CSO_Solicitation_CSDR_17 Jul 26.pdf

DAF CSDR Support and Curation

Commercial Solutions Opening

FA701426SCS01

Two-Step Solicitation

OVERVIEW

This Commercial Solutions Opening (CSO) solicitation is issued in accordance with R-

DFARS 212.70, Defense Commercial Solutions Opening

NAICS Code and Associated Description: 541715 - Research and Development in the Physical, Engineering, and Life Sciences

Federal Agency Name and Contracting Officer Address: FA7014 – Air Force District of

Washington, Secretary of the Air Force Enterprise Contracting Division (AFDW/PKS)

Commercial Solutions Opening Title: This is a combined synopsis/solicitation. Department of the Air Force (DAF) Cost and Software Data Reporting (CSDR) Support and Curation.

Commercial Solutions Opening Number: FA701426SCS01

Commercial Solutions Opening Type: This is the initial announcement. This will be a Two- Step

Solicitation and is Closed. However, may be re-opened in the future with amendment. Current

Solicitation closes Monday, 27 Jul 2026 @ 01:00 PM EDT.

First Step: WHITE PAPER DUE DATE AND TIME: White Papers will be accepted until

Monday, 27 July 2026 at 01:00PM EDT. White Papers may be submitted at any time during this period. White Papers received after specified date and time, will be considered late in accordance with 52.212-1(f).

Second Step: PROPOSAL DUE DATE AND TIME: To be provided in the Requests for Proposal sent to offerors that submit White Papers considered to be of further interest to the Air Force.

Proposals received after specified date and time, will be considered late in accordance with 52.212-

1(f).

Submission POC: White Papers must be submitted to the Contracting Points of Contact (POCs):

Contracting Officer: ERIC L. MOSS

Phone: (850) 684-4265

Email: eric.moss.3@us.af.mil mailto:eric.moss.3@us.af.mil

Solicitation Request: AFDW/PKS is soliciting White Papers on the effort(s) described below.

The Air Force Cost Analysis Agency (AFCAA) seeks innovative commercial services to provide one year of support for the Cost and Software Data Reporting (CSDR) program, including CSDR planning, verification and validation (V&V), compliance support, and CSDR submission data curation, metadata tagging, and quality preparation to improve the quality and usability of CSDR data within the Government's data ingestion environment. The effort also includes establishing required data access and developing a Plan of Action and Milestones (POA&M) in support of DoDI

5000.73 and AFI 65-508.

Type of Contract: The Air Force anticipates the award of a Firm-Fixed Price type contract in accordance with FAR Part 12 & Part 16. Offerors are encouraged to review FAR 52.212-4 and

52.212-5 for standard terms and conditions of a FAR Part 12 contract. In addition, the Air Force reserves the right to award an Other Transaction for Prototype Project in accordance with 10 U.S.C.

§ 2371.

Estimated Program Cost: Not greater than $5M

Anticipated Number of Awards: The Air Force anticipates 1 award per year for this announcement.

However, the Air Force reserves the right to award one or more, or no, contracts for all, part, or none of the proposals received.

CLASSIFIED INFORMATION. The Government is not requesting classified information as part of this CSO. Offerors shall submit only unclassified White Papers and proposals. Any information requiring classification must not be included in the submission. If a resulting award requires the performance of classified work, the selected offeror must possess or obtain all required personnel security clearances, facility clearances, and other security infrastructure necessary to perform the work in accordance with the applicable Contract Security Classification Specification (DD Form

254) and the National Industrial Security Program Operating Manual (NISPOM), without reliance on Government resources.

PURPOSE: This Commercial Solutions Opening (CSO) is a competitive solicitation focused on technologies to meet the mission of AFCAA. The Government seeks to obtain innovative solutions or potential new capabilities to fulfill requirements, close capability gaps, or provide potential technological advancements in the capability areas listed below.

Innovative means:

1. Any technology, process, or method, including research and development that is new as of the date of submission of a proposal;

2. Any application of an existing technology, process, or method that is new as of the date of submission of submission of a proposal; or

3. A new application or adaptation of an existing technology, process, or method as of the date of submission of a proposal.

All items, technologies, and services acquired under this CSO will be treated as commercial products or commercial services if they meet the definition of an innovative solution under this CSO. The

Government encourages offerors to submit proposals presenting a broad range of technical and business approaches that address the specific areas of interest identified below.

Awards resulting from this CSO will be made based on the evaluation results of a Two-Step proposal process. The Government reserves the right to fund all, some, one, or none of the proposals submitted; may elect to fund only part of a submitted proposal; and may incrementally fund any or all awards under this CSO. All awards are subject to the availability of funds. All contracts entered into under this CSO will be Firm Fixed Price type contracts or agreements.

