SAMDaily.us | PRESOL | A | Elastic Tactical Networking for Autonomous Swarms

SAMDAILY.US - ISSUE OF JANUARY 06, 2021 SAM #6978
SOLICITATION NOTICE

A -- Elastic Tactical Networking for Autonomous Swarms

Notice Date: 1/4/2021 6:36:45 AM
Notice Type: Presolicitation
NAICS: 541715 — Research and Development in the Physical, Engineering, and Life Sciences (except Nanotechnology and Biotechnology)
Contracting Office: FA8750 AFRL RIK ROME NY 13441-4514 USA
ZIP Code: 13441-4514
Solicitation Number: FA8750-18-S-7004
Archive Date: 09/30/2021
Point of Contact: Scott Pudlewski, Technical BAA Point of Contact, Phone: 315-330-4405, Amber Buckley, Contracting Officer, Phone: 315-330-3605
E-Mail Address: scott.pudlewski.1@us.af.mil, amber.buckley@us.af.mil
(scott.pudlewski.1@us.af.mil, amber.buckley@us.af.mil)
Description: Amendment No. 1 to BAA FA8750-18-S-7004 The purpose of this amendment is to republish the original announcement, incorporating any previous modifications, pursuant to FAR 35.016(c). This republishing also includes the following changes: 1. Update to Contracting Focal Point throughout; 2. Section III.2: updated Foreign Participation/Access; 3. Section IV.3.c. corrected BAA number to show FA8750-18-S-7004; 4. Section V.2.b.2.: updated the evaluation categories 5. Section VI.1: updated to reference the most recent version of the RI-Specific Proposal Preparation Instructions, dated Jun 2018 6. Section VI.4: updated to revise and add new Administrative and National Policy Requirements; 7. Section VI.7: added paragraph (d) 8. Section VII: updated the Alternate OMBUDSMAN. No other changes have been made. NAICS CODE: 541715 FEDERAL AGENCY NAME: Department of the Air Force, Air Force Materiel Command, AFRL - Rome Research Site, AFRL/Information Directorate, 26 Electronic Parkway, Rome, NY, 13441-4514 BAA ANNOUNCEMENT TYPE: Modification BROAD AGENCY ANNOUNCEMENT (BAA) TITLE: Elastic Tactical Networking for Autonomous Swarms BAA NUMBER: FA8750-18-S-7004 PART I - OVERVIEW INFORMATION This announcement is for an Open, 2 Step BAA which is open and effective until 30 Sep 2021. Only white papers will be accepted as initial submissions; formal proposals will be accepted by invitation only. While white papers will be considered if received prior to 3:00 PM Eastern Standard Time (EST) on 30 Sep 2021, the following submission dates are suggested to best align with projected funding: FY18 by 26 Jan 2018 FY19 by 06 Jul 2018 FY20 by 05 Jul 2019 FY21 by 02 Jul 2020 FY22 by 02 Jul 2021 Offerors should monitor the Federal Business Opportunities website at http://www.fbo.gov in the event this announcement is amended. CONCISE SUMMARY OF FUNDING OPPORTUNITY: Seeking innovative and affordable technologies that provide tactical airborne networking for autonomous systems. The Air Force is investigating networking and communications technologies to enable future autonomous manned/unmanned teaming capabilities. It is interested in solutions across all layers of the protocol stack, but is primarily focused on protocols for the application, transport, and network layers. BAA ESTIMATED FUNDING: Total funding for this BAA is approximately $24.9M. Individual awards will not normally exceed 36 months with dollar amounts normally ranging from $100K to $5M. There is also the potential to make awards up to any dollar value as long as the value does not exceed the available BAA ceiling amount. ANTICIPATED INDIVIDUAL AWARDS: Multiple Awards are anticipated. TYPE OF INSTRUMENTS THAT MAY BE AWARDED: Procurement contract, grant, cooperative agreement or other transactions. AGENCY CONTACT INFORMATION: All white paper submissions and any questions of a technical nature shall be directed to the cognizant Technical Point of Contact (TPOC) as specified below (unless otherwise specified in the technical area): TPOC Name: Scott Pudlewski Mailing Address: AFRL/RITF 525 Brooks Road Rome NY 13441-4505 Telephone: (315) 330-4405 Email: scott.pudlewski.1@us.af.mil Questions of a contractual/business nature shall be directed to the cognizant contracting officer, as specified below (email requests are preferred): Contracting Officer: Amber Buckley Telephone: (315) 330-3605 Email: Amber.Buckley@us.af.mil Emails must reference the solicitation (BAA) number and title of the acquisition. Pre-Proposal Communications between Prospective Offerors and Government Representatives: Dialogue between prospective offerors and Government representatives is encouraged. Technical and contracting questions can be resolved in writing or through open discussions. Discussions with any of the points of contact shall not constitute a commitment by the Government to subsequently fund or award any proposed