HR001118S0014.pdf

HR001118S0014 NASCENT LIGHT-MATTER INTERACTIONS (NLM) 1

Broad Agency Announcement Nascent Light-Matter Interactions (NLM)

Defense Sciences Office

HR001118S0014

November 29, 2017

HR001118S0014 NASCENT LIGHT-MATTER INTERACTIONS (NLM) 2

Table of Contents I. Funding Opportunity Description

A. Introduction B. Background C. Program Description/Scope D. Program Structure E. Schedule/Milestones F. Deliverables G. Other Program Objectives and Considerations

II. Award Information A. General Award Information B. Fundamental Research

III. Eligibility Information A. Eligible Applicants B. Organizational Conflicts of Interest C. Cost Sharing/Matching

IV. Application and Submission Information A. Address to Request Application Package B. Content and Form of Application Submission C. Submission Dates and Times D. Funding Restrictions E. Other Submission Requirements

V. Application Review Information A. Evaluation Criteria B. Review and Selection Process C. Federal Awardee Performance and Integrity Information (FAPIIS)

VI. Award Administration Information A. Selection Notices B. Administrative and National Policy Requirements C. Reporting

VII. Agency Contacts VIII. Other Information

A. Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) B. Collaborative Efforts/Teaming C. Proposers Day

ATTACHMENT 1: ABSTRACT SUMMARY SLIDE TEMPLATE

ATTACHMENT 2: ABSTRACT TEMPLATE

ATTACHMENT 3: PROPOSAL SUMMARY SLIDE TEMPLATE

ATTACHMENT 4: PROPOSAL TEMPLATE – VOLUME 1: TECHNICAL & MANAGEMENT VOLUME

ATTACHMENT 5: PROPOSAL TEMPLATE – VOLUME 2: COST VOLUME

ATTACHMENT 6: PROPOSAL TEMPLATE – VOLUME 3: ADMINISTRATIVE & NATIONAL POLICY

REQUIREMENTS

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PART I: OVERVIEW INFORMATION

Federal Agency Name: Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), Defense Sciences Office (DSO)

Funding Opportunity Title: Nascent Light-Matter Interactions (NLM)

Announcement Type: Initial Announcement

Funding Opportunity Number: HR001118S0014

Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance (CFDA) Number(s): 12.910 Research and Technology Development

Dates: (All times listed herein are Eastern Time.)

o Posting Date November 29, 2017 o Abstract Due Date: December 18, 2017, 4:00 p.m.

o FAQ Submission Deadline: January 31, 2018, 4:00 p.m. See Section VIII.A.

o Full Proposal Due Date: February 7, 2018, 4:00 p.m.

Anticipated Individual Awards: DARPA anticipates multiple awards.

Types of Instruments that May be Awarded: Procurement contracts, grants, cooperative agreements, or Other Transactions.

Agency contacts o Technical POC: Michael Fiddy, Program Manager, DARPA/DSO o BAA Email: NLM@darpa.mil o BAA Mailing Address:

DARPA/DSO

ATTN: HR001118S0014

675 North Randolph Street Arlington, VA 22203-2114 o DARPA/DSO Opportunities Website: http://www.darpa.mil/work-with-us/opportunities

Teaming Information: See Section VIII.B for information on teaming opportunities.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ): FAQs for this solicitation may be viewed on the DARPA/DSO Opportunities Website. See Section VIII.A for further information.

mailto:NLM@darpa.mil http://www.darpa.mil/work-with-us/opportunities?tFilter=&oFilter=2&sort=name

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PART II: FULL TEXT OF ANNOUNCEMENT

I. Funding Opportunity Description

This Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) constitutes a public notice of a competitive funding opportunity as described in Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) 6.102(d)(2) and 35.016 as well as 2 CFR § 200.203. Any resultant negotiations and/or awards will follow all laws and regulations applicable to the specific award instrument(s) available under this BAA, e.g., FAR

15.4 for procurement contracts.

A. Introduction The Defense Sciences Office at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is soliciting innovative research proposals that advance our knowledge and understanding of light-matter interactions. In particular, DARPA seeks to develop new and systematic approaches to the design of engineered structures and materials that change how we manipulate electromagnetic waves and capitalize on nascent wave-matter interactions. Proposed research should investigate innovative approaches that enable revolutionary advances in science, devices, or systems. Specifically excluded is research that primarily results in evolutionary improvements to the existing state of practice.

B. Background In the last few years, our understanding of how materials interact with electromagnetic waves has resulted in nascent concepts that could develop into fundamentally new predictive models for light-matter interactions. Examples include:

Resonant cavity-enhanced phenomena;

Breaking Lorentz reciprocity and the role of gain and symmetry;

The role of epsilon-near-zero materials;

Developments in non-reciprocal structures;

New approaches to managing photon density of states;

New models for both nonlinear and non-scattering structures;

Freeform optimized structures for wavefront control; and Opto-nano-mechanical phenomena for new properties and structure assembly.

