RFI-ACT-SACT-19-02_TIDE_HACKATHON.pdf

HQ Supreme Allied Commander Transformation

RFI-ACT-SACT-19-02

Headquarters Supreme Allied Commander Transformation

Norfolk Virginia

REQUEST FOR INFORMATION

This document contains a Request for Information (RFI) Call for Industry and Academia contribution on Data Science at the TIDE Hackathon that will take place in Warsaw, Poland, from 25 February to 1 March 2019.

Suppliers wishing to respond to this RFI should read this document carefully and follow the guidance for responding.

General Information

Request For Information No.

RFI-ACT-SACT-19-02

Project Title Call for Industry and Academia contribution on Data Science at the TIDE Hackathon that will take place in Warsaw, Poland, from 25 February to 1 March 2019.

Contracting Office Address

NATO, HQ Supreme Allied Commander Transformation (SACT) Purchasing & Contracting Suite 100 7857 Blandy Rd, Norfolk, VA, 23511-2490

Contracting Points of Contact

1. Ms Tonya Bonilla e-mail : tonya.bonilla@act.nato.int Tel : +1 757 747 3575

2. Ms Catherine Giglio e-mail : catherine.giglio@act.nato.int Tel :+1 757 747 3856

Technical Points of Contact

Patrick Fryer, TIDE Hackathon Coordinator e-mail : Patrick.Fryer@act.nato.int Tel : +1 757 747 3652 Christian Kampmann, TIDE Hackathon Administrator e-mail : Christian.Kampmann@act.nato.int Tel : +1 757 747 3858 mailto:tonya.bonilla@act.nato.int mailto:catherine.giglio@act.nato.int mailto:Patrick.Fryer@act.nato.int mailto:Christian.Kampmann@act.nato.int

1 INTRODUCTION

1.1 Summary. HQ Supreme Allied Commander Transformation (HQ SACT) is issuing this Request for Information (RFI) announcement to invite industry/academia to the TIDE1 Hackathon 2019, the fourth such event run since 2016, building upon the successes of the Hackathons run previously.

The aim of the TIDE Hackathon 20192 is to create the environment for experts and novices who are involved, or interested, in innovation and transformation to competitively work on pressing problems identified within the NATO Enterprise that are difficult to solve by traditional means.

The TIDE Hackathon 2019 will build on a proven business model to stimulate transformation and innovation within NATO, and differs from traditional hackathon formats by providing emphasis not only on software development and coding, but also on the application of modeling and enterprise architecture disciplines.

This event will contribute to spiral specifications for Federated Mission Networking (FMN) by de-risking problematic areas and by providing innovative solutions to improve interoperability.

The TIDE Hackathon 2019 will take place in Warsaw, Poland from 25 February to 1 March 2019. The Calling Notice is available on the ACT website.

1.2 Disclaimer. This request for information does not constitute a commitment to issue a future request for proposal (RFP). The purpose of this RFI is to involve industry/academia in the TIDE Hackathon 2019. HQ SACT has not made a commitment to procure any of the items described herein, and release of this RFI shall not be construed as such a commitment, nor as authorization to incur cost for which reimbursement will be required or sought. Further, respondents are advised that HQ SACT will not pay for any travel, information or administrative costs incurred in responding to this RFI. The costs for responding to this RFI shall be borne solely by the responding party. Not responding to this RFI does not preclude participation in any subsequent RFP if issued in the future.

RFI respondents who would like to contribute must comply with the TIDE Hackathon process, rules and regulations as described in the TIDE Hackathon 2019 Handbook3, which is incorporated by reference into this RFI.

2 GENERAL BACKGROUND: ACT Framework for Collaborative Interaction

(FFCI)

2.1 ACT has implemented a Framework for Collaborative Interaction (FFCI) to increase opportunities for industry and academia to contribute to ACT capability development efforts through collaborative work. Such collaboration enables HQ SACT, and NATO as a whole, to benefit from industry/academia models, advice, capabilities and experience in the course of this work. In addition to the benefits ACT gains from such

1 Think-Tank for Information Decision and Execution Superiority 2 https://www.act.nato.int/hackathon 3 https://www.act.nato.int/images/stories/events/2019/tide-hackathon/hackathon-2019-hb.pdf https://www.act.nato.int/hackathon https://www.act.nato.int/images/stories/events/2019/tide-hackathon/hackathon-2019-hb.pdf projects, this collaborative effort will provide industry/academia with an improved understanding of NATO’s capability requirements, and the associated issues and development challenges to be addressed by ACT. Potential collaborative projects are on specific topics that are of mutual interest to both parties but shall be restricted to collaborations in non- procurement areas. Several mechanisms have already been developed to support the initiation of collaborative projects between industry/academia and ACT ranging from informal information exchanges, workshops, studies or more extensive collaboration on research and experimentation.

