ERDC_OTPA_Synopsis-Solicitation_V4.pdf

Engineering Research and Development Center

(ERDC)

Other Transaction Prototype Agreement (OTPA)

COMBINED SYNOPSIS/SOLICITATION

RESPONSE DATE: AUGUST 7, 2018

POC: Landers Grant – 601-634-5335 landers.grant@usace.army.mil

1.0 Introduction

1.1 The Engineering Research and Development Center Contracting Office (ECO), on behalf of Engineering Research and Development Center Military Engineering business area is releasing this competitive combined synopsis/solicitation to establish an Other Transaction for Prototype Agreement (OTPA), pursuant to 10 U.S.C. 2371b, with an eligible Consortium.

1.2 It is the Government's intention to enter into an OTPA with only one (1) Consortium that can best meet the Government's defined scope provided below. The Consortium shall be open to new membership and display a broad array of expertise and experience connected to the domains identified herein. The Consortium, including educational, nonprofit, and commercial organizations with broad and open membership, shall provide the Government a lead management organization to collaborate across barriers that include military/civilian, public/private, and local/regional/national concerns to manage competition, award, administration, and business operations.

1.3 Project-level Awards issued under the resulting OTPA must be limited to prototype projects that are directly relevant to enhancing military capabilities, and involve either: (1) significant participation from one or more non-traditional defense contractors; or (2) greater than one-third of the cost of the project being born by non-federal sources. Deliverables shall consist nearly entirely of prototypes (software, hardware, and/or technical documentation). Periodic reports shall be required for the overall program.

1.4 Attention to all prospective Offerors for this combined synopsis-solicitation. Follow on production of successful prototype projects is possible as a result of an award of an OTPA from this synopsis-solicitation.

It is important to understand that any decision to execute follow on production will be made at the project level. Any Request for White Paper or Request for Project Proposal issued to the Consortium that received an OTA from this combined synopsis-solicitation will document the follow on production decision for that specific effort at the project level.

Any follow on production order placed under this OTPA may only produce what was prototyped.

Further, the Government will only submit one order of the successful prototype from this OTPA. The quantities ordered will be limited to the minimum needed to satisfy the known Government requirement to successfully implement and test the prototype.

2.0 Definitions

2.1 “PROTOTYPE” means a physical or virtual model used to evaluate the technical or manufacturing feasibility or military utility of a technology, process, concept, end item, or system. It may be weapon systems, subsystems, components, or technology.

2.2 “CONSORTIUM” means an association of two or more individuals companies, organizations or governments (or any combination of these entities) with the objective of participating in a common activity or pooling their resources for achieving a common goal. The Consortium may designates one entity as lead, employs an entity to act as a Single Point, or forms a separate and distinct company to interact and collaborate with the Government.

2.2 "Directly relevant to enhancing military capabilities" - means development that enhances mission effectiveness of military personnel and supporting platforms, systems, components, or materials proposed to be acquired or developed by the Department of Defense, or improvement of platforms, systems, components, or materials in use by the Armed Forces.

2.3 “CONSORTIUM Member Entity” means the Non-traditional and Traditional Defense Contractors, including small and large businesses, for-profit and nonprofit entities, and academic research institutions that are or become signatories to the Consortium Membership Agreements and maintain their membership in good standing in those consortia.

2.4 “Non-traditional Defense Contractor” means an entity that is not currently performing and has not performed, for at least the one-year period preceding the issuance of the Request for White Papers by the DoD, any contract or subcontract for the DoD that is subject to full coverage under the cost accounting standards prescribed pursuant to section 1502 of title 41 of the U.S. Code and the regulations implementing such section.

2.5 “Significant Participation” - in its role as a prime Recipient, Project-Level Performer, or lower tier project performer, one or more nontraditional defense contractors must be involved to a "significant extent." Significant participation is defined as supplying new key technology or products; accomplishing a significant amount of the effort; causing a material reduction in the cost or schedule and/or causing an increase in the performance of the work effort.

3.0 Technology Areas

3.1 The Consortium, in conjunction with the Government, shall perform coordinated research and development prototype projects designed to enhance mission effectiveness and to develop and mature technologies in Military Engineering. These prototype research projects have the potential to become a follow-on production acquisition. These areas provide innovative technologies and capabilities to the warfighter, civilian agencies, and the Nation’s public good.

3.1.1 Protective Structures and Systems: Technologies, components, systems, materials that reduce manpower, logistical requirements or equipment hours and improve survivability of individuals and small units, individual or crew-served fighting positions, platform fighting positions, semi-fixed assets, observation/combat outposts or contingency bases. Prototype processes including planning tools and Tactics, Techniques and Procedures (TTPs) integrating force protection needs for quicker more effective setup and reuse / retrograde of materials. Technologies to enable or improve overwatch, security, perimeter security, port security, border security, de-escalation/turnover, surveillance and warning.