Offerors should monitor SAM.gov for amendments, modifications, and potential calls issued against this CSO.

SUBMISSION INFORMATION:

Step 1: Offerors shall submit White Papers prepared in accordance with the format specified below.

White Papers may be submitted at any time before the due date and time identified in this CSO.

Offerors are responsible for monitoring SAM.gov for amendments to this CSO and incorporating any updated information into their submissions. White Papers will be evaluated in accordance with the evaluation criteria set forth in below.

Step 2: The Government will invite select offerors to submit full proposals based on favorable evaluation results of White Papers. Proposals will be requested via a Request for Proposal letter from the Contracting Officer, and will contain separate submission instructions and applicable due dates and timelines.

Unsuccessful offerors will be notified by the Government, either via email or letter, to inform them that the proposed effort is not of interest to the Government at this time.

Proposal Review, Evaluation and Selection Process: Each proposal will be evaluated by the

Government and the proposal must stand on its own technical merit. Proposals will be evaluated in accordance with the following evaluation criteria:

1. Technical;

2. Importance to agency programs;

3. Price https://sam.gov/content/home

All evaluation factors are of equal importance.

DEBRIEFINGS:

The Government will conduct written, post-award debriefings upon request only in accordance with

52.212-1(e) and will address the evaluation factors contained herein only. It will not include a comparison of submissions against a common statement of work (SOW) as the CSO provides no common statement of work that interested parties must respond to and instead represents opportunity for submission of a variety of innovative commercial items, technologies, and/or services that represent meaningful submissions of diverse scope and price.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

1. Deliverables/Schedule: To be determined based on proposals and awards.

Other Information:

• See FAR Part 12 for contract clauses

• Program Security Classification: If a DD254 is applicable, offerors must verify their Cognizant

Security Office information is current with the Defense Counterintelligence and Security

Agency, DCSA.

• Export Control: Information involved in this effort may be subject to Export Control, International Traffic in Arms (ITAR) 22 CFR 120-131, or Export Administration Regulations

(EAR) 15 CFR 710-774. If effort may be subject to export control, then a Certified DD Form

2345, Militarily Critical Technical Data Agreement, will be required to be submitted with proposal. (See DFARS 225.7901-4, DFARS 252.225-7048, Export-Controlled Item).

• Government Furnished Property (GFP) Availability: GFP is not anticipated to be made available under any resulting contract, but will be determined for each award. In accordance with FAR

45.201(b), the contractor is responsible for all costs related to making the property available for use, such as payment of all transportation, installation, or rehabilitation costs.

• Base Support/Network Access: Base support will be determined for each award for testing, validation, and demonstration.

2. Eligible Offeror: This is a 100% Small Business Set Aside. Offerors are encouraged to complete the Annual Representations and Certification in the System for Award Management (SAM.gov) as soon as possible.

3. Foreign Participation: Participation at the prime level is prohibited. Subcontracting arrangements will be handled in accordance with the International Traffic and Arms Regulation.

In addition, foreign national participation will be limited to public domain information only.

4. There are no limits on the number of White Papers/proposals an offeror may submit.

5. You may be ineligible for award if all requirements of this solicitation are not met on the White

Paper and proposal (when applicable) due date as identified above and in subsequent requests for proposals, when applicable.

6. Offerors are solely responsible for marking Proprietary Proposal Information.

Information contained in unsuccessful proposals will remain the property of the offeror. The

Federal Government may, however, retain copies of all proposals. Public release of information https://www.dcsa.mil/ https://www.sam.gov/ in any proposal submitted will be subject to existing statutory and regulatory requirements. If proprietary information is provided by an Applicant in a proposal, which constitutes a trade secret, commercial or financial information, it will be treated in confidence, to the extent permitted by law, provided that the proposal is clearly marked by the Applicant as follows:

Proposal data the firm does not wish to make public, or to be used by the Government except for peer review, shall:

(1) Mark the first page of each proposal volume 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 this proposal.

If, however, a contract is awarded to this offeror 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 contract. 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 pages [insert numbers or other identification of sheets]"; and Mark each sheet of data it wishes to restrict with the following legend: “Use or disclosure of data contained on this page is subject to the restriction on the first page of this volume." DoD assumes no liability for unmarked data disclosure or use and may use or disclose such data for any purpose.

SOLICITATION TOPICS AREAS/AREAS OF INTEREST

The AFCAA is interested in innovative technologies and services related to the areas of mission or technical interest listed below. Submissions should identify innovative solutions that fill capability needs related to the development of CSDR capabilities for (1) CSDR planning, V&V, and compliance support in accordance with DoDI 5000.73 and DAFI 65-508; and (2) CSDR submission data curation, metadata tagging, and quality preparation activities in support of the downstream

CSDR data environment maintained by the Government and other applied technologies for DAF

CAA. The items, technologies, or services can also directly improve the effectiveness or efficiency of operating and/or maintaining current DAF capabilities related to the topics listed below. The level of detail provided for each topic or the order in which they appear is not intended to convey any information regarding relative priority.

