IPTO Office BAA DARPA-BAA-10-08 01 March 2010.pdf

DARPA-BAA-10-08

Information Processing Techniques Office (IPTO) Broad Agency Announcement (BAA)

Table of Contents Part One: Overview Information Part Two: Full Text of Announcement

I. FUNDING OPPORTUNITY DESCRIPTION

INFORMATION PROCESSING TECHNIQUES OFFICE (IPTO) MISSION

IPTO AREAS OF INTEREST

SPECIAL FOCUS AREAS

II. AWARD INFORMATION

III. ELIGIBILITY INFORMATION

A. Eligible Applicants

1. Procurement Integrity, Standards of Conduct, Ethical Considerations, and Organizational Conflicts of Interest

B. Cost Sharing or Matching

IV. APPLICATION AND SUBMISSION INFORMATION

A. Address to Request Application Package B. Content and Form of Application Submission

1. Abstracts

2. Abstract Preparation and Format

3. Proposal Preparation and Format

C. Submission Dates and Times D. Intergovernmental Review - N/A E. Funding Restrictions F. Other Submission Requirements

V. APPLICATION REVIEW INFORMATION

A. Evaluation Criteria B. Review and Selection Process

VI. AWARD ADMINISTRATION INFORMATION

A. Award Notices B. Administrative and National Policy Requirements C. Reporting

VII. AGENCY CONTACTS

VIII. OTHER INFORMATION

Part One: Overview Information

• Federal Agency Name – Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), Information Processing Techniques Office (IPTO)

• Funding Opportunity Title – IPTO Office BAA

• Announcement Type – Initial Broad Agency Announcement

• Funding Opportunity Number – DARPA-BAA-10-08

• Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance Numbers (CFDA) – 12.910

Research and Technology Development

• Key Dates o Posting Date – see announcement at www.fbo.gov o This BAA is open for one year. Therefore, abstracts and proposals may be submitted at any time until the BAA expires at 1200 noon (ET) on 01 March 2011.

• Summary Description - DARPA’s Information Processing Techniques Office is issuing this BAA, which describes IPTO’s areas of interest, to allow continuous submission of proposals that do not address individual program requirements covered by other DARPA/IPTO solicitations. Submission of abstracts is STRONGLY encouraged in advance of full proposals, in order to provide potential offerors with an indication of the relevance and acceptability of their technical ideas under this BAA. Offerors are also encouraged to monitor the IPTO solicitation web page (www.darpa.mil/ipto/solicit/solicit_open.asp) for information on program-specific solicitations, which may be better aligned with their research, and for special focus areas, which may be amended to this solicitation at any time.

• Anticipated individual awards – Multiple awards are anticipated.

• Total funding available for award – The number of awards possible and the amount of resources made available to this BAA will depend on the quality of the proposals received and the availability of funds. No funding has been specifically reserved for this solicitation.

• Types of instruments that may be awarded – Procurement contracts, grants, cooperative agreements or other transactions.

• Technical POC: Daniel M. Kaufman, Director, DARPA/IPTO o EMAIL: DARPA-BAA-10-08@darpa.mil o FAX: 703-741-3899 o ATTN: DARPA-BAA-10-08

3701 North Fairfax Drive Arlington, VA 22203-1714

Part Two: Full Text of Announcement

I. FUNDING OPPORTUNITY DESCRIPTION

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) often selects its research efforts through the Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) process. This BAA is being issued, and any resultant selection will be made, using procedures under FAR Part

35.016 (DoDGARS Part 22 for Grants and Cooperative Agreements). Any negotiations and/or awards will use procedures under FAR 15.4, Contract Pricing, as specified in the BAA (including DoDGARS Part 22 for Grants and Cooperative Agreements). Proposals received as a result of this BAA shall be evaluated in accordance with evaluation criteria specified herein through a scientific review process. The BAA will appear first on the Federal Business Opportunities (FBO) website, http://www.fedbizopps.gov/, and Grants.gov website at http://www.grants.gov/. The following information is for those wishing to respond to the BAA.

INFORMATION PROCESSING TECHNIQUES OFFICE (IPTO) MISSION

The world is changing at an ever-increasing rate, and information is the driving force.

Information technologies – algorithms, software, hardware, and networks – are now pervasive in nearly all facets of human endeavor, and find new civilian and military applications every day. DARPA has played a leading role in this information revolution by sponsoring the development of many of the modern computing, communications, and information technologies that we enjoy today. This includes such well-known advances as time-sharing/interactive computing, the ARPANET/internet, and advanced microprocessor architectures. Just as important for the DoD is DARPA's success in creating new command, control, sensor, processing, and exploitation technologies and systems such as Ground Moving Target Indication (GMTI) radar, the Command Post of the Future (CPoF), and the Tactical Ground Reporting system (TiGR).

