Broad Agency Announcement - Capacity Building and Mining Systems Design Research for the Mining Industry

INTRODUCTION: This publication constitutes a Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) by the Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), as contemplated in Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) 6.102(d)(2). A formal Request for Proposals (RFP), solicitation, and/or additional information regarding this announcement will not be issued. This announcement will remain open until April 22, 2019. Full proposals must be submitted by April 22, 2019 for funding consideration during fiscal year 2019. NIOSH will not issue paper copies of this announcement and reserves the right to select for award all, some, or none of the proposals in response to this announcement and further reserves the right to fund all, some or none of the proposals received under this BAA. NIOSH provides no funding for direct reimbursement of proposal development costs. Technical and cost proposals (or any other material) submitted in response to this BAA will not be returned. It is the policy of NIOSH to treat all proposals as sensitive competitive information and to disclose their contents only for the purposes of evaluation. Awards under this BAA will consist of firm-fixed-price contracts. Therefore, proposals submitted as a result of this announcement will fall under the purview of the Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR). I. GENERAL INFORMATION A. Agency Name: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health Office of Mine Safety and Health Research 626 Cochrans Mill Road Pittsburgh PA 15236-3611 B. Research Opportunity Title: Capacity Building and Mining Systems Design Research for the Mining Industry C. Program Name: Office of Mine Safety and Health Research D. Research Opportunity Number: Request for Proposal (RFP) 75D301-19-R-67888 E. Response Date: This announcement will remain open until 03:00 pm Eastern time on April 22, 2019, with full proposals being received prior to this end date/time. FULL PROPOSALS SUBMITTED AFTER THE DEADLINE WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED. F. Inquiries and Additional Information: Information and specific questions of a technical business nature only will be accepted via e-mail sent to James J. Ambrozic, Contract Specialist at the following address: contact@example.gov. Reference Solicitation Number: 75D301-19-R-67888, include your name and e-mail address on the message. Responses to the e-mail questions will be handled on a first-come basis and generally will be answered within 10 business days. PHONE CALLS WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED AND ALL COMMUNICATIONS FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION OR QUESTIONS WILL BE HANDLED ONLY BY EMAIL. Additional information is also available online at the following address: http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/mining/researchprogram/fundingops.html G. Research Opportunity Description The Mine Improvement and New Emergency Response Act of 2006 (MINER Act) permanently established the Office of Mine Safety and Health Research under the direction of an Associate Director, within the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. One purpose of this office is to enhance the development of new technology and technological applications and to ensure adequate capacity in engineering and science disciplines important to mine safety and health. The MINER Act grants the Office of Mine Safety and Health Research the authority to award competitive contracts and grants to institutions and private entities to improve mine safety and health in general, and specifically to encourage the development and manufacture of mine safety equipment and to award contracts to education institutions or private laboratories for the performance of product testing or related work with respect to new mine technology or equipment. This announcement is an opportunity for the award of contracts for mine system design research and capacity building. Background and Need: NIOSH has issued two capacity build solicitations in mine ventilation (2009-N-11093 and 2014-N-15795) and two similar solicitations in ground control (2011-N-13060 and 2016-N-17733); under these four solicitations 27 contracts have been awarded resulting in approximately 98 M.S. and 75 Ph.D. candidates receiving a technical education in two subject areas critical to health and safety within the mining industry. NIOSH would now like to expand this program to encompass broader topics related to mine planning, mining systems design, and other critical health and safety research areas in addition to mine ventilation and ground control. The Office of Mine Safety and Health Research (OMSHR), NIOSH, is soliciting proposals from universities or colleges specifically focused on aspects of mining systems design and/or research to conduct work that addresses: research, exploratory development, testing, of new innovations and technologies, and/or methods of evaluation of new and existing mining practices to improve mine health and/or safety. Objective: The objective of this BAA is to address important mining systems design health and safety issues and to develop a new cohort of mine planning and design experts through graduate education, encompassing