3.1.2 Protection and Survivability: Technologies, components, systems and materials at the Unit and System level that provide the ability to detect, disable, survive, and/or defeat, and to determine the threat that enemy weapon systems pose. Survivability efforts include research and prototype activities to improve and enhance the capability and effectiveness in areas of key infrastructure hardening/retrofit, camouflage, detectability, susceptibility, vulnerability, and recoverability. Technologies include protection of personnel, critical assets and facilities from a range of threats, including unconventional, conventional and advanced threats.

3.1.3 Geophysical Sensors and data fusion: Technologies, components, systems, and materials to detect, assess and persistently monitor threats and critical infrastructure in all environments including urban, subterranean and complex terrain to increase awareness and enable faster decisions. Integrate geophysical sensors, sensor systems and unmanned systems with natural terrain to obtain automated fusion creating an in-depth Common Operating Picture for super and sub-surface movement, maneuver and force protection planning. Integrates sensors, sensor systems, and unmanned systems with automated fusion creating a Common Operating Picture for integrated force protection, maneuver and defense planning.

3.1.4 Vulnerability assessment, detection, and analytics: Technology and processes that are relevant to strategic, operational and tactical analytical framework for understanding anti-terrorism/force protection posture, population and infrastructure disruption from combat, humanitarian, and other disaster situations.

Prototype framework supports military assessment of mission assurance, population vulnerability and resilience disruptors, such as combat, disaster, disease, etc., for various environments.

3.1.5 Geoscience, Environmental, Geospatial, and Material Modeling and simulation: Technologies to enable and integrate materials-by-design capability as well as new materials and components for advanced force protection for domestic and foreign protective construction. Computational methods to simulate technologies that detect activities in above/below ground and maritime avenues of approach.

Technologies will enable virtual material synthesis and optimization to predict system performance, environmental impact/scene clutter on sensor performance, structural response to weapons effects, level of protection and scalability. Technologies and system includes models, surveillance, countermeasures and targeting in dynamic multi-domain environments.

3.1.6 Enhance and Assess Mobility of Manned and Unmanned Systems: Technologies, systems and materials to accelerate manned and unmanned platform development, integrate autonomous systems at all levels of operation, execute tactical reconnaissance and real-time mobility predictions to increase mobility and optempo of manned and unmanned ground and watercraft systems in complex environments and through challenging terrain. Technologies to clear or breach obstacles, cross gaps and rivers, improve combat roads/trails, improve vehicle/soil interaction and traction, detect dynamic mobility hazards in complex environments. M&S enabled analytical tools for predicting the mobility performance of ground vehicles and watercraft in a wide variety of weather and terrain conditions. Technologies to enable autonomous systems assured mobility and situational awareness in various dynamic terrain and environment.

3.1.7 Engineering and engineering enabling technologies: Technologies that are relevant, enable support or compliment systems or weapon systems for the DoD and Joint Force. This includes but is not limited to:

Combat Engineering; Mobility Obstacles; Explosive Effects; Breaching; Materials; Manufacturing and Process Technologies; Engineering Services, Modeling and Simulation and Virtual Prototyping;

Operational Energy; Autonomous Systems; Prime Power; Engineer-related Environmental Technologies;

and Engineer mobility, countermobility, and survivability technologies, other Engineer Technology Enablers.

3.1.8 Global Access Engineering: Technologies, systems, materials and planning tools to conduct technical reconnaissance, assessment, construction, maintenance, repair, restoration and upgrade of infrastructure critical to Force Projection, transportation and global theater access. Prototypes include remote sensing, on-site tactical, derived and experimental methods for estimating engineering attributes and properties of soils, ice and snow, pavements, matting, natural terrain, bathymetry, river currents, port depths, coastal regions, airfields, road/rail networks, bridges and other infrastructure.

3.1.9 Infrastructure Maintenance, Repair and Reconstruction Technologies: Materials and equipment solutions to rapidly assess the condition of existing infrastructure, rapidly repair damaged infrastructure, and rapidly construct new infrastructure such as pavements, bridges, railways, ports, and airfields.

Prototypes include advanced physics-based technologies for measuring layer thicknesses, layer strength parameters, rail capacity, pier capacity, bridge structural capacity, and critical engineering properties for engineering analyses. Prototypes also include new advancements in repair equipment solutions and packaging of technologies into prototype kits for technology transition.