Information lifts the fog of war and increases the speed and accuracy of decision-making for the warfighter. Information technologies have revolutionized warfighting, bringing vast improvements in weapons, platforms, command and control, battlefield intelligence, planning, logistics, and training. The mission of the Information Processing Techniques Office (IPTO) is to pioneer advanced information science, technology, and systems that have direct bearing on current and future national security needs. IPTO is building on its past successes, and drawing on exciting developments in other sectors, by supporting basic research, applied research and prototyping that spans the information lifecycle: sense, process, understand, and apply.

IPTO AREAS OF INTEREST

Sense: Future battlefields will continue to be populated with targets that range from individual insurgents and vehicles to groups of individuals and large platforms to complex distributed threat networks. Successfully prosecuting these targets begins with military intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR). IPTO develops and demonstrates advanced ISR sensors to enable detection, discrimination, identification, fingerprinting, tracking, relational and activity analysis, threat assessment, engagement and impact assessment for targets in all weather conditions and combat environments. There is particular interest in providing revolutionary capabilities against the entire range of potential maritime, land, and aerospace threats through the development of radar, LIDAR, signals intelligence, electro-optic, HUMINT, and other sensing modalities. The resulting ISR capabilities will enable warfighters to more effectively search wide areas, monitor critical locations and objects, discern adversary operations, networks, and methods, and engage enemy forces.

Process: Modern adversaries have shown great creativity in countering U.S.

military advantages. Defeating such adversaries requires accurate, timely and actionable information. IPTO develops and demonstrates new technologies and systems to extract actionable information from sensor data and to provide comprehensive understanding of the battlespace. This includes new algorithms, software and systems for detection and discrimination of targets from clutter;

classification and fingerprinting of high value targets; and localization and tracking of groups over wide areas. There is particular interest in operational environments that present difficulties for conventional ISR systems, including (a) urban environments with extensive obscuration, large volumes of civilian traffic, and feature-rich terrain, (b) mountain environments with highly variable terrain elevation, predominantly dismounted adversaries, and complex local and regional threat networks, (c) jungle environments with targets under heavy canopy, animal and other sources of clutter masking human activity, and widely dispersed threat activities, (d) surface and subsurface maritime environments containing elusive targets, and (e) challenging aerospace domains. IPTO develops advanced processing for electro-magnetic, acoustic, chem/bio, HUMINT, document, media and other military sensors and sources. Because foreign-language news broadcasts, web-posted content, and captured foreign-language hard-copy documents can provide both actionable intelligence and insights regarding local and regional events, attitudes and activities, IPTO develops technologies for one-way (foreign-language-to-English) translation of foreign language speech, handwriting and text. In addition, since current U.S. military operations involve close contact with a wide range of cultures and peoples, IPTO also develops portable two-way (foreign-language-to-English and English-to-foreign-language) speech translation systems that enable seamless communication with local populations.

Understand: Change is pervasive and accelerating throughout all aspects of human, world and military affairs, bringing with it both opportunities and threats.

Examples of threats include emerging regional peer rivals, rogue and failed nation-states, insurgent groups, militant/radicalized populations, trans-national terrorist organizations and criminal enterprises, and new classes of cyber-human-physical threats. Meanwhile, modern sensor, information, and communication systems continuously generate and deliver information at rates beyond which humans can assimilate, understand, and act. IPTO is addressing these issues by developing machine intelligence techniques that can identify patterns, propose explanations, answer questions, reach conclusions, and adapt to changing circumstances. In addition, IPTO implements these techniques in systems that address military needs from the operational to the tactical and strategic levels. At the operational level, IPTO interest centers on techniques for automatically detecting and characterizing suspicious activities and anomalous behaviors by individuals, groups, platforms, and networks in all warfighting domains: land, aerospace, maritime, and cyber. This capability is especially important for counter-insurgency and stability and support operations in urban and semi-urban areas where enemy combatants freely mix with, and are effectively indistinguishable from in terms of physical features, friendly civilians. At the tactical and strategic levels, IPTO interest centers on creating the capability to monitor, assess, and forecast instability and conflict and how U.S.

actions are affecting leaders, groups, and institutions in religiously, ethnically, and culturally diverse societies around the world. This enables the capability to anticipate, prevent and counter emerging and potential threats through peaceful means that includes the full range of diplomatic, information, military, and economic (DIME) actions available to Combatant Commanders.

Apply: Just as the world has gotten more complex, so have military operations, which require the precise tasking, coordination and control of air, ground and naval forces, ISR assets, weapons systems, communications resources and logistics under highly dynamic, uncertain, and dangerous conditions on time-scales sufficient for successful engagement of highly reactive and adaptive threats. IPTO is addressing these challenges by developing techniques to automate and improve the application of information to military decision-making, planning, training, mission rehearsal, and operations support. Decision-making and planning, in particular, must operate on increasingly short time-scales in order to maximize the benefit of often perishable intelligence and to successfully prosecute fleeting targets, but at the same time cannot ignore battlespace uncertainties, including the entire range of possible adversary responses. Also, advances in information technologies such as virtual reality and multi-agent simulation present the opportunity for training systems that provide a much more realistic learning experience: these can be integrated with mission rehearsal systems to bring us one step closer to the day when warfighters really do “Train As You Fight, Fight As You Train”. The proliferation of hand-held devices and the success of the distributed and cloud computing paradigms lay the foundation for information systems that provide new levels of automation and support during and after operations: these need to be free not only of the warfighter’s hands and eyes, but also free of his/her attention. Robotic systems represent perhaps the ultimate expression of automation, and IPTO has interest in robotic technologies that will enable autonomous/unmanned mobile platforms to perceive, understand, and model their environment; navigate through complex, irregular, and hazardous terrain; manipulate objects without human control or intervention; make intelligent decisions corresponding to previously programmed goals; and interact cooperatively with other autonomous and manned vehicles.

