This initiative was created as part of the Department of the Air Force's Acquisition COVID-19 Taskforce, or ACT, as a one-stop shop for defense industry, commercial companies and academia to share creative ideas with federal agencies to combat the virus.
"We are ready to respond at scale for any task given us," said Dr. Will Roper, assistant secretary of the Air Force for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics. "Five weeks ago, we finalized more than 500 contracts worth nearly a combined billion dollars to small businesses. In effect, we've been training for this for two years and are honored the Defense Department has asked AFVentures to facilitate its innovation response to COVID-19."
The request to transition the portal to a national effort came though the DOD's Joint Acquisition Task Force, or JATF, which is synchronizing responses to interagency requests for support.
"While the entry point for people to share their solutions with the JATF was created by our Air Force team, this is truly a joint initiative ready to support other federal government agencies," said Capt. Jason Rathje, AFVentures partner and ACT's "Rapid" lead. "As the response evolves, we are ensuring our process remains streamlined and easy to engage."