Each of these examples provides new possibilities to control electromagnetic waves while also suggesting opportunities for new wave-matter interactions.

To develop new and systematic approaches to the design of structures and materials, a predictive model providing a design tool is required. For example, consider metamaterials that have extended our ability to control electromagnetic waves in new ways. Unlike traditional composite structures, metamaterial designs have emerged from, and rely heavily on circuit theory models and “abstracted” circuit elements. These serve as functionally focused artificial atoms, thereby extending what is possible with “naturally” occurring atoms and molecules. These structured meta-atoms frequently exploit designed resonant scattering phenomena and are useful material building blocks. New resonant and nonresonant structures have extended approaches for

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controlling the photonic density of states and provided low-index and negative-index materials.

Structured metamaterials have also exploited plasmonic effects to enhance the nonlinear properties of naturally occurring materials. Nevertheless, despite this progress, design methods for prescribed responses remain a challenge. Recent use of numerical optimization methods to generate material structures have proved of somewhat limited use and offer no physical insight or parametric prediction. The overarching challenge is to engineer materials in a predictive and parametric way that execute an arbitrary electromagnetic interaction.

DARPA seeks visionary approaches that lead to models that significantly extend our present ability to predict, manage, and exploit nascent light-matter interactions. Doing so could produce a major conceptual and practical impact on applications of importance to the Department of Defense (DoD). NLM performers will identify and then develop new and emerging concepts that advance how we control electromagnetic waves leading to significant improvements in the state of the art.

C. Program Description/Scope

Program Goal and Potential Impact

The goal of NLM is to bring together and integrate nascent concepts into models that can both describe and predict new functionality. These models will provide design tools and inform us of new engineered-material performance limits. Successful proposals will address two key elements: (1) theoretical modeling/simulation of new mechanisms of light-matter interactions, and (2) identification of key/elemental structures as building blocks for modeling materials and predicting performance limits. Performers are expected to experimentally verify predicted parameters and validate their design tools by demonstrating new techniques for the control of light-matter interactions in one or more focus areas. Examples of these focus areas may include, but are not limited to, the phenomena listed below as well as phenomena in which quantum and dynamical effects are becoming increasingly important.

If successful, NLM will lead to a deeper conceptual understanding of light-matter interactions as well as a more systematic approach to controlling electromagnetic waves. Most importantly, NLM will advance critical applications through the synthesis of these new models that lead to new capabilities.

Program Approach

The NLM program will develop new methods of understanding, characterizing, modeling, and quantifying interactions between electromagnetic waves and engineered materials. NLM proposals must:

Describe in detail a novel model to understanding the interaction between electromagnetic waves and engineered materials. This model should enable translation between a desired light-matter interaction and the structure of an arbitrarily engineered material. The description of the model must:

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o Provide a new method of characterizing light-matter-interactions. This new method must be useful as a predictive, parametric, robust, and scalable design tool.

o Map structure to function and function to structure. Proposals must quantify the range of materials and physical structures that can be characterized and the range of electromagnetic interactions that are predicted.

o Be generalizable. Although an NLM model may only be initially valid for a small subset of possible materials and possible light-matter-interactions, the proposers must show a path to generalizing the approach to broad classes of materials and broad interactions with electromagnetic waves.

o Advance a specific, focused application. All models should be capable of immediately advancing the state-of-the-art in one or more specific focused applications. (See “Example Phenomena” below.) Proposers should quantify how their proposed work will advance specific application(s) chosen.

Describe a team capable of carrying out the proposed work. Successful teams will likely contain experts in theory, numerical modeling, fabrication, and quantitative testing. Such a team would bring together communities working in diverse materials and application areas, from theoreticians working in nonlinear scattering theory to wet-bench chemists.

Example Phenomena/Focus Areas

The following is an incomplete list of potential applications upon which teams may choose to focus. Proposers may put forward alternatives with similar potential impact to the state-of-the-art:

Extreme nonlinearities: Parametric phenomena, tunability, color night vision.

Unidirectional materials: Limiters, self-aware surfaces, photon force drives.

Density of states engineering: Meta-sources, thermal emissivity (e.g., reflecting or transmitting radiant energy for cooling turbines or chips), beyond superPlanckian hyperbolic materials.

High intensity EM deflectors and concentrators: Broadband wave control, augmented energy harvesting, and power transfer.

Example NLM Approaches

Approaches may involve interactions involving gain, symmetry, reciprocity-breaking, controlled density of states, energy transport, nonlinear coupling effects and high Q resonance. They may involve creating engineered distinct resonant structures, 2.5D “surfaces,” or 3D bulk materials.