effort. Only Contracting Officers are legally authorized to commit the Government. Proposers are cautioned that evaluation ratings may be lowered and/or proposal rejected if proposal preparation (Proposal format, content, etc.) and/or submittal instructions are not followed. PART II - FULL TEXT ANNOUNCEMENT BROAD AGENCY ANNOUNCEMENT (BAA) TITLE: Elastic Tactical Networking for Autonomous Swarms BAA NUMBER: FA8750-18-S-7004 CATALOG OF FEDERAL DOMESTIC ASSERTION (CFDA) Number: 12.800 I. FUNDING OPPORTUNITY DESCRIPTION: The Air Force Research Laboratory - Information Directorate (AFRL/RI) is soliciting white papers under this BAA for research, design, development, integration, test, evaluation and experimentation of innovative technologies and techniques for elastic tactical networking for autonomous swarms. The BAA objective is to conceive, develop and demonstrate innovative and affordable technologies that provide network requirements of future autonomous swarm applications which will differ drastically from information exchange requirements for current applications. For example, many of the collaborative tasks defined in Part VIII-References [1] implicitly require communications to enable intra-agent collaboration in severely contested environments, something which existing military and commercial networking protocols are unable to achieve. New networking paradigms will be required before the Air Force can successfully implement future swarm-based autonomous missions. Therefore, the primary interest will be in techniques that will allow for the network-optimal use of existing point-to-point data links. This will primarily involve a combination of protocols at layer three and above, but will also include distributed beamforming techniques as described below. Research efforts under this BAA are expected to result in functional capabilities, concepts, theory and applications addressing Air Force network connectivity for future autonomous swarm missions. The effectiveness of the developed technologies for potential operational use will be assessed through testing and evaluation activities. Technologies that can be transitioned for operational use are of high interest. Offerors are encouraged to describe the pre-conditions that are necessary for the proposed techniques to work effectively. Work is encouraged in, but not limited to: FOCUS AREA 1 - Dynamic Network Management: The performance of communications systems is generally defined through the metrics goodput, latency, and reliability. While the tradeoff between these three metrics is usually decided by the communications system designer, there are often tradeoffs that could be better made on-demand to give preference to one or the other metric. This focus area seeks to develop a Dynamic Network Management (DNM) protocol that will translate a set of application parameters into a set of points in the feasibility region of the network. This DNM protocol will then modify the network protocol parameters in order to achieve as close to the optimal set of metrics as is feasible given the physical constraints of the system. The application parameters are defined as: � Goodput - The rate at which useful data are received at the destination � Latency - The amount of time a packet takes to get from source to destination � Reliability - The inverse of the packet error rate � Periodicity - The pattern by which data is generated by a flow � Priority - The relative importance of packets generated by a flow The following capabilities should be part of the final DNM protocol: � The DNM protocol MUST be able to respond to application flow requirements on a flow by flow basis in real-time. � The DNM protocol MUST balance fairness and goodput across the network. � DNM MUST be able to be implemented as a function call from a C++ library. This task aims to develop a technology readiness level (TRL) 5/6 capability that will be validated utilizing emulation and/or over-the-air demonstration. FOCUS AREA 2 - Network Protocol Design: The primary objective of this effort will be to develop distributed network protocols at layer three and above that are predictably flexible in terms of the relative priority of latency, goodput, and reliability. These capabilities will need a set of protocols that can be predictably set to operate across a specific feasibility regime as defined in Part VIII-References [2]. The parameters must able to be tied back to the original optimization objectives. The second objective is to deliver a set of protocols that can seamlessly work together. It is unlikely that any single protocol will be able to cover the entire feasibility region of the network. While protocols may