N3943019S2133_AppendixA_ProposalSubEvalGuide_030819_(003).pdf

BAA

PROPOSAL SUBMISSION

AND EVALUATION GUIDE

March 2019

Proposal Submission and Evaluation Guide

1 Introduction

NOAA and the U.S. Navy are working to better understand underwater sound within the National Marine Sanctuary System. For the next few years, these agencies will work with numerous scientific partners to study sound within seven national marine sanctuaries and one marine national monument, which includes waters off Hawai‘i and the east and west coasts. Standardized measurements will assess sounds produced by marine animals, physical processes (e.g., wind and waves), and human activities.

Collectively, this information will help NOAA and the Navy measure sound levels and baseline acoustic conditions in sanctuaries. This work is a continuation of ongoing Navy and NOAA monitoring and research, including efforts by NOAA's Office of National Marine Sanctuaries.

What Is the Priority Need for This Solicitation?

Humpback whales are known to occur throughout the main Hawaiian Islands and certain parts of the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument (PMNM) in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands.

However, their presence in most parts of the PMNM is still poorly documented and understood.

Remoteness and adverse winter ocean conditions make studying whales in this part of the archipelago challenging using conventional vessel-based survey methods. Autonomous gliders offer an opportunity to overcome traditional limitations by surveying areas of interest acoustically for the occurrence of song produced by male humpback whales during the winter breeding season. The Navy seeks proposals that employ glider technology coupled with acoustic monitoring capabilities to survey areas of interest in the PMNM. Proposals should offer the technology and logistical resources necessary to conduct acoustic glider surveys in the areas of interest and deliver the resulting acoustic data to the Navy. The Offeror may include a separate optional task to post-process and report on the data.

What Are the Specific Areas of Interest?

Three areas of interest (Areas 1, 2, and 3) have been defined (Figure 1 and Table 1). For each area of interest, data collection should be focused within the 100-fathom depth profile around each feature of interest (Table 2) as well as along the points of transit between the features. If all three areas of interest cannot be surveyed due to platform/sensor limitations, please specify. A comprehensive survey of all three areas of interest is not mandatory if not feasible. Area 1 is considered to be highest priority, with Areas 2 and 3 considered second and third priority, respectively.

Figure 1. Areas of Interest Map

Table 1. Areas of Interest Vertices

AREA 1 AREA 2 AREA 3

174.61W 26.47N 171.11W 25.86N 165.00W 23.79N 174.76W 26.08N 171.33W 25.42N 164.83W 23.23N 171.45W 25.87N 167.73W 25.60N 160.90W 22.45N 171.98W 25.20N 167.75W 24.21N 160.75W 22.83N 161.73W 23.25N

Table 2. Features of Interest

AREA 1 AREA 2 AREA 3

NW OF NEVA

SHOAL

MARO REEF NECKER ISLAND

NEVA SHOAL RAITA BANK WEST OF NIHOA

ISLAND

PIONEER

TABLEMOUNT

GARDNER

BANK

NIHOA ISLAND

NORTHAMPTON

SEAMOUNTS

MIDDLE BANK

LAYSAN ISLAND

2 Pre-Proposals

What Is a Pre-proposal?

The BAA solicitation, which is posted on Navy Electronic Commerce Online (https://www.neco.navy.mil) and on Federal Business Opportunities (http://www.fbo.gov), specifies the requirements and assumptions pertaining to the research need.

All qualified applicants interested in responding to the BAA solicitation are required to submit a pre-proposal. Pre-proposals allow for the quick evaluation of the technical merit, appropriateness, feasibility, and overall budget of the proposed project. After the evaluation of the pre-proposals, each author will be notified via email of the results. If NOAA and the U.S. Navy are interested in a pre-proposal, a full proposal will be requested.

How Do I Submit My Pre-proposal?

There is no specific format required for the pre-proposal, however, the pre-proposal should be consolidated into one single file (pdf format). The main text of the pre-proposal (excluding CVs) should not exceed 5 pages in length. The required information that should be contained in the pre-proposal submission is specified below. All pre-proposals should be submitted via email to mandy.shoemaker@navy.mil and must be received before the deadline specified in the BAA solicitation.