3.2.0 Engineering Analysis Tools and Decision Aid Prototype Software: Prototypes include software development solutions to integrate advanced engineering algorithms for the evaluation, design, repair and operation of critical infrastructure systems to support force projection and maneuver support planning.

Prototype software systems will be used to demonstrate the research results through integration of new analytical methods into practical maneuver solutions using prototype software tools and decision aids.

4.0 Roles and Responsibilities

4.1 CONSORTIUM Responsibilities: CONSORTIUM shall transmit Government Request for White Papers (RWPs) and Request for Project Proposals (RPPs) to CONSORTIUM Member Entity(ies) for White Paper and proposal submissions. CONSORTIUM shall enter into Project-level Agreements with CONSORTIUM Member Entity(ies) whose Prototype Project(s) was selected for award and funded by the Government through the above process. CONSORTIUM shall provide necessary administrative support throughout performance on the resultant project. However, the Consortium Member Entity(ies) is solely responsible for performance of the project. CONSORTIUM may collaborate with the Government in the planning, programming and budgeting of the Prototype Projects.

4.2 CONSORTIUM Member Entity Responsibilities: CONSORTIUM Member Entities may provide white papers and proposals for Projects in response to the RWPs and RPPs sent to CONSORTIUM addressing the Government’s Focus Areas. Each CONSORTIUM Member Entity receiving a project award will perform the agreed activities defined in the Statement of Work and ancillary documentation as contained within the respective Project Agreement. CONSORTIUM Member Entities may collaborate with CONSORTIUM and the Government in the planning, programming and budgeting of the Prototype Projects.

4.3 Objectives of the Parties: In their collaboration, the Government and CONSORTIUM will strive to accomplish the following:

4.3.1 Establish sound technical and programmatic performance goals and objectives based on the needs and requirements of the Government customer.

4.3.2 Create RWPs and RPPs based upon the needs presented by Government customers, technology ideas submitted by CONSORTIUM and expected available funding from various sources within the DoD.

4.3.3 Maximize the utilization of Government, industry and academia capabilities.

4.4 Additional Government Participation. The Parties agree that other organizations and agencies within the Government may participate in the collaborative activities through a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA), Interagency Agreement or other such arrangement.

4.5 Governance and Operations. The governance and operation of this Agreement shall be in accordance with the Standard Operating Procedures maintained by the USG and Consortium. The Standard Operating Procedure will be established after the Consortium is selected.

4.6 Consortium Member Agreement. Each Consortium member organization shall become a signatory to the Consortium Member Agreement before they will be allowed to respond to Requests for RWP and RPP prototype initiatives. A Consortium Member Entity must be a consortium member in good standing to be eligible to submit a white paper in response to an RWP. The Consortium Member Agreement (CMA) shall govern the operation of the Consortium and its member organizations.

5.0 Terms and Conditions

5.1 The Consortium shall comply with Terms and Conditions, to be negotiated after selection, necessary to fulfill the statutory requirements of an OTA in accordance Section 815 of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2018, Public Law (P.L.) 114-92, as amended Title 10 U.S.C 2371b, Authority of the Department of Defense to carry out prototype projects. Section 2371b authorizes the Secretary of a military department to carry out certain prototype projects that are directly relevant to enhancing the mission effectiveness of military personnel and supporting platforms, systems, components, or materials proposed to be acquired or developed by the Department of Defense (DoD), or to improvement of platforms, systems, components, or materials in use by the Armed Forces. When a Government agency enters into an OTA for a prototype project under this authority, the Government must ensure that a nontraditional defense contractor(s) or nonprofit research institution participate(s) to a significant extent in the prototype project; all participants are small business or nontraditional defense contractor(s); or at least one-third of the total cost of the prototype project is paid out of funds provided by parties to the transaction other than the Federal Government.

5.2 The Government will publish an Intent to Award Announcement to FedBizOps upon selection of a Consortium in response to this combined synopsis/solicitation. A notice of the Government's Consortium award selection will be announced on FedBizOpps upon the conclusion of the evaluation process.

5.3 Please note that the specific Terms and Conditions of any resulting Project-level Award will be negotiated and finalized with the selected Consortium prior to award. In order to gain insight from all interested parties, the Government will post a “draft” Articles of Collaboration as part of this combined synopsis/solicitation. The tentative date for posting of the draft document is on or about 17 July 2018. Any comments on the draft document shall be provided to the POC listed on this announcement on or before the due date for the response to this combined synopsis-solicitation.

5.4 The OTPA performance period commences upon the date of the signatures of all Signatory Authorities and continues for five (5) years from the effective date. The cumulative total estimated value of all Prototype Projects to be awarded under the terms and conditions of this OTPA is $50,000,000.