areas of ventilation and ground control as well as other mining technologies and support systems, through graduate education. Applicants are given significant flexibility in defining proposed research areas. As such, all basic or applied mine systems design research topics that have an impact on health and safety will be considered. Topics can be applicable to all types of surface or underground mining or can be pertinent to only a specific mining method or mineral commodity. Unlike past solicitations, the intent of the current effort is much broader than just mine ventilation or ground control, and all research topics related to mine systems design will be considered. Examples given below are health and safety areas included for illustrative purposes only and will not receive any priority in evaluation: - Mining at depth at elevated temperatures and/or in adverse ground conditions; - Novel mine designs or mining methods, including automation, which would minimize worker exposure; - Mine ventilation topics such as respirable coal mine dust, silica, and diesel particulate matter, which might impact the choice of mining method, control technologies, support systems, monitoring methods, etc.; - Ground control topics such as surface mine highwall stability, particularly as expanded to pit design, or design of underground openings adequate for the intended purpose. A parallel intent of this solicitation is to provide an adequate supply of qualified mining engineers and professors specializing in aspects of mine planning and design to ensure the future health and safety of our nation's mine workers. Contract awardees are expected to produce graduates with doctoral and/or master's degrees in mining or minerals engineering or a related field in an engineering discipline with a specialization in some aspect of mining systems design, including mine ventilation, mine ground control, mining systems simulation, or similar as well as new knowledge in the mine design realm. Additionally, NIOSH seeks contract offerors that are in tenure track or tenured faculty positions in mining or minerals engineering where a contract award and completion would advance their academic career, as well as enhance the capabilities of their academic department. Contract awardees are expected to present and publish results on a periodic basis to promote dissemination of knowledge gained from the work. As a public health organization, NIOSH is required to provide evidence of such dissemination and extending the knowledge gained to the mining industry is an important part of the contract objectives. Collaboration: NIOSH recognizes that each of the 14 academic departments offering ABET-accredited degrees in mining or minerals engineering has unique strengths in aspects of mine planning and design, further differentiated by commodity focus and/or geographic location, and would like to encourage collaboration that would further capacity building. The collaborating university mining or minerals engineering departments may each include in their proposal a section indicating that that they will be collaborating and describing the collaboration in detail. Collaboration may also include academic departments outside mining or minerals engineering within the same university, provided the graduate intent in mining or minerals engineering as outlined above is met. Recognizing the multi-disciplinary approach required to address research topics such as respirable dust, which might involve collaboration with a school of medicine or industrial hygiene, it is critical to the intent of this solicitation to encourage those collaborative efforts. The intent of the collaboration is to develop mining or minerals engineering graduate students with expertise in mine planning and design and significant knowledge regarding mine health and safety research that may be beyond the capability of any one mining or minerals engineering department. While only individual responses to this solicitation are acceptable and will be funded, proposals that indicate that the submittal is related to submittals by one or more other universities designed to strengthen the educational experience of the graduate students and to further the research topic will be given priority; one university should be identified as the coordinator under such an effort. Collaborative efforts might include the sharing of students, faculty, or facilities to the benefit of the participating programs. Each proposal will be evaluated individually and each university will be eligible for funding individually. Proposals may be submitted without including a collaboration component, although it should be noted that collaboration has been included as an evaluation criteria. NIOSH anticipates using the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services Pathways Program (https://www.hhs.gov/about/careers/pathways/index.html) to provide opportunities for graduate student internships at NIOSH as part of the academic program and to encourage further collaboration with NIOSH subject matter experts; post-graduate employment will also be considered under the HHS Recent Graduates Program and the Presidential Management Fellows (PMF) Program, both part of the HHS Pathways Program. If an offeror plans to utilize these programs, it should be noted in the proposal. H. Instrument Type(s) and Period of Performance: Awards will take the form of contracts. The contract will be for a 12-month base period with up to four (4) additional 12-month option periods. II. AWARD INFORMATION The Government intends to negotiate individual contact awards representing the best value to the Government in accordance with the evaluation criteria. NIOSH is seeking participants for this program that are capable of performing mine design safety and health research and producing masters and doctoral graduates in mining engineering or a related field in an engineering discipline with a specialization in some aspect of mine design. 