Broad agency announcement (BAA)

The Department of State's (DOS), Bureau of Arms Control, Verification and Compliance, through the Key Verification Assets Fund, or V Fund, seeks ambitious, innovative research proposals to address its priority science and technology requirements for monitoring and verification. The V Fund is administered to help sustain, research, develop, or acquire technologies or programs relating to the verification of arms control, nonproliferation, and disarmament agreements and commitments.
The V Fund may be used to support and preserve critical verification assets/capabilities as well as to promote the development of new technologies to support monitoring and verification. It may also be used to improve and expand analytical tools, models, data and metrics applicable to weapons of mass destruction (WMD) related policies. The Fund requests annual project proposals ranging from the basic science level (low Technology Readiness Level (TRL) in DoD terminology) to the operation of a fully developed capability (i.e., high TRL). This BAA may accept proposals that focus on experimental work that creates a roadmap for a future, larger scale research program.
The V Fund is open to all interested and qualified sources, to include participation by and potentially collaboration with a wide variety of entities (e.g. large businesses, small businesses, independent consultants, academic institutions, Federally Funded Research and Development Centers, University Affiliated Research Centers (UARCs), government agencies, non-governmental organizations, consortium participants, national labs, etc.). These qualified sources may assist the Department of State in finding innovative technological approaches to address current and future arms control, nonproliferation, and disarmament policy development and implementation challenges through exchanges with various science and technology communities. The V Fund encourages teaming opportunities between qualified sources that may assist the Department of State in finding innovative technological approaches to current and future arms control, and nonproliferation policy implementation challenges through exchanges with and between various science and technology communities.
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