2.2 Depending on the level and type of interaction needed for a collaborative project, a specific agreement may be needed between parties. The FFCI agreement for any specific project, if required by either party for the project to proceed, will range from “Non-disclosure Agreements” (NDA) for projects involving exchange of specific information to more extensive “Declaration of Mutual Collaboration” (DOMC) to address intellectual property and other issues. For the topics listed below, it is not envisaged that the level of contribution will be such that RFI respondents will wish to sign a NDA before entering into any significant collaborative work.

2.3 More extensive information on the ACT FFCI initiative can be found on the ACT web site being developed to support FFCI projects at http://www.act.nato.int/ffci.

3 DESCRIPTION OF THE PROJECT

3.1 Background. In the response to the dynamically changing geopolitical environment that we face today, NATO conducts a process of continuous transformation guided by a high-level political agenda. Bringing effective change to such a large organization is however, a complex endeavour. It involves many actors and typically is accompanied by lengthy procurement processes. This significantly hampers innovation, especially in the area of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) where rapid, agile methods have proven to be much more effective.

The Headquarters Supreme Allied Commander Transformation (HQ SACT) is NATO’s

Warfare Development Command that is driven by a transformational mission, and have developed the TIDE Hackathon to encourage transformation and innovation and promote the idea of “Interoperability by Design” amongst the NATO Alliance and wider

Federation members.

The TIDE Hackathon 2019 will address the following challenges:

MODELLING CHALLENGE

To model the de-mining space in Iraq with the end goal to enhance military planning and situation awareness of mine action organizations, priorities, and activities in order to plan for the provision of enabling support from NATO.

CODING CHALLENGE

What military support activities (and where) should be prioritized to enable de-mining activities, taking the economic and social priorities for the civilian population in Iraq into consideration?

http://www.act.nato.int/ffci

VISUALIZATION CHALLENGE

The challenge focusses on visualization and presentation of progress toward strategic communication objectives for analysts and decision makers. The data and analysis that the visualization is based on will be provided.

A more detailed description of each challenge, including example of products, can be found in the TIDE Hackathon 2019 Handbook available on ACT website4.

3.3 Intent/Objectives. The intent of this RFI is to disseminate information about the TIDE Hackathon 2019 to industry and academic partners that might be interested in participating in this event.

3.4 Expected benefits to respondents. This collaboration with ACT is an opportunity to demonstrate benefits and open source products that industry and academia can offer the Alliance and Partners deployed in NATO missions. It is expected that respondents will gain an insight to specific challenge areas and knowledge of current military thinking on these topics.

3.5 Industry Engagement. Requests for participation are to be sent to the TIDE Hackathon Coordinator and/or Administrator. Invitation to actually participate depends on internal criteria. Participation can be

• Offer of hardware, software, or knowledge to competing teams,

• Present an open source reference solution,

• Send mentors to provide expertise,

• Enter the competition with an own team,

• Contact the POC above with more options or ideas.

Promotional materials such as shirts, pens, stickers, etc. may be distributed. There is no participation/conference fee for the 2019 TIDE Hackathon.

4 REQUESTED INFORMATION

4.1 Answers to the RFI. In the response to this RFI industry and academia wishing to take part should complete the registration process as described in the 2019 TIDE Hackathon Handbook.

4.2 Follow-on. Following registration, RFI respondents may be contacted to provide more detailed information about their intended participation.

4.3 Handling of Proprietary information. Solutions that are developed during the

2019 TIDE Hackathon will be kept in the open source domain to enable future development and collaboration. Any solutions may be deployed within the NATO Enterprise to address urgent business needs. Consult the 2019 TIDE Hackathon Handbook for further guidance.

4.4 Questions. Questions of a technical nature about this RFI announcement shall be submitted by e-mail solely to the above-mentioned POCs. Accordingly, questions in an e-mail should not contain proprietary and/or classified information.

4.5 Summary. This is a RFI only. The purpose of this RFI is to invite industry

4 https://www.act.nato.int/images/stories/events/2019/tide-hackathon/hackathon-2019-hb.pdf https://www.act.nato.int/images/stories/events/2019/tide-hackathon/hackathon-2019-hb.pdf and academia to participate in the TIDE Hackathon 2019. HQ SACT has not made a commitment to procure any of the items described herein, and release of this RFI shall not be construed as such a commitment, nor as authorization to incur cost for which reimbursement will be required or sought. It is emphasized that this is a RFI, and not a RFP of any kind. Responding persons, companies or organizations should understand that responding to this RFI inures to the mutual benefit of NATO HQ SACT and the respondent, and does not confer any expectation of award of future contracts, grants or commercial agreements, or any advantage in future competitions for NATO contracts or requirements.

Tonya Bonilla

ACT Contracting Officer - Allied Command Transformation (ACT) NATO/HQ SACT Tel: (757) 747-3575, E-mail: tonya.bonilla@act.nato.int mailto:tonya.bonilla@act.nato.int