Amend 02 BAA 19-11 second repub.docx

AMENDMENT 2 to BAA FA8750-19-S-7011

The purpose of this modification is to republish the original announcement, incorporating any previous amendments, pursuant to FAR 35.016(c).

This republishing also includes the following changes:

1. Part I, Overview Information:

0. No changes made;

1. Part II, Full Text Announcement:

1. Section IV.2, updates content and format language;

1. Section IV.3.a, updates the NISOPM reference to reflect it being codified in the CFR;

1. Section IV.3.c, updates the mailing instructions;

1. Section IV.4.b. and c, updates clause and provision dates;

1. Section IV.4, adds paragraph g;

1. Section V., adds paragraph 4 regarding adequate price competition;

1. Section VI.1, updates the Proposal Formatting language;

1. Section VI.7, updates the applicable provisions;

1. Section VII: updated the OMBUDSMAN and clause date.

No other changes have been made.

NAICS CODE: 541715

FEDERAL AGENCY NAME: Department of the Air Force, Air Force Materiel Command, AFRL - Rome Research Site, AFRL/Information Directorate, 26 Electronic Parkway, Rome, NY, 13441-4514

BAA ANNOUNCEMENT TYPE: Modification

BROAD AGENCY ANNOUNCEMENT (BAA) TITLE: Distributed Information Services for Tactical Resilience In Contested Theaters (DISTRICT)

BAA NUMBER: FA8750-19-S-7011

PART I – OVERVIEW INFORMATION

This announcement is for an Open, 2 Step BAA which is open and effective until 30 Sep 2021. Only white papers will be accepted as initial submissions; formal proposals will be accepted by invitation only. While white papers will be considered if received prior to 2:00 PM Eastern Standard Time (EST) on 30 Sep 2021, the following submission dates are suggested to best align with projected funding:

FY19 by 15 MAY 2019 FY20 by 30 SEP 2019 FY21 by 29 JUN 2020

Offerors should monitor the Contract Opportunities on the Beta SAM website at https://beta.SAM.gov in the event this announcement is amended.

CONCISE SUMMARY OF TECHNOLOGY REQUIREMENT: The Information Directorate of the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), Rome Research Site, is seeking innovative research proposals to design and prototype a resilient and secure Information Provisioning Layer (IPL) to enable the Combat Cloud in disconnected, intermittent, low-bandwidth (DIL) tactical airborne environments. The IPL shall achieve this resilience by providing mission and network-aware disruption tolerant information flows and distributed data stores, as well as increased information interoperability and information accountability and trust. The end goal is to provide secure and resilient information exchange to maximize survivability of services and apps in the Combat Cloud.

The DISTRICT program is divided into four technical areas (TAs). Offerors may bid on any technical area individually or any combination of technical areas thereof. Offerors who include multiple technical areas in their proposal should describe the work for each technical area separately and clearly identify the applicable TAs. Proposers should indicate their integration strategy for integration of components developed in other TAs when applicable. The four technical areas are as follows:

FY21 Focus Area: The Information Directorate of the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), Rome Research Site, is seeking innovative research proposals to augment the resilient and secure Information Provisioning Layer (IPL) [1] in the areas of learning-based methods for proactive dissemination/caching (TA1) and data discovery (TA2), and key distribution and management (TA3).

Efforts under TA1, Information Dissemination, are developing techniques to reliably deliver information based on participants’ Information Exchange Requirements (IERs). IERs established pre-mission are updated in-mission as the mission evolves, yet require participants or mission-managers to manually configure IERs or the policies by which IERs update. Techniques that enable inferring IERs from mission context are desired to automate and improve this process. In addition to end-point delivery, these automated techniques could potentially improve the efficacy and efficiency of proactively caching information across the network based on mission context.

Key to the dissemination process is the understanding of information (TA3) among multiple formats or representations. Current practices enable explicit mapping among representations of information concepts (e.g. tracks, threats, imagery). Techniques are sough that enable inference among information formats to discovery and enable delivery of relevant information to Combat Cloud participants. A key challenge to this and previously mentioned inferencing is the availability of data sets from which to potentially learn from.

Information Accountability and Trust (TA3), requires in-mission key generation, distribution, verification and revocation for group-based encryptions schemes (e.g. Attribute-based Encryption) in DIL environments. While network authentication methods permit nodes to participate in the Combat Cloud, confidentiality may need to be maintained within groups of participants with a ‘need to know.’ Techniques are needed to manage attributes and their assignment, and the lifecycle of the resulting encryption keys.

The total value of awards under this Focus Area are anticipated to be limited to $500,000 and 12 months.

BAA ESTIMATED FUNDING: Total funding for this BAA is approximately $20M. Individual awards will not normally exceed 18 months with dollar amounts normally ranging from $1M to $1.8M. There is also the potential to make awards up to any dollar value as long as the value does not exceed the available BAA ceiling amount.