have different strengths and weaknesses, it is important that these protocols can exist simultaneously within the same network. Therefore similar to commercial protocols, any protocols developed as part of this effort MUST be able to coexist with other protocols within the network. This does not necessarily mean that the protocols need to work collaboratively, but they must be able to work in parallel. Annual integration events with the participation of all awardees will be scheduled to test this interaction as well as to reduce the risk of integration at the conclusion of this effort. The following capabilities should be part of the final network protocols: � The relative priority of latency, reliability, and goodput MUST be able to be reconfigured in real time by another application. � Any developed protocol MUST be able to coexist in the same system with any other protocol developed as part of this effort. � Any protocol developed as part of this effort MUST NOT be specific to any waveform or application This task aims to develop a TRL5/6 capability that will be validated utilizing emulation and/or over-the-air demonstration. Developed protocols must be evaluated against existing Air Force relevant network protocols in an Air Force emulation testbed. FOCUS AREA 3 - Distributed Airborne Tactical (DAT) Beamforming: The primary objective of this effort is to develop low-cost distributed beamforming capabilities with swarms of omni-directional antennas. An extension of cooperative communications technologies that enables spatial diversity can be shown to allow omnidirectional radio systems to cooperate and form a pseudo-phased array with distributed elements for the purpose of directional transmission and range extension. This concept is referred to as �Distributed Beamforming', as defined in Part VIII-References [3]. Among other considerations, a swarm of aerial nodes cooperatively performing distributed beamforming will need to address: � Precise carrier/timing synchronization throughout the swarm despite relative Doppler effects, imperfect PPLI and unavailability of an external reference source (i.e. GPS) � Efficient (scalable) dynamic assignment of transmission weights to arbitrarily placed nodes in order to achieve desirable beam pattern properties (e.g. Minimum sidelobe leakage, narrow beam width) � Efficient dissemination of data and control messages to participants of the swarm � Pulse shaping, participation control or other techniques to account for timing delay due to nodes being spatially separated many wavelengths apart New theoretical approaches toward enabling this technology will likely involve accounting for �self-aware motion' (provided by onboard sensors and neighbor messaging) in signal processing (e.g. adaptive interpolation, instantaneous frequency estimation), admissible trajectory identification and control (for sense and avoid, IFF, airspace deconfliction), and situation-aware inference (e.g. predicted motion of neighbors based on swarming protocol, incorporation of information about environment from onboard equipment such as optical sensors, IMUs, RADAR). This task aims to develop a TRL5/6 demonstration utilizing low-cost Class I/II UAVs that shows advantages of distributed beamforming technology with swarming aerial assets in tactical environments. Flight testing of the UAV systems will be done at the Stockbridge Controllable Contested Environment, and will be coordinated by the Program Manager. II. AWARD INFORMATION: 1. FUNDING: Total funding for this BAA is approximately $24.9M. The anticipated funding to be obligated under this BAA is broken out by fiscal year as follows: FY18 - $1,075,000 FY19 - $2,725,000 FY20 - $7,725,000 FY21 - $6,500,000 FY22 - $6,875,000 The breakout of funding by fiscal year is a projection. The total awards values in any given year will vary. a. Individual awards will not normally exceed 36 months with dollar values ranging from $100K to $5M. There is also the potential to make awards up to any dollar value as long as the value does not exceed the available BAA ceiling amount. b. The Government reserves the right to select all, part, or none of the proposals received, subject to the availability of funds. All potential Offerors should be aware that due to unanticipated budget fluctuations, funding in any or all areas may change with little or no notice. 2. FORM. Awards of efforts as a result of this announcement will be in the form of contracts, grants, cooperative agreements or other transactions depending upon the nature of the work proposed. 