There are no specific Technology Readiness Level (TRL) requirements for proposed projects.

However, proposed prototypes or solutions should be at a high enough TRL to enable the assessment of the viability, technical feasibility, application, or military utility of the proposed solution and support a rapid transition into operations.

AFCAA intends to fund successful efforts in Fiscal Year 2026 (FY26) with periods of performance in the range of 1-2 years. Exceptions may be considered for individual projects based on technological maturity or operational need.

Individual contracts are expected to be funded in the range of $150,000 – $5,000,000 over the full period of performance, yet these numbers should not be considered strict limits.

Proposals requesting funding at the upper end of the stated range will be considered only if they clearly demonstrate the ability to deliver innovative, mission-relevant capabilities that provide measurable benefits to the CSDR mission through cost savings, increased efficiency, or significant improvements to existing processes and procedures. The Government reserves the right to fund all, some, one, or none of the proposals submitted under this CSO, may elect to fund only a portion of any proposal, and may provide incremental funding for any resulting award. All awards are subject to the availability of appropriated funds.

Topics for each capability area are detailed below.

TOPIC: Cost and Software Data Reporting (CSDR) Support and Data Curation

AFCAA seeks innovative commercial services spanning the CSDR data lifecycle — from CSDR plan development, verification and validation (V&V), and compliance support through CSDR submission data curation, metadata tagging, and quality preparation. The CSDR submission set includes the Cost Data Report and FlexFile, the Quantity Data Report, the Technical Data Report, and the Software Resources Data Report (SRDR), collected under DoDI 5000.73 and forming the statutory data foundation for Department life cycle cost estimates. AFCAA is specifically interested in the application and adaptation of existing, mature commercial technologies — including automation, data analytics, natural language processing, and artificial intelligence/machine learning capabilities — to materially improve the throughput, consistency, and analytical usability of CSDR data, delivered as a commercial service.

Demonstrated, hands-on expertise and experience working directly with CSDR and FlexFile data — reviewing, validating, and interacting with actual CSDR submissions — is a mandatory component of this requirement, not merely a differentiator. Offerors shall demonstrate that they possess and will bring this specific data experience to the effort; proposals offering automation or AI capability without demonstrated CSDR data expertise do not meet the requirement. Solutions shall integrate this CSDR subject matter expertise with the technologies described herein as a complete service offering, and the stakeholder collaboration, coordination, and process-management functions of the

CSDR mission are within the scope of both topics.

All application of automation and AI shall be as Government data protection requirements and

Government standards for the approval and use of specific technologies and platforms allow;

proprietary and controlled unclassified information shall be processed only within Government-approved environments.

Note on automation and AI: All requests for the incorporation of automation and/or AI are limited to the constraints of what is currently available for existing Government platforms and technologies, including potential restrictions on protected data types — such as business proprietary data — when utilizing more advanced technologies like AI. Automation is encouraged where possible but is not required in situations where these constraints do not allow for it. The contractor is expected to assess these constraints and propose a solution within the existing platforms and technologies that is flexible to adapt as this technology stack continues to evolve.

This overarching area of interest is broken into the two topics below; offerors may respond to one or both topics.

TOPIC 1: CSDR Planning, Verification and Validation

Innovative, technology-enabled solutions for end-to-end CSDR planning, V&V, and compliance support. Proposed solutions shall encompass the full planning and V&V workflow — including the Government-facing and contractor-facing coordination functions below — and shall be grounded in the offeror's demonstrated experience performing CSDR plan review, V&V, and submission analysis on actual CSDR/FlexFile data. Proposed solutions shall demonstrate how the application of automation, analytics, and AI — as data protection requirements and

Government technology and platform standards allow — augments that expert workflow to improve its timeliness, consistency, and quality. This topic includes:

• CSDR Plan development, review, and tailoring support, including review of contractor-submitted CSDR Plans (1921-P) with automated consistency checking against MIL-

STD-881 work breakdown structure mapping, CADE Standard WBS templates, and the cost estimating community's data requirements, with emphasis on the Quantity Data

Report, Technical Data Report, and Maintenance and Repair Report

• Cost Working Integrated Product Team (CWIPT) support for ACAT I and ACAT II–III programs, assisting development of final recommended CSDR Plans for Government approval

• Cost Reporting Standards Board (CRSB) support, including identification of candidate issues and development of recommendations for Government consideration

