Broad Agency Announcement for R&D supporting expeditionary warfare

Naval Surface Warfare Center-Panama City Division (NSWC PCD) conducts research and development of techniques and technologies directed toward operations in a littoral environment in support of Littoral Warfare and coastal operations. The mission of the Division includes mine warfare (both mine countermeasures (MCM) and mining), amphibious warfare, diving and life support, special warfare, and other missions conducted in the coastal region. The Division performs the scientific research and engineering, analysis, and planning support for the development of adaptive force packages, modularization of off-board systems in support of the littoral warfare mission area (except for anti-submarine warfare mission modules), and provides for the certification of all Littoral Warfare mission packages. Expertise includes the integration and handling of off-board system hardware, tactics development, and littoral mission systems, seaframe integration of off-board systems, development of a mission systems integrated software applications communications network, and distributed engineering testing, validation, and verification of all littoral mission packages' computing environment. NSWC PCD provides mission analysis, tactics development, modeling and simulation, and foreign threat characterization for all mission areas. The Division also provides the research, development, test and evaluation (RDT&E) and implementation of unmanned systems payloads on (1) Off the shelf or existing non-developmental unmanned underwater vehicles (UUVs) with limited modifications; (2) developmental or existing unmanned surface vehicles (USVs) and unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs); (3) Non-developmental lightweight tactical unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in support of Mine Warfare, Expeditionary /Amphibious Warfare, Naval Special Warfare (NSW), Diving and Life Support, Underwater Intelligence Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR), ISR supporting NSW, and other missions in the Littoral and Riverine environments. Unmanned systems and mission package capability responsibilities include common unmanned systems management, mission control, and integration of joint interoperability messaging standards. Within these mission areas, the Division is responsible for the full spectrum of research, development and acquisition, and support functions. Typical functions include fundamental research; concept formulation; assessment of system and subsystem requirements; development, analysis and evaluation of concepts, systems and subsystems; and development of operational concepts and tactics. This publication constitutes a Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) as contemplated in Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) 6.102(d)(2) and 35.016, the Department of Defense Grants and Agreements regulations (DoDGARS) 22.315(a) and DoD Other Transaction Guide for Prototypes Projects, USD(AT and L), OT Guide, Jan 2001. A formal Request for Proposals (RFP), solicitation, and/or additional information regarding this announcement will not be issued. It is intended that this BAA be open from 1 June 2012 to 31 May 2013. Specific areas of interest include, but are not limited to: (1) environmental data collection, monitoring, analysis, or display; (2) multifunction maritime and underwater sensing designs and technology; (3) image and sensor data processing; (4) innovative and non-conventional concepts for application of technology, engineering and systems to support coastal operations and coastal warfare including waterproofing, shock mitigation and isolation, and human systems interfaces; (5) lasers, electro-optic, radar, millimeter wave, or other high energy sensors or weapons; (6) command, control, communication, localization, navigation, guidance and data transmission in the air, sea, or through the ground; (7) autonomous and remotely controlled vehicles: air, surface, sea surface, undersea, or ground; (8) underwater and surface navigation technologies; (9) techniques or methods to increase the autonomy of current manned systems and unmanned vehicles (air, surface, sea surface, or ground); (10) information processing, fusion, and display; (11) data fusion/correlation for applications involving methodologies to translate/correlate data between different acoustic sensors/frequencies so that data/images taken with one sensor can be translated into equivalent data/images with another system; (12) chemical / biological individual protection; (13) kinetic and mechanistic studies of atmospheric transformations in enclosed environments; (14) life cycle cost reduction initiatives; (15) gas sensors and CO2 removal techniques; (16) active and passive thermal protection; (17) improved decompression technologies; (18) diver life support technologies; contaminated water diver protection; (19) biometric sensor development and (20) energy technologies and alternative fuels for amphibious and expeditionary applications. Proposals may be submitted by any non-governmental entity including commercial firms, non-profit organizations, institution of higher education with degree-granting programs in science and/or engineering (universities), or by consortia comprising such concerns. NSWC PCD encourages participation by small businesses, small disadvantaged businesses, HUBZone small businesses, veteran-owned small businesses, woman-owned small businesses, and historically black colleges and universities. The following guidelines apply to concept papers or proposals. Typically