BAA_NEEC_FY25_final amend 5.docx

NSWCDD BAA N00178-25-0001

INTRODUCTION:

This publication constitutes a Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) as contemplated in 2 CFR 200 of the Code of Federal Regulations. A formal Request for Proposals (RFP), solicitation, and/or additional information regarding this announcement will not be issued.

Naval Surface Warfare Center (NSWC) Dahlgren Division (DD) will not issue paper copies of this announcement. NSWC DD reserves the right to select for award all some or none of the proposals in response to this announcement. NSWC DD reserves the right to fund all, some or none of the proposals received under this BAA. NSWC DD provides no funding for direct reimbursement of proposal development costs. Technical and cost proposals (or any other material) submitted in response to this BAA will not be returned. All proposals will be treated as sensitive competitive in formation and will be protected from unauthorized disclosure.

GENERAL INFORMATION

A. Agency Name:

Naval Surface Warfare Center Dahlgren Division 6149 Welsh Road Dahlgren, VA 22448

B. Research Opportunity Title

Naval Engineering Education Consortium (NEEC) Broad Agency Announcement for Fiscal Year (FY) 2025 (FY25).

C. Program Name

NEEC

D. Funding Opportunity Number

NSWCDD BAA N00178-25-0001.

E. Response Date:

Full Proposal Due: 30 October 2024 Eastern Daylight Time 11:59 pm

F. Research Opportunity Description

This BAA is open only to colleges and universities.

On behalf of the Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) Warfare Centers, NSWC DD is soliciting research of interest in support of the NEEC. The topics of interest are listed below:

NSWC Carderock Technical POC: John Barkyoumb

NSWCCD is interested in receiving proposals directed toward projects involving undergraduate or combined graduate student efforts that supports the professional development/growth of students across the technical disciplines within Ship and Submarine Design and supporting technologies. The expectation is that awardees will work closely with the appropriate experts at NSWCCD throughout the entire effort. Considerations will be given to proposals in either of the following categories:

CD-01: College & University Student Capstone/Senior Research projects:

NSWCCD seeks proposals for capstone projects involving significant undergraduate research and design. Graduate Student involvement should support the objectives of the undergraduate capstones. These capstone projects should be team-based and be able to demonstrate progress on preparing the students for future employment opportunities at NSWCCD and across the Naval R&D Enterprise. Individual awards made from this BAA under CD-01 plan to be approximately $35K to $75K with two 12-month option years.

CD-02: Graduate Research Projects:

NSWCCD seeks proposals for graduate student research projects which result in completed Master’s Thesis and/or Doctoral Dissertations. Individual awards made from this BAA under CD-02 plan to be approximately $50K to $90K with two 12-month option years.

Additional detailed information on potential technical areas of research can be found on the Doing Business with Carderock Website at:

https://www.navsea.navy.mil/Portals/103/Documents/NSWC_Carderock/Partnering%20with%20Carderock%20-%202024%20Dist%20A.pdf

NSWC Corona Technical POC: Karon Myles NSWC Corona proposals must NOT exceed $300K

CO-01: Multi Beam Antenna on Aerial Moving Platform:

Research and testing of advanced multi-beam antennas have demonstrated significant improvements in receiver sensitivity and the reliability of Radio Frequency (RF) communications for moving platforms, particularly in military platforms such aerial platforms. Due to the challenging topography and limitations of current antenna designs, communication loss is a common issue. Implementing a more advanced antenna on aerial platforms would reduce known signal nulls and improve receiver sensitivity, enabling the platform to detect weaker signals more effectively.

CO-02: Protecting Training Data in the Use of Large Language Models:

Large Language Models (LLMs) are trained on vast data stores which cannot be manually checked and can include private and otherwise sensitive information. Open source training datasets have been demonstrated to include personally identifying information (PII), copyrighted information, and toxic language. Simply removing sensitive information from the training data is often not an option because it is needed in order to fine-tune the LLM for a related domain-specific task. Although training with sensitive data is important to achieve good performance, it is essential that the sensitive training data is not revealed by the LLM in response to prompts. Research efforts may include novel training techniques to improve the robustness of the LLM, and the use of input and output filters to screen out malicious input prompts and responses containing sensitive data.

CO-03: Synthetic Dataset Generation and Evaluation of Methods for Navy Data:

Creating, evaluating, and researching methods for synthetic dataset generation of data for use in Natural Language Processing (NLP), Computer Vision, and other methods of modeling and utilization of data science techniques is important and necessary. The Navy would like to see research in creating realistic, unclassified data that is verified and evaluated to be correctly aligned and similar to Navy data without revealing or disclosing any potentially classified parts of the data. The models used to evaluate and validate the unclassified data can then be transferred for use on Navy data.

