Emergent IV BAA Amendment 17 1.pdf

AMENDMENT OF SOLICITATION/MODIFICATION OF CONTRACT 1. CONTRACT ID CODE

2. AMENDMENT/MODIFICAITON NO. 3. EFFECTIVE DATE 4. REQUISITION/PURCHASE REQ. NO. 5. PROJECT NO. (If applicble)

7. ADMINISTERED BY (If other than Item 6) CODE

STANDARD FORM 30 (REV. 10-83)

Prescribed by GSA FAR (48 CFR) 53.243

FACILITY CODE

9A. AMENDMENT OF SOLICIATION NO.

9B. DATED (SEE ITEM 11)

10A. MODIFICATION OF CONTRACT/ORDER NO.

10B. DATED (SEE ITEM 13)

11. THIS ITEM ONLY APPLIES TO AMENDMENTS OF SOLICITATIONS

The above numbered solicitation is amended as set forth in Item 14. The hour and date specified for receipt of Offers is extended, is not extended.

Offers must acknowledge receipt of this amendment prior to the hour and date specified in the solicitation or as amended, by one of the following methods:

(a)By completing items 8 and 15, and returning copies of the amendment; (b) By acknowledging receipt of this amendment on each copy of the offer submitted;

or (c) By separate letter or telegram which includes a reference to the solicitation and amendment numbers. FAILURE OF YOUR ACKNOWLEDGMENT TO BE RECEIVED AT THE PLACE DESIGNATED FOR THE RECEIPT OF OFFERS PRIOR TO THE HOUR AND DATE SPECIFIED MAY RESULT IN REJECTION OF YOUR OFFER. If by virtue of this amendment your desire to change an offer already submitted, such change may be made by telegram or letter, provided each telegram or letter makes reference to the solicitation and this amendment, and is received prior to the opening hour and date specified.

12. ACCOUNTING AND APPROPIRATION DATA (If required)

13. THIS ITEM ONLY APPLIES TO MODIFICATION OF CONTRACTS/ORDERS.

IT MODIFIES THE CONTRACT/ORDER NO. AS DESCRIBED IN ITEM 14.

CHECK ONE A. THIS CHANGE ORDER IS ISSUED PURSUANT TO: (Specify authority) THE CHANGES SET FORTH IN ITEM 14 ARE MADE IN THE CONTRACT ORDER

NO. IN ITEM 10A.

B. THE ABOVE NUMBERED CONTRACT/ORDER IS MODIFIED TO REFLECT THE ADMINISTRATIVE CHANGES (such as changes in paying office, appropriation date, etc. ) SET FORTH IN ITEM 14, PURSUANT TO THE AUTHORITY OF FAR 43.103(b).

C. THIS SUPPLEMENTAL AGREEMENT IS ENTERED INTO PURSUANT TO AUTHORITY OF:

D. OTHER (Specify type of modification and authority)

E. IMPORTANT: Contractor is not, is required to sign this document and return copies to the issuing office.

Except as provided herein, all terms and conditions of the document referenced in Item 9A or 10A, as heretofore changed, remains unchanged and in full force and effect.

15C. DATE SIGNED

15A. NAME AND TITLE OF SIGNER (Type or print)

16C. DATE SIGNED

16A. NAME AND TITLE OF CONTRACTING OFFICER (Type or print)

14. DESCRIPTION OF AMENDMENT/MODIFICATION ( Organized by UCF section headings, including solicitation/contract subject matter where feasible.)

PAGE OF PAGES

6. ISSUED BY CODE

8. NAME AND ADDRESS OF CONTRACTOR (No., street, county, State and ZIP Code) (X)

CODE

15B. CONTRACTOR/OFFEROR

(Signature of person authorized to sign)

16B. UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

(Signature of Contracting Officer)

NSN 7540-01-152-8070

Previous edition unusable

1 4

17 03/14/2024

SP4701

DLA Contracting Services Office - Philadelphia 700 Robbins Ave.

Philadelphia, PA 19111 Attn: R&D CONTRACTING TEAM

SAME AS BLOCK 6

BAA0001-22

06/13/2022

See Continuation Pages.

Emergent IV BAA0001-22, dated June 14, 2022, is hereby Amended as follows:

1. The purpose of this modification is to answer questions that were posed from Amendment 15 regarding DLA’s J6 Hackathon.

a. Question: In section 3.0, DLA states that the vendor “will support the following service work areas/tasks as detailed in section 4.0 Scope”. Then, in section 4.0 “Scope”, it states that “the vendor will select specific area(s) from the listing below to respond to". Are offerors expected to respond by selecting one of the fourteen work areas, multiple, or are we required to respond to all work areas? The last paragraph of section 4.0 states that not all work areas/tasks must be responded to in initial white papers submitted due to the page constraints, so will the government provide further clarification of how it intends to effectively and equally compare white paper submissions if varying work areas/tasks are selected and responded to at the discretion of offerors? Could the government please explain if some work areas hold higher priority than others?

