DARPA-SN-24-06.pdf

Special Notice (SN) DARPA-SN-24-06: Objective Prediction of Team Effectiveness via Models of Performance Outcomes (OP TEMPO) Proposers Day

DATE: November 7, 2023 LOCATION: Arlington, VA with Webinar Option

REGISTRATION DEADLINE:

In-Person – November 1, 2023 at 12:00 PM ET.

Webinar – November 2, 2023, at 12:00 PM ET

REGISTRATION WEBSITE: https://events.sa-meetings.com/OPTEMPOProposersDay TECHNICAL POC: Dr. Joeanna Arthur, DARPA/BTO Email: OPTEMPO@darpa.mil

The Biological Technologies Office (BTO) of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is hosting a hybrid style Proposers Day for the potential proposer community in support of a planned Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) for the Objective Prediction of Team Effectiveness via Models of Performance Outcomes (OP TEMPO) Program. This event will take place at the Executive Conference Center (ECC) in Arlington, VA, on November 7, 2023, from 9:30 AM to 3:00 PM. Optional sidebars to meet the Program Manager, Dr. Joeanna Arthur, will be scheduled from 3:30 PM to 5:30 PM on that same day. If unable to attend in-person, participation via webinar is an available alternative. Virtual sidebars with Dr. Arthur will be held on Wednesday, November 8, from 9:00 AM to 12:00 PM. Requests must be received no later than Wednesday, November 1, 2023 for in-person meetings, and Thursday, November 2, 2023 for virtual meetings. Sidebar meetings will not provide feedback on ideas, but will cover whether a particular approach or concept is within scope.

Advance registration is required. Please limit in-person attendance to three individuals per organization. Additional team members can attend virtually. Note: all times listed on this announcement, the agenda, and the registration website are in Eastern Time.

The Proposers Day goals include:

1. Introduce the OP TEMPO program vision and goals to the research community;

2. Explain the mechanics of a DARPA program in general and the objectives and milestones of this program in particular; and

3. Encourage and promote teaming arrangements among organizations that have the relevant expertise, research facilities, and capabilities for executing research and development responsive to the OP TEMPO program goals.

The Proposers Day will include brief overview presentations by government personnel as well as an information session to respond to questions from participants. Potential performers can highlight their technical capabilities through “lightning” talks to help identify opportunities for teaming and develop teaming relationships. It is expected that OP TEMPO may require strong teaming efforts to successfully innovate and integrate critical technologies necessary to meet the metrics of the program.

https://events.sa-meetings.com/OPTEMPOProposersDay mailto:OPTEMPO@darpa.mil

Attendance at this event is not a requirement for submission of a proposal or selection for funding.

Information relayed during the Proposers Day will be made available on the BTO section of the DARPA Opportunities page: http://www.darpa.mil/work-with-us/opportunities.

To maximize the pool of innovative proposal concepts, DARPA strongly encourages participation by non-traditional performers (e.g., small businesses, academic and research institutions, and first-time Government contractors).

OP TEMPO Program Overview:

While teams are the foundational building blocks of DoD Concepts of Operations (CONOPS) and missions, DoD investments have focused on assessing and predicting individual "operational" readiness. However, DoD teams are not simply the sum of their collective parts;

team members have highly specialized and dynamic roles, and performance relies on effective coordination dynamics. Currently, no methods exist to objectively assess team performance, diagnose performance breakdowns, or accurately predict team “mission” readiness during training. This problem is exacerbated in the rapidly-composed, cross-domain teams that are integral to emerging and future CONOPS. The Objective Prediction of Team Effectiveness via Models of Performance Outcomes (OP TEMPO) program aims to tackle this problem by developing a novel, biologically-informed approach to objectively assess team performance during training.

OP TEMPO seeks to identify bio-behavioral signatures of coordination dynamics that correlate to team performance outcomes, and develop techniques to accurately and reliably measure these signatures in real-time. Selected signatures will be validated as predictive measures of team performance by building and optimizing multivariate predictive models. After signatures have been validated in a specific DoD training environment (Use Case 1), generalizability will be explored by testing the signatures in two additional DoD training environments (Use Cases 2 and 3). OP TEMPO will provide DoD instructors with new capabilities to support real-time assessment, after action review, performance diagnostics, and objective prediction of teaming proficiency and mission readiness in order to inform and evaluate training acceleration.