These capabilities will enable robotic vehicles to more effectively and resiliently support warfighters and perform missions in dynamic and dangerous environments.

Enabling Information Infrastructure: A high-performance information infrastructure is a key enabler for all of the capabilities described in the preceding paragraphs. Of particular interest to IPTO are advanced technologies for pattern analysis, anomaly detection, modeling and simulation, visualization, multimedia exploitation, information integration, knowledge management, information sharing, collaboration, security, privacy, medical informatics, geographic information systems, semantic web techniques, social networks, and Web 2.0 techniques.

Ideas that address any combination of technology and application that fall within IPTO’s broad mission objectives, as outlined above, may be submitted under this solicitation.

Proposed research should investigate innovative approaches and techniques in one or more of the above mentioned areas. To be considered, these approaches and techniques must lead to or enable revolutionary advances in state-of-the-art information processing.

SPECIAL FOCUS AREAS

From time to time, DARPA may amend this BAA by publishing addenda that will highlight particular areas of interest. It is highly recommended that potential offerors look periodically for these updates. Addenda may have submission requirements that are different from those outlined in this announcement, including submission deadlines, technical content for a submission and/or overall structure of the proposed effort. Any specific instructions or criteria in a published addendum will take precedence over this announcement in response to that addendum only. DARPA will not establish a distribution list for automatic distribution of these addenda.

Offerors are encouraged to monitor the DARPA IPTO web site at http://www.darpa.mil/ipto/index.asp for our current activities and to monitor http://www.darpa.mil/ipto/solicit/solicit_open.asp or the FBO website for new solicitations or updates to current ones.

II. AWARD INFORMATION

Multiple awards are anticipated. The amount of resources made available to this BAA will depend on the quality of the proposals received and the availability of funds.

Proposals identified for negotiation may result in a procurement contract, grant, cooperative agreement, or other transaction depending upon the nature of the work proposed, the required degree of interaction between parties, and other factors.

In addition, the Government reserves its rights to the following:

• to select for negotiation all, some, one, or none of the proposals received in response to this solicitation,

• to make awards without discussions with offerors,

• to conduct discussions if it is later determined to be necessary,

• to segregate portions of resulting awards into pre-priced options,

• to accept proposals in their entirety or to select only portions of proposals for award,

• to fund proposals in phases with options for continued work at the end of one or more of the phases,

• 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; and,

• to remove offerors from award consideration should the parties fail to reach agreement on award terms, conditions and cost/price within a reasonable time or the offeror fails to timely provide requested additional information.

As of the date of publication of this BAA, DARPA cannot identify whether or not the work under this BAA may be considered 'fundamental research,' i.e., basic and applied research in science and engineering, the results of which ordinarily are published and shared broadly within the scientific community, as distinguished from proprietary research and from industrial development, design, production, and product utilization the results of which ordinarily are restricted for proprietary or national security reasons.

Notwithstanding this statement of expectation, DARPA is not prohibited from considering and selecting research proposals that, while perhaps not qualifying as 'fundamental research' under the foregoing definition, still meet the BAA criteria for submissions. In all cases, the contracting officer shall have sole discretion to select award instrument type and to negotiate all instrument provisions with selectees.

III. ELIGIBILITY INFORMATION

A. Eligible Applicants All responsible sources capable of satisfying the Government's needs may submit a proposal that shall be considered by DARPA. Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), Small Businesses, Small Disadvantaged Businesses and Minority Institutions (MIs) are encouraged to submit proposals and join others in submitting proposals; however, no portion of this announcement will be set aside for these organizations’ participation due to the impracticality of reserving discrete or severable areas of this research for exclusive competition among these entities.

Government-funded entities such as Federally Funded Research and Development Centers (FFRDCs), and Government entities such as Government laboratories and military educational institutions are subject to applicable direct competition limitations and cannot propose to this BAA in any capacity (as prime or sub) unless they meet the following conditions.

• Government-funded entities must clearly demonstrate that the work is not otherwise available from the private sector AND they must also provide a letter on letterhead from their sponsoring organization citing the specific authority establishing their eligibility to propose to Government solicitations in compliance with the associated sponsor agreement terms and conditions.

• Government entities must clearly demonstrate that the work is not otherwise available from the private sector and provide written documentation citing the specific statutory authority (as well as, where relevant, contractual authority) establishing their ability to propose to Government solicitations.