NSWC Crane Technical POC: Bryan Woosley

NSWC Crane is prepared to award at least one Grant aligned with the topic below. NSWC Crane requests that proposals include an annual budget for the initial award year totaling $155K and include two option years with an annual budget of $140K each for a total Period of Performance of 3 years and budget of $435K.

CR-01 Photonic Compute:

High-efficiency hybrid electric-photonic ADC and DAC: Photonic compute has the promise of performing tasks with high data density utilizing several forms of multiplexing, such as wavelength and phase. The full benefit of such photonic systems is when the operation is performed in the analog domain. Disaggregation of tasks to photonic compute cores requires conversion of electrical digital data to photonic analog data, a task that is currently both power inefficient and speed constrained. Development of highly power-efficient, fast, and low-noise converters, either in the electrical, photonic, or hybrid domain, would eliminate one of the biggest bottlenecks for utilization of photonic compute cores. Proposals should explore architectures that can be highly parallelable across many photonic processors. Metrics of interest include total system power, conversion speed, and efficiency. Topics should also consider how architectures can increase the effective number of bits while also minimizing noise for fully digital-electrical to analog-photonic (DAC) and analog-photonic to digital-electrical (ADC) conversion chains.

NSWC Dahlgren Technical POC: Parker Page

DD01: Thermal Protective System Material Analysis Thermal:

Protective System materials are centered on material technologies that were developed in the 60s and 80s. The constituent materials of current systems try to mimic historical obsolete systems as much as possible, while manufacturing methods have taken a baby-step approach in automation and have been limited to a very niche group of manufacturers. With the recent emphasis of industry in the hypersonics arena, more and more companies are coming up with novel and creative solutions to the TPS problem. Interest is in rapid-prototyping efforts to develop products that provide better performance, reduce cost, and increase rates of production. Additionally, these materials must be tested to analyze their performance in these extreme environments. Advanced instrumentation that would provide direct measurements rather than inferred material properties is also of interest.

DD02: Firmware Scanning:

As Navy systems become increasingly complex and increasingly targeted by adversaries, there is a need to understand our full cyber threat informed attack surface. Modern hardware is becoming increasingly reliant on software, and several recent high profile firmware vulnerabilities have drawn attention to the impact that firmware vulnerabilities can have. The US Navy needs research and development of tools that can analyze device firmware, identify or correlate vulnerabilities and/or compromises, and provide increased situational awareness of the risk that these systems have.

DD03: Embedding Systems Engineering Expertise:

As the Navy adopts new paradigms of Systems Engineering, such as Model Based Systems Engineering (MBSE), there is a desire to research how best to take advantage of the new capabilities this brings to our processes. One specific area is how best to link MBSE Model Development to Software Developers in order to identify novel practices for transitioning between modern modeling and future capability development.

DD04: High-Power Antenna and Enabling Components:

The Navy is interested in research pertaining to High-Power antennas to include; improved high-power passive electronically-steered array (PESA) performance, improved active electronically-steered array (AESA) performance, reduced size, weight, and power (Swap) requirements, and the development of antenna models using computational electromagnetics.

DD05: Hypersonic Materials and coupled fluid-thermal-structural interaction M&S:

The Navy is interested in research pertaining to Hypersonic Materials and coupled fluid-thermal-structural interaction to include; active and passive cooling techniques in hypersonic flight environments, thermal-electric energy capture devices, boundary layer transition and stability techniques, low cost, highly manufactural, high temperature materials, efficient coupled aero-thermal-structural interaction M&S frameworks, improved aerodynamic and aerothermal modeling and testing of wake and base regions. Improved threat predictor algorithms, and improved adaptive autopilot and state estimation algorithms.

DD06: Improved Laser Weapons System Optics and Diagnostics:

The Navy is interested in research pertaining to High Laser Induced Damage Threshold (LIDT) – Ultra Broadband – Surface Structured Optics to include; scalability of Optical Power Handling for NSWCDD Laser Lethality Interactions, glass and Structure Design for Dual-Modality HEL Propagation – Simultaneous Continuous Wave and Pulsed Laser Utilization, High Peak Power Handling focusing lenses for Nd:YAG 1ω, 2ω, and 3ω propagation, multi-Wavelength Bidirectional Reflectance Distribution Function (BRDF), improved modeling and experimental characterization of optical turbulence, extinction, and thermal blooming, and improved high energy laser system reliability.

