Working with Industry

As a UARC, ARL:UT has a special contractual relationship with the U. S. Department of Defense (DoD). The UARC relationship was created to enable DoD to foster and utilize certain core competencies at university labs like ARL:UT. To foster the relationship, UARCs are allowed to contract with DoD on a sole source basis under a specific exemption in the Competition in Contracting Act.

Part of DoD’s objective in UARC contracting is to enable technical experts to advise the government on technology issues that fall within our competency areas. Often this involves advising them on acquisition strategies and evaluating industry proposals. Clearly, if we are to do that effectively, it’s important that we remain totally free of any real or perceived conflict of interest. Consequently, the UARC charter under which we operate, established by DDR&E, precludes our teaming with industry or accepting industry subcontracts for work that lies within our core competency areas. The charter does allow for exceptions that are deemed to be in the government’s best interests, and approved by our NAVSEA (Naval Sea Systems Command) oversight office.

It should be emphasized that this restriction is primarily focused on ARL:UT’s business relationships with industry, and does not preclude collaboration and technology transfer that falls within the scope of our sponsored projects, and is directed by the government sponsor funding our effort. Funding for these activities is provided by our government sponsor, rather than as a subcontract from industry.