• Coordination with the OSD Defense Cost and Resource Center (DCARC) for ACAT I programs and the DAF Cost and Resource Center (DAFCARC) for ACAT II–III programs

• Tracking of upcoming solicitations and RFP releases to ensure timely CSDR Plan development, and tracking of current submissions against established due dates, using automated status extraction where practicable

• Automated tracking and status reporting of the plan review and approval pipeline, operating on data extracted from CADE, PPM, cPet, and CSDR-SR, including recurring status summaries to AFCAA Technical Advisers

• Automated verification of CSDR submissions against the final approved CSDR Plan and against prior submissions on the same program, including:

• Anomaly and discrepancy detection across reporting periods

• Quantity-time phasing consistency checks and reconciliation to contract and program quantities

• Technical parameter completeness checks across reportable WBS elements

• Discrepancy documentation, coordination of resolution with submitting contractors through appropriate Government channels, and disposition recommendations produced through automated means, preserving Government approval authority over all plan and submission dispositions

TOPIC 2: CSDR Submission Data Curation, Metadata Tagging, and Quality Preparation

Innovative solutions for scaling the curation, tagging, and quality preparation of CSDR submission data for downstream analytical use, applying automation and AI/ML only as data protection requirements and Government technology and platform standards allow. This topic includes:

• AI/ML-assisted data cleansing and normalization of CSDR submissions, including identification and treatment of missing values, internal inconsistencies, misaligned WBS elements, and inflation/price-escalation issues

• Automated alignment of submitted cost data to the CADE Standard WBS and standardization to a common Cost Element Structure, with every curation action documented such that original-submitted and curated data remain distinguishable and traceable

• Metadata and programmatic tagging at scale consistent with a Government-approved schema (program, contract, contractor, contract line item, reporting period, submission type, ACAT level, commodity area), including entity resolution across submissions

• Extraction and structured tagging of form, fit, and function technical parameters from

Technical Data Report submissions, including natural-language and document-understanding techniques, mapped to the approved CSDR Plan technical parameter list

• Focused curation of Quantity Data Report submissions, including standardization of quantity-time phasing representations and tagging to support cost-per-unit and learning-curve analysis

• Automated data quality scoring, gap identification, and curation-priority recommendation, with particular emphasis on the Quantity Data Report and Technical

Data Report as known gaps in readily usable data holdings

• Curation lineage and audit documentation sufficient for Government personnel to understand, reproduce, and audit all curation actions performed

• Recommendations to the Government on metadata schema additions or modifications, and on improvements to Quantity Data Report and Technical Data Report planning templates and tagging conventions, based on patterns observed during curation; the

Government retains approval authority over the schema and all conventions

• Coordination with the Government team on data format, tagging, and quality issues affecting downstream ingestion; configuration, modification, or development of

Government data infrastructure remains out of scope

STEP 1 WHITE PAPER FORMAT

The White Paper should include a discussion of the nature and scope of the effort and the offeror’s proposed technical approach. The Government will review the White Papers in accordance with the evaluation criteria set forth in this announcement.

The White Paper shall not have a specified limit as to the number of pages and shall be prepared and submitted in Word format. Total page count should be consistent with a sufficient level of detail to enable evaluation of the approach for each topic. Font shall be standard 12-pt business font Times

New Roman. Character spacing must be “normal,” not condensed in any manner. Pages shall be single-spaced, 8.5 by 11 inches, with at least one-inch margins on all sides. All text, including text in tables and charts, must adhere to all font size and line spacing requirements listed herein.

Illustrations, flowcharts, drawings, may be included in the paper. All pages shall be numbered, with the cover page as page 1.

The White Paper will be formatted as follows:

Top of Page 1, include the following:

• CSO Number

• Title of Program

• Name of Company, Business Size

• Company Commercial and Government Entity (CAGE) code

• Unique Entity Identifier (UEI)

• Contracting POC and Technical POC with telephone numbers and email addresses

• If the proposed work to be performed is classified, add the following information: Classified level at which company is cleared, contract address for forwarding classified material (name, address, zip code), cognizant security office (name, address, zip code), and offeror’s security officer’s name and telephone number).

Also include:

• Period of Performance and Task Objectives

• Technical Summary and Proposed Deliverables

• Technical Portion: The technical portion of the White Paper shall include a discussion of the nature and scope of the research and the offeror’s proposed technical approach/solution. It should also include any proposed deliverables. Resumes, descriptions of facilities and equipment.

Statement of Work is not required at this point.

• Anticipated Price (Rough Order of magnitude (ROM) Detailed price information is not required, but provide a time-phased bottom line figure.

STEP 2 TECHNICAL PROPOSAL FORMAT

To be determined after the results of Step 1.

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