Ohio University PTAC has forged a long-lasting relationship with NASA,” said Sharon Hopkins, director of OHIO PTAC, part of Ohio’s Procurement Technical Assistance program. “Working on the webinar with NASA Glenn, which is in our backyard, is just a continuation of trying to get the most helpful information to our clients.”

The recorded webinar will be available after the live session on the NASA procurement website. The State of Ohio PTAC Manager Sharon Smith said that Ohio is very excited to once again be a part of a national training event with NASA.

“The opportunity to jointly present a webinar and have it broadcast nationally is a testament to the partnership and collaboration we have established with NASA,” Smith said.

NASA actively seeks to contract with small business owners, and awards to small businesses have progressively increased from 2015 to 2019. According to NASA’s Fiscal Year 2019 Annual Report, awards to small business firms totaled more than $3.1 billion, up from $2.9 billion in 2018. The number of contracts going to small businesses represented 62% of NASA’s business actions and 22.1% of its total budget for the fiscal year 2019.

Overall, Glenn Research Center Procurement Office awarded around $647 million in procurement contracts in fiscal year 2019 in categories such as research and development, services, supplies and equipment.

Free webinar registration is available at bit.ly/OSBPwebinars.