Jerry McGinn: George Mason University’s GovCon Center Seeks to Drive Industry-Government-Academia Collaboration

The newly established Center for Government Contracting at George Mason University has established lines of effort aimed at helping the federal government increase partnership with the public sector and attracting acquisition professionals, Federal News Network reported Wednesday.

Jerry McGinn, the center’s executive director, said initiatives will focus on education and training, research and collaboration.

“The vision of our center is to be a nexus for government, industry and academia to collaborate on and address issues on government contracting,” he told Federal News Network. “We are talking about the business, policy and regulatory issues that animate the $500B government contracting ecosystem.”

He added the center intends to conduct research for the government in an effort to help agencies address contracting challenges.

“We have finance professors and can bring in others to help do research as well to help really unpack these issues for the government,” he said.

The center also plans to offer a minor in government contracting for undergraduate business school students to provide earlier understanding of federal acquisition regulations as well as industry issues.

George Mason University opened the Center for Government Contracting in late 2018 to facilitate courses, activities and programs meant to prepare students, companies and agencies for future government contracting responsibilities or activities.