• At the present time, DARPA does not consider 15 U.S.C. 3710a to be sufficient legal authority to show eligibility. While 10 U.S.C. 2539b may be the appropriate statutory starting point for some entities, specific supporting regulatory guidance, together with evidence of agency approval, will still be required to fully establish eligibility.

• DARPA will consider eligibility submissions on a case-by-case basis;

however, the burden to prove eligibility for all team members rests solely with the offeror.

Foreign participants and/or individuals may participate to the extent that such participants comply with any necessary Non-Disclosure Agreements, Security Regulations, Export Control Laws, and other governing statutes applicable under the circumstances.

Applicants considering classified submissions (or requiring access to classified information during the life-cycle of the effort) shall ensure all industrial, personnel, and information system processing security requirements are in place and at the appropriate level (e.g., Facility Clearance (FCL), Personnel Security Clearance (PCL), certification and accreditation (C&A)) and any Foreign Ownership Control and Influence (FOCI) issues are mitigated prior to such submission or access. Additional information on these subjects can be found at: www.dss.mil.

1. Procurement Integrity, Standards of Conduct, Ethical Considerations, and Organizational Conflicts of Interest

Current federal employees are prohibited from participating in particular matters involving conflicting financial, employment, and representational interests (18 USC 203, 205, and 208). The DARPA Technical POC for this BAA is Dr. Daniel M. Kaufman.

Once proposals have been received the Government will assess potential conflicts of interest between those organizations proposing (primes and subs) and those individuals involved in the Government’s internal Scientific Review process. Note the Government assessment does NOT affect, offset, or mitigate the offeror’s own duty to give full notice and planned mitigation for all potential organizational conflicts, as discussed below.

In accordance with FAR 9.503 and without prior approval or a waiver from the DARPA Director, a contractor cannot simultaneously be a SETA and a performer. Therefore, all offerors and proposed subcontractors must affirm whether they (their organizations and individual team members) are providing scientific, engineering, and technical assistance (SETA) or similar support to any DARPA technical office(s) through an active contract or subcontract. All affirmations must state which office(s) the offeror, sub and/or individual supports and identify the prime contract numbers. Affirmations shall be furnished at the time of proposal submission. All facts relevant to the existence or potential existence of organizational conflicts of interest (FAR 9.5) must be disclosed. The Government will make the final determination on what constitutes a conflict of interest. The disclosure shall include a description of the action the offeror has taken or proposes to take to avoid, neutralize, or mitigate such conflict. Proposals that fail to fully disclose potential conflicts of interests and/or do not have plans to mitigate this conflict may be rejected without technical evaluation and withdrawn from further consideration for award.

If a prospective offeror has any questions on what constitutes a conflict of interest (whether organizational or otherwise), the offeror should promptly raise the issue with DARPA by sending his/her contact information and a summary of the potential conflict by email to the mailbox address for this BAA at DARPA-BAA-10-08@darpa.mil, before time and effort are expended in preparing a proposal and mitigation plan. If, in the sole opinion of the Government after full consideration of the circumstances, any conflict situation cannot be effectively mitigated, the proposal may be rejected without technical evaluation and withdrawn from further consideration for award under this BAA.

B. Cost Sharing or Matching Cost sharing is not required for this particular effort; however, it will be carefully considered where there is an applicable statutory condition relating to the selected effort and funding instrument (e.g., for any Technology Investment Agreement under the authority of 10 U.S.C. 2371). Cost sharing is encouraged where there is a reasonable probability of a potential commercial application related to the proposed research and development effort.

IV. APPLICATION AND SUBMISSION INFORMATION

A. Address to Request Application Package This solicitation contains all information required to submit a proposal. No additional forms, kits, or other materials (other than those noted within this document) are needed.

This notice constitutes the total BAA. No additional information is available, nor will a formal Request for Proposal (RFP) or additional solicitation regarding this announcement be issued. Requests for same will be disregarded.

B. Content and Form of Application Submission DARPA will employ an electronic upload submission system for responses to this BAA.

See also Section IV.F. Other Submission Requirements below. Responding to this announcement requires completion of an online cover sheet for each abstract and/or proposal prior to submission. To do so, the offeror must go to https://www.csc-ballston.com/baa/index.asp?BAAid=10-08 and follow the instructions there. Upon completion of the online cover sheet, a Confirmation Sheet will appear along with instructions on uploading submissions. The Confirmation Sheet will be used as the

Cover Sheet for each submission and will contain the information outlined below in Proposal Section 1.1. If an offeror intends to submit more than one abstract or proposal, a unique UserId and password MUST be used in creating each cover sheet.

Technical support for the web server/submission issues is typically available during regular business hours (9:00 – 5:00 ET, Monday-Friday).

All uploaded submission must be zipped and encrypted using WinZip or PKZip with 256-bit AES encryption. Only one zipped/encrypted file will be accepted per submission. Submissions which are not zipped/encrypted will be rejected by DARPA.