What Information Is Required in a Pre-proposal?

On the first page of the pre-proposal, provide the following information:

1. Your Contact Information Name, Phone, and Email

2. Organization Information

Organization Type (indicate Navy, DoD (Non-Navy), Federal (Non-DoD), Academia, Private (profit), Private (non-profit), or Other), Name, and Address

3. Project Title Provide the title of your proposed project.

4. Cost Estimate (by Calendar Year) Provide a summary table of overall project costs estimated to execute the project to completion broken out by calendar year (January-December). An example is as follows:

Year Estimated Cost 2019 $10K 2020 $10K Total $20K

Assume that the project effort will begin in August 2019 due to the time it takes to get a contract in place. Therefore, effort in 2019 will occur from August through December. Assume that the entire project will last no longer than 12 months and will be completed no later than July 2020. Therefore, effort in 2020 will occur from January through July.

In the remaining pages of the pre-proposal, provide the following information:

5. Technical Approach Describe the proposed project and any relevant supporting background information.

Clearly state how the proposed project addresses the BAA need topic.

Clearly outline the demonstration phase of the research effort.

Provide supporting information that the approach or technology is mature enough for applied research funding (include any references).

Describe performance criteria to measure success of the research effort.

Discuss any aspects of the project that include leveraged funding from other programs.

Describe the potential limitations or technical risks that may pose a challenge to the success of the project.

6. Offeror’s Related Experience Provide a minimum of one example where the Offeror successfully used the proposed technologies to collect passive acoustic data.

7. Principal Investigator's and Key Team Member's Related Experience Provide in a summary table the names, highest degree, organization/affiliations, location, and years of experience for each Principal Investigator (PI) and key team member.

Provide a one-page CV for each Principal Investigator (PI) and key team member. The CVs do not count toward the 5-page limit for the pre-proposal.

8. Project Benefits Describe the expected benefits of the proposed project and the key issues it addresses in the BAA need topic.

Describe the potential application of the results from the project.

Discuss the advantages of the proposed project over current approaches (technology, methods, costs, etc.).

9. Product Implementation (3 Elements)

a) Products and Deliverables:

Describe the intended product(s) and all associated deliverables.

b) Implementation Requirements:

Describe the planned method by which the products/deliverables will be transitioned to NOAA and the U.S. Navy (i.e. data, publication, etc.).

Specify any restrictions that may apply to the products/deliverables (i.e. permits, patents, proprietary technology or data, existing agreements, etc.).

Describe any proposed guidance documentation that will assist in future implementation of the products/deliverables.

c) Technical Risks:

Describe the potential technical risks that may pose a challenge to successful implementation of the products/deliverables.

What Happens After I Submit My Pre-proposal?

Once your pre-proposal is submitted, the following actions occur:

1. You will receive a confirmation email within one business day. If you do not receive a confirmation email, it is your responsibility to follow up and make sure your pre-proposal was received.

2. After the pre-proposal submission deadline, your pre-proposal is evaluated by subject matter experts within NOAA and U.S. Navy. The evaluation criteria used is standardized and is described in detail below.

3. Pre-proposal evaluators meet to discuss individual evaluations submitted on your pre-proposal in order to arrive at a final evaluation.

4. Final pre-proposal evaluations are typically completed within 2 months and you will be notified of the results via e-mail.

5. Authors of successful pre-proposals are then invited to submit full proposals which provide more detailed information. The full proposal process is described in Section 3.

How Is My Pre-Proposal Evaluated?

The following criteria are used to evaluate each pre-proposal:

1. Does the proposal adequately address the BAA need topic?

2. Is the technical approach scientifically valid and appropriate for the proposed work?

3. Do the qualifications, capabilities, and experience of the offeror, principal investigator, and key team members meet the requirements for achieving the proposal’s objectives?