1. Total amount of funding the program office expects to award through the announcement: Up to $12,000,000 over 5 years 2. Anticipated number and estimated amount of awards: Contracts will be limited to a base year and up to four option year periods. Each contract is limited to a maximum of $250,000 per year for a maximum of five (5) years. Total value of each contract may be up to $1,250,000. NIOSH anticipates funding between five (5) to ten (10) contracts. 3. Anticipated award types: The contracts will be Firm Fixed Price. NIOSH will not issue grants, cooperative agreements, or other transaction agreements under this BAA. 4. Funding restrictions: Funding may be used for the following: - Graduate-student tuition and stipends - Two (2) months of summer salary (maximum) for the PI - Ten percent (10%) academic year salary (maximum) for the PI - One (1) month of summer salary (maximum) for a Co-PI, if applicable - Five percent (5%) academic year salary (maximum) for a Co-PI, if applicable - Equipment necessary for the proposed research - Equipment for building laboratory infrastructure related to mine design, if a $1-for- $1match is obtained from the academic institution - Special supplies that are not normally considered as part of overhead - Domestic travel required for conducting research - Domestic travel for students and PI to a national conference, annually, if a paper is presented on research results and, - Domestic travel required to attend NIOSH contract review for the PI and students supported by this funding. The PI and at least two of the students supported by this funding must be present. The location and dates of the meeting will be determined by NIOSH. NIOSH will review contracts annually prior to the continuation of funding for the following year. III. ELIGIBILITY INFORMATION - The Principal Investigator (PI) must hold a full-time academic position at the rank of Assistant Professor or higher at an academic institution within the U.S. - The PI must be employed by an academic department that offers an ABET-accredited undergraduate degree in mining or minerals engineering. In addition, the department must offer graduate degrees at both the masters and doctoral level in mining or mineral engineering (recognizing that some institutions offer the doctoral degree at a college or university level, rather than departmental). - The PI must have taught an undergraduate or graduate course in areas related to mine planning and design, which could include ground control and/or mine ventilation or conducted significant similar research. - The participation of a Co-PI with related expertise outside of mining engineering is permitted and even encouraged. - The participation between academic institutions of a Co-PI with related expertise outside of mining engineering is permitted and even encouraged; and. - Funded graduate students must possess an undergraduate degree in mining engineering or a related engineering/sciences field. IV. INSTRUCTIONS TO OFFERS A. Application and Submission Process Offerors must submit a full proposal that provides detailed technical and cost information as outlined herein to support the scope of the proposed effort. Full proposals will be evaluated and a determination made for contract awards. B. Content and Format of Proposals The proposal submissions will be protected from unauthorized disclosure in accordance with FAR 15.207, applicable law, and regulations. Offerors are expected to appropriately mark each page of their submission that contains proprietary information. Proposal Format: Volume 1 - Technical and Volume 2 - Cost Proposal - Paper Size - 8.5 x 11 inch paper - Margins - 1 inch, all - Spacing - single - Font - Times New Roman, 12 point - Number of Pages - Volume 1 and Volume 2 are both unlimited as to the number of pages. Limitations within sections of the proposal are indicated in the individual descriptions shown below. Proposals exceeding the page limit may not be evaluated. - Copies - 3 hard copies: one (1) original, and two (2) additional hard copies. If submitted electronically one (1) electronic copy in .pdf format (in accordance with instructions in this solicitation, the three hard copies must be submitted separately no later than 72 hours from proposal due date.). Proposal Content: 1. Volume 1: Technical Proposal Each section of the Technical Proposal must start on a new page. Cover Page: The words "TECHNICAL PROPOSAL" should appear on the cover page in addition to the following information: - BAA number; - Title of Proposal; - Identity of Offeror; - Technical contact (name, address, phone/fax, electronic mail address); - Administrative/business contact (name, address, phone/fax, electronic