An encryption password form must be completed and emailed to DARPA-BAA-10- 08@darpa.mil at the time of submission. See https://www.CSC- Ballston.com/baa/Encryption_Instructions.htm for the encryption password form and additional encryption information. Note: the word “PASSWORD” must appear in the subject line of the above email and there are minimum security requirements for establishing the encryption password. Failure to provide the encryption password will result in the submission not being evaluated.

1. Abstracts Initial offeror submissions to the Government should be a seven-page abstract, which must include a one-page executive summary. The submission of the abstract is intended to avoid unnecessary effort and expense in proposal generation for ideas that will not be selected within this BAA. The purpose of the abstract is to give the offeror the opportunity to solicit early feedback from the Government as to whether or not the research proposed is of interest to DARPA/IPTO. It is thus in the offeror’s best interest to clearly articulate the innovative concept and technology development needed with respect to demonstrable metrics. Offerors should avoid using proprietary information or data not critical to the idea being presented.

Abstracts must describe the problem that will be solved, evidence that the proposed solution will be successful, and quantitative assessment of the impact of such a solution, should it prove successful. Abstracts should also address the military context for the offered system, subsystem, or technology and must identify the revolutionary impact of a successful technological development upon appropriate military concepts of operation.

2. Abstract Preparation and Format The abstract shall include the following sections, each starting on a new page (where a "page" is 8-1/2 by 11 inches with type not smaller than 12 point, margins not smaller than 1 inch, and line spacing not smaller than single-spaced). The overall page limit of the technical and cost summary information must not exceed 7 pages. All submissions must be in English. Abstracts should contain the following parts:

• Confirmation/Cover Sheet (see Proposal Section 1.1 below for details) – 1 page

• Technical Summary – 5 pages

• Cost Summary – 1 page

3. Proposal Preparation and Format The proposal shall be delivered in two volumes, Volume 1 (technical proposal) and Volume 2 (cost proposal). Proposals not meeting the format described in this BAA may not be reviewed.

Volume 1 – Technical Proposal

The technical proposal shall include the following sections, each starting on a new page (where a "page" is 8-1/2 by 11 inches with type not smaller than 12 point, charts may use 10 pt font, margins not smaller than 1 inch, and line spacing not smaller than single-spaced). All submissions must be in English. The overall page limit of the technical proposal must not exceed 20 pages. This does NOT include the sections marked as having no page limit.

Proposal Section 1. Administrative

1.1 Confirmation Sheet/Cover Sheet

As described above, this cover sheet will contain the following information:

• BAA number;

• Proposal title;

• Technical point of contact including: name, telephone number, electronic mail address, fax (if available) and mailing address;

• Administrative point of contact including: name, telephone number, electronic mail address, fax (if available) and mailing address;

• Summary of the costs of the proposed research, including total base cost, estimates of base cost in each year of the effort, estimates of itemized options in each year of the effort, and cost sharing if relevant;

• Contractor’s reference number (if any)

• Contractor's type of business, selected from among the following categories:

o WOMEN-OWNED LARGE BUSINESS, o OTHER LARGE BUSINESS, o SMALL DISADVANTAGED BUSINESS [Identify ethnic group from among the following: Asian-Indian American, Asian-Pacific American, Black American, Hispanic American, Native American, or Other], o WOMEN-OWNED SMALL BUSINESS, o OTHER SMALL BUSINESS, o HBCU, o MI, o OTHER EDUCATIONAL, o OTHER NONPROFIT, OR o FOREIGN CONCERN/ENTITY.

1.2 Table of contents {No page limit}

Proposal Section 2. Technical Details Ensure that each section provides the detailed discussion of the proposed work necessary to enable an in-depth review of the specific technical and managerial issues.

Specific attention must be given to addressing both risk and payoff of the proposed work that make it desirable to DARPA.

2.1 Innovative claims for the proposed research:

This page is the centerpiece of the proposal and should succinctly describe the unique proposed approach and contributions. This section may also briefly address the following topics:

a. Problem Description. Provide a concise description of the problem areas addressed. Make this specific to your approach.

b. Research Goals. Identify specific research goals. Goals should address the technical challenges of the effort.

c. Expected Impact. Describe the expected impact of your research.

2.2 Problem description and anticipated results:

Describe the operational and technical problems to be solved and the impact on the military of solving them.

2.3 Technical Approach:

Provide a detailed description of the technical approach. This section will serve as the primary expression of the offerors’ scientific and technical ideas. Include a description of state of the art approaches and the limitations that relate to each area addressed by the proposal. Describe and analyze state of the art results, approaches, and limitations within the context of the problem area addressed by this research. Demonstrating problem understanding requires not just the enumeration of related efforts; rather, related work must be compared and contrasted to the proposed approach.

2.4 Schedule and Milestones:

Provide a graphic representation of project schedule including detail down to the individual effort level. This should include but not be limited to, a development plan which demonstrates a clear understanding of the proposed research; and a plan for periodic and increasingly robust tests over the project life that will show applicability to the overall concept. Show all project milestones. Measurable milestones should capture key development points in tasks and should be clearly articulated and defined in time relative to start of effort.