4. Are the costs relative to the proposal’s approach reasonable?

5. What is the anticipated benefit of the project?

6. How feasible is it to implement the products/results of the project?

Each pre-proposal evaluator is asked to provide a description of the strengths and weaknesses pertaining to these six criteria. Then the following overall disposition is given:

-Request a Full Proposal -Do NOT Request a Full Proposal

Once all individual evaluations are complete, the pre-proposal evaluators discuss the results and rank the pre-proposals that were given a disposition of “Request a Full Proposal” in order of preference based on strengths and weaknesses. Then they determine the number of full proposals that should be requested based on the available budget and associated costs estimated in the top pre-proposals. Authors of successful pre-proposals are then invited to submit full proposals.

3 Full Proposals

What Is a Full Proposal?

A full proposal is a more detailed version of the pre-proposal, including additional items such as project tasks, milestones, and a detailed budget. In addition, the full proposal gives the offeror the opportunity to address comments received on their pre-proposal.

How Do I Submit My Full Proposal?

Successful pre-proposal offerors will receive an email with additional instructions on how to submit a full proposal. Once invited, the offeror has a specified number of days to submit a full proposal via email. All full-proposal submissions must be received before the deadline specified.

What Additional Information Is Required in a Full Proposal?

The full proposal requires all of the same information as during the pre-proposal process, along with some additional requirements. There is no page limit for the full proposal in order to provide the Offeror sufficient space to provide all necessary information. Below is a description of each section and what changes may be applicable or required:

1. Your Contact Information

Update as needed.

2. Organization Information

3. Project Title

4. Cost Estimate This section includes additional required information.

If applicable, revise your pre-proposal cost estimate based on any changes to the proposed project or feedback/questions received on the pre-proposal.

For the summary table of overall project costs, breakdown project costs by quarter for each applicable year. If your effort is assumed to be constant, then just evenly distribute the costs amongst the quarters. However, if your project includes field tests or other spikes in effort at particular points in the project, please do your best to estimate which quarters that will occur in.

Year Q1

(Jan-Mar) Q2

(Apr-Jun) Q3

(Jul-Sep) Q4

(Oct-Dec) Cost

2019 $0 $0 $2.5K $7.5K $10K 2020 $7.5K $2.5K $0 $0 $10K Total $20K

Submit (as an email attachment) a spreadsheet with details regarding the financials of the project.

It is not a requirement to use the financial template provided, but you do have to provide all of the information requested in the template. The spreadsheet should outline costs by calendar year only, this level of detail is not required to be broken out by quarter.

Provide contact information for your financial POC.

5. Technical Approach

If applicable, revise information based on any changes to the proposed project or feedback/questions received on the pre-proposal.

6. Offeror’s Related Experience

7. EMR/DART

For private (non-government) offerors, provide your Experience Modification Rate (EMR) and

Days Away, Restricted and Transferred (DART) rate. If a private offeror does not have an EMR/DART rating, explain why. This field does not apply to government offerors.

8. Principal Investigator’s and Key Team Member’s Related Experience

9. Project Benefits

10. Schedule/Milestones

Provide the overall proposed project start and completion date.

Provide a detailed task/milestone (e.g. significant stage of development/progress, field tests/studies, deliverables, and publications) breakdown for the entire project with proposed dates.

11. Product Implementation

12. Supporting Files

Submit any additional supporting files (e.g. figures, tables) as appropriate. Please note that the size of the entire email should be limited to a total of 15 MB or less.

How Is My Full Proposal Evaluated?

The same six criteria outlined for a pre-proposal evaluation are used to evaluate a full proposal. The only exception is that the following additional criterion is used for non-government submissions:

Did the Offeror provide acceptable EMR/DART ratings or a valid reason why they were not provided (non-government submissions only)?

-Yes -No

Each full proposal evaluator is asked to provide a description of the strengths and weaknesses pertaining to these seven criteria. Then the following overall disposition is given:

-Recommend Funding the Effort -Do NOT Recommend Funding the Effort -On Hold

Once all evaluations are complete, the full proposal evaluators discuss the results and rank the full proposals that were given a disposition of “Recommend Funding the Effort” in order of preference based on strengths and weaknesses. Then they determine which full proposal should be funded based on the available budget and associated costs estimated. All full proposal Offerors will be notified via email of the final decision.