Human Performance and Resiliency SVIP Topic Call 70RSAT22R00000004.pdf

HUMAN PERFORMANCE

AND RESILIENCY

https://www.dhs.gov/science-and-technology/svip DHS-Silicon-Valley@hq.dhs.gov

Human Performance and Resiliency

1. Introduction

This Other Transaction Solicitation (OTS) Call “Human Performance and Resiliency” is being issued against the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Science & Technology Directorate (S&T), Silicon Valley Innovation Program (SVIP), 5-Year Innovation OTS (70RSAT21R00000006). All terms and conditions of the DHS S&T SVIP 5-Year Innovation OTS (70RSAT21R00000006) remain incorporated into this Call unless otherwise noted herein.

DHS is committed to using cutting-edge technologies and scientific talent in its quest to make America safer. The DHS S&T SVIP, on behalf of DHS Operational Components, invests in startup companies with viable technologies suitable for rapid prototyping projects from across the nation and around the world to adapt, develop and harness cutting-edge capabilities that are commercially sustainable while simultaneously meeting the needs of DHS Operational Components and Programs.

The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) uses specific verbal forms to convey clarity on what is a requirement and what is a recommendation or other type of statement. This Topic Call adopts and uses the following ISO document conventions:

• Requirements - SHALL, SHALL NOT

• Recommendations - SHOULD, SHOULD NOT

• Permission - MAY, MAY NOT

• Possibility and Capability - CAN, CANNOT

1.1. DHS Operational Need

DHS employs highly trained law enforcement, operations, and mission support professionals who are held to high ethical and moral standards. Due to the complex mission and associated requirements for employees, DHS personnel often experience significant amounts of stress in their professional and personal lives. Officer safety and wellness research has found that compared to other professionals, officers work under stressful conditions and are regularly exposed to the risk of accidents, physical attacks, or other trauma. To varying degrees, law enforcement officers are exposed to stressors such as radiation, chemical, biological and physical risks; and shift work, sleep disorders and other negative health sequelea1.

Oftentimes, these stressors are brought on because of intrinsic work factors, such as long hours, shift work, hot and cold environments, unstable schedules, intensely stressful situations, deployments away from home and family, and inaccessibility to immediate health care while on lengthy assignments.

Other times, these stressors may be brought on because of negative perceptions of law enforcement, including scrutiny in the media and persecution in social situations. A combination of these internal and external stressors can leave personnel feeling fatigued, lost, and alone. Left unchecked, these stressors can lead an individual down a path towards depression, burnout, diminished performance, injury, problems at home, chronic illnesses, expensive treatments, and in the worst-case scenario, suicide.

DHS remains committed to providing resources to its workforce to address these stressors and

1 Mumford, Elizabeth A., et.al. “Law Enforcement Officers Safety and Wellness: A Multi-Level Study.” U.S. Department of Justice. January, 2021. https://nij.ojp.gov/library/publications/law-enforcement-officers-safety-and-wellness-multi-level-study.

https://www.dhs.gov/science-and-technology/svip https://www.dhs.gov/science-and-technology/svip https://sam.gov/opp/c4bb209879da4c4bacabb1c9b29955e6/view https://nij.ojp.gov/library/publications/law-enforcement-officers-safety-and-wellness-multi-level-study https://nij.ojp.gov/library/publications/law-enforcement-officers-safety-and-wellness-multi-level-study situations. DHS Components have established initiatives such as the Employee Assistance Program, Chaplaincy, Peer Support, and other teams/committees focused on human performance and resiliency in the workforce. DHS must continue to address these vital, mission critical employee wellness issues deliberately, intentionally, and innovatively to provide maximum opportunity for all employees, not just with current capabilities, but those on the horizon as well.

This SVIP Call seeks technical capabilities that could serve the mission needs of DHS Operational Components and Programs including:

● U.S. Customs and Border Protection

● Other DHS Operational Agencies

1.2. Illustrative Use Cases

The following illustrative use cases are intended to describe where the technologies being sought by DHS in this topic call could potentially be applied. DHS is not necessarily seeking the technologies for these specific use cases but instead are providing them to give some context for interested parties.

