Market Development Cooperator Program

MDCP Project Workload: Comparison of 2006 and 2017-2019 Competition Cancelations

Due to budget constraints, ITA canceled the 2017, 2018, and 2019 MDCP competitions. ITA plans to hold a 2020 MDCP competition. Even though the MDCP award is made only once, at the beginning of the multi-year project period, a project lasts three to six years. So despite the 2017 cancelation, ITA continued to support 23 active MDCP projects funded prior to 2017. In fiscal 2018, despite there being no MDCP competition, ITA supported 20 active projects. For fiscal 2019, ITA supported 14 active MDCP projects. This is shown in the chart below on the right. This chart shows the number of active MDCP projects that will continue in each of the five years after 2017, including a projection of six (6) new MDCP awards per year beginning in 2020.

The chart below on the left shows the same number of years as the one on the right, the MDCP competition cancelation year, plus the five next years. Other than 2017, 2018, and 2019, the only other year where an MDCP competition was canceled was 2006. During that year, 20 MDCP projects remained active, all funded during previous years. ITA resumed MDCP competitions in 2007 but only made four new awards. These four carried over to 2008, and another four awards were made. This pattern, with varying numbers of new awards, continued through the six-year comparison period, as shown on the chart.

More Multi-Year Projects Remained Active After 2017 Cancelation Than After 2006 Cancelation

As shown in the side-by-side charts above, in the two years after the 2017 competition cancelation, more MDCP projects continued to be active than during the same length of time after the 2006 competition cancelation. This is due, primarily, to two factors. First, for the 2007 and 2008 competitions, MDCP award amounts were limited to $125,000, where prior awards were capped at $400,000 each. With less funds to work with, most cooperators undertook projects that took less time to complete, as short as one year. Second, in 2015, ITA began requiring a minimum project period of three years. So, beginning in 2015, average project duration, with extensions, exceeded four years. Despite the lack of 2017, 2018, and 2019 competitions, a substantial amount of MDCP project work continued.

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