Regional Innovation Cluster

The Small Business Administration (SBA) Office of Investment and Innovation (OII) is seeking qualified contractors to provide a work force possessing the skills, knowledge, and training to satisfactorily perform the services required to support the Small Business Administration, Office of Investment and Innovation (OII) efforts to create new Regional Cluster Projects in support of the RIC Initiative. These clusters will assist businesses in matching innovative technology to industry needs and increase the number of innovative small businesses and entrepreneurs in the nation’s supply chain.

Interested vendors shall propose their target industry and geographic location for the RIC efforts in their proposal. While SBA does not require specific industries to be served through the RIC Initiative, industries of interest align with the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy’s critical and emerging technology areas including:

• Advanced Computing
• Advanced Engineering Material
• Advanced Gas Turbine Engine Technologies
• Advanced and Networked Sensing and Signature Management
• Advanced Manufacturing
• Artificial Intelligence
• Biotechnologies
• Clean Energy Generation and Storage
• Data Privacy, Data Security, and Cybersecurity Technologies
• Directed Energy
• Electric vehicles and the automotive supply chain
• Highly Automated, Autonomous, and Uncrewed Systems, and Robotics
• Human-Machine Interfaces
• Hypersonics
• Integrated Communication and Networking Technologies
• Positioning, Navigation, and Timing Technologies
• Quantum Information and Enabling Technologies
• Semiconductors and Microelectronics
• Space Technologies and Systems

The Small Business Administration (SBA), Office of Investment and Innovation (OII) is seeking the services of contractors to create new Regional Innovation Clusters. These clusters will involve public-private partnerships that align federal, state, and local resources with regional strengths to catalyze technology innovation and economic growth opportunities in communities both within the region and beyond. Federal resources include funding and support direct to small businesses and those that encourage the development of innovation and entrepreneur ecosystems. The contractor will be responsible for:

Cluster Management and Oversight

Small Business Support Service Delivery

Building Cluster Network

Report Development

Target period of performance start date: July 1, 2024

The Government anticipates awarding up to twelve (12) Time and Material contracts with a base plus four option periods. 

If you are interested, please submit your detailed capabilities in WRITING via email to mary.woodin@sba.gov.  Written statements should demonstrate the same or similar experience to the services described above.  This is not a request for proposals (RFP).  There is no request for quote, statement of work, or drawings available with this announcement. 

Response to the announcement is strictly voluntary; no reimbursement will be made for any costs associated with providing information in response to this Sources Sought Announcement or any follow-up information requests.  If you chose to submit a response, clearly identify the RFI #4504001EQ06231, your UEI number, and capability statement. 

Your email capability information MUST be 5 pages or less and be SPECIFIC to creating new Regional Cluster Projects.  Please provide a description of past projects, contract numbers, dollar amounts, time frame, duration, location, customer point of contact information including email and telephone (for example, contracting officers, project managers), and any other pertinent information. Be sure to include your UEI number on your documentation. 

The Government anticipates conducting a competitive acquisition for this requirement.  The amount of interest or lack thereof will determine the possibility of a competitive set-aside or full and open competition (the size of a small business firm includes all parents, subsidiaries, affiliates, etc. – see 13 CFR 121.108.) 

Analysis of the quantity and quality of responses to this sources sought announcement will be considered in the market research being conducted, and in the making of any small business set-aside determination for this requirement.