Attachment J.1 HSHQDC-09-R-00008(D).pdf

Attachment J-1

SPONSORING AGREEMENT

Between

THE DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY

and

TBD

to Operate the HOMELAND SECURITY SYSTEMS ENGINEERING and

DEVELOPMENT INSTITUTE (SEDI)

FEDERALLY FUNDED RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT CENTER (FFRDC)

1. PURPOSE OF THIS AGREEMENT

This Sponsoring Agreement (this Agreement) sets forth the policies and requirements for the conduct of systems engineering and development by the TBD.

Homeland Security Systems Engineering and Development Institute (HS SEDI or SEDI) Federally Funded Research and Development Center (FFRDC) (hereafter referred to as the SEDI) operated by TBD in support of the Secretary of Homeland Security (DHS), the Under Secretary for Science and Technology (S&T), and the DHS Operating Elements.

The Under Secretary for Science and Technology (S&T) is the Primary Sponsor of this Agreement.

This Agreement is in compliance with Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Part 35.017. Additionally, the DHS Management Directive 143-04 "Establishing or Contracting with Federally Funded Research and Development Centers (FFRDCs) and National Laboratories" dated April 25,2006, as amended, is hereby incorporated by this reference into and made a part of this Agreement.

This Agreement will be incorporated by reference into and made a part of the DHS contract with TBD for the operation of the SEDI (the Contract). If conflicts exist between this Agreement and the Contract, the Contract will take precedence and will control.

Portions of this Agreement are based on Federal government-wide and DHS policies, and future changes in these policies might necessitate changes to this Agreement. This Agreement may be amended, and its provisions may be modified or waived, by mutual written agreement of the parties. Capitalized terms used within this Agreement shall have the meanings ascribed to them herein or in the Contract.

2. BACKGROUND OF TBD

TBD is a [e.g. nonprofit corporation (under Section xxx of the Internal Revenue Code)] originally established in [date] to provide [reasons]. The corporation today performs [ . . ..I. Describe parent and subsidiary corporate interests and organizational conflict-of-interest policy. TBD is governed by a . . . .(e.g., Board of Trustees . . ..describe potential COI and how managed). TBD's corporate headquarters are located in xxx.

Attachment J-I

3. PURPOSE AND MISSION OF THE FFRDC

The purpose of the Homeland Security Systems Engineering and Development Institute (SEDI) is to provide special technical expertise to Department program managers that transforms program-level operational requirements and performance metrics, constrained by cost and schedule, into a preferred documented configuration of sustainable deliverables. Program objectives are generally achieved through the insertion of new technologies, prototypes, commercial off the shelf technologies (COTS), andlor modifications of existing hardware and software, into homeland security enterprise (e.g., federal, state, local, tribal, public and private sector) systems and platforms. The SEDI shall generally work on the most complex homeland security systems that will evolve capabilities through pre-planned spiral developments. The SEDI will promote fair and open competition for the development and delivery of Department capabilities by providing independent and objective technical expertise in the development of technical concepts, standardized technical data packages, development modeling and simulation, and development testing and lab experiments, in tandem with the government's acquisition process. The SEDI shall ensure a logical optimization of system and sub-system level tradeoffs across the system's lifecycle. Overtime, this FFRDC will help the Department develop a DHS system of systems approach that will promote development process efficiencies and synergies through best practices and standardized documentation. Through its long term relationship with the Department, the SEDI shall promote compatibilities across the various homeland security platforms and equipment to reduce our Nation's risk to terrorism and catastrophic incidents through, among other things, improved interoperability and information sharing within the homeland security enterprise.

The role of the Science and Technology Directorate is to provide a SEDI program office to support the FFRDC in terms of developing long-term and short-term strategies for reaching across the Department to negotiate task orders in support of the most critical and strategic programs. The SEDI program office shall consist of an Executive Agent (EA), Program Manager (PM), and Contract Officers Technical Representative (COTR), who shall be the focal point for negotiating tasks between the SEDI and the various DHS program offices. The SEDI program office will also negotiate issue resolutions between the SEDI and task sponsors after tasks have been awarded. Primary direction and technical feedback on specific task orders will come from sponsoring program office officials. The SEDI program office will provide additional guidance on technical quality and consistency throughout the term of the contract; and will also provide contract administration support, for example: task order processing, security, IT certification, invoice payments and progress reporting, etc. Most tasks will be sponsored by program offices located throughout the Department and include most of the twenty two legacy agencies that make up the Department.

The Department's studies and analysis FFRDC will generally provide top level requirements and metrics, operational modeling and simulation, as well as operational test and evaluation analysis for the programs. DHS and national laboratory FFRDCs will generally provide system and component prototypes and threat analysis support that is not generally available in the private sector.

Attachment J-1 HSHQDC-09-R-00008(D)

The work performed by the SEDI will: (a) be authoritative, objective, and free from conflicts of interest caused by involvement with and benefit from commercial or other interests; (b) ensure confidentiality and protect sensitive homeland security, intelligence, and government planning information; (c) ensure confidentiality and protect proprietary commercial information; and (d) constitute high-quality research and advice.

The work will be responsive to sponsor needs as the SEDI addresses issues of both long-term and immediate homeland security concern. The SEDI research program will be composed of systems engineering and development tasks that may include, quick-response, ad-hoc analysis and technical support, short-term studies (up to one month), medium-term studies (1-12 months). However most HS SEDI tasks are expected to be long-term studies (more than 1 year) that track with major acquisition program lifecycles.

As implied above, the work will often require privileged access to information, including sensitive Government information and industry proprietary data not normally available to non-Government organizations.

4. SCOPE OF WORK

The Contractor shall be responsible for providing technical and integration expertise to Department of Homeland Security (DHS) program leadership as a trusted agent, particularly in the evolution of the most complex and critical homeland security programs. The purpose of the SEDI FFRDC is to help the Department address "How" to accomplish program goals and objectives by the spiral insertion of new technologies, experimental prototypes, and commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) software and hardware into new and existing operational systems and platforms. The program risk must be carefully managed to tight cost and schedule constraints while maintaining critical performance requirements. The SEDI will provide the government with the necessary expertise to provide best "lifecycle" value while promoting fair and open systems acquisitions and deployments through the following core competencies:

Development of Acquisition Program Baselines (APB) and Integrated Master Schedules (IMS), development test and evaluation plans, and other milestone decision documentation in accordance with DHS guidelines and directives to support the Departments' most critical and complex programs Development of functional analysis models, component tradeoff simulations, and tools and metrics to evaluate system tradeoffs and integration strategies Development of unique test-beds, critical lab experiments, and evaluation techniques to support the evolution of system concepts Develop homeland security systems software development models, standards, and protocols that are consistent with interoperability and spiral developments Develop and promote standardization of program risk, schedule and cost models based on system lifecycle costs