ANTICIPATED INDIVIDUAL AWARDS: Multiple Awards are anticipated.

TYPE OF INSTRUMENTS THAT MAY BE AWARDED: Procurement contracts, grants, cooperative agreements or other transactions (OT) depending upon the nature of the work proposed. In the event that an Other Transaction for Prototype agreement is awarded as a result of this competitive BAA, and the prototype project is successfully completed, there is the potential for a prototype project to transition to award of a follow-on production contract or transaction. The Other Transaction for Prototype agreement itself will also contain a similar notice of a potential follow-on production contract or agreement.

AGENCY CONTACT INFORMATION: All white paper submissions and any questions of a technical nature shall be directed to the cognizant Technical Point of Contact (TPOC) as specified below (unless otherwise specified in the technical area):

BAA MANAGER:

Brian Holmes

AFRL/RISA

525 Brooks Rd Rome, NY 13441-4505 Telephone: (315)330-4691 Email: brian.holmes.7@us.af.mil

Questions of a contractual/business nature shall be directed to the cognizant contracting officer, as specified below (email requests are preferred):

Amber Buckley Telephone (315) 330-3605 Email: amber.buckley@us.af.mil

Emails must reference the solicitation (BAA) number and title of the acquisition.

Pre-Proposal Communication between Prospective Offerors and Government Representatives: Dialogue between prospective offerors and Government representatives is encouraged. Technical and contracting questions can be resolved in writing or through open discussions. Discussions with any of the points of contact shall not constitute a commitment by the Government to subsequently fund or award any proposed effort. Only Contracting Officers are legally authorized to commit the Government.

Offerors are cautioned that evaluation ratings may be lowered and/or proposal rejected if proposal preparation (Proposal format, content, etc.) and/or submittal instructions are not followed.

PART II – FULL TEXT ANNOUNCEMENT

BROAD AGENCY ANNOUNCEMENT (BAA) TITLE: Distributed Information Services for Tactical Resilience In Contested Theaters (DISTRICT)

BAA NUMBER: BAA FA8750-19-S-7011

I. TECHNOLOGY REQUIREMENTS:

Air Operations are becoming increasingly interconnected, interdependent, and challenged. Information needs are also expanding in both scale and complexity. These battlespace environments are characterized by disconnected, intermittent, and low bandwidth networks. To address these issues, the Air Force has envisioned the Combat Cloud. Air Combat Command (ACC) has defined the Combat Cloud as an, “Overarching meshed network for data distribution and information sharing within a battlespace, where each authorized user, platform, or node transparently contributes and receives essential information and is able to utilize it across the full range of military operations” [2]. In order to achieve this operating vision, a number of challenges must be addressed including:

· The ability to store, share and exchange information in contested environments

· Mission-aware and network-aware routing to queue and prioritize information

· Security and trust mechanisms

At the core of the Combat Cloud vision is secure, seamless information sharing. The DISTRICT program seeks to provide this capability through development of a resilient and secure Information Provisioning Layer (IPL) to enable the Combat Cloud in disconnected, intermittent, low-bandwidth (DIL) tactical airborne environments. The IPL shall achieve this resilience by providing mission and network-aware disruption tolerant information flows and distributed data stores, as well increased information interoperability and information accountability and trust. The end goal is to provide secure and resilient information exchange to maximize survivability of services and apps in the Combat Cloud. To achieve this, development is sought in four primary technology areas (TAs):

1. Information Dissemination: how information is moved throughout the network, with a focus on disruption-prone highly contested environments (HCE) and distributed data stores

2. Information Interoperability: the ability of information to be readily produced, discovered, and consumed

3. Information Accountability and Trust: the secure exchange of information and degree to which information can be trusted

4. Integration and Demonstration: Integration of TAs 1 through 3 to achieve desired DISTRICT IPL functionality along with demonstration and experimentation in relevant environments.

The end product of the four TAs is expected to be an Application Programming Interface (API) for platform integrators and sub-system developers to employ to share, discover and access information among/across nodes in a heterogeneous network of networks (e.g. the Combat Cloud). The services underlying the API should provide seamless and secure exchange of information that is adaptive to the underlying network, and responsive to dynamic mission priorities.

TA1: Information Dissemination

The primary goal of dissemination in the context of DISTRICT is to move information between producers and consumers in contested and highly contested environments. A producer is defined as any element in the network that generates information meant for itself and/or other elements and a consumer as any element in the network that receives (as an end-point) information from a producer. While legacy systems may statically define producers and consumers, the Combat Cloud will enable nodes to be producers, consumers, both, or neither in a much more dynamic fashion.

This technology area seeks the development of information dissemination technology with the following attributes:

1. General Accessibility – Appropriate information is reliably accessible (e.g., via redundancy and multiple seamless avenues) to all locations in the battlespace and access to that information gracefully degrades.

2. Information Healing – Information is synchronized, progressed, and bridged across partitions in disconnected, intermittent, low-bandwidth (DIL) environments, even if the underlying networks are not inherently disruption tolerant.

