BROAD AGENCY ANNOUNCEMENT (BAA) RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT FOR STRATEGIC MISSIONS, ELECTRONIC WARFARE/INFORMATION OPS, AND SPECIAL MISSIONS.
The Naval Surface Warfare Center, Crane Division (NSWC Crane) conducts Research and Development (R & D) directed toward Strategic Missions, Special Missions and Electronic Warfare/Information Ops in support of our nation's warfighters. The Strategic Missions area encompasses the full range of DoD activities that alter an adversary's will and ability to attack the United States and it interests, the area's primary technical areas include Threat Detection, Integrated Missile Defense and Global Strike. The Electronic Warfare/Information Ops area supports any military action using electromagnetic energy to control the electromagnetic spectrum or attack an adversary; this area's main focus includes Electronic Attack, Electronic Warfare Support and Electronic Protection. The Special Missions area supports military forces engaged in Special Operations, Irregular Warfare and Riverine Operations, this area's primary technical areas include sensors & communications, mobility & maneuverability, special munitions & weapons, and training. Our mission is to provide Acquisition, Fleet Support, Acquisition Engineering, R & D, Product Engineering, Systems Engineering, Test & Evaluation, Logistics, Maintenance & Repair, Legacy Systems/Products, and Program Management. Within these mission areas the Division is responsible for the full spectrum of R & D, acquisition, and fleet support. Typical functions include fundamental research; concept formulation; assessment of system and subsystem requirements; development, analysis and evaluation of concepts, systems and subsystems; and development of operational systems. NSWC Crane is interested in receiving proposals for R & D in all of its mission areas. This notice constitutes a combined synopsis/Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) as contemplated in FAR 6.102(d)(2). It is intended that this BAA be open for a period of three years from the date of publication. Proposals may be submitted by any non-governmental entity including commercial firms, non-profit organizations, and institutions of higher education with degree-granting programs in science and/or engineering (universities), or by consortia comprising such concerns. NSWC Crane encourages participation by small business, small disadvantaged business, HUBZone small business, woman-owned small business, veteran-owned small business, and historically black colleges and universities and minority institutions (HBCUs/MIs). However, no part of this BAA is specifically reserved for HBCUs/MIs. The following guidelines apply to concept papers or proposals. Typically each proposal may be: (1) funded incrementally for periods up to three years subject to the availability of appropriations; (2) funded between $10,000 to $5,000,000, with the size of each dependent upon the topic (although NSWC Crane reserves the right to entertain larger proposals based on the availability of funds); (3) more than one effort may be funded for an individual topic area; (4) NSWC Crane is not interested in concepts that already have been developed or proven (even if they never have been sold before); (5) NSWC Crane seeks proposals for scientific study and experimentation directed toward advancing the state-of-the-art or increasing knowledge or understanding; and (6) deliverables should demonstrate the results of scientific study and experimentation rather than focus on a specific system or hardware solution. Proposals for non-innovative, marginal improvements are inappropriate under BAA authority and would not be considered for funding. In order to minimize the cost regarding proposal preparation, as a preliminary step, interested parties are strongly encouraged to submit an initial synopsis (commonly referred to as "white paper"). This white paper should not exceed 10 pages, with an executive summary (short paragraph) on the effort, a technical description of the effort, a preliminary schedule, identification of risks, current Technology Readiness Level (TRL) (see attached APPENDIX 6, TECHNOLOGY READINESS LEVELS AND THEIR DEFINITIONS an anticipated TRL if project is funded, and a rough cost estimate. Offerors should submit the white papers electronically. A title, BAA number, offeror name, project duration, approximate cost, and a brief abstract with information explicitly pertinent to the proposed work must accompany the white paper. The Government reserves the right to request a proposal from any, all, part of, or none of the offerors submitting white papers. Offerors submitting the most promising white papers will be encouraged to submit full technical and cost proposals on all or part of their white paper submission. However, any such encouragement does not assure a subsequent award. Offerors may submit full technical and cost proposals even if they did not submit a white paper or their white paper was not identified as promising. The Government will acknowledge the receipt of white papers and full technical and cost proposals by e-mail. White papers (and any resulting proposals) will be evaluated using the following evaluation criteria: (1) Overall scientific, technical, and socio-economic merits of the proposed effort; (2) Potential naval relevance and contributions of the effort to NSWC Crane's specific mission areas; (3) Degree to which new and creative solutions to technical issues important to NSWC Crane programs are proposed as well as the degree to which technical data and/or computer software developed under the proposed effort are to be delivered to NSWC Crane with unrestricted (at least Government Purpose) rights; (4) The offeror's capabilities, related experience, facilities, techniques or unique combinations of these which are integral factors for achieving the proposal objectives; (5) The qualifications, capabilities and experience of the proposed Principal Investigator, team leader o! r other key personnel who are critical in achieving the proposal objectives; and (6) Realism/reasonableness of the proposed costs and the availability of funds. These criteria are listed in descending order of importance, and the non-price factors, when taken together, are significantly more important than price. Based on evaluation of the white papers, participants may be selected and invited to submit full technical and cost proposals for evaluation by NSWC Crane using the above noted evaluation criteria. An invitation to submit a full proposal does not guarantee funding. THE GOVERNMENT RESERVES THE RIGHT TO SELECT FOR FUNDING ANY, ALL, PART, OR NONE OF THE RESPONSES RECEIVED. For efforts funded as legally binding commitments, evaluation of the socio-economic merits will include the extent of commitment in providing meaningful subcontracting opportunities for small business, small disadvantaged business, woman-owned small business, veteran-owned small business, HUBZone small business, and historically black colleges and universities and minority institutions. This is to notify potential proposers that each grant or cooperative agreement that may be placed under this announcement or solicitation to an institution of higher education must include the following clause: "As a condition for receipt of funds available to the Department of Defense (DoD) under this award, the recipient agrees that it is not an institution that has a policy of denying, and that it is not an institution that effectively prevents, the Secretary of Defense from obtaining for military recruiting purposes: (A) entry to campuses or access to students on campuses; or (B) access to directory information pertaining to students. If the recipient is determined, using procedures established by the Secretary of Defense to implement section 558 of Public Law 103-337 (1994), to be such an institution during the period of performance of this agreement, and therefore to be in breach of this clause, the Government will cease all payments of DoD funds under this agreement! and all other DoD grants and cooperative agreements, and it may suspend or terminate such grants and agreements unilaterally for material failure to comply with the terms and conditions of award." If your institution has been identified under the procedures established by the Secretary of Defense to implement section 558, then: (1) no funds available to DoD may be provided to your institution through any grant, including any existing grant; (2) as a matter of policy, this restriction also applies to any cooperative agreement, and (3) your institution is not eligible to receive a grant or cooperative agreement in response to this solicitation. Any commercial firm or institution of higher education may submit a proposal. There is no longer a requirement that the entity be U.S. in origin. White papers may be submitted any time prior to expiration of the BAA. There is no set date for submission. The following e-mail point of contact is provided for information regarding technical programs/technologies of interest within the warfare areas supported by NSWC Crane and for submission of white papers and proposals: Brooke Pyne (e-mail Crane_TEO@navy.mil). Please refer to BAA number N00164-10-R-0001 in all correspondence and communications.
N0016410R0001 Department of the Navy Naval Sea Systems Command
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