BROAD AGENCY ANNOUNCEMENT Naval Surface Warfare Center-Panama City Division (NSWC-PCD) conducts Research and Development (R&D) of techniques and technologies supporting expeditionary warfare in a littoral environment. NSWC-PCD’s mission includes mine warfare (both mine countermeasures and mining), amphibious warfare, diving and life support, special warfare, and other missions conducted in the coastal region. Within these mission areas, NSWC-PCD is responsible for the full spectrum of R&D, 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; logistics; and development of operational concepts and tactics. This notice constitutes a combined synopsis/Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) as contemplated under FAR 6.102(d)(2). It is intended that this BAA be open from 28 April 2011 to 27 April 2012. 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, 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 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; and (19) biometric sensor development. 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 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 (common 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 shall 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 offeror’s 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 socio-economic 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 –
contact@example.gov Contract Specialist. Backup POC –
contact@example.gov Contracting Officer. Please refer to BAA # N61331-11-Q-MK05 in all correspondence.