3. Quality of Service (QoS) - Support for appropriate quality of service requirements imposed by applications and the mission, including time constraints.

4. Resource and Information Prioritization – Storage and capability resource usage and information priority of the services is controllable by common mission objectives.

5. Provenance and Consistency – Ability to carry provenance information, support consistency algorithms, and eliminate/archive stale data.

For the dissemination technology area, existing solutions tend to gravitate towards distributed approaches that provide general accessibility and information healing, or centralized approaches that provide quality of service, resource & information prioritization, and provenance & consistency. Science and Technology (S&T) research is needed to develop a solution that provides the level and ease of consistency and provenance found in centralized dissemination approaches combined with the gains in availability and overhead reduction found in decentralized approaches, such as content-based networking.

TA2: Information Interoperability

The ability for information of different platforms, networks, and formats to be discoverable and useable is key to enabling the Combat Cloud vision. Currently, platforms, networks, and formats are disjoint and often stove-piped, making interoperability difficult. Existing waveforms, such as Link 16, Multifunction Advanced Data Link (MADL), Inter/Intra Flight Data Link (IFDL), Tactical Targeting Network Technology (TTNT), and Common Data Link (CDL) are generally incompatible with one another. Similarly, message formats such as J-series, K-series (Virtual Message Format), Open Mission Systems/eXtensible Markup Language (OMS/XML), and Cursor-on-Target (CoT) have differing syntax and semantics that make interoperability difficult. There is no common language or network that makes information readily available to the entire theater. This technology area will look at enabling theater-wide interoperability such that all elements of the network can discover and access information from all other elements.

This technology area seeks the development of information interoperability technology with the following attributes:

1. Understandability – Information generated from any element is understandable and ingestible by all other appropriate elements.

2. Discoverability – Elements participating are able to readily discover and request all accessible information (receiver-driven).

3. Information Filtering – Elements participating are able to proactively move filtered information to other elements (publisher-driven).

4. Description Mapping – Services that convert or transfer information maintain a sufficient level of accuracy, fidelity, and versioning of that information, even if represented in a different way.

5. Format and Language Agnostic – The information construct is extensible, open, and collaborative, such that new information (from waveforms, apps, etc.) can be readily integrated.

For the information interoperability technology area, solutions tend to gravitate towards global message types or flexible information representation. Global message types, due to the necessity for wide adoption, risk expressivity in discoverability and filtering, and lack extensibility. On the other hand, flexible information representation and querying approaches such as semantic web provide understandability, discoverability, and are format/language agnostic. However, the rich representation typically incurs greater overhead in bandwidth and processing, and also requires extensive description mapping across formats. S&T research is needed to identify how to efficiently pack and convert specific formats into a structured, common language to maintain fidelity, accuracy and versioning while minimizing overhead.

TA3: Information Accountability and Trust

The trustworthiness and security of information is critical to the feasibility of the Combat Cloud vision. If information is not trusted, then the high levels of availability and interoperability enabled by the previous two thrusts are of less use. This technology area will look at how elements in the network can be authenticated and trusted and how information can be secured and contains a wide breadth of technology topics. Note that “trust” in this context means the linking of an identity to cryptographic operations. Cryptographic operations can also help ensure trustworthiness and authenticity of data (via a combination of authentication and integrity). However, this does not protect against a “trusted” entity/sensor from sending inaccurate data, whether that be from sensor malfunction or misinterpretation of an event. Data outlier detection and validation via consensus is a higher-level problem that must also be solved. It will also consider interaction with multiple security domains through a cross-domain solution (CDS). (Note: the focus of this technology area is not the development of cross-domain solutions, rather the interaction of dissemination (e.g. discovery, filtering) and interoperability with cross-domain solutions.)

This technology area seeks the development of information accountability and trust technology with the following attributes:

1. Authentication/Authorization- Certifiably strong and granular authentication and authorization services in DIL environments.

2. Confidentiality/Access Control – Certifiably strong and flexible confidentially and access control services in DIL environments.

3. Multi-Level Security-Enabled – Information services that support discovery/filtering within multiple security enclaves through efficient interaction operations with a CDS.

4. Trustworthiness – Assignment/representation of trust in information produced/received; may be based on a scale.

For the information accountability and trust technology area, certain technologies do well at providing confidentiality for group-based communications, but do not provide authentication at all. On the other hand, other technologies provide strong authentication but there are performance tradeoffs depending on the intended use case in terms of overhead. It is expected that a complete solution needs to be a suite of technologies to provide the required information accountability and trust functionality. Special consideration must be made for operation in a tactical environment, where key-related operations (creation, distribution, validation, revocation), for example, can be impacted. S&T research is needed to develop a security suite that provides group-based confidentiality, integrity, and availability in DIL environments and host/identity-based authentication. If key generation and/or revocation is needed during a mission, challenges associated with key distribution and verification in DIL environments must be addressed. Consideration must also be made to how the components of such a security suite interact with the dissemination and information interoperability technologies of TA1 and TA2.