Responses to this OTS Call should focus on these use cases but other use cases may be considered. The desired end state is that the scenarios presented below become the extreme cases for personnel wellness.

Technologies and methods for personnel resilience should focus on providing DHS personnel with a full awareness of the elements that impact wellness, information on latest trends and resources to promote wellness, and tools that will encourage or enable personnel to take proactive, preventive care, identifying and resolving issues before reaching a crisis level.

1.2.1. Hypothetical Scenario I:

DHS personnel are deployed to Southern California in response to a large earthquake which has caused significant loss of life, damage to regional infrastructure, disruption to supply chains, and the need for humanitarian assistance. It is unseasonably hot and humid for August in Southern California with temps reaching the mid to high 90’s during the day. DHS teams are deployed to a Forward Operating Base (FOB) in the parking lot of a convenience store and have the primary mission of search and rescue of survivors in nearby areas. While assigned to this 7-14 day mission, DHS personnel operate in pairs, on foot, work 14 hour shifts, and sleep in tents/cots at the FOB due to the lack of hotels, electricity, and running water.

On the morning of her third day at the rescue site, Agent Hunt wakes up in her cot at 0700 hours and reaches for her government issued smart device. She opens an application (app) that produces a readout of her sleep patterns from the evening. Based on data provided from a small number of biometric wearables monitoring movement, pulse rate, respiration, etc., Agent Hunt is presented data that helps her determine that her sleep was intermittent at best, amounting to about a total of four hours. Based on months of prior usage she knows that four hours is significantly less than the ideal amount of sleep that is recommended for her. Analysis from continued use has charted out her ideal sleep time at about eight hours per night. Despite the lack of sleep, she does feel good. While she eats a quick breakfast, she inputs the details of her meal that she feels energetic and happy, and that she has no injuries or soreness from the previous three days into the app.

Based on real time information from the internet and from Agent Hunt, the machine learning enabled application provides the recommendation that based on the weather at her current location, biometric inputs, sleep, and nutrition from the previous day, she should probably limit herself to 4 hours of moderate physical activity during the upcoming shift.

Agent Hunt notifies her supervisor and her partner of her current status. Based on this info, the supervisor takes steps to assign her to a search grid nearer to the FOB where she will be easier to monitor and communicate with. Similarly, her partner is aware of the need to monitor Agent Hunt closely as they search for survivors in the summer heat.

Two hours into her shift, Agent Hunt and her partner identify the location of an individual that is trapped in rubble near a toppled structure. After determining that the rubble is stable, Agent Hunt looks at her smart device to determine how she is managing so far. The wrist mounted user interface displays several pertinent biometric feeds with upper and lower thresholds customized to help maintain maximum longevity and performance for the current mission. The data indicates that while the weather is warm and she is somewhat sleep deprived, she is managing well so far. She and her partner begin to remove heavy rubble and debris that has trapped the subject. After approximately 30 minutes of grueling work, Agent Hunt and her partner both receive an audible and haptic alert that Agent Hunt’s core body temperature, perspiration rate, and heart rate indicate a high probability of heat exhaustion should she continue at the current pace. Agent Hunt’s partner takes immediate action to cool her down, radio her supervisor for assistance, and request another agent be sent to take her place to continue the rescue.

Upon returning to the FOB, Agent Hunt receives additional notifications that food, water, electrolytes, and five to six hours of sleep are recommended before she resumes any physical activity. After eating lunch, she returns to her cot and dons an apparatus that covers her eyes and ears to completely block out ambient light and sound. The sensory deprivation of the “outside world” coupled with other sensory inputs help her quickly fall to sleep and stay in a deep sleep for several hours.

