- MDCP Home
- New Awards for 2020
- What is MDCP?
- Impact
- Reputation for Efficacy
- Important Dates/Contact
- Current ITA Project Teams
- List of All Projects
Click headers to expand:
Results & Highlights
Apply for Project Funding
Cooperator Project Mgt
ITA-MDCP Project Team
Cooperator Financial Mgt
Other MDCP Resources
More Resources
Market Development Cooperator Program
A final decision about whether to have a 2020 competition will be made after the fiscal 2020 budget is passed. Read more on our funding history page.
----------------------------------------------------
MDCP awards include financial and technical assistance from the International Trade Administration (ITA) to support projects that enhance the global competitiveness of U.S. industries.
Step-by-Step Application Process
-
Browse the MDCP site to learn more about MDCP funding and about MDCP projects.
-
Contact Brad Hess to determine whether your project idea falls into the program parameters.
-
Request a determination of eligibility.
-
Consult Department of Commerce staff likely to be interested. Jessica.Dulkadir@trade.gov can help you identify the right people. These include industry specialists, domestic field specialists, international field staff, and country desk officers. Potential applicants like this association executive find calls with staff helpful: "Thanks very much for setting up this morning’s teleconference. It was certainly helpful to brainstorm with your team in Beijing which gave us some additional approaches to use in the proposal." .
-
Please note the guidelines about how ITA can help during the MDCP Competition Period.
-
Register on grants.gov (Do this right away. It can take two weeks from the time you register until it registers in grants.gov.)
- Read the most recent Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) or Federal Funding Opportunity Notice (FFO).
- Prepare your application. Use the mock application below as a guide.
- Use the "How To Submit" instructions as a guide in submitting your application in grants.gov.
Guidelines and Resources for Application Preparation
A new competition is announced usually in winter early in the year, with applications due 60 days later. But the requirements for MDCP applications do not change very much from year to year, so an eligible organization can start to prepare its application at any time. The following should help any eligible organization to start preparing an application.- Mock application
- A good starting point for most applicants will be trade.gov/export-solutions. Select relevant topics. These are likely to include "Research Foreign Markets" and "Protect Intellectual Property."
- Actual applications by MDCP award winners from previous years.
- Domestic travel: To estimate costs, use your organization's pre-existing travel policy or the federal per diem rates.
- Foreign travel: To estimate costs, use your organization's pre-existing travel policy or the federal per diem rates.
- Notice of funding opportunity (2020 NOFO). This is the most recent one published.
- Payments to a cooperator by firms participating in project activity are sources of cash match: here's how it works.
- Indirect costs are also included in cash match.
- Disclosure of information by ITA.
- Review the Clarification on Type Size and Margins
- Entities associated with educational institutions.
Actual applications by MDCP award winners from previous years
Many of the applications that were submitted by prior winners of MDCP awards are available for review on our list of MDCP projects. When referring to these applications please remember that they were submitted pursuant to a federal funding opportunity notice specific to the year of the competition. All applications are evaluated relative to the other applications submitted that year. The same application submitted one year might not win if it had been submitted in another year. ITA usually receives far more worthy applications than it has resources to fund.Mock application
A mock application is provided below. As described in the NOFO, a complete MDCP application includes Parts 1, 2, and 3. A summary of each of these parts is set forth below. Note that there is no link to an example document for Part 1, Forms. Each applicant downloads forms from grants.gov and submits them online. These submitted forms constitute Part 1 for any applicant. You can see forms submitted in actual applications by MDCP award winners from previous years.
Part 1, Forms
Part 2, Project
Part 3, Budget: Narrative
Part 3, Budget: Financial Statements
Part 3, Budget: Other attachments (may or may not be applicable)
Problems with grants.gov, sam.gov, and DUNS
Applicants should plan to submit applications via grants.gov. ITA does not administer nor provide help with regard to grants.gov, sam.gov, or DUNS. Applicants experiencing difficulty should note the following:
- Grants.gov help desk: support@grants.gov or 800-518-4726.
- Grants.gov FAQs.
- If submitting via grants.gov is proving to be impossible, an applicant can, alternatively, submit its MDCP application as an email attachment to Brad.Hess@trade.gov. If unable to access forms on grants.gov: (1) Use this CD-511 and this SF-424B. (2) You can use the SF-424 and SF-424A included in the mock application.
- Any applicant that submits without going through grants.gov must still register on sam.gov and DUNS. This can be done after an MDCP application is submitted, but ITA does not make MDCP awards to entities that are not registered in sam.gov.
The International Trade Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce, manages this global trade site to provide access to ITA information on promoting trade and investment, strengthening the competitiveness of U.S. industry, and ensuring fair trade and compliance with trade laws and agreements. External links to other Internet sites should not be construed as an endorsement of the views or privacy policies contained therein. This site contains PDF documents. A PDF reader is available from Adobe Systems Incorporated.