Opportunities for Teaming:

This Special Notice and Proposers Day include two specific opportunities for prospective proposers to identify team members:

Interested attendees are invited to submit one (1) PowerPoint slide that summarizes their interests and capabilities (Attachment 1). These will be presented during “lightning talks” at Proposers Day. Submitted presentations consisting of multiple slides or a single slide with multiple layers will not be granted a time slot. Lightning talk submissions (no more than one per organization) will be accepted on a first-come, first-served basis, until the maximum possible number of submissions (given time constraints) is reached. Interested attendees must identify their intention to submit the lightning talk during registration. To allow a greater number of institutions to share their information during Proposers Day, which will benefit all participants, lightning talks from the same institution should be consolidated into a single presentation that conveys the organization's interests and capabilities.

http://www.darpa.mil/work-with-us/opportunities

All presentations must be emailed to OPTEMPO@darpa.mil no later than 2:00 pm ET on November 2, 2023.

Interested parties are also invited to submit a one-page teaming profile describing technical competencies, unique facilities and other capabilities, as they relate to the program, and desired technical/other competencies sought from other potential team partners (Attachment 2). The one-page profile should include, at a minimum:

- Contact information (e.g., name, organization, email, phone number, mailing address, website);

- Brief description of the proposer’s technical competencies and relevant facilities; and

- Desired technical competencies and facilities from other potential team members, if applicable.

Submitted teaming profiles will be distributed via email to all registered attendees, in an effort to assist with team development and formation. Submitted teaming profiles must be in MS Word or Adobe PDF format. No submissions longer than one (1) page will be accepted. Multiple teaming profiles from independent groups in the same institution are allowed.

All conforming teaming profiles must be emailed to OPTEMPO@darpa.mil no later than November 10, 2023. Profiles that do not use the provided template (see Attachment 3) and/or exceed the one-page limit will not be accepted. Information contained in teaming profiles shall be publicly releasable – profile submitters consent to distribution amongst event registrants. After Proposers Day, the teaming profiles will be sent via e-mail to all registrants on November 13, 2023. Specific content, communications, networking, and team formation are the sole responsibility of participants. Neither DARPA nor the DoD endorses any participating organization, nor does DARPA or DoD exercise any responsibility for improper dissemination of the teaming profiles.

Registration Information:

PLEASE NOTE: Registration for in-person attendance closes on Wednesday, November 1, 2023, at 12:00 PM ET. Registration for virtual attendance closes on Thursday, November 2, 2023, at 12:00PM.

Participants must register in advance through the registration website. Registration is free. In-person attendance is limited to 136 participants, with a maximum of three individuals per organization, so early registration is recommended. Webinar capacity is capped at 350 total participants. Interested parties are encouraged to coordinate attendance internally within their organizations prior to registration. In the unlikely occurrence that the registration limit is reached, the number of representatives per organization may be limited. Individuals unable to register because the deadline has occurred or capacity has been reached will be added to a waitlist. If slots remain open after registration closes or become available due to cancellations, the slots will be filled on a first-come, first-served basis from the waitlist. An online registration form and various other meeting details can be found at the registration website: https://events.sa-meetings.com/OPTEMPOProposersDay.

mailto:OPTEMPO@darpa.mil mailto:OPTEMPO@darpa.mil

Potential proposing teams are not required to attend Proposers Day, although participation is strongly encouraged.

All administrative and technical questions should be directed to OPTEMPO@darpa.mil. Please refer to the OP TEMPO Special Notice number (DARPA-SN-24-06) in all correspondence. This announcement is not a request for proposals; any sent to the Special Notice email address will be disregarded.

All registrants for the meeting who are not U.S. Citizens must complete and submit one of the following:

All U.S. Permanent Residents and Foreign Nationals must submit a DARPA Form 60, except foreign government personnel who must submit only an Official Visit Request completed by their respective Embassy based in Washington, DC.

All forms must be submitted no later than 12:00 PM on October 27, 2023. (Note: This date is in advance of the meeting registration deadlines). Form 60 submission instructions are provided on the registration website and in the registration confirmation email. Contact your Embassy staff for assistance in submitting the Official Visit Request.

DARPA hosts Proposers Days to promote teaming arrangements between researchers; provide potential performers with information on whether and how they might respond to the Government’s research and development solicitations; and to increase efficiency in proposal preparation and evaluation. Therefore, Proposers Days are open only to registered potential proposers.

This SN is issued solely for information and potential new program planning purposes; the SN does not constitute a formal solicitation for proposals or proposal abstracts. In accordance with FAR 15.201(e), responses to this notice are not offers and cannot be accepted by the Government to form a binding contract. Submission is voluntary and is not required to propose to subsequent Broad Agency Announcements (if any) or research solicitations (if any) on this topic. DARPA will not provide reimbursement for costs incurred in responding to this SN. Respondents are advised that DARPA is under no obligation to acknowledge receipt of the information received, or provide feedback to respondents with respect to any information submitted under this SN.

NO CLASSIFIED INFORMATION SHOULD BE INCLUDED IN THE SN RESPONSE.

mailto:OPTEMPO@darpa.mil