Skip to main content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.

Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( ) or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

Supplier Scouting

Manufacturers as well as federal, state and local agencies face supply chain challenges that impact our nation’s health and safety as well as our national and economic security. Small and medium-sized manufacturers (SMMs) are especially challenged with sustaining operations in light of current supply chain conditions. There is a widespread need to find domestic manufacturing suppliers to meet current needs.

The MEP National Network™ connects U.S. manufacturers that have relevant production capabilities and capacities with additional manufacturers – enabling them to fulfill current market and societal needs. We can then assist those manufacturers in actually delivering needed products.

Locating Difficult-to-Source Needs

The MEP National Network’s Supplier Scouting service can be applied on a national, regional or local scale. By leveraging our extensive relationships and knowledge of U.S. manufacturing capabilities, we identify manufacturers with these production and technical capabilities and connect them with supply chains of larger companies and government agencies. Additionally, we identify and connect suppliers with purchasers, responding to the specific needs of individual companies or agencies.

The MEP National Network works with public and private organizations to identify U.S. suppliers of difficult-to-source needs. Supplier Scouting facilitates the interaction between top-of-supply chain companies and government agencies with U.S. SMMs to help identify new suppliers who can produce hard-to-source items.

MEP Centers can support vendors, materials, or technical searches by identifying:

  • Technical and process capabilities.
  • Production capacities.
  • Proficiency to make products
  • Ability to pivot production to critical supplies

Domestic manufacturing capabilities and capacities can produce any item needed by our nation’s supply chains. The MEP National Network’s Supplier Scouting service provides a viable means by which U.S. manufacturing can be catalyzed to produce needed items domestically.

The MEP National Network scouts for hundreds of items from all industries, providing opportunities for SMMs to expand and grow. View current open opportunities.

If you would like assistance finding suppliers to meet state or local critical domestic production, please contact your local MEP Center If you have a Supplier Scouting need or opportunity at the national level, please submit the form below.

Required* Indicates required field
NIST will include and share your contact information in our information systems to enable us to manage interactions and relationships with you, our customer, and review how NIST provides products, services, and support.  We do this by aggregating customer data from a number of authorized NIST systems.  Your information will not be shared with information systems that are not authorized by NIST.

Contacts

For General Information

  • MEP Headquarters
    (301) 975-5020
    100 Bureau Drive, M/S 4800
    Gaithersburg, MD 20899-4800
Created March 23, 2020, Updated July 13, 2022