2.5 Personnel, Qualifications, and Commitments:

List key personnel, showing a concise summary of their qualifications and unique capabilities. For each person, provide a description of any previous accomplishments or similar efforts completed/ongoing in this or closely related research area, including identification of other Government sponsors, if any. Indicate the level of effort in terms of hours to be expended by each person during each contract year and other (current and proposed) major sources of support for them and/or commitments of their efforts.

DARPA expects all key personnel associated with a proposal to make substantial time commitment to the proposed activity and the proposal will be evaluated accordingly.

It is DARPA’s intention to put key personnel clauses into the contracts, so offerors should not bid personnel whom they do not intend to execute the contract.

Include a table of key individual time commitments as follows:

Key Individual

Project Pending/Current 2010 2011 2012

Jane Doe Program Name

Proposed ZZZ hours

UUU

hours

WWW

hours

Project 1 Current n/a n/a n/a Project 2 Pending 100 hours n/a n/a

John Deer Program Name

Proposed

2.6 Project Management and Interaction Plan:

Describe the programmatic relationship and/or teaming strategy among the team members for the proposed work. If proposal includes subcontractors that are geographically distributed, clearly specify working/meeting models. Include software/code repositories, physical and virtual meeting plans, and online communication systems that may be used.

Describe formal teaming agreements that are required to execute this effort and provide a clearly defined organization chart for the team (prime contractor and subcontractors, if any). Provide an argument that the team size and composition are both necessary and sufficient to meet the objectives of the effort. Provide detailed interdependencies for each individual effort and/or subcontractor. To the extent that graduate students and postdocs are involved in individual efforts, describe their role and contribution. Describe the Government’s role in the project, if any.

2.7 Cost Summaries:

Provide a top level total cost summary for the entire effort broken down by month. Show each major task and subtask by month and delineate prime and major subcontractor efforts.

2.8 Statement of Work (SOW):

In plain English, clearly define the technical tasks/subtasks to be performed, their durations, and dependencies among them. For each task/subtask, provide:

• A general description of the objective (for each defined task/activity);

• A detailed description of the approach to be taken to accomplish each defined task/activity);

• Identification of the primary organization responsible for task execution

(prime, sub, team member, by name, etc.);

• The completion criteria for each task/activity - a product, event or milestone that defines its completion.

• Define all deliverables (reports, data, software, hardware, prototypes, etc.) to be provided to the Government in support of the proposed research tasks/activities. Include expected delivery date for each deliverable.

Note: Do not include any proprietary information in the SOW.

2.9 Intellectual Property {No page limit}

If no restrictions are intended, then the offeror must state “NONE”.

Otherwise, per Section VI.B.2 below, provide a separate list of all technical data or computer software that will be furnished to the Government with other than unlimited rights. Include in this section all proprietary claims to results, prototypes, deliverables or systems supporting and/or necessary for the use of the research, results, prototypes and/or deliverables. The Government will assume unlimited rights if offerors fail to identify any intellectual property restrictions in their proposals.

2.10 Organizational Conflict of Interest Affirmations and Disclosure {No page limit} If the offeror or any proposed subcontractor IS NOT currently providing SETA support as described (see Section III.A.1), then the offeror must state “NONE.”

Otherwise, provide the following information for the offeror and each proposed subcontractor, as applicable:

Prime Contract Number

DARPA Office supported Mitigation Plan*

* A description of the action the offeror has taken or proposes to take to avoid, neutralize, or mitigate the conflict.

Proposals that fail to fully disclose potential conflicts of interests or do not have acceptable plans to mitigate identified conflicts may not be reviewed.

2.11 Human use {No page limit}

If human use is not a factor in a proposal, then the offeror should state “NONE.”

Otherwise, for all proposed research that will involve human subjects in the first year or phase of the project, the offeror must provide evidence of or a plan for review by an Institutional Review Board (IRB). For further information on this subject, see Section VI.B.4 below.”

2.12 Animal Use {No page limit}

If animal use is not a factor in a proposal, then the offeror should state “NONE.”

Otherwise, for submissions containing animal use, proposals must briefly describe plans for Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) review and approval. For further information on this subject, see Section VI.B.5 below.

2.13 Statement of Unique Capability Provided by Government or Government-funded Team Member {No page limit} If none of the team member organizations (prime or sub) belongs to a Government or Government-funded entity, then the offeror should state “NONE.”

Otherwise, per section III.A. above, provide a statement which clearly demonstrates the work being provided by the Government or Government-funded entity team member is not otherwise available from the private sector.

2.14 Government or Government-funded Team Member Eligibility {No page limit} If none of the team member organizations (prime or sub) belongs to a Government or Government-funded entity, then the offeror should state “NONE.”

Otherwise, per section III.A. above, provide documentation citing the specific authority which establishes the applicable team member is eligible to propose to Government solicitations to include: 1) statutory authority; 2) contractual authority; 3) supporting regulatory guidance; AND 4) evidence of agency approval for applicable team member participation.