mail address), and; - Duration of research tasks Table of Contents Statement of Work: (25 pages maximum): A Statement of Work (SOW) clearly detailing the scope and objectives of the effort and the technical approach. Include a detailed listing of the technical tasks/subtasks organized by year. The Statement of Work must include an estimate of the number of graduates expected during the contract term, including option years, broken down by masters and doctoral degrees. Project Schedule and Milestones: (4 pages max) A graphical summary of the work schedule of tasks/subtasks and milestones. Deliverables and Reporting Schedule: - A detailed quarterly and annual Contract Status Reports for each year of the project. - Make an annual research status presentation at the Society for Mining, Metallurgy and Exploration Annual Conference and Expo (locations near or at the venue for these presentations will be determined by NIOSH). Presentations will be as follows: 10-minute overview presentation by the sponsoring professor, followed by a 15-minute technical presentation by at least two of the students involved in the contracted effort. - An annual summary of the papers and presentations that have been published including the names of the authors/presenters and year of publication. Additionally, the contractor must document any students who were partially or fully funded by this contract and/or graduated during the contract year. These reports must include the names of any students supported with funding during that year of the contract and what degree (M.S. or Ph.D.) each student is pursuing. This summary is required by September 30th of each calendar year. - A detailed Final Report that summarizes the work and results for the entire project, including a comprehensive reference list and appendices listing all theses, presentations, papers and publications based on the project funding as noted below. This report must include the names of any students supported with funding during the duration of the contract and what degree (M.S. or Ph.D.) each student pursued. Additionally, the contractor must document any students who were partially or fully funded by this contract and graduated from the university indicating if an M.S. or Ph.D. was the degree obtained. This report must be compliant with the current Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. The report submission must include two hardcopies of the main report, one hardcopy of the appendices and a digital copy of the main report, excluding the appendices relating to these, publications, and presentations. At a minimum, a final technical report is required and is to be delivered in both hard copy and electronic (Word or PDF) format. The final report must be 508 compliant. If the final report contains proprietary information, a second version of the report must be prepared and submitted in both hard copy and electronic format that is suitable for public release. - The contractor shall submit a completed HHS Section 508 Checklist to assist the Government in determining that the Final Report is Section 508 compliant. In addition the contractor shall submit the result of running the accessibility self-check in either Word or PDF format. Additional information is available on the HHS Section 508 website https://www.hhs.gov/web/section508/index.html and https://www.hhs.gov/web/section-508/making-files-accessible/index.html. - Note: Specific deliverables (which may include software and hardware deliverables) may be proposed by each offeror and finalized during negotiations. - The following should be included as appendices in the final report: - Appendix A - Students Students funded under the Capacity Build Contract Students Still Enrolled (degree not completed) Students Graduated Students Not Completing Program - For each student, as applicable: Support percentage Degree earned or pending Thesis title Actual or Expected Graduation Date Employment Status - Appendix B - Theses Full copies of all theses and dissertations partially or fully funded under the Contract. - Appendix C - Presentations and Publications A comprehensive list and copies of all publications and presentations partially or fully funded under the Contract - Appendix D - Disclosures A comprehensive list of all proprietary software, proprietary equipment or patentable inventions developed and partially or fully funded under the Contract Work referenced within the Final Report but not listed in this Appendix would be considered non-proprietary. - Special Considerations: Information that does not fit neatly or logically into one of the other sections. - Assertion of Data Rights: (not to exceed 2 pages): Include here a summary of any proprietary rights to pre-existing results, prototypes, software or systems supporting and/or necessary for the use of the research and/or results. Any rights made in other parts of the proposal that would impact the rights in this section must be cross-referenced. If there are proprietary rights, the Offeror must explain how these affect its ability to complete the scope of work. Additionally, Offerors must explain how the program goals are achievable in light of these proprietary and/or restrictive limitations. If there are no claims of proprietary rights in pre-existing data, this section shall consist of a statement to that