DD07: Non-Determinate System Impacts on System Safety, understanding the role of AI/ML and the ability to trust those systems:

As artificial intelligence becomes a regular part of our daily lives, it is inevitable for that technology to become a critical part of weapon system development to be agnostic and combat emergent threats. Understanding the strengths and limitations of AI/ML is key to designing and implementing it safely and effectively. We must learn when and whether to trust the technology, understand its capabilities and limitations, and adapt as these systems evolve. Trust is key to a successful partnership between humans and AI and is built over time through education, research, past experiences, and lessons learned. The level of belief or confidence we place in AI should be thoughtfully measured and evaluated by taking into account the AI’s capabilities and the safety of its performance under normal, stressed, and adversarial situations. We must also consider how it works with different types of users and weapon systems in different environments. Through academic research and leveraging industry initiatives and trade studies will allow DoD weapon systems to be designed to account for these areas of consideration to deploy safe systems into the fleet.

DD08: Cognitive EW:

The Navy is interested in research pertaining to the use of RFML (Radio Frequency Machine Learning) techniques to recognize threat intent of unknown waveforms in EW systems. Determine threat intent based on RF parameters: waveform, update rate, pulse width, etc.

DD09: Effects Measurement Techniques:

The Navy is interested in research pertaining to the use of novel techniques to measure electromagnetic effects by embedding non-conductive sensors into electronics and ordnances to determine coupled electromagnetic energy.

DD10: Clutter Recognition Algorithms:

As naval forces continue to face more complex warfighting scenarios, clutter recognition algorithms are needed to help process and present actionable information to warfighters. Use RFML techniques to process I and Q data streams to support the processing of radar data and development of clutter recognition algorithms.

DD11: AI Analysis of Event-Driven Electromagnetic Spectrum Monitoring:

The Navy is interested in research pertaining to exploring the implementation of Intelligent Automation and Artificial Intelligence (AI) algorithms to enhance event-driven electromagnetic spectrum monitoring. By integrating emerging AI techniques, such as machine learning and deep learning, research the feasibility of an automated system capable of accurately identifying, classifying, and predicting anomalous events within the electromagnetic spectrum through system metadata. This proposed methodology enables real-time data analysis, intelligent pattern recognition, and adaptive decision-making processes, resulting in improved spectrum management efficiency and reduced human intervention.

DD12: Radio Frequency Machine Learning (RFML) Analysis for Anomaly Detection of Known Electromagnetic Emissions:

The Navy is interested in research pertaining to investigating the application of Intelligent Automation and Radio Frequency Machine Learning (RFML) techniques to identify and analyze anomalous electromagnetic emissions from known sources. By leveraging advanced machine learning algorithms, the intent would be to develop an automated system capable of accurately detecting, classifying, and predicting deviations in known RF signatures.

DD13: Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI):

Generative models such as large language models (LLM) are being used to generate code and to otherwise help increase the productivity of software engineers. The Navy requires the code generated to be secure, safe, modular and maintainable. LLMs have been explored as a tool to find bugs in code or to produce patches for security flaws, with only marginal success. Methods to improve the code produced by LLMs, without requiring a custom LLM or extensive retraining, would be of interest. Other possible use cases for LLMs in software engineering to improve the process, reduce the time to product, improve the productivity of the coders, and ensure the maintainability and correctness of the code would be of interest.

DD14: Guarantees in AI/ML:

AI and machine learning (ML) algorithms are extremely complex, with many thousands (millions, billions) of parameters. With most such algorithms, there is no way to ensure the performance of the system on new data, particularly data that deviates from the training data, or data that has been manipulated by an adversary. Methods to a) provide guarantees of the performance of the AI/ML; b) to understand the workings of the algorithm and provide a human-understandable reason for their decision; c) to ensure that learning models do not learn undesirable behaviors; d) improve the way AI/ML systems are tested and validated to ensure that their models are correct, would greatly increase their utility and safety for Navy problems.

DD15: Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) Guides:

Develop MBSE process guides that identify modeling best practices and processes that are agile compatible, enable cross-agency collaboration and use of the MBSE toolkit.

DD16: SOS Roadmap:

Develop visual depiction of technology portfolio project tasks schedules and milestones to enhance ability to identify risks and opportunities as well as leverage resources and deliverables across tasks. Tool to be dynamic, with internet based GUI and dashboard. Unclassified or dummy date will be used for actual project schedules and events.

NSWC Indian Head Technical POC: Amanda Wilmot

IH-01:

Energetic materials that offer disruptive advances in performance. Desired technologies include innovative formulations, synthesis methods, processing methods and/or novel compounds that enable longer range rocket motors or increased warhead performance. Development and characterization of fundamental shock wave, shock wave propagation and shock effects at different temperatures. Dissipative and dispersive effects have to be understood to describe impulse and energy flux at scale up or larger distances given the knowledge of the shock profile. Also considered are synthetic methods and/or novel compounds that enable faster, cheaper, or more efficient scale up and production. Solutions should not be a detriment to the current state-of-the-art sensitivity to enable their safe handling, processing, and storage. Preference will be given to energetic material concepts whose ingredients are domestically sourced, of practical cost, and readily scaled to support future demonstrations and prototyping. It is expected the NEEC university partner will collaborate with NSWC IHD scientists/engineers and that the proposal will describe how the grant deliverables will be transitioned to the Navy.