Volume 2 – Cost Proposal

Cover sheet

• BAA number;

• Lead Organization Submitting proposal;

• Type of business, selected among the following categories: “LARGE

BUSINESS”, “SMALL DISADVANTAGED BUSINESS”, “OTHER SMALL

BUSINESS”, “HBCU”, “MI”, “OTHER EDUCATIONAL”, OR “OTHER

NONPROFIT”;

• Contractor’s reference number (if any);

• Other team members (if applicable) and type of business for each;

• Proposal title;

• Technical point of contact to include: salutation, last name, first name, street address, city, state, zip code, telephone, fax (if available), electronic mail (if available);

• Administrative point of contact to include: salutation, last name, first name, street address, city, state, zip code, telephone, fax (if available), and electronic mail (if available);

• Award instrument requested: procurement contract (specify contract type (e.g.

cost-plus-fixed-fee, cost-no fee, cost sharing – no fee, or other type), grant, cooperative agreement, or other transaction;

• Place(s) and period(s) of performance;

• Total proposed cost separated by basic award and option(s) (if any);

• Name, address, and telephone number of the offeror’s cognizant Defense Contract Management Agency (DCMA) administration office (if known);

• Name, address, and telephone number of the offeror’s cognizant Defense Contract Audit Agency (DCAA) audit office (if known);

• Date proposal was prepared;

• DUNS number;

• TIN number; and

• CAGE Code;

• Subcontractor Information; and

• Proposal validity period (minimum 180 days).

Detailed cost breakdown All offerors must provide the following information, as applicable:

(1) total cost of the effort broken down by major cost items (direct labor, including labor categories; subcontracts; materials; travel; other direct costs, overhead charges, etc.)

and further broken down by task and month;

(2) major tasks by fiscal year;

(3) an itemization of major subcontracts and equipment purchases;

(4) an itemization of any information technology (IT) purchase1;

(5) a summary of projected funding requirements by month;

(6) the source, nature, and amount of any industry cost-sharing;

(7) identification of pricing assumptions of which may require incorporation into the resulting award instrument (e.g., use of Government Furnished Property/Facilities/Information, etc.) and

(8) appropriate cost or price analyses of subcontractor proposals, IAW FAR 15.404-3, to establish the reasonableness of proposed subcontract prices.

NOTE: for IT and equipment purchases, include a letter stating why the offeror cannot provide the requested resources from its own funding.

1 IT is defined as “any equipment, or interconnected system(s) or subsystem(s) of equipment that is used in the automatic acquisition, storage, manipulation, management, movement, control, display, switching, interchange, transmission, or reception of data or information by the agency. (a) For purposes of this definition, equipment is used by an agency if the equipment is used by the agency directly or is used by a contractor under a contract with the agency which – (1) Requires the use of such equipment; or (2) Requires the use, to a significant extent, or such equipment in the performance of a service or the furnishing of a product. (b) The term “information technology” includes computers, ancillary, software, firmware and similar procedures, services (including support services), and related resources. (c) The term “information technology” does not include – (1) Any equipment that is acquired by a contractor incidental to a contract; or (2) Any equipment that contains imbedded information technology that is used as an integral part of the product, but the principal function of which is not the acquisition, storage, manipulation, management, movement, control, display, switching, interchange, transmission, or reception of data or information. For example, HVAC (heating, ventilation, and air conditioning) equipment such as thermostats or temperature control devices, and medical equipment where information technology is integral to its operation, is not information technology.”

Provide supporting cost and pricing information in sufficient detail to substantiate the summary cost estimates above. Include a description of the method used to estimate costs and supporting documentation (e.g. travel estimates, estimates/quotes for material/equipment, current DCMA/DCAA rate information, etc). Note: “cost or pricing data” as defined in FAR Subpart 15.4 shall be required if the offeror is seeking a procurement contract award of $650,000 or greater unless the offeror requests an exception from the requirement to submit cost or pricing data. “Cost or pricing data” are not required if the offeror proposes an award instrument other than a procurement contract (e.g., a grant, cooperative agreement, or other transaction).

The prime contractor is responsible for compiling and providing all subcontractor proposals for the Contracting Officer. Subcontractor proposals should include Interdivisional Work Transfer Agreements (ITWA) or similar arrangements, as applicable. The Subcontractor’s cost proposal must be prepared at a level of detail as required by the BAA, FAR 15.403 and FAR 15.404 in order to support Proposal Analysis by the Government (Cost Analysis, Cost Realism Analysis, Technical Analysis, etc).