Additional operational use cases where this type of technology could be applicable

• All DHS field operations where real time monitoring performance and wellness is crucial o Long duration missions or assignments o Inclement weather

• Basic DHS academies

• Special operations selection courses

1.2.2. Hypothetical Scenario II:

Agent Grant works at a Port of Entry, screening incoming passengers who are looking to gain entry into the United States. Agent Grant, like all other agents at his location, has been dealing with a higher-than-average flow of people that claim they are trying to escape hardships in their home countries. While he has been steadfast in doing his job to the best of his ability – screening incoming persons and answering questions that are asked of him – he has noticed that the long hours and stressful conditions of working with so many desperate people has begun to take a toll on him. He had a hard time focusing during his shift and he had less patience when dealing with frustrated travelers. His co-workers noticed Agent

Grant raising his voice a few times in conversation, and he had mentioned in conversation how the job was not as fulfilling as it had once been.

At home, Agent Grant also had to deal with preparing his family to deal with significant life changing events. His kids are getting ready to go to college and his mother has had to move in with him as she has gotten older. His finances were well in order, but he was worried about how he would have to adjust his budget to afford college tuition and account for his mother’s added living expenses.

Throughout this time Agent Grant has been participating in a health and wellness program that has offered him the opportunity to use biometric monitoring devices that help to track his physiological well-being. Agent Grant initially enrolled in hopes that the monitoring would help him track his recovery after a recent surgery.

The technology underlying the health and wellness program had been tracking several biological markers for the participants in the program. Wearable devices were monitoring participants’ sleep habits

– including measuring periods of quality sleep, resting heart rate, heart rate variability, and respiration rate – coupled with information supplied by the participants manually in the form of tracking food intake (to include alcohol consumption) and answering a series of questions daily that explored both physical health along with mental and emotional wellness. A set of algorithms were used to analyze this information for each participant and generated a series of wellness scores for the participants that they could view via an app on their phones.

Eventually Agent Grant’s wellness score dropped below a specified threshold. The app generated an alert to Agent Grant and the indicators revealed that he may be having a difficult time coping with the stresses of his job and personal life. Agent Grant had not been sleeping well for weeks, and his alcohol consumption rose above his normal levels. Additionally, the biometric monitoring devices recognized that his heart rate became elevated more often while at work. The app then recommended to Agent Grant some courses of action to help address elevated levels of stress. The app included a Mindfulness and Meditation course that helped Agent Grant calm himself when he felt stressors rising. The app also recommended that Agent Grant engage with his leadership to discuss the difficulties that he was facing.

Agent Grant consented to having his data securely shared with his supervisor, who was able to review the data with him and also consulted a guide within the app that contained a variety of resources that were available to assist. Agent Grant’s supervisor was able to adjust his assignments and specify those types of cases that he would handle for the short term. Agent Grant’s supervisor also provided him with a referral to a mental health professional for counseling.

Agent Grant was able to participate in a series of counseling sessions and guided meditations that helped him cope with the various stresses that he was facing. Agent Grant’s biometrics and survey responses showed marked improvements and he felt that he was starting to enjoy his work again after receiving support from his colleagues and supervisors. The technology utilized by Agent Grant helped him proactively engage the issues he was struggling with and tapping into the available resources made Agent Grant feel like a valued member of the team. Ultimately, he was able to fully resume his normal assignments within a short time.

2. Topic Description

DHS is interested in solutions that address the challenges of the illustrative use cases described above, while incorporating security, privacy and interoperability, enterprise lifecycle management, and a high degree of usability across service delivery modalities.

2.1. Security, Privacy and Interoperability Guidance

The potential for the development of “walled gardens” or closed technology platforms that do not support common standards for security, privacy, and data exchange would limit the growth and availability of a competitive marketplace of diverse and interoperable solutions for government and industry to draw upon to deliver cost effective and innovative services.

As such, this Call will require any proposed solution to incorporate existing and emerging standards-based protocols, data exchange formats and security policy frameworks to ensure broad acceptance and limit proprietary approaches.

In general:

• Solutions shall receive Privacy Threshold Analysis and potentially approvals for Authority to Test from the DHS Component Chief Information Officer (CIO)

• Solutions shall have the ability to, or work towards the ability to be deployable in an “on-prem” configuration, with data residing behind the DHS firewall.

• Solutions shall comply with Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) regulations.