In all cases, proposers must develop new design tools that would be parametric, predictive, and generalizable to large classes of engineered materials and large classes of light-matter interactions, and that lend themselves to assembly/fabrication.

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Out of Scope

DARPA considers the following inappropriate for NLM:

Numerical optimization techniques that do not enable parametric variation of both engineered materials and light-matter interactions; and

Techniques based solely on perturbative expansions around linear techniques.

Technical Glossary

Nascent: Just coming into existence and beginning to display signs of future potential.

Light: In this BAA, “Light” and “Electromagnetic Waves” are used interchangeably.

The NLM program is interested in approaches to manipulating all electromagnetic frequency bands, from Ultra Violet to Microwave

Structured materials: Resonators on the scale of wavelength to subwavelength dimensions and 2.5D and 3D (i.e., bulk) engineered materials.

Control, specifically of electromagnetic waves: Deflection, focusing, scatter/not scatter, emission, absorb/reflect, frequency mix and frequency shift over a frequency bandwidth of choice, non-reciprocity, forces, energy density, etc.

D. Program Structure

The NLM program consists of three phases: Phase I (an 18-month base period), Phase II (a 12-month option), and Phase III (an 18-month option). Proposals should address all three phases and provide details for Phase I and Phase II, and a rough order of magnitude (ROM) for Phase III. At the conclusion of Phase I, the Government may fund the option for the Phase II effort on one, some, all, or none of the awards, based on funding availability and promising Phase I results and/or technical progress.

Prior to the completion of Phase II (at approximately Month 24), DARPA intends to request updated technical and cost proposals for Phase III per specifications/guidance provided by DARPA. Participation in the competition for Phase III is optional and will be limited to successful Phase II performers. Associated proposal preparation costs for Phase III will not be reimbursed under Phase II awards. Evaluation of Phase III proposals will be based on evaluation criteria to be specified in the Phase III proposal requests, and Phase III proposal evaluations will be conducted through a scientific and technical review process. The Phase III evaluation criteria will be consistent with the evaluation criteria in this solicitation, and may be tailored to the Phase III requests for updated proposals. The Government reserves the right to change the award instrument or issue a new solicitation for Phase III if programmatic circumstances dictate.

Participation in an early phase does not guarantee funding in subsequent phases; progression to the next phase will be contingent on success. See Section I.E below for specific milestones and a required timeline.

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Phase I – Building blocks and design strategy – 18 Months

During Phase I, all performers must:

• Specify an approach to the nascent light-matter interaction problem.

• Present a predictive theoretical model and demonstrate the model’s potential for accomplishing the NLM goals and exceed the state-of-the-art.

• Develop a systematic holistic structure/shape/materials design approach, and use that approach to drive the development of new design tools.

• Purposefully extract and catalog nascent structure(s)/primitives/building blocks for engineered materials.

• Demonstrate that building blocks and devices of their choosing advance their chosen focused applications.

Phase II – Proof of concept – 12 Months

During Phase II, all performers must:

• Demonstrate that their approach has the potential to dramatically advance the state of the art in their chosen focus areas and demonstrate that their approach is scalable and robust.

Although all proposals must include a detailed plan for accomplishing these goals, specific “proof-of-concept challenges” will be reviewed at a workshop to be held near the end of Phase I.

• Demonstrate that specific proof-of-concept challenge metrics confirm that the predictive model and design strategy are effective.

• Demonstrate a path to verify performance metrics for designed properties.

• During Phase II, challenge problems for Phase III will be defined, after soliciting input and feedback from Government Stakeholders.

Phase III – DARPA Challenge Problems – 18 Months

During Phase III, all performers must:

• Complete a DARPA challenge problem proposed with input from Government

Stakeholders. It is anticipated that three or four varied application directions will be addressed by these challenge problems.

E. Schedule/Milestones During Phase I (18 months) teams will (1) develop predictive parametric models that can validate proposal-specified performance metrics and (2) build working design tools. All models and tools must be predictive, parametric, robust, and scalable. Performers must quantify both the range of materials and physical structures and the range of electromagnetic wave interactions that can be characterized.

Specific Milestones and key timeframes that apply to all performers are listed below.

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Phase I – Building Blocks and Design Strategy (18 Months) o 6 Months – Predictive Model. Performers must have refined and quantified their models for a light-matter interaction and developed them into a predictive, parametric modeling tool. Teams must extract and catalogue nascent structures/primitives/building blocks.

o 12 Months – Working Design Tool. Performers must show predicted characteristics for hypothetical engineered materials that exceed state of the art.

