U. S. Department of Transportation Small Business Innovation Research Fiscal Year 2020 Solicitation

The U.S. Department of Transportation (U.S. DOT), Office of the Assistant Secretary for Research and Technology, John A. Volpe National Transportation Systems Center (Volpe Center), is providing this notice to issue its Fiscal Year (FY) 2020 Phase I solicitation pursuant to the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Program.  The purpose of this solicitation is to invite U.S. small businesses to submit innovative research offers in response to the solicitation topics, which serve as key research areas for the U.S. DOT.  Each small business concern submitting an offer must qualify as a small business in accordance with the Code of Federal Regulation (CFR); 13 CFR 121.702.  The applicable North American Industry Classification System code is 541715 with a size standard of 500 employees.

In addition to this Beta.Sam posting, the U.S. DOT SBIR FY 2020 Phase I solicitation and any documents related to it will be available on the U.S. DOT SBIR Program website at http://www.volpe.dot.gov/work-with-us/small-business-innovation-research.  This solicitation is issued through electronic means only; no hard copies will be available.  A pre-offer webinar is being held on February 11, 2020 from 1:00-2:00 pm Eastern Time.  Information on the pre-offer webinar may be found in the solicitation on page ii and/or from the U.S. DOT SBIR Program website.

Technical questions and answers received on the SBIR FY20 topics released during the pre-solicitation period of January 6–29, 2020 are posted on the U.S. DOT SBIR Program website.  Also on the U.S. DOT SBIR Program website are frequently asked questions and answers (FAQs) relative to the overall SBIR program.  Offerors must go to the website to obtain this information.

As shown in the solicitation document, the U.S. DOT’s topic list shared during the pre-solicitation period has been amended as follows:

Topic FA1, Nondestructive Evaluation (NDE) of Critical Nickel Turbine Engine Parts, has been withdrawn.  No offers will be accepted on this topic.

Topic FH2, Innovative Layered Composite Metal Deck System, has been updated with clarifications.  These updates are provided within the topic in the solicitation document.

Topic FR2, Artificial Intelligence (AI)-Aided Machine Vision for Grade Crossing Safety, has been updated with clarifications.  These updates are provided within the topic in the solicitation document.