IH-02:

Artificial Intelligence solutions that improve the performance of munitions and other energetic systems. Desired technologies include classical AI/ML models, Deep Learning, Large Language Models and/or Generative AI that enable longer range, faster speed, or increased warhead performance. Also considered are AI/ML tools that enable faster, cheaper, or more efficient system development, simulation, testing, and/or production, and such tools can focus on applications from the component level to the system level. It is expected the NEEC university partner will collaborate with Naval Surface Warfare Center Indian Head Division (NSWC IHD) scientists/engineers and that the proposal will describe how the grant deliverables will be transitioned to the Navy.

NSWC Panama City Technical POC: Matt Bays No topics this year.

NSWC Philadelphia Technical POC: Steve Mastro

PD-01:

Development of High Performance Photo-Activated Catalysts with High Activity and Quantum Efficiency for Oxidation of Airborne Contamination on Submarines. Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC) are slowly released into the air on submarines due to permeation from machinery and chemical systems such as Lithium-Ion batteries and from off-gassing from numerous plastic components. Carbon monoxide and hydrogen are generated during food preparation and charging of lead-acid batteries, respectively. To prevent accumulation of these gases and to maintain concentrations below hazardous levels, a catalytic burner is used to convert these contaminants into water vapor and carbon dioxide which are easily removed from the submarine. The catalyst currently used in the burner requires an elevated temperature that requires a warm-up period during start-up and creates burn hazards. Catalysts that operate at room temperature could eliminate the warm-up time and potential burn hazards. The US Navy is exploring photo-activated catalysts that operate at room temperature and activate instantly upon illumination by Ultra-Violet (UV) light. UV activated catalysts based on Titanium Dioxide (TiO2) may also include benefits of low toxicity relative to thermally activated formulations. Testing in a Navy laboratory has shown that TiO2 impregnated with Platinum (Pt) is active for many of the oxidation reactions required for submarine airborne contaminant removal but the activities and quantum efficiencies are too low for targeted applications. The activity is defined as the number of contaminant molecules removed per time at a given space velocity and contaminant concentration. Quantum efficiency is defined as the moles of contaminant molecules oxidized per mole of photons. NSWCPD is requesting proposals to develop a photo-activated catalyst with higher activity and quantum efficiency than TiO2 / Pt that operates at room temperature. Research should explore the potential of the catalyst being resistant to all decomposition products that may form by complete or partial oxidation from VOC molecules containing halogens and/or sulfur that may be present in the air at concentrations up to 100 ppm. The ideal catalyst would be activated by a narrow band of light that can be generated with commercially available Light Emitting Diodes (LED) with a peak illumination wavelength of at least 360 nanometers. The research should contain an educational component with undergraduate and or graduate students participating in the work.

NSWC Port Hueneme Technical POC: Armen Kvrtvan

PH-01:

Additive Manufacturing (AM) is paving the way for rapid repair and replacement in all industries and thus increasing mission readiness. With respect to metallic 3D printing, there is special interest in how these materials behave in a corrosive environment similar to that of a naval vessel. The efforts of this research should be focused on utilizing electrochemical methods to qualitatively and quantitatively assess the corrosion behavior of these materials. Most importantly, to compare these newfound values with materials that were produced via traditional methods (i.e. forged, rolled, etc.).

PH-02:

As different metallic alloys are developed for shipboard use, insight into material degradation and the initial cause of cracking in metallic components aboard ships is necessary. Specifically, the efforts of this work should focus on understanding and developing materials/chemicals that could help in better understanding the initiation of these crack and fracture points. Some research elements include alloy development, simulation development, chemical analysis, surface chemistry and biological influence.

NUWC Keyport Technical POC: Thai Tran

KPT-01:

Explore directional sensors on subsurface bottom mounted platforms and data analysis techniques to provide situational awareness for the underwater environment. Potential applications for underwater localization, tracking/detection of acoustic sources and marine mammals, and ambient/soundscape noise characterization.

KPT-02:

Investigate potential payload designs to enable a Small Unmanned Undersea Vehicle (SUUV) to land (“bottom”) on the sea floor, maintain bottom position for extended periods (up to 24 hours), and separate from the sea floor under its own power.