TA4: Integration and Demonstration

The goal of TA4 is to have DISTRICT technologies integrated, tested and evaluated at regular intervals (e.g. quarterly). Integrating functionality as the IPL is developed will ensure interoperability of TAs 1 through 3 to achieve the desired end result and ensure issues are identified and mitigated as they arise. Exploration of how to integrate the IPL with existing and emerging tactical datalinks and networking capabilities, as well as with tactical applications and mission representations should also be considered.

Testing and evaluation (T&E) should occur in a relevant environment relative to the maturity of the technology. It is expected initial testing will be done through simulation and/or emulation of a tactical network representative of the expected operational environment. In a traditional host-based development approach, a test suite is usually set up on a desktop machine even though the final product will eventually run on a different platform – particularly in the context of this effort, on an airborne tactical platform. While algorithms can be run relatively quickly using this approach, it doesn't reflect how the real system will behave. Exploration of performance characteristics in a simulated/emulated environment also helps mitigate cost and schedule overruns by identifying risks and issues as they arise and ensure that all of the functional requirements of the design prototype are being met. Once the functionality of the IPL has been demonstrated through simulation/emulation and key performance parameters (KPPs) have been met, the next step will be operationally relevant field testing to evaluate the performance and limitations of the prototype.

IMPORTANT NOTE: For the above technical areas, there is supplemental documentation that will be available upon request to potential offerors. This material is considered Distribution Statement D and is available to DoD and DoD Contractors only. Therefore, access will require additional approval.

Contact the Technical Point of Contact identified in Section VII, to receive this material. When doing so, the requestor must:

Provide their company’s CAGE Code Be a U.S. owned company (if not, see SECTION III for mitigation procedures); and Be a U.S. citizen

The materials will then be provided via either:

Certified mail with confirmed signature Access to a locally maintained read library (Rome, NY), or By digital transmission of materials by secured means

IMPORTANT NOTES REGARDING:

FUNDAMENTAL RESEARCH. It is DoD policy that the publication of products of fundamental research will remain unrestricted to the maximum extent possible. National Security Decision Directive (NSDD) 189 defines fundamental research as follows:

‘Fundamental research’ means 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.

As of the date of publication of this BAA, the Government cannot identify whether work proposed under this BAA may be considered fundamental research and may award both fundamental and non-fundamental research. Proposers should indicate in their proposal whether they believe the scope of the research included in their proposal is fundamental or not. While proposers should clearly explain the intended results of their research, the Government shall have sole discretion to select award instrument type and to negotiate all instrument terms and conditions with selectees. Appropriate clauses will be included in resultant awards for non-fundamental research to prescribe publication requirements and other restrictions, as appropriate.

For certain research projects, it may be possible that although the research being performed by the awardee is restricted research, a sub-awardee may be conducting fundamental research. In those cases, it is the awardee’s responsibility to explain in their proposal why its sub-awardee’s effort is fundamental research.

CLOUD COMPUTING. In accordance with DFARS Clause 252.239-7010, if the development proposed requires storage of Government, or Government-related data on the cloud, offerors need to ensure that the cloud service provider proposed has been granted Provisional Authorization by the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) at the level appropriate to the requirement.

II. AWARD INFORMATION:

1. FUNDING: Total funding for this BAA is approximately $20M. The anticipated funding to be obligated under this BAA is broken out by fiscal year as follows:

FY19 - $700k

FY20 – $9.7M

FY21 - $9.6M

a. Individual awards will not normally exceed 18 months with dollar values normally ranging from $1M to $1.8M. There is also the potential to make awards up to any dollar value as long as the value does not exceed the available BAA ceiling amount.

b. The Government reserves the right to select all, part, or none of the proposals received, subject to the availability of funds. All potential Offerors should be aware that due to unanticipated budget fluctuations, funding in any or all areas may change with little or no notice.

2. FORM. Awards of efforts as a result of this announcement will be in the form of contracts, grants, cooperative agreements or other transactions depending upon the nature of the work proposed.

3. BAA TYPE: This is a two-step open broad agency announcement. This announcement constitutes the only solicitation.

STEP ONE – The Government is only soliciting white papers at this time. DO NOT SUBMIT A FORMAL PROPOSAL. Those white papers found to be consistent with the intent of this BAA may be invited to submit a technical and cost proposal. See Section VI of this announcement for further details regarding the proposal.

III. ELIGIBILITY INFORMATION:

1. ELIGIBILITY: All qualified offerors who meet the requirements of this BAA may apply.

2. FOREIGN PARTICIPATION/ACCESS:

a. This BAA is closed to foreign participation. This includes both foreign ownership and foreign nationals as employees or subcontractors.

b. Exceptions.

