Agency Seeks Air Base’s Aid in Defense Conversion
There has been much debate over the future of the Point Mugu Naval Air Warfare Center. Whether it will remain open and how to best use it have been popular topics of discussion in recent years.
Officials of the Economic Development Collaborative of Ventura County, however, are quite clear on what they would like to get from the military base and its personnel.
The federally funded collaborative, established to assist expansion of local businesses, has signed a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement, or CRADA, with the base. Under the agreement, the business development group will allocate $130,000 of its $2.6-million three-year grant to work with Point Mugu in an effort to help defense-related businesses enter or expand into nondefense commercial markets.
“We will be the conduit by which companies can have access to the technology and expertise at the Point Mugu base,” said Joe Bartos, director of the collaborative’s Defense Conversion Business Program. “And Point Mugu is tied into a lot of federal Naval research patents that may be available to companies trying to move forward.”
The business development collaborative was established through the county of Ventura in 1996. It is a public-private partnership overseen by a 23-member board of directors that includes representatives from the county board of supervisors and from major businesses such as Amgen, GTE and Bank of America. Funding is provided through three-year state grants.
Bartos said the organization divides its focus and the majority of its funds into three categories--helping businesses develop technology, marketing programs and general skills. Funding is also used for forums, workshops, seminars and other business assistance.
“We’ve set up a few alliances, maybe five or six,” Bartos said. “We set up one with NASA through the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. They’re all important, but this one is local; it’s a resource that’s right here in Ventura County, which makes it advantageous because it’s easy access for businesses or companies.”
All types and sizes of businesses are eligible for support through the Economic Development Collaborative-Point Mugu alliance. Applicants will be asked to submit a detailed explanation of what they think are their roadblocks to nondefense expansion and what they hope to get from use of naval base expertise and facilities.
Point Mugu has identified about 20 areas in which personnel can provide assistance, including aerospace engineering, information processing, microwave devices, sensor systems and database management.
“Our overall goal, our target, is to create as much new jobs and new business for companies here and make the best investment for the limited resources we have,” Bartos said.
“We would like to be geographically diverse, so there is benefit throughout the county,” he said. “We would like the results to provide the most jobs in those areas of most growth and emerging markets, those that are able to draw results quicker rather than later.”
The agreement with the collaborative is not the first such alliance for Point Mugu. The base has established CRADAs with about 25 companies and organizations from California to Texas, including three with Santa Barbara County groups.
“With the shifting of the defense budget, businesses have got to establish other product lines or they will be laying off people,” said Mike Sullivan, technology development manager at Point Mugu. “We have lots of technology which are dual-use, which can be used in defense and nondefense.”
Sullivan said the CRADAs help ease the sometimes daunting relationship between small- to medium-size companies and the military.
“It eliminates some of the barriers or misconceptions,” he said. “The hardest thing is providing education for the public as to what’s here.”
Business owners who want to work with the Economic Development Collaborative should call 384-1800. Its Web site address is https://www.edc-vc.com
