EAR_Broad_Agency_Announcement_DTFH6114R00017_-_Amendment_1.docx

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FHWA 2014 EXPLORATORY ADVANCED RESEARCH PROGRAM BROAD AGENCY ANNOUNCEMENT
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DTFH6114R00017
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Amendment No. 1-FHWA 2014 Exploratory Advanced Research Broad Agency Announcement

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Exploratory Advanced Research Program Broad Agency Announcement DTFH6114R00017 Amendment No. 1 Amendment No. 1 provides responses to questions received through March 26, 2014. If duplicates questions were received, a response is provided once in this amendment.

1. The solicitation says that “FHWA envisions the research to be undertaken in two phases.” What is the expected duration of each of these phases? We believe 12 months would be required for each phase at a minimum. Would you please provide guidance on FHWA’s thoughts on this?

1.Response - Investigators should use their best judgment about the period of performance for each research phase. As a reference, most past EAR Program funded awards have had overall period of performance of between two and four years.
2.The solicitation says that “FHWA anticipates that the proposal will include a multi‐disciplinary research team with a recognized expert or experts in, machine learning, text recognition, probabilistic data linkage, systems engineering, and cyber security as well as recognized experts in highway safety.” While we see the need for expertise in most of the areas, we are not sure about the need for cyber-security expert at this stage of research. Would you please elaborate on the need for cyber-security expertise for this proposal? Is it mandatory, to have experts in each of these domains?
2.Response - FHWA provided the list of disciplines as an example not as a requirement for the topic. Investigators should use their best judgment about the skills needed to successfully respond to the announcement.
3.Previous EARP solicitations listed budget totals for each topic. The current one does not. Is there any guidance on what FHWA considers to be reasonable for Topic 2?

3. Response- Offers shall submit budgets for the estimate of the work proposed. If offerors propose a cost share, the proposed budget should demonstrate the total federal share and total cost share.

4.Is cost sharing required to be awarded a contract as a result of this BAA?
4.Response - Per the BAA, “Although the Government encourages cost sharing for both cooperative agreements and contracts, all applications submitted for cooperative agreement consideration shall include a 20 percent or greater non-federal cost share.”
5.Is cost share required for a contract as a result of this BAA?
5.Response - A cost share is not required for a contract resulting from this broad agency announcement.
6.Can our team, consisting of ORNL (a FFRDC), a University, and a MPO, be considered to have a contract as a result of this BAA?
6.Response - FHWA has authority to make awards -- cooperative agreements or contracts -- to businesses, academic institutions, state and local government agencies, and non-governmental organizations.
7.By studying your Topic 2: "Applications of Massive Data and Data Mining Techniques Relevant to Safety Data", we notice the requirements of using HSIS data and providing at least two additional disparate data sets that could be integrated with HSIS data.
7.Response - FHWA will provide access to HSIS for proposal teams that receive funding.
8.Since HSIS does not have the data from Louisiana or any states in the South, we are wondering if we can use Louisiana data for this project. The team has done some work in the past to link crash data with highway design and human factor by data mining with Louisiana data only. In other words, is it mandatory to use HSIS data (which does not include Louisiana) or will it be sufficient to use the Louisiana crash data and show how some additional datasets can be combined with it for improving insights on why crashes occur or how they may be prevented?
8.Response - HSIS data are limited to specific states. Proposals may include data from locations not included in HSIS. Proposals then should describe how combining HSIS data with data from other locations aids in data mining.
9.For topic 2 (“Applications of Massive Data and Data Mining Techniques Relevant to Safety Data”), is there a suggested length for Phase 1 (e.g., 12 months)? Also, should Phase 2 be proposed as an Option? Is there a suggested length for Phase 2?
9.Response - FHWA intends to fully fund the research for both phases but will conduct a review at the end of the initial phase to determine how and if to proceed. See No. 1 for additional response.
10.In Volume I, can you confirm what sections count towards the 36 page limit? For example, if you add all of the suggested page limits you arrive at 34 pages. It is unclear if sections ‘(p) Other Proposals’ and ‘(q) Bibliography’ count towards this limit or not.
10.Response - Volume I of proposals shall be no longer than 36 pages in length. The cover page and section (o) Qualifications, do not count against the page limit. All other sections are included in the total page count.
11.In the guidance for Volume I it gives ‘approximate’ page lengths. Is it okay to assume that these are guidelines and if the total proposal stays within the page limit it is okay if some sections are slightly shorter and other sections are slightly longer?
11. Response -FHWA provides suggested lengths for each section. Sections may be shorter or longer as long as the overall length does not exceed 36 pages.
12.In Volume II, is FHWA expecting to see the total budget shown just for phase 1 all within 12 months, or spread out the total requested budget across all phases for 24 or 36 months? For example, if we had a $1M proposal that we anticipated to complete in 24 months should we show it as two phases (each 12 months in duration) and the $1M split accordingly between the two phases?

12. Response - Proposals should include a budget for all proposed phases of work. The budget should include an adequately detailed cost break down for each phase of work.

13.On the first page of the solicitation, there is a funding note that states $4M is available for all awards in this BAA and it is anticipated that four to eight contracts/cooperative agreements may be awarded. Is there a cap on any given award? The next question relates to the period of performance and/budget. As stated on pg 16 of the solicitation, Volume II shall include annual and total costs with a baseline period of performance of up to 12 months, and if needed, with one or more options, each with a 12-month period of performance. Is there a cap on the total period of performance? I interpreted this statement to mean that the proposals need to be broken down into 12-month periods of performance, but I was not sure how long they could actually go (2 years, 3years,…) . Related to this question, if the period of performance is beyond 12 months, is the funding limited to the fraction of the $4M currently available or is there the expectation that additional year funding would be available (e.g. funding available from a different fiscal year)?
13.Response - There is no cap on funding for a single award. However, FHWA anticipates making four to eight awards. FHWA plans to completely fund the awards with FY 2014 funds and is not anticipating supplementing the awards with any future year funds. See No. 1 for additional response.

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