Answer: Yes, for the White Paper response the vendor can select one or multiple work areas to discuss their functional and technical approval. The task areas are interrelated, and solution should be built on AI, ML, GEN AI, guiding principles of various technology components and methodologies as listed in each task area. If the vendor is selected for the next phase, they are required to respond to all of the work areas in their technical proposal.

DLA’s evaluators have a varied skill set in the work areas to align and support the selection equity. Per the revised language in Amendment 13, White Papers will be reviewed against the topic to determine whether the proposed solution is technically feasible and viable (i.e., compatible with DoD constraints, technical environments and other organizational requirements), and whether the White Paper presents a research project whose results end users are likely to adopt and that is of sufficient interest to DLA to warrant consideration of a technical proposal.

b. Question: The fourteen work areas/tasks detailed in section 4.0 seem to represent requirements of an intended GenAI solution. Is DLA simply looking to fund an R&D engagement to prototype the establishment of a GenAI solution that can eventually prove to meet all 14 “work areas/tasks”, and then attempt to discover the functional business problem in which the GenAI solution is expected to solve?

Answer: Yes, to both of your questions. The intent of DLA hackathon is to address all 14 work areas/tasks, applying the capability to a R&D Pilot prototype effort which identifies business problem. For the subsequent phases, the vendor will further address DLA's business capabilities and outcomes, and Enterprise Hosting and Architectural requirements.

c. Question: In section 4.0 page 10, it mentions that the solution must be able to be “sustain[ed] in cloud research and development environments.” Does this solution need to go through the ARTET environment, or are there other R&D environments leveraging varying hyperscalers (e.g. Azure, AWS, etc.)? If so, please specify.

Answer: DLA is cloud agnostic; therefore, any selected solutions will be pilot and prototype with ARTET resources to support operational sustainment for the DLA global enterprise. The solution the vendor presents must be interoperable with the DLA technological infostructure and various cloud providers (AWS, Azure, Google, etc.).

d. Question: In section 4.1.c, what are the use cases provided? The announcement as written seems to possibly confuse the listed work areas/tasks for the aforementioned and omitted use cases. Will DLA be providing the use cases to support white paper submission? Is the government expecting offerors to initially propose useful use cases (functional business problems) focusing around the three AI/ML GenAI subtopics referenced in section 2.0 (content generation, data manipulation, and content assistance), or other applications of GenAI, within initial white paper submissions while attempting to address any one of the fourteen listed requirements? The problem DLA is attempting to prove it can solve with the use of GenAI is unclear.

Answer: The initial use case will be provided to vendors who are selected to demonstrate their capabilities. The use case will be based on DLA business need and leverage the vendor’s readiness to demonstrate what was written in their proposals. Sequence of events are vendors provide their White Paper. If vendor is selected, the Contracting Officer will request proposals. After review of proposal, if vendor is selected for next phase, a use case (as mentioned above) will be provided, then the vendor will demonstrate their capabilities in person. No, the Government is not expecting for the offerors to submit use cases. As mentioned, the Government will provide a use case for those that are selected for the demonstration phase. Furthermore, the Government hopes that the vendors have key knowledge of DLA’s mission and business domain to develop a solution (i.e. prompt) that supports our global logistics span of influence.

e. Question: Are offerors required to provide a Technical Design Document (TDD) along with this white paper or is this only required if an offeror is requested to submit a technical proposal? If required at white paper submission, will the required format of the TDD be provided?

Answer: Our response is two-fold. The sequence of events, vendors provide their White Paper. If a vendor is selected, the Contracting Officer will request proposals. After review of the proposal, if a vendor is selected for the next phase, a use case (as mentioned above) will be provided, then the vendor will demonstrate their capabilities in person. For the initial response, only a White Paper is requested. The format for White Paper and proposals are published within the Emergent IV BAA.

f. Question: In respect to this requirement, is DLA seeking to evaluate the current capabilities of our Gen AI platform, prior to accepting a full proposal and making an award to perform research and development of a DLA-specific solution?

Answer: Yes, we plan on leveraging a vendor’s White Paper as a clear indication of their functional and technical solution. This shall enable DLA to offer and invitation for a full proposal to execute an R&D a pilot and protype project to transition for full operational usage.

2. All other Terms and Conditions remain unchanged.