George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia, officially kicked off the Center for Government Contracting to fill an academic and research void.
“The vision of our center is to be a nexus for government, industry and academia to collaborate on and address issues on government contracting,” [executive director Jerry] McGinn said in an interview with Federal News Network. “We are talking about the business, policy and regulatory issues that animate the $500 billion government contracting ecosystem.”
That was from a Feb. 2019 article, “New government contracting center aims to fill independent research, education void.” Government contracting in the DC area accounts for 40 percent of GDP. It’s good to see the university willing to expand and take on a real void.
It’s curious how the topic of government contracting largely fell away from the academic world perhaps 50 years ago. Harvard, for example, produced some of the great acquisition scholars including Merton Peck, Frederic Scherer, and Harvey Sapolsky. They still have Ronald Fox and now Ash Carter. Yet it is my feeling that there isn’t a dedicated academic center that really dives into the weeds of government contracting. George Washington came close with Cibinic and Nash — but they and their successors operated out of the law school.
Today, I have the honor of joining GMU’s center for government contracting as a research fellow. The center is tackling issues like OTAs, small business, intellectual property, funding, progress payments, and much more. They hosted an excellent conference with DAU, attracting some top speakers. You can find the videos here.
Congratulations on the fellowship! It seems like a great fit, and I’m glad that your prodigious output in this space is being supported.