1. Fundamental Research. If the work to be performed is unclassified, fundamental research, this must be clearly identified in the white paper and/or proposal. See Part II, Section I for more details regarding Fundamental Research. Offerors should still identify any performance by foreign nationals at any level (prime contractor or subcontractor) in their proposals. Please specify the nationals’ country of origin, the type of visa or work permit under which they are performing and an explanation of their anticipated level of involvement. You may be asked to provide additional information during negotiations in order to verify the foreign citizen’s eligibility to participate on any contract or assistance agreement issued as a result of this announcement

2. Foreign Ownership, Control or Influence (FOCI) companies who have mitigation plans/paperwork in place. Proof of approved mitigation documentation must be provided to the contracting office focal point, Amber Buckley, Contracting Officer, telephone (315) 330-3605, or e-mail amber.buckley@us.af.mil prior to submitting a white paper and/or a proposal. For information on FOCI mitigation, contact the contact the Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency (DCSA). Additional details can be found at: https://www.dcsa.mil/mc/ctp/foci/

3. Foreign Nationals as Employees or Subcontractors. Applicable to any effort not considered Fundamental Research. Offerors are responsible for ensuring that all employees and/or subcontractors who will work on a resulting contract are eligible to do so. Any employee who is not a U.S. citizen or a permanent resident will be restricted from working on any resultant contract unless prior approval of the Department of State or the Department of Commerce is obtained via a technical assistance agreement or an export license. Violations of these regulations can result in criminal or civil penalties.

c. Information Regarding Non-US Citizens Assigned to this Project

1. Contractor employees requiring access to USAF bases, AFRL facilities, and/or access to U.S. Government Information Technology (IT) networks in connection with the work on contracts, assistance instruments or other transactions awarded under this BAA must be U.S. citizens. For the purpose of base and network access, possession of a permanent resident card ("Green Card") does not equate to U.S. citizenship. This requirement does not apply to foreign nationals approved by the U.S. Department of Defense or U.S. State Department under international personnel exchange agreements with foreign governments. It also does not apply to dual citizens who possess US citizenship, to include Naturalized citizens. Any waivers to this requirement must be granted in writing by the Contracting Officer prior to providing access. Specific format for waiver request will be provided upon request to the Contracting Officer. The above requirements are in addition to any other contract requirements related to obtaining a Common Access Card (CAC).

2. For the purposes of Paragraph 1, it an IT network/system does not require AFRL to endorse a contractor's application to said network/system in order to gain access, the organization operating the IT network/system is responsible for controlling access to its system. If an IT network/system requires a U.S. Government sponsor to endorse the application in order for access to the IT network/system, AFRL will only endorse the following types of applications, consistent with the requirements above:

a) Contractor employees who are U.S. citizens performing work under contracts, assistance instruments or other transactions awarded under this BAA.

b) Contractor employees who are non-U.S. citizens and who have been granted a waiver.

Any additional access restrictions established by the IT network/system owner apply.

3. FEDERALLY FUNDED RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT CENTERS AND GOVERNMENT ENTITIES: Federally Funded Research and Development Centers (FFRDCs) and Government entities (e.g., Government/National laboratories, military educational institutions, etc.) are subject to applicable direct competition limitations and cannot propose to this BAA in any capacity unless they meet the following conditions:

1. FFRDCs: FFRDCs must clearly demonstrate that the proposed work is not otherwise available from the private sector; and FFRDCs must provide a letter on official letterhead from their sponsoring organization citing the specific authority establishing their eligibility to propose to Government solicitations and compete with industry, and their compliance with the associated FFRDC sponsor agreement’s terms and conditions. This information is required for FFRDCs proposing to be prime contractors or sub-awardees.

1. Government Entities: 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 and contractual authority, if relevant, establishing their ability to propose to Government solicitations. 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.

FFRDC and Government entity eligibility will be determined on a case-by-case basis; however, the burden to prove eligibility for all team members rests solely with the proposer.

Government agencies interested in performing work related to this announcement should contact the Technical Point of Contact (TPOC). If resulting discussions reveal a mutual interest, cooperation may be pursued via other vehicles.

IV. APPLICATION AND SUBMISSION INFORMATION:

All responses to this announcement must be addressed to the Technical Point of Contact (TPOC) listed in SECTION VII. DO NOT send white papers to the Contracting Officer.

1. SUBMISSION DATES AND TIMES:

It is recommended that white papers be received by 2 PM Eastern Standard Time (EST) on the following dates to maximize the possibility of award:

FY19 by 15 MAY 2019 FY20 by 30 SEP 2019 FY21 by 29 JUN 2020

White papers will be accepted until 2 PM EST on 30 Sep 2021, but it is less likely that funding will be available in each respective fiscal year after the dates cited. This BAA will close on 30 Sep 2021.

All offerors submitting white papers will receive notification of their evaluation results within 45 days of submission. Offerors should email the TPOC and the Contracting Officer listed in Section VII, for status of their white paper(s) after 45 days, if no such correspondence has been received.