Performers must verify performer-specified performance metrics for their design tool. Preliminary simulations and, ideally, experiments should be completed to this end.

o 15 Months – Program Review and Stakeholder Workshop. Teams continuing to Phase II will attend a workshop to become familiar with stakeholder interests and needs. Phase II experiments/simulations/tests will demonstrate that their design tools can accurately and precisely translate between the intended engineered materials and light-matter interactions.

Phase II – Proof of Concept (12 Months) o 24 Months – Verify Performance Metrics. Performers should demonstrate they are on the path to verifying approved metrics for demonstrating proof-of-concept operation of Design Tools.

o 25 Months – Challenge Workshop. A stakeholder workshop to consider challenge problems for Phase III that establish clear superiority of new engineered materials over existing technologies.

Phase III – DARPA Challenge Problems (18 Months) o 36 Months, 42 Months, 48 Months – Phase III Challenge Milestones will be defined.

Proposers should provide a technical and programmatic strategy that conforms to the entire program schedule and presents an aggressive plan to fully address all program goals, metrics, milestones and deliverables. The task structure must be consistent across the proposed schedule, Statement of Work, and cost volume.

A target start date of July 2018 may be assumed for planning purposes.

Schedules will be synchronized across performers, as required, and monitored/revised as necessary throughout the program.

All proposals must include the following meetings and travel in the proposed schedule and costs:

o To foster collaboration between teams, and disseminate program developments, a two-day Principal Investigator (PI) meeting will be held approximately every six months, with locations split between the East and

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West Coasts of the United States. For budgeting purposes, plan for nine two-day meetings over the course of 48 months: five meetings in the Washington, D.C. area and four meetings in the San Francisco, CA area.

o Regular teleconference meetings will be scheduled with the Government team for progress reporting as well as problems identification and mitigation.

Proposers should also anticipate at least one site visit per phase by the DARPA Program Manager during which they will have the opportunity to demonstrate progress towards agreed-upon milestones.

F. Deliverables

Performers will be expected to provide at a minimum the following deliverables:

Comprehensive quarterly technical reports due within ten days of the end of the given quarter, describing progress made on the specific milestones as laid out in the SOW.

A phase completion report submitted within 30 days of the end of each phase, summarizing the research done.

Other negotiated deliverables specific to the objectives of the individual efforts. These may include registered reports, experimental protocols, publications, intermediate and final versions of software libraries, code, and APIs, including documentation and user manuals, and/or a comprehensive assemblage of design documents, models, modeling data and results, and model validation data.

Reporting as outlined in Section VI.C.

G. Other Program Objectives and Considerations

1. Collaboration

Throughout the course of the program, it is likely to be necessary for all performers—regardless of category—to share relevant information regarding their research and development to support the larger program goals. DARPA expects all program performers to work collaboratively with one another to realize the program objectives outlined herein, so proposers should carefully review the goals for the entire program in order to fully understand the context of each program objective within the overall program structure. All proposals should describe plans for ensuring transparency of their processes to enable interactions with other program performers. Proposals that fail to include these plans may be deemed non-conforming and removed from consideration.

2. Intellectual Property As discussed above, there is an emphasis on creating and leveraging open source technologies and architectures, making data sharing and collaboration key aspects of this program. Therefore, intellectual property rights asserted by proposers are strongly encouraged to be aligned with open source regimes. See Section VI.B.4 for more information related to intellectual property.

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II. Award Information A. General Award Information

DARPA anticipates multiple awards.

The level of funding for individual awards made under this BAA will depend on the quality of the proposals received and the availability of funds. Awards will be made to proposers1 whose proposals are determined to be the most advantageous to the Government, all evaluation factors considered. See Section V for further information.

The Government reserves the right to:

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

make awards without discussions with proposers;

conduct discussions with proposers if it is later determined to be necessary;

segregate portions of resulting awards into pre-priced options;

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

fund awards in increments with options for continued work at the end of one or more phases;

request additional documentation once the award instrument has been determined (e.g., representations and certifications); and remove proposers from award consideration should the parties fail to reach agreement on award terms within a reasonable time or the proposer fails to provide requested additional information in a timely manner.

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

Proposers looking for innovative, commercial-like contractual arrangements are encouraged to consider requesting Other Transactions. To understand the flexibility and options associated with Other Transactions, consult http://www.darpa.mil/work-with-us/contract-management#OtherTransactions.

In all cases, the Government contracting officer shall have sole discretion to select award instrument type, regardless of instrument type proposed, and to negotiate all instrument terms and conditions with selectees. DARPA will apply publication or other restrictions, as necessary, if it determines that the research resulting from the proposed effort will present a high likelihood

1 As used throughout this BAA, “proposer” refers to the lead organization on a submission to this BAA. The proposer is responsible for ensuring that all information required by a BAA--from all team members--is submitted in accordance with the BAA. “Awardee” refers to anyone who might receive a prime award from the Government, including recipients of procurement contracts, grants, cooperative agreements, or Other Transactions.