effect. - Resource Sharing Plan(s): HHS/CDC policy requires that recipients of contract awards make research resources and data readily available for research purposes to qualified individuals within the scientific community after publication. CDC requires awardees for projects and programs that involve the collection or generation of data with federal funds to develop, submit and comply with a Data Management Plan (DMP) for each collection or generation of public health data undertaken as part of the award and, to the extent appropriate, provide access to and archiving/long-term preservation of collected or generated data. Public Health Data Definition: Public Health data means digitally recorded factual material commonly accepted in the scientific community as a basis for public health findings, conclusions, and implementation When CDC is funding, in whole or in part, via a contract as defined in FAR 2.101, with respect to public health data, a CDC-approved Data Management Plan (DMP) - a plan for digital data management, sharing, and preservation is required prior to commencing any related services or work. For contracts where public health data collection or generation activities may become necessary during the period of performance (e.g. via contract modification), a DMP will be required to be submitted and evaluated during the period of performance. The DMP is a deliverable and a living document that should be updated throughout the life cycle of data. A final DMP is required at the end of the contract performance that shows where the data are deposited and how they are being made accessible or justification provided for not doing so. Data Management Plan A DMP for each collection and/or generation of public health data should include the following information: - A description of the public health data to be collected or generated in the contract period of performance; - Standards to be used for the collected or generated public health data; - Mechanisms for or limitations to providing access to and sharing of the data (include a description of provisions for the protection of privacy, confidentiality, security, intellectual property, or other rights) or justification for why data cannot be made accessible. This section should address access to identifiable and de-identified data (see below for additional information about access); - Statement of the use of data standards that ensure all released data have appropriate documentation that describes the method of collection, what the data represent, and potential limitations for use; and - Plans for archiving and long-term preservation of the data, or explanation of why long-term preservation and access are not justified. This section should address archiving and preservation of identifiable and de-identified data (see below for additional information regarding archiving). Examples of Data Management Plan Templates and Tools: University of California: https://www.cdlib.org/services/uc3/dmpt.html Access to and Archiving of the Data To the extent that is feasible, contractors should make public health data accessible. Rights in Data clauses (FAR 52.227-14 Rights in Data - General, 52.227-16, Additional Data Requirements, FAR 52.227-17 Rights in Data - Special Works, or FAR 52.227-18 Rights in Data-Existing Works), may be applicable and incorporated into contracts, depending on the Statement of Work involved. The data rights clauses give the government "unlimited rights" in data first produced (when funded by government solely) in the performance of a contract. "Unlimited rights" is an unlimited license to use, disclose or reproduce the data; it does not give the government ownership of the data. Unlimited rights in data would allow the government to archive and make public non-proprietary data first produced in contract performance. Contracts that do not include terms for submittal of public health data to CDC, are expected to plan and prepare for providing access to, and archiving/long-term preservation of, collected and/or generated data within the contract period of performance, as set forth below. The final version of a collected and/or generated data set intended for release or sharing should be made available within thirty (30) months after the end of the data collection or generation, except surveillance data, which should be made accessible within a year of the end of a collection cycle. For public use de-identified (removal of sensitive identifiable or potentially identifiable information) datasets, an accompanying data dictionary, and other documentation relevant to use of the data set should be deposited in a sustainable repository to provide access to the data. Data that cannot be de-identified can be provided as restricted data upon request under a data-use agreement or onsite controlled use. For data underlying a scientific publication, the contractor shall make the data available coincident with publication of the paper, at a minimum a machine-readable version of the data tables shown in the paper, unless the data set is already available via a release or sharing mechanism. In addition, contractors should ensure the quality of data they make accessible and seek to provide the data in a machine readable and nonproprietary format. Contractors who fail to release public health data in a timely fashion may