each proposal may be: (1) funded incrementally for periods up to three years subject to the availability of appropriations; (2) funded between $10,000 to $1,000,000 with the size and period of performance dependent upon the topic (although NSWC PCD reserves the right to entertain larger proposals based on the availability of funds); (3) more than one effort may be funded for an individual topic; (4) NSWC PCD is not interested in concepts that already have been developed or proven (even if they have never been sold before); (5) NSWC PCD is seeking proposals for scientific study and experimentation directed toward advancing the state-of-the-art or increasing knowledge or understanding; and (6) deliverables should demonstrate the results of scientific study and experimentation rather than focus on a specific system or hardware solution. Proposals for evolutionary engineering of improvements are inappropriate under BAA authority and are not allowed. In order to minimize the cost regarding proposal preparation, as an initial step, interested parties should submit an initial synopsis (commonly referred to as a White Paper). The White Paper should not exceed 10 pages and should include an Executive Summary (short paragraph) on the effort, a technical description of the effort, a synopsis of qualifications based on accomplishments, a preliminary schedule, identification of risks, and a rough cost estimate. Offerors should submit the White Paper electronically, referencing this BAA. Offerors will not be reimbursed for the submittal of their White Paper. Offerors submitting the most promising White Papers will be invited to submit full technical and cost proposals on all or part of their White Paper. NSWC PCD reserves the right to invite proposals from any, all, part of, or none of the offerors submitting White Papers. Any such invitation does not assure an offeror of subsequent funding. NSWC PCD will acknowledge receipt of White Papers and full technical and cost proposals by email. White Papers (and any resulting proposals) will be evaluated using the following evaluation criteria: (1) overall scientific, technical, and socio-economic merits of the proposed effort; (2) potential naval relevance and contributions of the effort to NSWC PCD specific mission areas; (3) degree to which new and creative solutions to technical issues important to NSWC PCD programs are proposed as well as the degree to which technical data and/or computer software developed under the proposed effort are to be delivered to NSWC PCD with unrestricted (Government Purpose) rights; (4) the offerors capabilities, related experience, facilities, techniques, or unique combinations of these which are integral factors for achieving the proposal objectives; (5) the qualifications, capabilities, and experience of the proposed Principal Investigator, team leader, or key personnel who are critical in achieving the proposal objectives; and (6) realism of the proposed cost and the availability of funds. These criteria are listed in descending order of importance and the non-price factors, when taken together, are significantly more important than price. THE GOVERNMENT RESERVES THE RIGHT TO SELECT FOR FUNDING ANY, ALL, PART, OR NONE OF THE PROPOSALS RECEIVED. For efforts funded as legally binding commitments, evaluation of the socioeconomic merits will include the extent of commitment in providing meaningful subcontracting opportunities for small businesses, small disadvantaged businesses, woman-owned small businesses, HUBZone small businesses, and historically black colleges and universities. It is important to notify potential offerors that each grant or cooperative agreement placed under this announcement to an institution of higher education must include the following clause: As a condition for receipt of funds available to the Department of Defense (DoD) under this award, the recipient agrees that it is not an institution that has a policy of denying, and that it is not an institution that effectively prevents, the Secretary of Defense from obtaining for military recruiting purposes: (A) entry to campuses or access to students on campuses; or (B) access to directory information pertaining to students. If the recipient is determined, using procedures established by the Secretary of Defense to implement section 558 of Public Law 103 337 (1994), to be such an institution during the period of performance of this agreement, and therefore to be in breach of this clause, the Government will cease all payments of DoD funds under this agreement and all other DoD grants and cooperative agreements, and it may suspend or terminate such grants and agreements unilaterally for material failure to comply with the terms and conditions of award. If your institution has been identified under the procedures established by the Secretary of Defense to implement section 558, then: (1) no funds available to DoD may be provided to your institution through any grant, including any existing grant; (2) as a matter of policy, this restriction also applies to any cooperative agreement, and (3) your institution is not eligible to receive a grant or cooperative agreement in response to this solicitation. White Papers may be submitted any time prior to expiration of the BAA. There is no set date for submission. The following e-mail points of contact are provided for information regarding submission of white papers and proposals: Primary POC: Matthew Kopp, Contract Specialist, contact@example.gov. Backup POC: Don Bickford, Contracting Officer, contact@example.gov. Please refer to BAA N6133112QMK02 in all correspondence.