“Subawardee” refers to anyone who might receive a subaward from a prime awardee (e.g., subawardee, consultant, etc.).

http://www.darpa.mil/work-with-us/contract-management#OtherTransactions http://www.darpa.mil/work-with-us/contract-management#OtherTransactions

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of disclosing performance characteristics of military systems or manufacturing technologies that are unique and critical to defense. Any award resulting from such a determination will include a requirement for DARPA permission before publishing any information or results on the program. For more information on publication restrictions, see the section below on Fundamental Research.

B. 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 expects that program goals as described herein may be met by proposers intending to perform fundamental research and does not anticipate applying publication restrictions of any kind to individual awards for fundamental research that may result from this BAA. Notwithstanding this statement of expectation, the Government 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. If proposals are selected for award that offer other than a fundamental research solution, the Government will either work with the proposer to modify the proposed statement of work to bring the research back into line with fundamental research or else the proposer will agree to restrictions in order to receive an award.

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 determine whether the proposed research shall be considered fundamental. Appropriate clauses will be included in resultant awards for non-fundamental research to prescribe publication requirements and other restrictions, as appropriate. This clause can be found at www.darpa.mil/work-with-us/additional-baa.

For certain research projects, it may be possible that although the research to be performed by a potential awardee is restricted research, their subawardee’s effort may be fundamental research.

In those cases, it is the awardee’s responsibility to explain in their proposal why its subawardee’s effort is fundamental research.

http://www.darpa.mil/work-with-us/additional-baa

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III. Eligibility Information A. Eligible Applicants

All responsible sources capable of satisfying the Government's needs may submit a proposal DARPA’s consideration.

1. Federally Funded Research and Development Centers (FFRDCs) and Government Entities

a. FFRDCs

FFRDCs are subject to applicable direct competition limitations and cannot propose to this BAA in any capacity unless they meet the following conditions: (1) FFRDCs must clearly demonstrate that the proposed work is not otherwise available from the private sector. (2) 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 awardees or subawardees.

b. Government Entities

Government Entities (e.g., Government/National laboratories, military educational institutions, etc.) are subject to applicable direct competition limitations. 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. This information is required for Government Entities proposing to be awardees or subawardees.

c. Authority and Eligibility

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

2. Foreign Participation Non-U.S. organizations and/or individuals may participate to the extent that such participants comply with any necessary nondisclosure agreements, security regulations, export control laws, and other governing statutes applicable under the circumstances. For classified submissions, this includes mitigating any Foreign Ownership Control and Influence (FOCI) issues prior to transmitting the submission to DARPA. Additional information on these subjects can be found at http://www.dss.mil/isp/foci/foci_faqs.html.

http://www.dss.mil/isp/foci/foci_faqs.html

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B. Organizational Conflicts of Interest

FAR 9.5 Requirements In accordance with FAR 9.5, proposers are required to identify and disclose all facts relevant to potential OCIs involving the proposer’s organization and any proposed team member (subawardee, consultant). Under this Section, the proposer is responsible for providing this disclosure with each proposal submitted to the BAA. The disclosure must include the proposer’s, and as applicable, proposed team member’s OCI mitigation plan. The OCI mitigation plan must include a description of the actions the proposer has taken, or intends to take, to prevent the existence of conflicting roles that might bias the proposer’s judgment and to prevent the proposer from having unfair competitive advantage. The OCI mitigation plan will specifically discuss the disclosed OCI in the context of each of the OCI limitations outlined in FAR 9.505-1 through FAR 9.505-4.

Agency Supplemental OCI Policy In addition, DARPA has a supplemental OCI policy that prohibits contractors/performers from concurrently providing Scientific Engineering Technical Assistance (SETA), Advisory and Assistance Services (A&AS) or similar support services and being a technical performer.

Therefore, as part of the FAR 9.5 disclosure requirement above, a proposer must affirm whether the proposer or any proposed team member (subawardee, consultant) is providing SETA, A&AS, or similar support to any DARPA office(s) under: (a) a current award or subaward; or (b) a past award or subaward that ended within one calendar year prior to the proposal’s submission date.

If SETA, A&AS, or similar support is being or was provided to any DARPA office(s), the proposal must include:

The name of the DARPA office receiving the support;

The prime contract number;

Identification of proposed team member (subawardee, consultant) providing the support; and An OCI mitigation plan in accordance with FAR 9.5.