3. BAA TYPE: This is a two-step open broad agency announcement. This announcement constitutes the only solicitation. As STEP ONE - The Government is only soliciting white papers at this time. DO NOT SUBMIT A FORMAL PROPOSAL. Those white papers found to be consistent with the intent of this BAA may be invited to submit a technical and cost proposal. See Section VI of this announcement for further details regarding the proposal. III. ELIGIBILITY INFORMATION: 1. ELIGIBILITY: All qualified offerors who meet the requirements of this BAA may apply. 2. FOREIGN PARTICIPATION/ACCESS: a. This BAA is closed to foreign participation. This includes both foreign ownership and foreign nationals as employees or subcontractors. b. Exceptions. 1. Fundamental Research. If the work to be performed is unclassified, fundamental research, this must be clearly identified in the white paper and/or proposal. See Part II, Section I for more details regarding Fundamental Research. Offerors should still identify any performance by foreign nationals at any level (prime contractor or subcontractor) in their proposals. Please specify the nationals' country of origin, the type of visa or work permit under which they are performing and an explanation of their anticipated level of involvement. You may be asked to provide additional information during negotiations in order to verify the foreign citizen's eligibility to participate on any contract or assistance agreement issued as a result of this announcement 2. Foreign Ownership, Control or Influence (FOCI) companies who have mitigation plans/paperwork in place. Proof of approved mitigation documentation must be provided to the contracting office focal point, Amber Buckley, Contracting Officer, telephone (315) 330-3605, or e-mail Amber.Buckley@us.af.mil prior to submitting a white paper and/or a proposal. For information on FOCI mitigation, contact the Defense Security Service. Additional details can be found at: https://www.dss.mil/ma/ctp/isia/bams/foci/foci_mitigation/ 3. Foreign Nationals as Employees or Subcontractors. Applicable to any effort not considered Fundamental Research. Offerors are responsible for ensuring that all employees and/or subcontractors who will work on a resulting contract are eligible to do so. Any employee who is not a U.S. citizen or a permanent resident will be restricted from working on any resultant contract unless prior approval of the Department of State or the Department of Commerce is obtained via a technical assistance agreement or an export license. Violations of these regulations can result in criminal or civil penalties. c. Information Regarding Non-US Citizens Assigned to this Project 1. Contractor employees requiring access to USAF bases, AFRL facilities, and/or access to U.S. Government Information Technology (IT) networks in connection with the work on contracts, assistance instruments or other transactions awarded under this BAA must be U.S. citizens. For the purpose of base and network access, possession of a permanent resident card (""Green Card"") does not equate to U.S. citizenship. This requirement does not apply to foreign nationals approved by the U.S. Department of Defense or U.S. State Department under international personnel exchange agreements with foreign governments. It also does not apply to dual citizens who possess US citizenship, to include Naturalized citizens. Any waivers to this requirement must be granted in writing by the Contracting Officer prior to providing access. Specific format for waiver request will be provided upon request to the Contracting Officer. The above requirements are in addition to any other contract requirements related to obtaining a Common Access Card (CAC). 2. For the purposes of Paragraph 1, it an IT network/system does not require AFRL to endorse a contractor's application to said network/system in order to gain access, the organization operating the IT network/system is responsible for controlling access to its system. If an IT network/system requires a U.S. Government sponsor to endorse the application in order for access to the IT network/system, AFRL will only endorse the following types of applications, consistent with the requirements above: a) Contractor employees who are U.S. citizens performing work under contracts, assistance instruments or other transactions awarded under this BAA. b) Contractor employees who are non-U.S. citizens and who have been granted a waiver. Any additional access restrictions established by the IT network/system owner apply. 