Research Interests of the United States Air Force Academy (formerly USAFA-BAA-2021)

USAFA’s Dean of Faculty Research Office is announcing to business and academia the intent to solicit white papers/proposals for USAFA research efforts through this BAA. This strategy provides USAFA an acquisition tool with the flexibility to solicit proposals and make awards to develop technologies to meet present and future Air Force research needs as technology issues are identified. USAFA invites white papers and proposals for research in many broad areas. These areas are described in detail in Section I, Funding Opportunity Description. Additional information regarding USAFA Research Centers, Departments and Institutes may be found at www.usafa.edu.

USAFA is seeking unclassified research white papers and proposals that do not contain proprietary information. Requests for white papers/proposals are also transmitted via calls which may be published separately from the BAA at various times during the open period of the BAA.

It is anticipated awards will be made in the form of any appropriate contract type under the FAR or Non-FAR instruments (i.e., Other Transaction (OT) for research efforts, or grants and cooperative agreements). USAFA reserves the right to select and fund for award all, some, or none of the white papers/proposals in response to this announcement. All awards are contingent upon funds availability for the program areas identified. Unless specifically indicated in a Request for Proposal (RFP) or a call, cost sharing is permitted and encouraged, but not required.

Awards based on responses to this BAA are considered to be the result of full and open competition. The North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code, unless otherwise stated in the BAA amendments shall be: 541714, Research and Development in Biotechnology (except Nanobiotechnology) and 541715, Research and Development in the Physical, Engineering and Life Sciences (except Nanotechnology and Biotechnology).

Interested offerors should be alert for any BAA amendments, calls, or other changes to the requirements of this BAA or its subsequent amendments. Amendments to and/or calls on this BAA will be posted to the beta.sam.gov and Grants.gov website and published when they occur. Interested parties are encouraged to periodically check these websites for updates and amendments. White papers and proposals submitted in response to this BAA shall be in accordance with the requirements of this BAA and its appropriate amendments.

USAFA will not issue paper copies of this announcement. The costs of white papers and/or complete proposals in response to this BAA are not considered an allowable direct charge to any award resulting from this BAA or any other award. Technical and cost proposals, or any other material, submitted in response to this BAA will not be returned.

This publication constitutes a competitive BAA as contemplated in Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) 35.016, Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation (DFARS) 235.016, FAR 6.102(d)(2) and the DoD Grants and Agreements Regulation (DoDGARs) Subpart 22.315(a), 2 CFR 200.319.

FA7000-21-S-0001 uses DFARs 235.016 to expand research areas to the following:

1. Basic Research (budget activity 6.1)
2. Applied Research (budget activity 6.2)
3. Advanced technology development (budget activity 6.3)
4. Advanced component development and prototypes (budget activity 6.4).