2. CONTENT AND FORMAT: Offerors are required to submit 1 copies of a 3 to 5 page white paper summarizing their proposed approach/solution. The purpose of the white paper is to preclude unwarranted effort on the part of an offeror whose proposed work is not of interest to the Government.

The white paper will be formatted as follows:

a. Section A: Title, Period of Performance, Estimated Cost, Name/Address of Company, Technical and Contracting Points of Contact (phone and email)(this section is NOT included in the page count);

b. Section B: Task Objective; and

c. Section C: Technical Summary and Proposed Deliverables.

All white papers shall be double spaced with a font no smaller than 12 point. Please note that less than 12 point font is acceptable for graphics and illustrations (as in labels and short descriptions) as long as it is readable when printed out on standard 8x11 paper. In addition, respondents are requested to provide their Commercial and Government Entity (CAGE) Code, their unique entity identifier and electronic funds transfer (EFT) indicator (if applicable), an e-mail address and reference BAA FA8750-19-S-7011 with their submission.

Multiple white papers within the purview of this announcement may be submitted by each offeror. If the offeror wishes to restrict its white papers, they must be marked with the restrictive language stated in FAR 15.609(a) and (b).

3. HANDLING AND MAILING INSTRUCTIONS:

a. CLASSIFICATION GUIDANCE. All Proposers should review the NATIONAL INDUSTRIAL SECURITY PROGRAM OPERATING MANUAL, (NISPOM), 32 CFR Part 117, as it provides baseline standards for the protection of classified information and prescribes the requirements concerning Contractor Developed Information under paragraph §117.13. Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency (DCSA) Site for the NISPOM is: http://www.dcsa.mil/.

In the event of a possible or actual compromise of classified information in the submission of your white paper or proposal, immediately but no later than 24 hours, bring this to the attention of your cognizant security authority and AFRL Rome Research Site Information Protection Office (IPO):

Information Protection Office (contact only if a security compromise has occurred)

b. CLASSIFIED SUBMISSIONS. AFRL/RISA will accept classified responses to this BAA when the classification is mandated by classification guidance provided by an Original Classification Authority of the U.S. Government, or when the offeror believes the work, if successful, would merit classification.

Security classification guidance in the form of a DD Form 254 (DoD Contract Security Classification Specification) will not be provided at this time since AFRL is soliciting ideas only.

Offerors that intend to include classified information or data in their white paper submission or who are unsure about the appropriate classification of their white papers should contact the technical point of contact listed in Section VII for guidance and direction in advance of preparation.

c. MAILING INSTRUCTIONS.

Email Unclassified electronic submission to the TPOC identified in Section VII . Encrypt or password-protect all proprietary information prior to sending. Offerors are responsible to confirm receipt with the TPOC. AFRL is not responsible for undelivered documents. If electronic submission is used, only one copy of the documentation is required.

Questions can be directed to the TPOC listed in Section VII.

4. OTHER SUBMISSION REQUIREMENTS/CONSIDERATIONS:

a. COST SHARING OR MATCHING: Cost sharing is not a requirement. Cost sharing may be proposed and will be considered on a case-by-case basis.

b. SYSTEM FOR AWARD MANAGEMENT (SAM). Offerors must be registered in the SAM database to receive a contract award, and remain registered during performance and through final payment of any contract or agreement. Processing time for registration in SAM, which normally takes forty-eight hours, should be taken into consideration when registering. Offerors who are not already registered should consider applying for registration before submitting a proposal. The provision at FAR 52.204-7, System for Award Management (Oct 2018) applies.

c. EXECUTIVE COMPENSATION AND FIRST-TIER SUBCONTRACT/ SUBRECIPIENT AWARDS: Any contract award resulting from this announcement may contain the clause at FAR 52.204-10 - Reporting Executive Compensation and First-Tier Subcontract Awards (Jun 2020). Any grant or agreement award resulting from this announcement may contain the award term set forth in 2 CFR, Appendix A to Part 25 which can be viewed at: http://www.ecfr.gov/cgi-bin/text-idx?SID=8fb6c83606df57968c3e7e145e7d683c&mc=true&node=ap2.1.25_1360.a&rgn=div9

d. ALLOWABLE CHARGES: The cost of preparing white papers/proposals in response to this announcement is not considered an allowable direct charge to any resulting contract or any other contract, but may be an allowable expense to the normal bid and proposal indirect cost specified in FAR 31.205-18. Incurring pre-award costs for ASSISTANCE INSTRUMENTS ONLY are regulated by 2 CFR part 200.458, Pre-Award Costs.