For information on 845 Other Transaction Authority for Prototypes (OTA) agreements, refer to http://www.darpa.mil/cmo/other_trans.html. All proposers requesting an 845 Other Transaction Authority for Prototypes (OTA) agreement must include a detailed list of milestones. Each such milestone must include the following: milestone description, completion criteria, due date, payment/funding schedule (to include, if cost share is proposed, contractor and Government share amounts). It is noted that, at a minimum, such milestones should relate directly to accomplishment of technical metrics as defined in the BAA and/or the offeror’s proposal. Agreement type, fixed price or expenditure based, will be subject to negotiation by the Agreements Officer; however, it is noted that the Government prefers use of fixed price milestones with a payment/funding schedule to the maximum extent possible. Do not include proprietary data. If the proposer requests award of an 845 OTA agreement as a nontraditional defense contractor, as so defined in the OSD guide entitled “Other Transactions (OT) Guide For Prototype Projects” dated January 2001 (as amended) (http://www.acq.osd.mil/dpap/Docs/otguide.doc), information must be included in the cost proposal to support the claim. Additionally, if the offeror requests award of an 845 OTA agreement, without the required one-third (1/3) cost share, information must be included in the cost proposal supporting that there is at least one non-traditional defense contractor participating to a significant extent in the proposed prototype project.

C. Submission Dates and Times This BAA will remain open from the date of posting through 1200 noon (ET) 01 March 2011. Throughout this period, DARPA will receive and review abstracts and proposals on a continuous basis.

DARPA will acknowledge receipt of complete submissions via email and assign control numbers that should be used in all further correspondence regarding proposals.

Failure to comply with the submission procedures may result in the submission not being evaluated.

D. Intergovernmental Review - N/A

E. Funding Restrictions The Defense Appropriations Act caps indirect cost rates at 35% of the total cost of the award for any procurement contract, grant or agreement using 6.1 Basic Research Funding. The cost limitations do not flow down to subcontractors. Total costs include all bottom line costs. Indirect costs are defined as follows:

• For Educational Institutions subject to the cost principles in 2 CFR part 220, indirect costs are all costs of a prime award that are Facilities and Administration costs.

• For State, Local, and Indian Tribal Governments subject to 2 CFR part 225, Non-

Profit Organizations subject to 2 CFR part 230 and all other organizations subject to 48 CFR part 32 Federal Acquisition Regulation, indirect cost are any cost not directly identified with a single final cost objective (i.e. costs identified with two or more final cost objectives or with at least one intermediate cost objective).

F. Other Submission Requirements Proposals MUST NOT be submitted to DARPA via email or fax (see Submission instructions above in Section IV.B).

Grant or cooperative agreement proposals may be submitted to DARPA through ONE of the following methods: 1) uploaded via www.grants.gov, 2) uploaded via the process described above in Section IV.B. or 3) mailed in hard-copy directly to the mailing address shown in Part One: Overview Information. Offerors must submit their entire proposal via the same method; applications cannot be submitted in part via one method and in part via another method. In addition, duplicate proposal submissions should not be sent to DARPA via multiple methods. Regardless of which submission method is chosen, offerors must still submit an online coversheet as described above in Section

IV.B.

V. APPLICATION REVIEW INFORMATION

A. Evaluation Criteria Evaluation of proposals will be accomplished through a scientific review of each proposal using the following criteria. While these criteria are listed in descending order of relative importance, it should be noted that the combination of all non-cost evaluation factors is significantly more important than cost.

1. Overall Scientific and Technical Merit

The offeror’s proposal will be evaluated on the long term effects of the proposed research including the impact on technology and whether there is sufficient technical payoff to warrant any risk. In addition, the proposed technical approach will be evaluated for feasibility, achievability, completeness and whether it is supported by a proposed technical team that has the expertise and experience to accomplish the proposed tasks. The expertise and experience of the offeror’s proposed technical team will be evaluated based upon the qualifications of the key personnel proposed for the effort and their previous accomplishments on similar efforts.

2. Potential Contribution and Relevance to the DARPA Mission The potential contributions of the proposed effort with relevance to the national technology base will be evaluated. Specifically, DARPA’s mission is to maintain the technological superiority of the U.S. military and prevent technological surprise from harming our national security by sponsoring revolutionary, high-payoff research that bridges the gap between fundamental discoveries and their application.

3. Cost Realism The objective of this criterion is to establish that the proposed costs are realistic for the proposed approach, as well as to determine the offeror’s practical understanding of the effort. The proposal will be reviewed to determine if the costs proposed are based on realistic assumptions, reflect a sufficient understanding of the technical goals and objectives of the BAA, and are consistent with the offeror’s technical approach (to include the proposed Statement of Work). At a minimum, this will involve review, at the prime and subcontract level, of the number and types of labor-hours proposed (quantity and mix) per task as well as the types and quantity of materials, equipment and fabrication costs, travel and other various elements proposed.

NOTE: OFFERORS ARE CAUTIONED THAT EVALUATION RATINGS MAY BE

LOWERED AND/OR PROPOSALS REJECTED IF SUBMITTAL INSTRUCTIONS ARE

NOT FOLLOWED.

B. Review and Selection Process It is the policy of DARPA to ensure impartial, equitable, comprehensive proposal evaluations and to select the source (or sources) whose offer meets the Government's technical, policy, and programmatic goals. Evaluations of responsive proposals will be conducted by means of a scientific review by qualified Government personnel.

Each proposal will be evaluated on its own merits and relevance against the evaluation criteria herein rather than against other proposals submitted in response to this BAA as…