St. Mary’s County has issued a Request for Proposals (RFP) for an entity to manage the new county business incubator to be located at the St. Mary’s County Regional Airport. The RFP is for $1,350,000. As announced in a county news release:

The Commissioners of St. Mary’s County recognize a stronger and more resilient economy is one which is less reliant on the defense spending attached to Naval Air Station Patuxent River (NAS PAX River). Therefore, the county is seeking to diversify the county’s economy away from defense spending and more towards an innovation-based economy. The successful operation of an incubator is a critical component in the growth of new technology firms in St. Mary’s County.

The business incubator will be a facility which nurtures start-up firms during their early months or years. It will be managed by professionals with expertise in entrepreneurship and growing small firms. The firms will receive affordable office space, management training, mentoring, marketing support and access to capital resources.

The services provided through the business incubator will primarily be for start-ups or early stage companies pursuing commercialization of technologies patented at NAS Pax River, or the Naval Surface Warfare Center, Indian Head Division, as well as businesses pursuing research and development of unmanned and autonomous systems (UAS).  The incubator will also be open to other technology entrepreneurs as space allows.

Proposals are due by Wednesday, May 17, 2017 at 4:00 p.m. For more visit the bid solicitation website.