KPT-03:

Conduct basic, applied, and advanced technology research combining algorithms, data analytics, and computational science and engineering; especially in the areas of securing Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning technologies. Develop cybersecurity solutions and technologies that interact with a variety of areas including combinatorial scientific computing, network science, data mining and machine learning, and high-performance computing. Explore their interdependencies within human machine teams to provide maritime cyber solutions integral to autonomous systems.

KPT-04:

Conduct basic, applied, and advanced technology research in the areas of securing Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning technologies. Special emphasis on human machine teams developing “Adversarial Machine Learning” and “Artificial Intelligence Security" solutions.

KPT-05:

Industrial robotic automation is critical to advancing maintenance and repair. Due to the high mix, low volume nature of repair and multitude of options for end of arm tooling (EOAT) it is critical that path planning algorithms support multiple orientations and control in 1) EOAT orientation constrained to a single axis, free rotation about orientation axis, 2) EOAT orientation constrained in a single axis, rotation constrained about orientation axis, and 3) EOAT orientation constrained in all axes. Explore integration of various EOAT position/orientation requirements for automated path planning. Demonstrate this capability by performing each of the orientation controlled actions on a provided geometry.

KPT-06:

Industrial robotic automation is critical to advancing maintenance and repair. Due to the high mix, low volume nature of repair it is critical that scan to path algorithms are developed to support the unique requirements of systems. Explore path planning for continuous motion, non-tiled applications for curved and complex surfaces to support laser ablation, corrosion/damage removal and/or surface preparation prior to coating. Demonstrate the laser ablation capability by scanning a provided part, auto-generation of path, and robot execution of continuous motion over a surface curved in both directions, orientation control is desired, but not required.

KPT-07:

Laser ablation is a powerful, proven process for coating removal with the ability to improve marine platforms, however, the pulsed lasers approved for coating removal operate at power levels that cause unintended substrate melting. Following resolidification, microstructural changes occur that potentially degrade material properties and structural performance. Hypothesis-driven scientific exploration is critical to understand the physical mechanisms at work, the relationships between surface and bulk properties, and long-term impacts on performance. This data will be utilized to inform and develop a future laser ablation performance specification.

NUWC Newport Technical POC: Elizabeth Magliula

NPT-01:

Innovative sensor techniques and sensor network modeling to increase the overall probability and confidence of detection, track quality, and collection of other target characteristics. Advanced acoustic sensor and array technologies and active transduction technologies for platforms, fixed, and distributed systems that all address sub-sea and seabed arenas.

NPT-02:

Advanced AI/Machine Learning architectures that produce human-interpretable results and yield explainable decisions. Machine learning approaches that suitably perform with few or no training samples. Transfer learning algorithms that maintain target recognition performance when sensors are replaced or are degraded from normal wear. Reinforcement learning architectures and training approaches that improve the performance and accuracy of unmanned vehicle autonomy. Novel computing techniques such as brain-inspired neural networks, deep learning processing, and machine/reinforcement learning for integration into systems to improve navigation, acoustic localization, underwater sound tracking in challenging environments, etc.

NPT-03:

Innovative technologies for multi-vehicle autonomy, mobile distributed sensing, undersea networks, and next generation signal distribution platforms in order to produce sufficient and reliable communications and address new challenges.

NPT-04:

Exploring the full electromagnetic (EM) spectrum to develop advanced imaging and electronic capabilities (antenna design, high dynamic range imaging, microwave interferometry, and high-energy laser research). Explore innovative approaches for communicating with undersea assets in a contested environment. Provide a capability to continually monitor operations in an electromagnetically contested environment. Improve ability to detect and classify EM threats and improve ability to deny adversary EM mobility across the EM spectrum.

NPT-05:

Advanced materials, additive manufacturing, and metamaterials. Options include but are not limited to: Investigate effects of marine environments on the performance of advanced coatings and/or metamaterials used for resistance to chemical, physical, and biofouling deterioration, etc. Investigate, identify & execute aspects of design, rapid prototyping, manufacturing, maintenance, and repair technologies associated with additive and advanced manufacturing (AM) research and development. Investigate and validate computational approaches and processes for AM materials for naval applications, and should address associated printed material qualification techniques. Investigate modeling techniques and pursue experiments to systematically understand extreme material response such as fracture, plastic deformation, etc. under impulsive hydrodynamic loading.

NPT-06:

Investigate solutions for enhancing Human-Machine Teams (HMT) within the realm of undersea systems delivering advanced command-and-control capabilities. This topic aims to explore and develop cutting-edge methodologies and technologies that facilitate focused command and convergent control concepts, thereby improving the operational effectiveness and coordination. Proposals should address the integration of autonomous and semi-autonomous systems with human operators, emphasizing real-time data sharing, decision support, and tactical execution. Key areas of interest include the development of robust planning and re-planning frameworks, advanced sensor fusion, AI-driven decision aids, and human-machine interface (HMI) innovations that enhance situational awareness and operational synergy between human operators and enabling capabilities.