• Solutions should ensure that personal information, including personally identifiable information (PII), residing in information systems be protected, disclose only what’s needed to fulfill the task, be accessible only by authorized personnel, provide robust audit trails to verify information access is appropriate, and ensure that data is secured not only where it is stored, but how it’s collected and transmitted.

• Solutions should allow for interoperability across platforms in order to collect data from a variety of sources (e.g. biometric monitoring devices, end-user surveys, electronic medical records, etc.).

2.2. Scope of Work

DHS intends to deploy human performance and resiliency-centric capabilities to improve the health, wellness, safety, and performance of DHS personnel. DHS recognizes that human beings and human wellness are complex issues, yet desires to engage industry with these topics in order to identify and/or develop capabilities that can provide awareness to individuals of their current stress, performance, and wellness levels to enable early interventions so crisis conditions can be avoided. The scope of this project is to find innovative technological solutions that will improve the overall health and wellness of those consistently placed in high-stress and dangerous conditions. To combat the growing issues facing many law enforcement entities, solutions should 1.) Increase self-awareness of physical and mental status and associated limitations; 2.) Promote actions or provide interventions that optimize human performance and resilience; and 3.) Define how DHS can measure well-being as a trackable metric over time.

Furthermore, DHS is seeking capabilities that not only promote intervention action when necessary, but preemptively and in real-time optimize DHS personnel performance and resilience. Solutions will broadly allow two primary sources of input: biometric (e.g. detected automatically on wearer by the device/s) and through psychosocial information (e.g. entered into software – voice transcribed or typed, etc. – by the user). Outputs of the technology shall reveal user actions that are currently maintaining resilience and/or enhancing performance and feedback to continue doing such actions. In addition, factors that are liabilities to the user’s resilience or human performance should be flagged as risk to the user and feedback provided on how to mitigate or manage those liabilities.

3. Technical Topic Areas (TTAs)

DHS is seeking technologies and solutions, particularly those based on research literature on the safety, health and wellness of law enforcement, operations, and mission support professionals, or other medically backed and peer-reviewed methodologies, that address challenges outlined in one or more of the following TTAs.

Applications shall describe alignment to at least one of the TTAs listed below; provide a detailed explanation of the solution’s data architecture that outlines how user privacy is maintained, how the data is collected, stored, shared across systems, and protected in a secure manner; and describe the scientific or medical principles upon which the technology is built, including evidence of effectiveness. While DHS is interested in meeting the goals of all the TTAs, we want to make it clear that it is not a requirement to meet all the TTAs.

3.1. TTA #1: Biometric Wearables

Develop wearable biometric device(s) that capture several biometric and metabolic leading indicators that can alert the user to initiate mitigating action. Devices should have the capability to monitor, assess, and provide various means of user notification(s). Technologies that are small, lightweight, durable, accurate, and that do not interfere with mission-essential gear or clothing, such as body armor and duty belt, are preferred by the end-user community.

3.2. TTA #2: Sleep/Recovery Enhancement

Develop a capability that evaluates sleep quality and recovery (i.e., including monitoring and evaluating circadian rhythms) and/or recreates the restorative benefits of sleep. As a threshold performance capability, the technology should inform the user of their sleep patterns and needs based on inputs from other devices or logs (wearables or manual). At the objective performance capability, the technology should enhance or reproduce healthy sleep conditions for the individual.

3.3. TTA #3: Artificial Intelligence-enabled Mobile Application

Develop a mobile application that allows personnel to input personal information (diet, exercise, mood, injuries, etc.) and/or compile information from various wearable biometric monitoring devices in order to generate outputs describing factors contributing to their overall wellness.

(For example, the program could tell the employee that his/her input data shows that he/she should put less stress on his/her knees since they are showing stress or that their physical fitness for the day should not include high intensity periods due to previous workloads, the previous days nutritional intake, or lack of sleep the night before. Or, for another example, the employee’s input data reveals that he/she is experiencing high levels of stress and should consider relaxation techniques or in the case of extreme distress suggest assistance via Emergency Medical Services or through existing Employee Assistance Programs). The artificial intelligence (AI) mobile application should have the capability to learn and adjust based on additional data, progress and physical and psychological performance indicators.