5.5 It is understood that Consortium is responsible for administering Projects under this Agreement, which have been selected and funded by the Government.

5.6 By submission of an Offer, the Offeror acknowledges the requirement that a prospective awardee shall be registered in the System for Award Management (SAM) database prior to award, during performance, and through final payment of any contract, basic agreement, basic ordering agreement, or blanket purchasing agreement resulting from this solicitation.

5.7 The Offeror shall enter, in the block with its name and address on the cover page of its offer, the annotation “Unique Entity Identifier” followed by the unique entity identifier that identifies the Offeror’s name and address exactly as stated in the offer. The Offeror also shall enter its EFT indicator, if applicable.

The unique entity identifier will be used by the Contracting Officer to verify that the Offeror is registered in the SAM database.

5.8 The North American Industry classification System (NAICS) code for this acquisition is 541715. The small business size standard is 1,000 employees or less.

5.9 Patents Rights, Data Rights, Copyrights and Export Control: Overarching terms and conditions for the handling of Patens Rights, Data Rights, Copyrights and Export Control is negotiated prior to the award of the OTPA. The Government will enter data rights discussion with selected Consortium with guidance from FAR 52.227-1, FAR 52.227-2, FAR 52.227-3, DFARS 252-227-7013, DFARS 252.227-7014, 17 U.S.C.

§§ 401 and 402, 22 U.S.C. § § 2751-2794, 22 C.F.R. § 120 et seq.; and 50 U.S.C. app. § 2401-2420.

6.0 Basis of Selection:

6.1 The Government will award a Section 815 Other Transaction Agreement resulting from this solicitation to the responsible Consortium whose offer conforming to the solicitation will be most advantageous to the Government, price and other factors considered. The following factors shall be used to evaluate offers:

Factor 1: Consortium Structure and Management Factor 2: Consortium Membership and Expertise Factor 3: Fee Structure

6.2 For evaluation purposes, Factor 1 and 2 are equal, but when combined is significantly more important than Factor 3.

6.2.1 Factor 1: Consortium Structure and Management. The Government will evaluate the Consortium’s organizational structure, mission, vision, strategic objectives and performance metrics. The Government will evaluate the Consortiums management structure, which includes the proposed use of a Consortium Management Firm or other entity (if desired) to help with administrative functions, the preferred level of interaction/oversight desired with its members, and the proposed interaction/relationship desired with the DoD. The Government will evaluate how the Consortium plans to flow down and enforce project requirements, including the roles of the Consortium Member Agreement (CMA) and any Project Agreements (if separate).

6.2.2 Factor 2: Consortium Membership and Expertise. The Government will evaluate the number and quality of the current Consortium members, which includes the proportion that are traditional vs.

nontraditional defense contractors, as well as industry vs. academia. The Government will evaluate the extent to which the Consortium maximizes the ease of entry for qualified entities to become members and actively compete for technology projects. The Government will evaluate the Consortium’s demonstrated current capability, as well as future plans for member retention and growth. The Government will evaluate the Consortium’s demonstrated capability to promote the active participation and engagement of its members. Furthermore, the Government will evaluate the Consortium’s collective expertise and ability to support all ten (10) of the Technology Areas.

6.2.3 Factor 3: Fee Structure. The Government will evaluate the Consortium’s fee structure to determine whether it reflects an understanding of the work and how it might affect the course of the business. The Government shall evaluate the fairness and reasonableness of the proposed prices.

6.3 Evaluation Rating

6.3.1 Each Factor will receive an evaluation rating supported by narrative justification. When all Factors are combined, an overall evaluation rating will be assigned and supported by narrative justification, which will reflect the Government’s overall confidence in the Consortium’s ability to meet all of the requirements.

Evaluation Merit Rating

Proposal meets requirements and indicates a thorough approach and understanding of the requirements. Proposal exceeds expectations, and the risk of unsuccessful performance is low to moderate.

Good

Proposal meets requirements and indicates an adequate approach and understanding of the requirements. Strengths and weaknesses are largely offsetting, and the risk of unsuccessful performance is no worse than moderate.

Acceptable

Proposal does not clearly meet requirements and contains a high or unacceptable level of risk.

Unacceptable

7.0 Submission Instructions

7.1 Submission Deadline

Proposals are due no later than 07 August 2018 3:00 PM CST. Proposals shall be emailed to Landers.Grant@usace.army.mil.