e. GOVERNMENT APPROVED ACCOUNTING SYSTEM: An offeror must have a government approved accounting system prior to award of a cost-reimbursement contract per limitations set forth in FAR 16.301-3(a) to ensure the system is adequate for determining costs applicable to the contract. The acceptability of an accounting system is determined based upon an audit performed by the Defense Contract Audit Agency (DCAA). IMPORTANT: If you do not have a DCAA approved accounting system access the following link for instructions: https://beta.sam.gov/opp/e628c811fafe041accdddf55fb8539bf/view?keywords=AFRL-BAA-Guide&sort=-relevance&index=&is_active=true&page=1

f. HUMAN USE: All research involving human subjects, to include the use of human biological specimens and human data, selected for funding must comply with Federal regulations for human subject protection. Further, research involving human subjects that is conducted or supported by the DoD must comply with 32 CFR 219, “Protection of Human Subjects” found at: http://www.access.gpo.gov/nara/cfr/waisidx_07/32cfr219_07.html, and DoD Instruction 3216.02, “Protection of Human Subjects and Adherence to Ethical Standards in DoD-Supported Research” found at: http://www.dtic.mil/whs/directives/corres/pdf/321602p.pdf.

1. Institutions awarded funding for research involving human subjects must provide documentation of a current Assurance of Compliance with Federal regulations for human subject protection, for example a Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Human Research Protection Federal Wide Assurance found at: http://www.hhs.gov/ohrp.

2. All institutions engaged in human subject research, to include subcontractors, must have a valid assurance. In addition, personnel involved in human subject research must document the completion of appropriate training for the protection of human subjects.

3. For all research that will involve human subjects in the first year or phase of the project, the institution must submit evidence of a plan for review by an institutional review board (IRB) as part of the proposal. The IRB conducting the review must be the IRB identified on the institution’s Assurance of Compliance. The protocol, separate from the proposal, must include a detailed description of the research plan, study population, risks and benefits of study participation, recruitment and consent process, data collection, and data analysis. The designated IRB should be consulted for guidance on writing the protocol. The informed consent document must comply with 32 CFR 219.116. A valid Assurance of Compliance and evidence of appropriate training by all investigators should accompany the protocol for review by the IRB.

4. In addition to a local IRB approval, an AFRL-level human subject regulatory review and approval is required for all research conducted or supported by the DoD. The Air Force office responsible for managing the award can provide guidance and information about the AFRL-level review process. Confirmation of a current Assurance of Compliance and appropriate human subjects protection training is required before AFRL-level approval can be issued.

5. The time required to complete the IRB review/approval process will vary depending on the complexity of the research and/or the level of risk to study participants; ample time should be allotted to complete the approval process. The IRB approval process can last between 1 to 3 months, followed by a DoD review that could last 3 to 6 months. No funding may be used toward human subject research until all approvals are granted. Therefore, in their cost proposals offerors should separate human use into a separate option.

g) SUPPLIER PERFORMANCE RISK SYSTEM (SPRS). Offerors should have a BASIC NIST SP 800 171 DoD Assessment in the SPRS. Basic assessment is to be conducted by the offeror.

V. APPLICATION REVIEW INFORMATION:

1. CRITERIA: The following criteria, which are listed in descending order of importance, will be used to determine whether white papers and proposals submitted are consistent with the intent of this BAA and of interest to the Government:

No further evaluation criteria will be used to select white papers for proposal invitation. Proposals will be evaluated IAW this evaluation criteria only and categorized/selected for award as detailed in Section V.2.b.2. White papers and proposals submitted will be evaluated as they are received.

2. REVIEW AND SELECTION PROCESS:

1. Only Government employees will evaluate the white papers/proposals for selection. The Air Force Research Laboratory's Information Directorate has contracted for various business and staff support services, some of which require contractors to obtain administrative access to proprietary information submitted by other contractors. Administrative access is defined as "handling or having physical control over information for the sole purpose of accomplishing the administrative functions specified in the administrative support contract, which do not require the review, reading, and comprehension of the content of the information on the part of non-technical professionals assigned to accomplish the specified administrative tasks." These contractors have signed general non-disclosure agreements and organizational conflict of interest statements. The required administrative access will be granted to non-technical professionals. Examples of the administrative tasks performed include: a. Assembling and organizing information for R&D case files; b. Accessing library files for use by government personnel; and c. Handling and administration of proposals, contracts, contract funding and queries. Any objection to administrative access must be in writing to the Contracting Officer and shall include a detailed statement of the basis for the objection.

1. WHITE PAPER/PROPOSAL REVIEW PROCESS:

1. FIRST STEP – White Paper Reviews: The Government will review White Papers to determine which of them have the potential to best meet the Air Force’s needs based on the criteria listed above. If white papers are of interest and funding is available, AFRL/RI will request a formal technical and cost proposal from offeror. If white papers are not of interest or there is not funding available, a letter will be sent to the offeror indicating the reason not selected.

1. SECOND STEP – White Paper Proposal Selection Process

a) Categories: Based on the evaluation, proposals will be categorized as Selectable or Not Selectable (see definitions below). The selection of one or more offerors for award will be based on the evaluation, as well as importance to agency programs and funding availability.