In cases of employee injuries, capabilities should enhance levels of rehabilitation and recovery and accelerate employee’s return to full duty status.

4. Project Deliverables and Phases

The SVIP is generally structured in 4 Phases, with an opportunity to award a Phase 5 for further testing/piloting in additional operational environments and potentially addressing additional use cases.

For the purposes of this project, all applicants shall submit a Phase 1 application.

SVIP Phase detail is listed in the following chart:

Phase Funding Level & Source Deliverables Due Date

1 $50,000 to $200,000

Minimum Viable Product demonstrating proof-of-concept of adaptation

3–6 months after award

2 $50,000 to $500,000

Prototype development building out all features to demonstrate viability

3–9 months after successful completion of Phase 1

3 $50,000 to $500,000

Developmental testing of prototype and deployed in realistic environment for independent test and evaluation (T&E) (red-teaming)

3–9 months after successful completion of Phase 2

4 $50,000 to $500,000

Operational testing of developed capability fully coordinated with DHS Component and operational stakeholder

3-9 months after successful completion of Phase 3

5 TBD at the Government’s discretion

Additional operational testing which may include additional use cases/operational environments

TBD at the Government’s discretion

Referring to the table above, the required milestones and deliverables for each phase shall incorporate the objectives defined as follows:

● Phase 1: Delivery of a Minimum Viable Product that demonstrates proof-of-concept and supporting documentation inclusive of verifiable test evidence, technical drawings, software demonstrations or other proof that the technical approach to address a DHS requirement or challenge as identified in this Call is sound. At the end of this Phase, successful applicants will have:

○ Either created a proof of concept of a new technology suitable for demonstration or;

○ Produced reviewable modifications to pre-existing technologies suitable for demonstration

○ Documented a draft go-to-market commercialization plan/strategy

● Phase 2: An end to end working prototype with full capabilities. Objectives of this phase are to use the results of Phase 1 to build out all features and functions in the prototype to demonstrate viability. At the end of Phase 2, the prototype shall:

○ Demonstrate end-to-end operational viability

○ Be ready for independent review and evaluation

○ Validate the commercialization plan/strategy with potential customers and partners

● Phase 3: Developmental testing to include independent T&E (Red Teaming) to ensure the suitability of the fully developed capability to become a production ready prototype that can be deployed into an operational environment under realistic conditions. These tests will be fully coordinated with the DHS Component and operational stakeholders and it is anticipated that all critical independent testing feedback will be incorporated into the technology solution by the end of this Phase. Objectives of this phase are to:

○ Demonstrate a fully functional end to end capability

○ Support the functional, security, privacy and interoperability testing and validation of the capability by an independent Red Team

○ Incorporate the feedback and results of the independent test into the prototype

○ Complete commercialization plans

○ Document transition plans and strategy for any identified modifications and/or use cases

● Phase 4: For this operational T&E phase, technologies would be fully completed designs and reputably provide all proposed features and functionality. This phase may require acquisition of a limited number of prototypes or licenses of the technology in order to conduct the testing in multiple user scenarios and conditions. Objectives of this phase are to:

○ Deploy the capability for operational testing and demonstration

○ Incorporate and adjust the capability based on the operational testing and feedback

○ Make final preparations for commercialization/transition

● Phase 5: Phase 5 awards are made only to meet a Government need and additional testing requirements. The additional testing may be done in different environments using additional use cases. This Phase may result in a limited number of prototypes or licenses of the technology in order to test the prototype in multiple user scenarios and conditions. In order to meet an identified Government need, this phase may be funded beyond the total Phase 1-4 limits

The Government may choose to combine and/or skip later phases which will be determined after the successful completion of the Phase 1 effort and subject to the Government’s invitation. See 5-Year Innovation OTS (70RSAT21R00000006) Section 2.2.3.