3. FEDERALLY FUNDED RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT CENTERS AND GOVERNMENT ENTITIES: Federally Funded Research and Development Centers (FFRDCs) and Government entities (e.g., Government/National laboratories, military educational institutions, etc.) are subject to applicable direct competition limitations and cannot propose to this BAA in any capacity unless they meet the following conditions: a. FFRDCs: FFRDCs must clearly demonstrate that the proposed work is not otherwise available from the private sector; and FFRDCs must provide a letter on official letterhead from their sponsoring organization citing the specific authority establishing their eligibility to propose to Government solicitations and compete with industry, and their compliance with the associated FFRDC sponsor agreement's terms and conditions. This information is required for FFRDCs proposing to be prime contractors or sub-awardees. b. Government Entities: Government entities must clearly demonstrate that the work is not otherwise available from the private sector and provide written documentation citing the specific statutory authority and contractual authority, if relevant, establishing their ability to propose to Government solicitations. While 10 U.S.C.� 2539b may be the appropriate statutory starting point for some entities, specific supporting regulatory guidance, together with evidence of agency approval, will still be required to fully establish eligibility. FFRDC and Government entity eligibility will be determined on a case-by-case basis; however, the burden to prove eligibility for all team members rests solely with the proposer. Government agencies interested in performing work related to this announcement should contact the Technical Point of Contact (TPOC). If resulting discussions reveal a mutual interest, cooperation may be pursued via other vehicles. IV. APPLICATION AND SUBMISSION INFORMATION: All responses to this announcement must be addressed to the Technical Point of Contact (TPOC) listed in SECTION VII. DO NOT send white papers to the Contracting Officer. 1. SUBMISSION DATES AND TIMES: It is recommended that white papers be received by 3:00 PM Eastern Standard Time (EST) on the following dates to maximize the possibility of award: FY18 by 26 Jan 2018 FY19 by 06 Jul 2018 FY20 by 05 Jul 2019 FY21 by 02 Jul 2020 FY22 by 02 Jul 2021 White papers will be accepted until 3 PM EST on 30 September 2021, but it is less likely that funding will be available in each respective fiscal year after the dates cited. This BAA will close on 30 September 2021. All offerors submitting white papers will receive notification of their evaluation results within 45 days of submission. Offerors should email the TPOC and the Contracting Officer listed in Section VII, for status of their white paper(s) after 45 days, if no such correspondence has been received. 2. CONTENT AND FORMAT: Offerors are required to submit 2 copies of a 3 to 5 page white paper summarizing their proposed approach/solution. The purpose of the white paper is to preclude unwarranted effort on the part of an offeror whose proposed work is not of interest to the Government. The white paper will be formatted as follows: a. Section A: Title, Period of Performance, Estimated Cost, Name/Address of Company, Technical and Contracting Points of Contact (phone and email)(this section is NOT included in the page count); b. Section B: Task Objective; and c. Section C: Technical Summary and Proposed Deliverables. All white papers shall be double spaced with a font no smaller than 12 point. In addition, respondents are requested to provide their Commercial and Government Entity (CAGE) Code, their unique entity identifier and electronic funds transfer (EFT) indicator (if applicable), an e-mail address and reference BAA FA8750-18-S-7004 with their submission. Multiple white papers within the purview of this announcement may be submitted by each offeror. If the offeror wishes to restrict its white papers, they must be marked with the restrictive language stated in FAR 15.609(a) and (b). 3. HANDLING AND MAILING INSTRUCTIONS: a. CLASSIFICATION GUIDANCE. All Proposers should review the NATIONAL INDUSTRIAL SECURITY PROGRAM OPERATING MANUAL, (NISPOM), dated February 28, 2006 and incorporating Change 2, dated 18 May 2016, as it provides baseline standards for the protection of classified information and prescribes the requirements concerning Contractor Developed Information under paragraph 4-105. Defense Security Service (DSS) Site for the NISPOM is: http://www.dss.mil/. In the event of a possible or actual compromise of classified information in the submission of your white paper or proposal, immediately but no later than 24 hours, bring this to the attention of your cognizant security authority and AFRL Rome Research Site Information Protection Office (IPO): Information Protection Office (contact only if a security compromise has occurred) Monday-Friday (0730-1630): Call 