Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), Contract Management Directorate (CMD), 3701 N. Fairfax Dr., Arlington, VA 22203-1714

A -- ACCELERATED INSERTION OF MATERIALS SOL BAA00-22 DUE 040600 POC Dr. Steven G. Wax, DARPA/DSO, fax (703) 696-3999 ACCELERATED INSERTION OF MATERIALS (AIM) SOL BAA00-22 DUE 6 APRIL 2000, POC Dr. Steven G. Wax, DARPA/DSO, fax (703) 696-3999 Email: swax@darpa.mil, URL: http://www.darpa.mil/baa00-22/dso. PROGRAM GOALS AND OBJECTIVES: The Accelerated Insertion of Materials (AIM) program seeks to develop and validate new approaches for materials development that will accelerate the insertion of materials into production hardware. Currently, the development of a designer knowledge base (which incorporates design allowables, reliability, manufacturing, reproducibility, and other essential information about materials) is a time consuming and costly endeavor. Consequently, new material insertion into production hardware is extremely difficult, typically taking 15-20 years if it is successful at all. Emerging efforts in materials modeling are leading to incremental improvements in specific areas, e.g., materials processing and mechanical behavior. It is DARPA's belief that the time scale between development of a new materialand its implementation into production can be significantly shortened only through a revolutionary change in materials development methodologies. Phase I of the planned program will develop and validate new approaches for materials development that will accelerate the insertion of materials into production hardware. This is to be accomplished by establishing approaches to use the required technical content and fidelity of the "designer knowledge base" to drive the optimized development/use of models and experiments. Critical to this effort will be understanding how to effectively use materials models, how to link them across various length and time scales and how to couple them with experiments to yield the appropriate information for the designer. Validation of the developed approaches will be on material systems of interest to the DoD that meet the following criteria: (a) Designer quality information developed via traditional approaches should already be available for the chosen material in a particular application. It is preferable, but not mandatory, that the material be in use in a military system. If it is not, then its use must be imminent; (b) The chosen material system must be amenable for addressing, in a generic way, the critical technical issues in accelerated insertion; (c) The development of new or extension of existing materials models must be tractable in the time-frame of the program; and (d) There must exist extensions of the selected material system to new applications and/or capabilities that are important to Defense and of interest to the proposing team. Success for Phase I will be judged not only on reproducing a validated designer knowledge base, but also on the degree to which the concepts can shorten development time and the degree to which they can be generically applied to other material systems of interest to the DoD. Also as part of Phase I, proposers will provide a detailed technical path forward expanding AIM concepts into regimes in which there is no existing validated data. Successful Phase I efforts are expected to lead to a Phase II effort to demonstrate the concepts into this new regime of acceleration of materials. However, this BAA is for Phase I only. BACKGROUND INFORMATION: Proposers should obtain the Proposer Information Pamphlet (PIP), BAA00-22. This document provides essential information on the specific program requirements, selection criteria, and the technical information to be contained in the pre-proposal and full proposal. Also, the PIP has the required forms, submission format details and background. Pre-proposals and full proposals not following the format in the PIP may not be evaluated. This pamphlet may be viewed and printed from the World Wide Web (www) at URL http://www.darpa.mil/DSO/solicitations, or obtained by writing, faxing or e-mailing your request to DARPA/DSO, Attn: BAA00-22, 3701 N. Fairfax Drive, Arlington, Virginia 22203-1714, fax: 703-696-3999, email baa00-22@darpa.mil. A pre-proposal conference was held on 16 November 1999. Presentation material from this conference may be viewed at http://www.sainc.com/darpa/aim. These charts should be helpful to the proposers in understanding the program. However, they were presented before the publication of this announcement and, therefore, information that conflicts with the PIP or this announcement should be ignored. Specifically, proposers should use the PIP for all information related to proposal content, format and schedule. Finally, DARPA will offer potential proposers with an opportunity to provide a LETTER OF CAPABILITIES to other potential proposers in order to facilitate teaming. A LETTER OF CAPABILITIES from potential proposers should be received on or before 6 January 2000. Letters should be addressed to Dr. Larry Fehrenbacher, TA&T, Inc. 133 Defense Highway, Suite 212, Annapolis, MD 21401. These letters will be distributed by 13 January 2000 to all others who have sent in letters. These letters should contain a non-proprietary description of your capabilities and the role that you would like to play on a team. At a minimum, these letters must contain the name, address and phone number of a technical point of contact. Submitting this letter is for the