be subject to procedures normally used to address failure to comply with the terms and conditions of the contract and may be grounds for the Contracting Officer to terminate the contract for default. Irrespective of whether the data are made accessible or not, Public health data of value should be preserved long-term. A final DMP is required at the end of the contract performance. The final DMP will indicate the location of the deposited data and the manner of access granted to the data. There needs to be an adequate justification for not making data accessible and this justification must be documented in the DMP and approved by the Contracting Officer's Representative. Additional information is available at https://www.hhs.gov/open/publicaccess/index.html. Offerors should include a detailed DMP in their technical proposal, as applicable. The DMP should be developed during the project planning phase prior to the initiation of collecting or generating public health data and will be submitted with the technical proposal. The submitted DMP will be evaluated for completeness and quality at the time of submission. Full proposals submitted without the required DMP, as applicable, may be deemed ineligible for award unless submission of DMP is deferred to a later period depending on the project planning phase, in which case, funding restrictions may be imposed pending submission and evaluation. - Qualifications: (10 pages maximum): A discussion of previous accomplishments and work in this, or closely related areas, and the qualifications of the investigator(s). Key personnel r'sum's shall be attached to the proposal and will not count toward the page limitation. - Management Approach (5 pages maximum): Include a description of the facilities that are required for the proposed effort. If applicable, include a description of any government furnished equipment, hardware, software, facilities or information required (refer to Section VII). Identify any planned collaborations with mining industry partners, including the nature of the collaboration. As noted in the Research Opportunity Description, offerors in response to this solicitation are encouraged to proposed collaboration between different universities offering ABET-accredited degrees in mining or minerals engineering. If a collaborative effort is proposed, the collaborating university mining or minerals engineering departments must include a section indicating that that they will be collaborating and describing the collaboration in detail. 2. Volume 2: Cost Proposal: The Cost Proposal shall consist of a cover page and two parts. Part 1 will provide a detailed cost breakdown of all costs by cost category and cost for base and each option period, and Part 2 will provide a cost breakdown by task/subtask using the same task numbers in the Statement of Work. Cover Page: The use of the SF 1411 is optional. The words "Cost Proposal" should appear on the cover page in addition to the following information: - BAA number; - Title of Proposal; - Identity of prime Offeror; - Technical contact (name, address, phone/fax, and electronic mail address); - Administrative/business contact (name, address, phone/fax, and electronic mail address); - Duration of research and demonstration tasks, and; - Summary statement of proposed costs. - Part 1: For proposal pricing purposes, Offerors should assume a contract start date of 09/01/2019. Detailed breakdown of all costs by cost category and cost for base and each option period: - Direct Labor - Individual labor category or person, with associated labor hours or percentage of time and unburdened direct labor rates; - Indirect Costs - Fringe Benefits, Overhead (must show base amount and rate); - Proposed contractor acquired equipment for proposed research projects should be specifically itemized with costs or estimated costs. An explanation of any estimating factors, including their derivation and application, shall be provided. - Travel - Number of trips, number of days per trip, departure and arrival destinations, number of people, etc. Include costs associated with attending the annual NIOSH contract review; - Materials should be specifically itemized with costs or estimated costs. An explanation of any estimating factors, including their derivation and application, shall be provided. Please include a brief description of the Offeror's procurement method to be used; - Other Directs Costs, including laboratory facilities as outlined elsewhere in this solicitation. - Part 2: Cost breakdown by task/subtask using the same task numbers in the Statement of Work. C. Significant Dates and Times This announcement will remain open until April 22, 2019. Offerors are responsible for submitting proposals, and any modification, or revisions, so as to reach the Government office designated in the solicitation by the time specified in the solicitation. 1. Submission of Proposals: Full proposals must be received prior to 03:00 pm Eastern time on April 22, 2019. 2. Method of Submission: Full proposals shall be submitted by regular mail (see item 5. below for the addresses), and may be submitted electronically by email. Proposals sent via email must be time stamped by the time indicated above (Note: the email date and time becomes the official "time stamp" for electronic submissions.). Electronic files must be...