315-330-4048 or Email: vincent.guza@us.af.mil Evenings and Weekends: Call 315-330-2961 b. CLASSIFIED SUBMISSIONS. AFRL/RITF will accept classified responses to this BAA when the classification is mandated by classification guidance provided by an Original Classification Authority of the U.S. Government, or when the offeror believes the work, if successful, would merit classification. Security classification guidance in the form of a DD Form 254 (DoD Contract Security Classification Specification) will not be provided at this time since AFRL is soliciting ideas only. Offerors that intend to include classified information or data in their white paper submission or who are unsure about the appropriate classification of their white papers should contact the technical point of contact listed in Section VII for guidance and direction in advance of preparation. c. MAILING INSTRUCTIONS. Any mailed responses, unclassified/classified, to this announcement must be sent U.S. Postal Service, registered mail or similar service and addressed to AFRL/RITF, 525 Brooks Road, Rome NY 13441-4505, and reference BAA FA8750-18-S-7004. When mailing follow the directions regarding the number of copies required. In addition to the paper submission option, unclassified electronic submission may be submitted to Scott.Pudlewski.1@us.af.mil. Encrypt or password-protect all proprietary information prior to sending. Offerors are responsible to confirm receipt with the TPOC listed in Section VII. AFRL is not responsible for undelivered documents. If electronic submission is used, only one copy of the documentation is required. Questions can be directed to the TPOC listed in Section VII. 4. OTHER SUBMISSION REQUIREMENTS/CONSIDERATIONS: a. COST SHARING OR MATCHING: Cost sharing is not a requirement. Cost sharing may be proposed and will be considered on a case-by-case basis. b. SYSTEM FOR AWARD MANAGEMENT (SAM). Offerors must be registered in the SAM database to receive a contract award, and remain registered during performance and through final payment of any contract or agreement. Processing time for registration in SAM, which normally takes forty-eight hours, should be taken into consideration when registering. Offerors who are not already registered should consider applying for registration before submitting a proposal. The provision at FAR 52.204-7, System for Award Management (Oct 2016) applies. c. EXECUTIVE COMPENSATION AND FIRST-TIER SUBCONTRACT/ SUBRECIPIENT AWARDS: Any contract award resulting from this announcement may contain the clause at FAR 52.204-10 - Reporting Executive Compensation and First-Tier Subcontract Awards (Oct 2016). Any grant or agreement award resulting from this announcement may contain the award term set forth in 2 CFR, Appendix A to Part 25 which can be viewed at: http://www.ecfr.gov/cgi-bin/text-idx?SID=8fb6c83606df57968c3e7e145e7d683c&mc=true&node=ap2.1.25_1360.a&rgn=div9 d. ALLOWABLE CHARGES: The cost of preparing white papers/proposals in response to this announcement is not considered an allowable direct charge to any resulting contract or any other contract, but may be an allowable expense to the normal bid and proposal indirect cost specified in FAR 31.205-18. Incurring pre-award costs for ASSISTANCE INSTRUMENTS ONLY are regulated by 2 CFR part 200.458, Pre-Award Costs. e. GOVERNMENT APPROVED ACCOUNTING SYSTEM: An offeror must have a government approved accounting system prior to award of a cost-reimbursement contract per limitations set forth in FAR 16.301-3(a) to ensure the system is adequate for determining costs applicable to the contract. The acceptability of an accounting system is determined based upon an audit performed by the Defense Contract Audit Agency (DCAA). IMPORTANT: If you do not have a DCAA approved accounting system access the following link for instructions: https://www.fbo.gov/index?s=opportunity&mode=form&id=1cffad228f48b58057072a6c9113799d&tab=core&_cview=1 f. HUMAN USE: All research involving human subjects, to include the use of human biological specimens and human data, selected for funding must comply with Federal regulations for human subject protection. Further, research involving human subjects that is conducted or supported by the DoD must comply with 32 CFR 219, ""Protection of Human Subjects"" found at: http://www.access.gpo.gov/nara/cfr/waisidx_07/32cfr219_07.html, and DoD Instruction 3216.02, ""Protection of Human Subjects and Adherence to Ethical Standards in DoD-Supported Research"" found at: http://www.dtic.mil/whs/directives/corres/pdf/321602p.pdf. 1) Institutions awarded funding for research involving human subjects must provide documentation of a current Assurance of Compliance with Federal regulations for human subject protection, for example a Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Human Research Protection Federal Wide Assurance found at: http://www.hhs.gov/ohrp. 2) All institutions engaged in human subject research, to include subcontractors, must have a valid assurance. In addition, personnel involved in human subject research must document the completion of appropriate training for the protection of human subjects. 