NPT-07:

Perform research to advance the understanding and application of decision science to the undersea domain. Areas of particular interest include decision making in situations with imperfect information and high uncertainty, decision making within complex crew communication networks and team structures, as well as the development of methodologies for improving decision making in sociotechnical systems.

NPT-08:

Fundamental research to develop advanced modeling capabilities for the design of impact and shock resistant structural configurations for use in undersea payloads and structures. Modeling approaches may be supplemented by experiments to provide model validation data. The methods should reliably predict material/structural failure and survivable loading levels for extreme loading environments including combined depth and shock/impact loading. Demonstration of reduced weight while providing increased blast/shock/impact response are desirable. Research areas may potentially include novel additive manufactured designs for energy absorption, incorporation of energy absorbing materials into structural designs, or energy attenuation through structural design.

JHTO Joint Hypersonic Transition Office Technical POC: Annie Bullock Annie.e.bullock.civ@us.navy.mil The JHTO is only looking for one year proposals at approximately $100k

JHTO-01:

Seeking proposals directed toward faculty-run research projects involving undergraduate students where the focus is on hypersonics capability development. Focus is especially, but not solely, on research projects dealing with ground and flight test and evaluation, instrumentation, data analytics, modeling and simulation, and manufacturing. Preference will be given to proposals that demonstrate undergraduate student involvement and skill development. Travel allowance should be included to provide for student travel to share and present their work.

G. Points of Contact:

Business:

Naval Surface Warfare Center, Dahlgren Division Jennifer Montrief, Grant Specialist Contracting, 0241 Email: jennifer.e.montrief.civ@us.navy.mil Phone: (540) 273-2519

Business Alternate:

Naval Surface Warfare Center, Dahlgren Division Crystal Breen, Grant Officer Contracting, 0241 Email: crystal.p.breen.civ@us.navy.mil Phone: (540) 487-6408

Technical:

Questions concerning this announcement can be emailed to the respective point of contact above and must include the BAA announcement number and applicable topic number. Questions of a technical nature should be submitted to the appropriate technical POC in the above table with a Cc to the business point of contact.

H. Instrument Types:

Awards will take the form of grants. Any assistance instrument awarded under this BAA will be governed by the award terms and conditions that conform to DoD’s implementation of OMB circulars applicable to financial assistance. Terms and conditions may include revisions to reflect DoD implementation of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) guidance set forth in 2 CFR Part 200, “Uniform Administrative Requirements, Cost Principles, and Audit Requirements for Federal Awards;” applicable terms and conditions provided in DoDGARS; and the current DoD Research and Development (R&D) General Terms and Conditions (Grant Terms and Conditions | Office of Naval Research (navy.mil)). Any resultant award will be set at a Not-to-exceed cost. No fee or profit is allowed.

I. Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance (CFDA) Number:

12.300

J. Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance (CFDA) Title:

Department of Defense (DoD) Basic and Applied Scientific Research

K. Amendments:

Amendments to this BAA will be posted to https://www.grants.gov as needed to reflect changes in topics, instructions, or points of contact. Interested parties are encouraged to periodically check this website for updates and to establish automated alerts notifying them of any amendment postings.

L. Other Information

Work funded under a BAA may include basic research, applied research and some advanced technology development research. With regard to any restrictions on the conduct or outcome of work funded under this BAA, NSWC DD will follow the guidance on and definition of “contracted fundamental research” as provided in the Under Secretary of Defense (Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics) Memorandum of 24 May 2010 or any updated guidance that supersedes this memorandum. DoD Policy on Fundamental Research (osd.mil)

As defined therein, the definition of “contracted fundamental research” in a DoD grant or contractual context includes research performed under grants and contracts that are (a) funded by Research, Development, Test, and Evaluation Budget Activity 1 (Basic Research), whether performed by universities or industry or (b) funded by Budget Activity 2 (Applied Research) and performed on campus at a university. The research shall not be considered fundamental in those rare and exceptional circumstances where the applied research effort presents a high likelihood of disclosing performance characteristics of military systems or manufacturing technologies that are unique and critical to defense, and where agreement on restrictions have been recorded in the contract or grant.