Government Procedures In accordance with FAR 9.503, 9.504 and 9.506, the Government will evaluate OCI mitigation plans to avoid, neutralize or mitigate potential OCI issues before award and to determine whether it is in the Government’s interest to grant a waiver. The Government will only evaluate OCI mitigation plans for proposals that are determined selectable under the BAA evaluation criteria and funding availability.

The Government may require proposers to provide additional information to assist the Government in evaluating the proposer’s OCI mitigation plan.

If the Government determines that a proposer failed to fully disclose an OCI; or failed to provide the affirmation of DARPA support as described above; or failed to reasonably provide additional information requested by the Government to assist in evaluating the proposer’s OCI mitigation plan, the Government may reject the proposal and withdraw it from consideration for award.

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C. Cost Sharing/Matching Cost sharing is not required; however, it will be carefully considered where there is an applicable statutory condition relating to the selected funding instrument (e.g., OTs under the authority of 10 U.S.C. § 2371).

IV. Application and Submission Information Prior to submitting a full proposal, proposers are strongly encouraged to first submit an abstract as described below. This process allows a proposer to ascertain whether the proposed concept is: (1) applicable to the NLM BAA and (2) currently of interest. For the purposes of this BAA, applicability is defined as follows:

The proposed concept is applicable to the funding opportunity description in Section I.

The proposed concept is important to DSO’s current investment portfolio.

The proposed concept investigates an innovative approach that enables revolutionary advances, i.e., will not primarily result in evolutionary improvements to the existing state of practice.

The proposed work has not already been completed (i.e., the research element is complete but manufacturing/fabrication funds are required).

The proposer has not already received funding or a positive funding decision for the proposed concept (whether from DARPA or another Government agency).

Abstracts and full proposals that are not found to be applicable to the NLM BAA as defined above may be deemed non-conforming2 and removed from consideration. All abstracts and full proposals must provide sufficient information to assess the validity/feasibility of their claims as well as comply with the requirements outlined herein for submission formatting, content and transmission to DARPA. Abstracts and full proposals that fail to do so may be deemed non-conforming and removed from consideration. Proposers will be notified of non-conforming determinations via letter.

A. Address to Request Application Package This document contains all information required to submit a response to this solicitation. No additional forms, kits, or other materials are needed except as referenced herein. No request for proposal or additional solicitation regarding this opportunity will be issued, nor is additional information available except as provided at the Federal Business Opportunities website (http://www.fbo.gov), the Grants.gov website (http://www.grants.gov/), or referenced herein.

B. Content and Form of Application Submission

2 “Conforming” is defined as having been submitted in accordance with the requirements outlined herein.

http://www.fbo.gov/ http://www.grants.gov/

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1. Abstract Information As stated above, proposers are strongly encouraged to submit an abstract in advance of a full proposal to minimize effort and reduce the potential expense of preparing an out of scope proposal. The abstract provides a synopsis of the proposed project by briefly answering the following questions:

What is the proposed work attempting to accomplish or do?

How is it done today, and what are the limitations?

Who will care and what will the impact be if the work is successful?

How much will it cost, and how long will it take?

DARPA will respond to abstracts with a statement as to whether DARPA is interested in the idea. If DARPA does not recommend the proposer submit a full proposal, DARPA will provide feedback to the proposer regarding the rationale for this decision. Regardless of DARPA’s response to an abstract, proposers may submit a full proposal. DARPA will review all conforming full proposals using the published evaluation criteria and without regard to any comments resulting from the review of an abstract.

Proposers should note that a favorable response to an abstract is not a guarantee that a proposal based on the abstract will ultimately be selected for award negotiation.

While it is DARPA policy to attempt to reply to abstracts within thirty calendar days, proposers to this solicitation may anticipate a response within approximately three weeks. These official notifications will be sent via email to the Technical POC and/or Administrative POC identified on the abstract coversheet.

To assist in abstract development, various templates have been provided along with the BAA posted at http://www.fbo.gov. Attachment 1 is for the abstract summary slide and Attachment 2 is for the abstract. Use of these templates is mandatory.

Abstracts not meeting the format prescribed herein may not be reviewed.

a. Abstract Format All proposers are required to use the templates provided as Attachments 1 and 2 to this solicitation on www.fbo.gov and http://www.grants.gov.

2. Full Proposal Information Proposals consist of Volume 1: Technical and Management Volume, Volume 2: Cost Volume, and Volume 3: Administrative and National Policy Requirements).

To assist in proposal development, various templates have been provided along with the BAA posted at http://www.fbo.gov/. Attachment 3 is for the proposal summary slide (introductory section of the Technical Volume), Attachment 4 is for the Volume 1: Technical and Management Volume, Attachment 5 is for the Volume 2: Cost Volume, and Attachment 6 is for the Volume 3:

http://www.fbo.gov/ http://www.fbo.gov/

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Administrative and National Policy Requirements Volume. Use of all templates is mandatory.

