Questions-Responses BAA 692M15-19-R-00020 Amen 01-Call 002-01.pdf

Questions and Responses BAA 692M15‐19‐R‐00020 Amendment 01 ‐ Call 002-01:

1) In response to the recent call for white papers from the FAA UAS Integration Office BAA, I wanted to ask if the government customer desires or requires corporate matching funds.

See Call 002 item #3e, “any resulting awards made from receipt of white papers for Call 002 will be awarded on a FFP basis”. Therefore, there is no requirement for matching corporate funds.

2) Pursuant to the instructions under Section 4.c of the subject call for White Papers, please find these questions for your consideration.

a. What is the total and per‐topic funding level available? The FAA has committed up to

$6M to fund all the Call 002 contract awards; there are no set per‐topic funding levels.

b. Similar to a question in 692M15‐19‐R‐00020 (Whitepaper Call 001), are both cash and in‐kind contributions acceptable as offeror Government funding cost‐matching? See Call

002 item #3e, “any resulting awards made from receipt of white papers for Call 002 will be awarded on a FFP basis”. The FAA does not require any cost‐matching.”

c. Several topics are highly related. Would the FAA prefer to receive separate, but similar, white papers for each of the topics from a QCE or would the FAA prefer to receive one white paper from the QCE that relates to more than one topic as a single effort? The

FAA expects a single whitepaper for the Offerors proposed project. Projects may address multiple topic areas.

d. Are white paper evaluations conducted by topic or as a collective? FAA Subject Matter

Experts conduct technical reviews of all whitepapers received. In accordance with this

BAA, the primary basis for funding selection will be determined by technical merit, importance to mission/agency programs, and availability of funding.

3) What is the start date of the period of performance? Upon award of a contract (estimated NLT 9/30/2021) with a duration of 12 months.

4) Can a Contractor propose using our own unmanned aircraft for test and our own civil COA instead of going to the test site for a public COA and lease of any of their flight test assets? To be eligible for consideration and potential contract award, the Offeror must seek to demonstrate and/or validate technologies that the FAA considers essential to the safe integration of UAS into the NAS at FAA designated UAS Test Sites. Demonstration/validation logistics will have to be negotiated between the Offeror and the UAS Test Sites.

5) What are the expectations of the FAA regarding the commercialization of the technology to be researched under the BAA?

a. Specifically, will the FAA consider the commercialization plan and approach as an evaluation factor? If so, what are the associated evaluation criteria? No. This Call is for the demonstration or validation of UAS technology with a Technical Readiness Level (TRL) between 5 and 7 – post applied research, but before commercialization. Deleted last sentence here.

b. Is the FAA looking for technologies that would eventually be procured by the FAA itself?

No, the FAA is looking for pre‐commercialized efforts. That is not a restriction on future FAA acquisition efforts, but a reflection upon the current development effort.

c. Or is the FAA seeking to use the efforts that will be awarded under this BAA to perform technology validation and establish standards for technology that would eventually be implemented and deployed by commercial entities such as UAS manufacturers or service suppliers? Potentially, the output of the BAA projects may lead to eventual publication and/or updates to standards (such as RTCA, ASTM), or used in the creation of FAA policies, etc.

6) The TRL spreadsheet that is included with the solicitation includes many items that are not described. Can the FAA provide a guide to this TRL spreadsheet that provides additional information? It appears that some of the items refer to artifacts that would have a data item description (DID) associated with them, but we have not been able to identify or locate any such information. Specific examples of referenced items that require additional clarification include:

"Desktop environment," "Investment Strategy Sheet," "Metrics established," "S&T exit criteria established," "CAIV targets set," "SEMP," and others. We are looking for technology that is post‐ applied research, but before commercialization. Reference BAA 692M15‐19‐R‐00020 Amendment 001, General Information, Item #10, page 5 for the TRL 5‐ 7 definitions to guide you.

Use the aforementioned definitions as your main TRL criteria. After reviewing the TRL description, use the “TOP LEVEL VIEW” Table of the “TRL Calculator” to record your technology TRL.

7) The TRL spreadsheet includes a number of items related to customer requirements and system performance metrics having been defined, as well as IPTs having been established. Since this is an open BAA soliciting new technologies that are not specific to an existing system, it does not seem appropriate to require that customer requirements have been defined in order to meet the evaluation criteria, nor that a formal IPT would already exist. The "evaluation master plan" also seems pre‐mature at this stage. Can the FAA clarify what is expected in these areas? See answer to Question 6.

8) The TRL spreadsheet refers to required analyses such as "best value analysis," "FMEA," "Technology availability," "Scaling documents," and others. Can the FAA provide any additional information regarding what is expected in these areas? See answer to Question 6.

9) Our reading of the BAA provides the assumption that it is incumbent on the offerer to mature the technology to TRL 6 as a starting point for the BAA development. It is then the intent of the government to continue that development from TRL 6 to at least TRL 7 during the course of the project. Please confirm this is the intent of the government, and that it is reasonable to assume that the offerer can retain data rights to the developed technology after the technologies are complete. It is not the intent of the FAA to continue the development of the proposed technology after completion of the projects. The main objective of Call 002 is for Offerors to demonstrate and/or validate technologies that the FAA considers essential to the safe integration of UAS. Should an official request for proposal be issued from an accepted white paper, reference BAA 692M15‐19‐R‐00020 Amendment 001, Proposal Preparation, Submission and Evaluation, Item ii, #10a‐d, page 13 Intellectual Property, to understand the position of the

FAA regarding Data Rights under any efforts coming from the BAA.