benefit of potential proposers and is optional. The technical point of contact (POC) is Dr. Steven G. Wax, DARPA/DSO. In all correspondence, reference BAA00-22. Early submission of proposals and pre-proposals is strongly encouraged. Selections for awards may be made at any time during the evaluation process. Proposals will not be returned. All proprietary material should be clearly marked and will be held in strict confidence. Restrictive notices notwithstanding, proposals may be handled, for administrative purposes only, by a support contractor. All support contractors are bound by appropriate non-disclosure requirements. Input on technical aspects of the proposals may be obtained by DARPA from non-Government consultants/experts who are bound by appropriate non-disclosure requirements. Non-Government technical consultants will not have access to proposalsthat are labeled by the offerors as "GOVERNMENT ONLY." Multiple awards are expected. Cost sharing is encouraged, but not required. PRE-PROPOSALS: To minimize unnecessary effort in proposal preparation and review, proposers are strongly encouraged to submit pre-proposals in advance of full proposals. The pre-proposal should not exceed ten (10) pages in length, including all charts, figures and appendices. Offerors should submit one (1) original and eight (8) copies of the pre-proposal due no later than 1600 ET 10 FEBRUARY 2000 to the address shown below. Facsimile transmissions or electronic media transmissions will not be accepted. Separate attachments such as institutional brochures, reprints, disks, or videotapes will be ignored. Within ten (10) business days, DARPA will acknowledge receipt of the pre-proposal submission and assign a control number that should be used in all further correspondence. Recommendations for full proposal submission will be made within approximately thirty days of receipt. All full proposal submissions will be evaluated regardless of the disposition of the pre-proposal. FULL PROPOSALS: Full proposals shall consist of two volumes, technical and cost. Offerors should submit one (1) original and eight (8) copies of the full-proposal due no later than 1600 ET 6 APRIL 2000 to the address shown below. Facsimile transmissions or electronic media transmissions will not be accepted. Separate attachments such as institutional brochures, reprints, disks, or videotapes will be ignored. Volume 1: Technical. The technical volume is limited to a maximum of 50 pages, including the special cover sheet bearing the pre-proposal control number (if applicable), all figures, references, tables, charts, and appendices. Volume 2: Cost. The cost volume shall contain a summary cost breakdown and a detailed cost breakdown. The summary cost breakdown should be shown to the level of major tasks and should indicate manpower levels of effort, equipment and supplies, travel, and miscellaneous expenses for the tasksof the entire program, broken out by performer and time. Details of the cost sharing to be undertaken by the offeror (if applicable) must be included in the summary section of volume 2 of the proposal. DARPA reserves the right to select for award specific sections of any proposed effort and/or to encourage teaming between competing proposers. SELECTION CRITERIA Proposals will be evaluated according to the following criteria listed in order of decreasing importance: (1) Scientific and Technical Merit, (2) Selection of the Material System, (3) Experience and Expertise of the Proposers, (4) Cost Realism. In addition to the evaluation criteria described above, the Government reserves the right to select for award all, some, or none of the proposals received in response to this announcement. Proposals that are substantially the same as superior proposals may not be selected for funding, notwithstanding their overall evaluation position. BROAD AGENCY ANNOUNCEMENT: This Commerce Business Daily (CBD) notice, in conjunction with the BAA00-22 PIP, constitutes the Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) as contemplated by FAR6.102 (d) (2). A formal RFP or other solicitation regarding this announcement will not be issued. Requests for the same will be disregarded. Evaluation and selection of proposals for award will be made to those offerors whose proposal is considered most advantageous to the Government. The Government reserves the right to select for award all, some, or none of the proposals received in response to this announcement. Proposals identified for funding may result in a procurement contract, grant, cooperative agreement, or "Technology Investment Agreement (TIA)," depending upon the nature of the work proposed, the required degree of interaction between parties, and other factors. The offeror must submit a separate list of all technical data or computer software that will be furnished to the Government with other than unlimited rights (see DFARS Part 227). All responsible sources capable of satisfying the Government's needs may submit proposals that will be evaluated if received in the correct format by the closing date. Because of the technical breadth implied in this solicitation, no portion of this BAA will be set aside for HBCU and MI participation. However, these organizations are encouraged to apply and/or team with other proposers. ADDRESS FOR SUBMISSION OF PROPOSALS: DARPA/DSO, Attn: BAA00-22, 3701 N. Fairfax Drive, Arlington, Virginia 22203-1714 Posted 12/16/99 (W-SN409296). (0350)

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