3) For all research that will involve human subjects in the first year or phase of the project, the institution must submit evidence of a plan for review by an institutional review board (IRB) as part of the proposal. The IRB conducting the review must be the IRB identified on the institution's Assurance of Compliance. The protocol, separate from the proposal, must include a detailed description of the research plan, study population, risks and benefits of study participation, recruitment and consent process, data collection, and data analysis. The designated IRB should be consulted for guidance on writing the protocol. The informed consent document must comply with 32 CFR 219.116. A valid Assurance of Compliance and evidence of appropriate training by all investigators should accompany the protocol for review by the IRB. 4) In addition to a local IRB approval, an AFRL-level human subject regulatory review and approval is required for all research conducted or supported by the DoD. The Air Force office responsible for managing the award can provide guidance and information about the AFRL-level review process. Confirmation of a current Assurance of Compliance and appropriate human subjects protection training is required before AFRL-level approval can be issued. 5) The time required to complete the IRB review/approval process will vary depending on the complexity of the research and/or the level of risk to study participants; ample time should be allotted to complete the approval process. The IRB approval process can last between 1 to 3 months, followed by a DoD review that could last 3 to 6 months. No funding may be used toward human subject research until all approvals are granted. Therefore, in their cost proposals offerors should separate human use into a separate option. V. APPLICATION REVIEW INFORMATION: 1. CRITERIA: The following criteria, which are listed in descending order importance and will be used to determine whether white papers and proposals submitted, are consistent with the intent of this BAA and of interest to the Government: a. Overall Scientific and Technical Merit - The soundness of approach for the development and/or enhancement of the proposed technology, b. Related Experience - The extent to which the offeror demonstrates relevant technology and domain knowledge, c. Openness, Maturity and Assurance of Solution - The extent to which existing capabilities and standards are leveraged and the relative maturity of the proposed technology, and d. Reasonableness and realism of proposed costs and fees (if any). No further evaluation criteria will be used to select white papers for proposal invitation. Proposals will be evaluated IAW this evaluation criteria only and categorized/selected for award as detailed in Section V.2.b.2. White papers and proposals submitted will be evaluated as they are received. 2. REVIEW AND SELECTION PROCESS: a. Only Government employees will evaluate the white papers/proposals for selection. The Air Force Research Laboratory's Information Directorate has contracted for various business and staff support services, some of which require contractors to obtain administrative access to proprietary information submitted by other contractors. Administrative access is defined as ""handling or having physical control over information for the sole purpose of accomplishing the administrative functions specified in the administrative support contract, which do not require the review, reading, and comprehension of the content of the information on the part of non-technical professionals assigned to accomplish the specified administrative tasks."" These contractors have signed general non-disclosure agreements and organizational conflict of interest statements. The required administrative access will be granted to non-technical professionals. Examples of the administrative tasks performed include: a. Assembling and organizing information for R&D case files; b. Accessing library files for use by government personnel; and c. Handling and administration of proposals, contracts, contract funding and queries. Any objection to admin...
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A -- Elastic Tactical Networking for Autonomous Swarms