All proposal pages (Volumes 1-3) shall be formatted for printing on 8-1/2 by 11-inch paper with 1-inch margins, single-line spacing, and a font size not smaller than 12 point. Font sizes of 8 or 10 point may only be used for figures, tables, and charts. Document files must be in .pdf, .odx, .doc, .docx, .xls, or .xlsx formats. The summary slide described herein must be in .ppt or .pptx format and should be attached as a separate file to this document. Submissions must be written in English.

Proposers are encouraged to submit concise, but descriptive, proposals. Specific examples of problems, approaches, or goals are preferred to qualitative generalities. The Government will not consider pages in excess of the page count limitations, as described herein. Proposals with fewer than the maximum number of pages will not be penalized. Additional information not explicitly called for in the Technical and Management Volume must not be submitted with the proposal, but may be included as links in the bibliography. Such materials will be considered for the reviewers’ convenience only and not evaluated as part of the proposal.

Proposals not meeting the format prescribed herein may not be reviewed.

a. Full Proposal Format All proposers are required to use the templates provided as Attachments 3, 4, 5, and 6 to this solicitation on www.fbo.gov and http://www.grants.gov.

3. Proprietary Information Proposers are responsible for clearly identifying proprietary information. Submissions containing proprietary information must have the cover page and each page containing such information clearly marked with a label such as “Proprietary” or “Company Proprietary.”

NOTE: “Confidential” is a classification marking used to control the dissemination of U.S.

Government National Security Information as dictated in Executive Order 13526 and should not be used to identify proprietary business information. See Section V.B.1 for additional information.

4. Security Information DARPA anticipates that submissions received under this BAA will be unclassified. However, should a proposer wish to submit classified information, an unclassified email must be sent to the BAA mailbox requesting submission instructions from the DARPA/DSO Program Security Officer (PSO).

Security classification guidance and direction via a SCG and/or DD Form 254, “DoD Contract Security Classification Specification,” will not be provided at this time, since DARPA is soliciting ideas only. If a determination is made that the award instrument may result in access to classified information, a SCG and/or DD Form 254 will be issued by DARPA and attached as part of the award.

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C. Submission Dates and Times Proposers are warned that submission deadlines as outlined herein are in Eastern Time and will be strictly enforced. When planning a response to this solicitation, proposers should take into account that some parts of the submission process may take from one business day to one month to complete (e.g., registering for a DUNS number or TIN).

DARPA will acknowledge receipt of complete submissions via email and assign identifying numbers that should be used in all further correspondence regarding those submissions. If no confirmation is received within two business days, please contact the BAA Administrator at NLM@darpa.mil to verify receipt.

1. Abstracts Abstracts must be submitted per the instructions outlined herein and received by DARPA no later than the due date and time listed in Part One: Overview Information. Abstracts received after this time and date may not be reviewed.

2. Full Proposals Full proposal packages--full proposal (Technical and Management Volume, Cost Volume, National and Administrative Requirements) and, as applicable, proprietary subawardee cost proposals, classified appendices to unclassified proposals-- must be submitted per the instructions outlined herein and received by DARPA no later than the due date and time listed in Part One: Overview Information. Proposals received after this time and date may not be reviewed.

D. Funding Restrictions Not applicable.

E. Other Submission Requirements

1. Unclassified Submission Instructions

Proposers must submit all parts of their submission package using the same method; submissions cannot be sent in part by one method and in part by another method nor should duplicate submissions be sent by multiple methods. Email submissions will not be accepted. Failure to comply with the submission procedures outlined herein may result in the submission being deemed non-conforming and withdrawn from consideration.

a. Abstracts DARPA/DSO will employ an electronic upload submission system (https://baa.darpa.mil/) for all UNCLASSIFIED abstracts sent in response to this solicitation. Abstracts must not be submitted via Grants.gov.

First time users of the DARPA BAA Submission website must complete a two-step account mailto:NLM@darpa.mil https://baa.darpa.mil/

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creation process. The first step consists of registering for an extranet account by going to the URL listed above and selecting the “Account Request” link. Upon completion of the online form, proposers will receive two separate emails; one will contain a user name and the second will provide a temporary password. Once both emails have been received, the second step requires proposers to go back to the submission website and log in using that user name and password. After accessing the extranet, proposers may then create a user account for the DARPA BAA Submission website by selecting the “Register your Organization” link at the top of the page. Once the user account is created, proposers will be able to see a list of solicitations open for submissions, view submission instructions, and upload/finalize their abstract.