7.2 The proposal shall stand on its own merit. Only information provided in the proposal will be used in the evaluation process. Offerors are responsible for including sufficient details to permit a complete and accurate evaluation. Proposals shall be detailed and clearly stated to allow an assessment by the Government without the need for additional clarifications. The Government reserve the right to seek additional clarifications if required.

7.3 All information is to be submitted at no cost or obligation to the Government. The Government is not obligated to notify respondents of the results of this announcement. The Government reserves the right to reject, in whole or in part, any private sector input as a result of this announcement. Interested parties are responsible for adequately marking proprietary or competition sensitive information contained in their response. No sensitive or classified information shall be submitted. Foreign-owned, controlled, or influenced firms are advised that security restrictions may apply that may preclude their participation in these efforts.

7.4 The Government intends to evaluate offers and enter into an OTA without discussions. However, the Government reserves the right to conduct discussions if it is determined to be necessary. Proposals that do not contain the information requested are at risk of being determined Unacceptable IAW the Evaluation Ratings above. If the Government determines that discussions and a Final Proposal Revision are necessary, exchanges will be made with the Offerors and a final proposal revision will be requested. The Government does not intent to provide debriefings to unsuccessful offerors.

7.5 Each interested Consortium shall submit only one proposal.

7.6 The Technical Proposal (Factor 1 and Factor 2) and Cost Proposal (Factor 3) are to be submitted in two separate volumes following the format described below.

Offerors must submit the following:

1 signed Technical Proposal 1 signed Cost Proposal

7.7 The Technical Proposal shall be limited to 60 pages (11 point font), single-spaced, single-sided, 21.6 x 27.9 cm (8.5 by 11 inches). Smaller type may be used in figures and tables, but must be clearly legible.

Margins on all sides (top, bottom, left, and right) should be at least 2.5 cm (1 inch). Offerors shall submit all pages as a single (.doc or .pdf) file in electronic format. Proprietary information, if any, should be minimized and MUST BE CLEARLY MARKED. Please be advised that all submissions become Government property and will not be returned. The page limitation includes all information, except the following four (4) items:

Cover Pages Membership List Articles of Collaboration/By-Laws Consortium Membership Agreement (CMA) (if applicable)

7.8 Cover Pages

A cover page shall be included for each Volume. A cover page shall include the name of the Consortium, the name of a corporate point of contact (POC), the name of a technical POC, a telephone number for each POC, the full mailing address of the Consortium, e-mail addresses for each POC, and any other pertinent information.

7.9 Volume 1: Technical Proposal

The Technical Proposal shall include the following:

7.9.1 Factor 1: Consortium Structure and Management

(a) Narrative describing the Consortium’s organizational structure, mission, vision, strategic objectives and performance metrics.

(b) Narrative describing the Consortium’s management structure, which includes to proposed use of a Consortium Management Firm or other entity (if desired) to help with administrative functions, the preferred level of interaction/oversight desired with its members, and the proposed interaction/relationship desired with the DoD.

(c) Narrative describing how the Consortium plans to flow down and enforce project requirements, including the roles of the Consortium Member Agreement (CMA) and any Project Agreements (if separate).

(d) Include any other relevant documents, such as Articles of Collaboration/By-Laws and the CMA, with any additional narrative description that may be necessary to describe their importance or function.

7.9.2 Factor 2: Consortium Membership and Expertise

(a) Narrative describing the number and quality of the current Consortium members, which includes the proportion that are traditional vs. nontraditional defense contractors, as well as industry vs. academia. Include the current Consortium Membership List (inclusive of DUNS numbers and business status).

(b) Narrative describing the extent to which the Consortium maximizes the ease of entry for qualified entities to become members and actively compete for technology projects.

(c) Narrative describing the Consortium’s demonstrated current capability, as well as future plans, for member retention and growth.

(d) Narrative describing the Consortium’s demonstrated capability to promote the active participation and engagement of its members.

(e) Narrative describing the Consortium’s collective expertise and ability to support all ten

(10) of the Technology Areas. Include any charts or tables that help identify the members that have expertise or experience in the different Technology Areas.

7.10 Volume 2: Cost Proposal

The Cost Proposal shall include the following:

7.10.1 Factor 3: Fee Structure

(a) Include the proposed Fee Structure and all proposed prices. Include supporting documentation and rationale for choosing that Fee Structure and supporting the proposed prices. Offerors shall include the following fees breakdown:

a. Consortium membership fees (large business, small business, institutions, etc.)

b. Pro-rate structure

c. Consortium transaction fee – per project award

d. Consortium assessment fee – per project award (if applicable)

(b) Narrative justification, as required, describing how the Fee Structure and proposed prices reflects an understanding of the work and how it might affect the course of the business.