Pursuant to DoD policy, research performed under grants and contracts that are (a) funded by Budget Activity 2 (Applied Research) and NOT performed on-campus at a university or (b) funded by Budget Activity 3 (Advanced Technology Development) does not meet the definition of “contracted fundamental research.” In conformance with the USD (AT&L) guidance and National Security Decision Directive 189, NSWC DD will place no restriction on the conduct or reporting of unclassified “contracted fundamental research,” except as otherwise required by applicable federal statute, regulation, or executive order. For certain research projects, it may be possible that although the research being performed by the prime awardee is restricted research, a Subawardee may be conducting “contracted fundamental research.” In those cases, it is the prime awardee’s responsibility in the proposal to identify and describe the subcontracted unclassified research and include a statement confirming that the work has been scoped, negotiated, and determined to be fundamental research according to the prime awardee and research performer.__ (osd.mil).

Contracts and grants and other assistance agreements made under BAAs are for scientific study and experimentation directed towards advancing the state of the art and increasing knowledge or understanding.

THIS ANNOUNCEMENT IS NOT FOR THE ACQUISITION OF TECHNICAL,

ENGINEERING, AND OTHER TYPES OF SUPPORT SERVICES.

AWARD INFORMATION:

A. Funding Amount and Period of Performance

Awards made from this BAA plan to be approximately $100k to $150k total for the base year with two 12-month option years for a potential range of $300k-$450k inclusive of options. Average award value for FY24 NEEC submissions was $410k. Anticipated award date is 1 April 2025.

Awards will take the form of grants. Any assistance instrument awarded under this BAA will be governed by the award terms and conditions that conform to DoD’s implementation of OMB circulars applicable to financial assistance. Terms and conditions may include revisions to reflect DoD implementation of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) guidance set forth in 2 CFR Part 200, “Uniform Administrative Requirements, Cost Principles, and Audit Requirements for Federal Awards;” applicable terms and conditions provided in DoDGARS; and the current DoD Research and Development (R&D) General Terms and Conditions (Grant Terms and Conditions | Office of Naval Research (navy.mil)). Any resultant award will be set at a Not-to-exceed cost. No fee or profit is allowed.

B. Awards

The Government may make multiple awards. The Government reserves the right to select for negotiation all, some, one, or none of the proposals received in response to this BAA and to make awards without discussions with proposers. The Government also reserves the right to conduct discussions if determined to be necessary. The Government reserves the right to request any additional necessary documentation once it makes the award instrument determination. Such additional information may include but is not limited to Representations and Certifications. The Government reserves the right to remove proposers from award consideration should the parties fail to reach agreement on award terms, conditions, and cost/price within a reasonable time or the proposer fails to provide requested additional information in a timely manner.

ELIGIBILTIY INFORMATION

A. All responsible sources from academia may submit proposals under this BAA.

B. Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and Minority Institutions (MIs) are highly encouraged to submit proposals and join others in submitting proposals. However, no portion of this BAA will be set aside for HBCU and MI participation, due to the impracticality of reserving discrete or severable items of this research for exclusive competition among such entities.

C. Federally Funded Research & Development Centers (FFRDCs), including the Department of Energy National Laboratories, are not eligible to receive awards under this BAA. This exclusion also applies to faculty, PIs, and advisors.

D. Navy laboratories and warfare centers as well as other Department of Defense and civilian agency laboratories are not eligible to receive awards under this BAA.

E. University Affiliated Research Centers (UARCs) are not eligible to submit proposals under this BAA. This exclusion also applies to faculty, PIs, and advisors.

F. U.S. export control legislation and authorities may apply to proposals submitted under this BAA. Proposers are solely responsible for ensuring compliance with all U.S. export control laws and regulations, including the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) and the Export Administration Regulations (EAR). In some cases, developmental items funded by the Department of Defense are now included on the United States Munition List (USML) and are therefore subject to ITAR jurisdiction. Proposers should address in their proposals whether export control restrictions apply or do not apply, such as in the case where research products would have both civil and military (dual-use) applications, to the work they are proposing to perform. The USML is available online at http://www.ecfr.gov/cgi-bin/textidx?node=pt22.1.121; the Commerce Control List (CCL) is available through https://www.bis.doc.gov/index.php/regulations/commerce-control-list-ccl . Additional information regarding the President’s Export Control Reform Initiative can be found at http://export.gov/ecr/index.asp.

G. Students must be US citizens.

APPLICATION AND SUBMISSION INFORMATION (ONE-STEP BAA PROCESS)

A. Application and Submission Process

Interested proposers may submit full technical and cost proposal in response to any of the topics areas identified above. Interested proposers may submit proposals under more than one topic of interest and there is no limit to the number of technical proposals a single interested proposer may submit. However, interested proposers may not submit the same technical proposal to more than one warfare center or activity identified in this BAA. Additional topics of interest may be added to the BAA via an amendment at any time during the open period of this BAA.