Proposers who already have an account on the DARPA BAA Submission website may simply log in at https://baa.darpa.mil/, select this solicitation from the list of open DARPA solicitations and proceed with their abstract submission. Note: proposers who have created a DARPA BAA Submission website account to submit to another DARPA Technical Office’s solicitations do not need to create a new account to submit to this solicitation.

All abstracts submitted electronically through the DARPA BAA Submission website must meet the following requirements: (1) uploaded as a zip file (.zip or .zipx extension); (2) only contain the document(s) requested herein; (3) only contain unclassified information; and (4) must not exceed 100 MB in size. Only one zip file will be accepted per abstract and abstracts not uploaded as zip files will be rejected by DARPA.

Technical support for the DARPA BAA Submission website is available during regular business hours, Monday – Friday, 9:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. Requests for technical support must be emailed to BAAT_Support@darpa.mil with a copy to NLM@darpa.mil. Questions regarding submission contents, format, deadlines, etc. should be emailed to NLM@darpa.mil. Questions/requests for support sent to any other email address may result in delayed/no response.

Since proposers may encounter heavy traffic on the web server, DARPA discourages waiting until the day abstracts are due to request an account and/or upload the submission.

Note: Proposers submitting an abstract via the DARPA BAA Submission site MUST (1) click the “Finalize” button in order for the submission to upload AND (2) do so with sufficient time for the upload to complete prior to the deadline. Failure to do so will result in a late submission.

b. Proposals Requesting a Procurement Contract or Other Transaction

Proposers requesting procurement contracts or other transactions may only submit full proposals through ONE of the following methods: (1) electronic upload (DARPA-preferred); or (2) direct mail/hand-carry.

i. Electronic Upload

DARPA/DSO encourages proposers to submit UNCLASSIFIED proposals via the DARPA BAA Submission website at https://baa.darpa.mil/.

First time users of the DARPA BAA Submission website must complete a two-step account creation process. The first step consists of registering for an extranet account by going to the URL listed above and selecting the “Account Request” link. Upon completion of the online https://baa.darpa.mil/ mailto:BAAT_Support@darpa.mil mailto:NLM@darpa.mil

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form, proposers will receive two separate emails; one will contain a user name and the second will provide a temporary password. Once both emails have been received, the second step requires proposers to go back to the submission website and log in using that user name and password. After accessing the extranet, proposers may then create a user account for the DARPA BAA Submission website by selecting the “Register your Organization” link at the top of the page. Once the user account is created, proposers will be able to see a list of solicitations open for submissions, view submission instructions, and upload/finalize their proposal.

Proposers who already have an account on the DARPA BAA Submission website may simply log in at https://baa.darpa.mil/, select this solicitation from the list of open DARPA solicitations and proceed with their proposal submission. Note: proposers who have created a DARPA BAA Submission website account to submit to another DARPA Technical Office’s solicitations do not need to create a new account to submit to this solicitation.

All full proposals submitted electronically through the DARPA BAA Submission website must meet the following requirements: (1) uploaded as a zip file (.zip or .zipx extension); (2) only contain the document(s) requested herein; (3) only contain unclassified information; and (4) must not exceed 100 MB in size. Only one zip file will be accepted per full proposal and full proposals not uploaded as zip files will be rejected by DARPA.

Technical support for the DARPA BAA Submission website is available during regular business hours, Monday – Friday, 9:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. Requests for technical support must be emailed to BAAT_Support@darpa.mil with a copy to NLM@darpa.mil. Questions regarding submission contents, format, deadlines, etc. should be emailed to NLM@darpa.mil. Questions/requests for support sent to any other email address may result in delayed/no response.

Since proposers may encounter heavy traffic on the web server, DARPA discourages waiting until the day proposals are due to request an account and/or upload the submission. Note:

Proposers submitting a proposal via the DARPA BAA Submission site MUST (1) click the “Finalize” button in order for the submission to upload AND (2) do so with sufficient time for the upload to complete prior to the deadline. Failure to do so will result in a late submission.

ii. Direct Mail/Hand-carry Proposers electing to submit procurement contract or other transaction proposals via direct mail or hand-carried must provide one paper copy and one electronic copy on CD or DVD of the full proposal package. All parts of the proposal package must be mailed or hand-carried in a single delivery to the address noted in Section VII below.

c. Proposals Requesting a Grant or Cooperative Agreement

Proposers requesting grants or cooperative agreements may only submit proposals through ONE of the following methods: (1) electronic upload at Grants.gov (DARPA-preferred); or (2) direct mail/hand-carry to DARPA.

i. Electronic Upload mailto:BAAT_Support@darpa.mil

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DARPA encourages grant and cooperative agreement proposers to submit their proposals via electronic upload at http://www.grants.gov/web/grants/applicants/apply-for-grants.html.

Proposers electing to use…