1. Selectable: Proposals are recommended for acceptance, if sufficient funding* is available.

2. Not Selectable: Even if sufficient funding existed, the proposal should not be funded.

* Selectable proposals will be designated as funded or unfunded. Letters will be sent to the unfunded offerors. These proposals may be funded at a later date without reevaluation, if funding becomes available.

b) The Government reserves the right to award some, all, or none of the proposals. When the Government elects to award only a part of a proposal, the selected part may be categorized as Selectable, though the proposal as a whole may not merit such a categorization.

c) Proposal Risk Assessment: Proposals’ technical, cost, and schedule risk will be assessed as part of the above evaluation criteria’s application. Proposal risk relates to the identification and assessment of the risks associated with an offeror's proposed approach as it relates to accomplishing the proposed effort. Tradeoffs of the assessed risk will be weighed against the potential scientific benefit. Proposal risk for schedule relates to an assessment of the risks associated with the offeror's proposed number of hours, labor categories, materials, or other cost elements as it relates to meeting the proposed period of performance.

d) Prior to award of a potentially successful offer, the Contracting Officer will make a determination regarding price reasonableness and realism.

3. FEDERAL AWARDEE PERFORMANCE AND INTEGRITY INFORMATION SYSTEM (FAPIIS) PUBLIC ACCESS: The Government is required to review and consider any information about the applicant that is in the FAPIIS before making any award in excess of the simplified acquisition threshold (currently $250,000) over the period of performance. An applicant may review and comment on any information about itself that a federal awarding agency previously entered. The Government will consider any comments by the applicant, in addition to other information in FAPIIS in making a judgment about the applicant's integrity, business ethics, and record of performance under federal awards when completing the review of risk posed by applicants as described in 2 CFR § 200.205 Federal Awarding Agency Review of Risk Posed by Applicants and per FAR 9.104-6.

4.ADEQUATE PRICE COMPETITION: As this BAA is an Open BAA, adequate price competition is not anticipated since there is no set response time, and proposals are evaluated at the time of receipt. Offerors whose proposals are selected for award will be expected to submit certified cost and pricing data on contracts exceeding $2M.

VI. STEP TWO INFORMATION – REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL & AWARD:

1. PROPOSAL FORMATING: When developing proposals, reference the AFRL "Broad Agency Announcement (BAA): Guide for Industry," Mar 2015, and RI-Specific Proposal Preparation Instructions, Dec 2020, which may be accessed at: https://beta.sam.gov/opp/e628c811fafe041accdddf55fb8539bf/view?keywords=AFRL-BAA-GUIDE&sort=-relevance&index=&is_active=true&page=1 . Always reference the newest versions of these documents.

Please note that less than 12 point font is acceptable for graphics and illustrations (as in labels and short descriptions) as long as it is readable when printed out on standard 8x11 paper.

2. AWARD NOTICES: Those white papers found to be consistent with the research areas of interest and expected results within the broad topic areas as described in the Technology Requirements section of this BAA and of interest to the Government may be invited to submit a technical and cost proposal. Notification by email or letter will be sent by the TPOC. Such invitation does not assure that the submitting organization will be awarded a contract. Those white papers not selected to submit a proposal will be notified in the same manner. Prospective offerors are advised that only Contracting Officers are legally authorized to commit the Government. All offerors submitting proposals will receive notification of their evaluation results within 45 days of submission. Offerors should email the TPOC and the Contracting Officer listed in Section VII, for status of their proposal after 45 days, if no such correspondence has been received.

3. DEBRIEFINGS: If a debriefing is requested in accordance with the time guidelines set out in FAR 15.505 and 15.506, a debriefing will be provided, but the debriefing content may vary to be consistent with the procedures that govern BAAs (FAR 35.016). Debriefings will not be provided for white papers.

4. ADMINISTRATIVE AND NATIONAL POLICY REQUIREMENTS:

a. FACILITY CLEARANCE. Depending on the work to be performed, the offeror may require a SECRET facility clearance and safeguarding capability; therefore, personnel identified for assignment to a classified effort must be cleared for access to SECRET information at the time of award. In addition, the offeror may be required to have, or have access to, a certified and Government-approved facility to support work under this BAA.

b. EXPORT CONTROL LAWS. Awards under this solicitation may require access to, or generation of, data subject to export control laws and regulations. Only contractors who are registered and certified with the Defense Logistics Information Service (DLIS) and have a legitimate business purpose may participate in this solicitation. For questions, contact DLIS on-line at http://www.dla.mil/HQ/InformationOperations/LogisticsInformationServices.aspx or at the DLA Logistics Information Service, 74 Washington Avenue North, Battle Creek, Michigan 49037-3084, and telephone number 1-800-352-2255 (24/7). You must submit a copy of your approved DD Form 2345, Militarily Critical Technical Data Agreement, with your white paper/proposal.

c. SMALL BUSINESS PARTICIPATION. The Government encourages the best sources from the scientific and industrial communities to propose, including small business concerns, large businesses, academia and non-profit entities.