For the purposes of this project, DHS S&T anticipates making Phase 1 awards of $50,000 to $200,000 in funding for each award, with an estimated period of performance of 3 to 6 months. Successful projects will be eligible for subsequent phases of funding with a ceiling range between $50,000-$500,000 per phase (or in total $200,000-$1,700,000 for Phases 1-4) and duration to be approximately six (6) to nine

(9) months per phase. Given the ceiling of the subsequent phases are based on multiple factors such as DHS needs and available funds, DHS will provide the specific phase 2-4 ceiling amounts for this topic during the phase 2- 4 invitation process. See 5-Year Innovation OTS (70RSAT21R00000006) Section 2.2.1.

A Phase 5 may be awarded if the Government determines that further operational testing is required, and/or the technology is applicable in additional DHS use cases. Phase 5 OTAs will be scaled to fit the mission need/requirement in both cost and length of time and are not restricted by the Phases 1-4 ceilings listed above.

Project Phase awards are dependent on progress made by the applicant, DHS needs, and availability of funds. In order to receive consideration for subsequent Phases, applicants shall be invited by the Government to submit an application for each Phase. The Government reserves the right to not make subsequent Phase awards.

Phase 1 shall not exceed $200,000, and Phases 2-4 shall not exceed $500,000 per Phase for a total of $1,700,000.

At the end of Phase 4, DHS S&T intends that successful projects will have reached a sufficient stage of development for a potential test deployment, or commercial availability to stakeholders, including potential follow-on production contract or transaction by DHS.

The specific phased approach set out above is general program guidance and not a mandatory structure.

At the sole discretion of the Government, each OT project award may begin at any Phase, or make use of combined or skipped Phases, in order to accommodate different technology and different maturity levels of an awardee’s products. Any variations such as combining phases and/or skipping phases may be made based on technical maturity of the solutions received.

5. General Information and Instructions

5.1 Response Dates

Event Time Due Date or Date Due Virtual Industry Day Register to attend at:

9:30 AM – November 10, 2021 https://sam.gov/opp/c4bb209879da4c4bacabb1c9b29955e6/view https://sri-csl.regfox.com/hpr-industry-day 11:15 PM PT /

12:30 PM –

2:15 PM ET*

Applications Due Dates: Applications will be accepted on a continuous, rolling basis until the application deadline. The deadlines for submitting an application are listed on the right. Applications shall be received prior to the deadline to be evaluated in the review cycle.

12:00 PM

(Noon) PT* (per deadline)

1st Deadline: January 13, 2022 Final Deadline: April 13, 2022

Notification of Application Pre-Oral Pitch Evaluation Results N/A

Approximately 45 days following the application deadline

Oral Pitches N/A Approximately 60 days following the application deadline (if requested)

Closing Date/Final Deadline 12:00 PM (noon) PT* April 13, 2022

* Eastern Time (ET), Pacific Time (PT)

We encourage you to submit your application well before the deadline dates/times.

Applications and application resubmissions shall be submitted by the due dates listed above to be reviewed in that cycle. DHS will conduct reviews following each submission deadline and anticipates that reviews will be completed within approximately 45 days following each submission deadline.

Under no circumstances will applications and application resubmissions received after the Final Deadline date and time be considered for review.

Applicants shall check www.SAM.gov for any amendments and changes to this topic call.

DHS may decide to close the call early. If this occurs, DHS will publish a notification in SAM.gov thirty (30) days prior to closing the call.

5.2 Eligibility

Applicants Shall determine if they are eligible to apply to this solicitation by reviewing the SVIP OTS 70RSAT21R00000006 section 4 and the eligibility section of the FAQ document posted with the topic call. Any applications received from ineligible applicants will be rejected.

5.3 General Instructions

5.3.1 Applications shall be received by the deadlines posted in section 5.1 of this topic call, in the following e-mail box: DHS-Silicon-Valley@hq.dhs.gov. Applicants will receive a reply to the application email acknowledging receipt.

http://www.sam.gov/ https://sam.gov/opp/c4bb209879da4c4bacabb1c9b29955e6/view mailto:DHS-Silicon-Valley@hq.dhs.gov

5.3.2 Any invitations for oral pitches will be coordinated with the applicant and will be conducted via a virtual online meeting platform (e.g. MS Teams).