Proposers shall submit full proposals in accordance with the instructions below. The technical proposals will be evaluated in accordance with Section I of this BAA.

B. Content and Format of Proposals

Proposals submitted under this BAA are expected to be unclassified. Do not put proprietary markings in or on the Statement of Work. For proposals containing data that the Proposer does not want disclosed to the public for any purpose, or used by the Government except of evaluation purposes, the Proposer shall mark the title page with the following legend:

This proposal includes data that shall not be disclosed outside the Government and shall not be duplicated, used, or disclosed – in whole or in part – for any purpose other than to evaluate the proposal. If, however, a grant is awarded to this Proposer as a result of – or in connection with – the submission of this data, the Government shall have the right to duplicate, use, or disclose the data to the extent provided in the resulting grant. This restriction does not limit the Government’s right to use information contained in this data if it is obtained from another source without restriction. The data subject to this restriction are contained in (insert numbers or other identification of sheets).

Also, mark each sheet of data that the Proposer wishes to restrict with the following legend:

Use or disclosure of data contained on this sheet is subject to the restriction on the title page of this proposal.

Titles given to the proposals should be descriptive of the work they cover and should not be merely a copy of the title of this BAA or a research area of interest noted above. Additionally, proposers may not submit the same proposal to more than one warfare center or activity identified in this BAA.

a. SF 424 (R&R) Application for Federal Assistance Form

The SF 424 (R&R) Application for Federal assistance form must be your cover page. No pages may precede the SF 424 (R&R).

Complete all required fields in accordance with the “pop-up” instructions on the SF 424 (R&R) form. The completion of most fields is self-explanatory. You can turn on Grants.gov “Help Mode” to provide additional instructions for forms. “Help Mode” is turned on by the icon with the pointer and question mark at the top of the form.

Specific instructions for completion of SF 424 (R&R) are provided:

· Block 4a, Federal Identifier – Enter N00178

· Block 4b, Agency Routing Number – Enter the abbreviation for the warfare center the proposal is being submitted to and the Technical POC’s name, last name first, in brackets. The abbreviation and Technical POC’s name can be obtained from the chart of technical POCs on page 13 of this BAA. Failure to provide the technical POC in this block could deem your proposal invalid.

· Block 4c Previous Grants.gov Tracking ID – Enter the Grants.gov tracking number of the previous proposal submission if this submission is for a changed/corrected application; otherwise, leave blank.

· Select “I Agree” to:

· Certify (1) to the statements contained in the list of certifications* and (2) that the statements herein are true, complete and accurate to the best of my knowledge. I also provide the required assurances * and agree to comply with any resulting terms if I accept an award. I am aware that any false, fictitious, or fraudulent statements or claims may subject me to criminal, civil, or administrative penalties. (U.S. Code, Title 18, Section 1001)Agreements are true, complete, and accurate to the best of your knowledge.

· You may have to attach the completed D.3.c. SF-LLL Disclosure of Lobbying Activities if you have lobbying activity that you must disclose.

· Attach your Publicly Releasable Abstract using form Project Abstract Summary.

· Attach your Project Technical Proposal using form Research and Related Other Project Information via the attachment in section 8.

· Attach your Bibliography and References Cited using form Research and Related Other Project Information via the attachment in section 9.

· Attach a Facilities and Other Resources description document here if you need to supplement your facilities and resources section using form.

· Research and Related Other Project Information via the attachment in section 10. You may supplement your Budget Justification by attaching an Equipment Justification here. Do not duplicate information included on your budget justification. If you attach an Equipment Justification, make sure you reference the attachment in your budget justification.

· Attach the Subaward Budget Attachments Form (if applicable) and not attached elsewhere. You should have budgets and justifications for all subawards proposed attached within this form before attachment.

b. Publicly Releasable Project Summary /Abstract

You must attach the Project Summary / Abstract to field 7 of the R&R Other Project Information form.

You must submit the “NEEC Abstract” an attachment with the proposal submission. You must provide concise abstract of 300 words or less with your proposal (no more than 2000 characters). You must mark this abstract publically releasable. Your abstract should use terms the public can understand to describe the research objective, technical approach, anticipated outcome, and potential impact of the specific research.

Your abstract header should include the Topic number from Section F above along with the technical POC.

If you receive an award, we must publish your abstract to a searchable website available to the general public in accordance with Public Law 113-235. The website address is https://publicaccess.dtic.mil/search/#/grants/simpleSearch.

c. Technical Proposal

Technical proposals are limited to ten (10) pages. The cover page, table of contents, and resumes are excluded from the page count.

· Paper Size – 8.5 x 11-inch paper

·…