5.3.3 The Government may request Applications for other phases and will do so directly with the Company.

5.3.4 DHS S&T reserves the right to fund all, some, parts, or none of the applications received in response to this OTS Call.

5.4 Application Format and Requirements

To be considered for award, Applicants Shall do the following:

• Submit a written SVIP Human Performance and Resiliency application using the application template provided with this Call.

o The application shall be in pdf format. Any other format will not be accepted.

o At least one TTA shall be selected in the application (see the check boxes in section

3.1 in the application template). If the proposed technology addresses multiple TTAs, check the applicable TTAs. Applicants shall not submit a separate application for each TTA, you shall address all applicable TTAs in one application.

o All Sections of the applications shall be completed. This includes sections with “Yes” and “No” boxes, you shall check one of the boxes.

o The total number of pages including the architectural Intellectual Property diagram shall not exceed 10 pages.

o Applications shall describe the work proposed for Phase 1, answering all the questions as outlined in the SVIP Human Performance and Resiliency Application Form and the Phase 1 application amount cannot exceed $200,000.

o Only content contained in the application will be considered during the review process. No other documents, videos or links to information will be considered.

• Applications shall be compliant with the aforementioned response dates and other compliance requirements in accordance with the DHS S&T SVIP 5-Year Innovation OTS

(70RSAT21R00000006).

o Submissions not in compliance will be rejected.

5.5 Evaluation Criteria

The OTS evaluation criteria published in the DHS S&T SVIP Other Transaction Solicitation 70RSAT21R00000006 will be utilized for the application evaluation process, and specific to this Call, applications will be reviewed for:

Criterion I: Responsiveness to Technical Topic and Technical Approach. The potential of the technology/solution to meet the project TTA goals provided in the OTS Call will be assessed, along with the technical and managerial approach to the proposed work.

• Applicability to the DHS illustrative use case(s) or other credible use case(s)

• Sufficient technical evidence that the solution will address the problem stated

Criterion II: Applicant’s Capabilities and Related Experience. The applicant’s prior experience in similar efforts will be assessed to determine if the applicant clearly demonstrates an ability to deliver products that meet the proposed technical performance. The assessment for this criterion will include evaluating the experience of key personnel and any corporate viability requirements specified in a Topic Call.

• Financial soundness of the company, and the business model based on the technology to be supported;

Criterion III: Transition Approach. A qualitative assessment will be made regarding how the proposed technology/solution will be transitioned to an operational user (e.g., commercialized or used by a DHS Component). The assessment will determine the likelihood that the applicant will be able to deploy a technology and/or solution(s) that can be transitioned effectively to the user community.

• The scalability and cost-effectiveness of the proposed technology or solution;

• Existing relationships with relevant end users, stakeholders and/or consumers.

• Ability to help DHS operational missions or critical infrastructure facilities;

5.6. Pitch Format and Requirements

Applicants invited to present pitches will be limited to fifteen (15) minutes for their pitch. In addition, applicants making pitches may provide up to ten (10) slides for presentation in either Microsoft PowerPoint or Adobe PDF. Embedded videos demonstrating current product capabilities are encouraged.

Create a user account and register their company in www.sam.gov

• This does not need to be done at the application phase but shall be done if the applicant is chosen to pitch and provides a successful pitch.

5.7 Contractual or Technical Inquiries

All contractual or technical inquiries to this OTS Call 70RSAT22R00000004 shall be emailed to DHS- Silicon-Valley@hq.dhs.gov. Emails submitting questions are to include “Questions: SVIP Human Performance and Resiliency” in the subject line. Questions will only be accepted and answered electronically.

5.8 Order of Precedence

In the event that any of the terms and conditions contained in this OTS Call 70RSAT22R00000004 conflict with terms and conditions included in SVIP 5 Year Innovation OTS (70RSAT21R00000006), the terms and conditions in this OTS Call 70RSAT22R00000004 shall take precedence.

http://www.sam.gov/