HR001118S0027 FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS PALS

Transcription

1 Last Updated: 3/16/2018 HR001118S0027 General Information 1. My research is not geared specifically to meet the Persistent Aquatic Living Sensors program goals. Is there an alternate solicitation that I can respond to? A: Yes. DARPA/BTO has an office wide solicitation (HR001117S0030) for this purpose. Responses are being collected through April 28, Is Dr. Adornato available for a call to discuss our proposed approach? A: The best way to receive feedback on an approach is through the submission of a proposal abstract prior to the deadline specified in the BAA. The BAA describes the program, including metrics, in detail. If you have specific questions, please submit them by Please be aware that your question and its answer may be published on this FAQ page, after the question has been revised to remove proprietary information. 3. Will the Proposers Day slides be posted online? A: Yes, information relayed during the Proposers Day will be made available on the BTO section of the DARPA Opportunities page: with us/opportunities. 4. Do I need to submit an abstract? What is the advantage of submitting an abstract? Does my abstract need to match the full proposal submitted? A: Abstracts are strongly encouraged, but not required, to submit a full proposal. DARPA will provide feedback for each abstract submitted. DARPA will respond to abstracts with a statement as to whether DARPA is interested in the idea. If DARPA does not recommend the proposer submit a full proposal, DARPA will provide feedback to the proposer regarding the rationale for this decision. Regardless of DARPA s response to an abstract, proposers may submit a full proposal. DARPA will review all full proposals submitted using the published evaluation criteria and without regard to any comments resulting from the review of an abstract. Finally, DARPA understands that final proposals and team make up may vary somewhat from initial abstracts as content of teams and concepts proposed matures during preparation of the proposals. 5. Are researchers/teams that we not able to attend Proposers Day still eligible to submit an abstract or proposal? A: Per the Special Notice, "Attendance at this event is not a requirement for submission of a proposal or selection for funding." 6. What are DARPA s expectations when it comes to the teams that are formed during the meeting and those that might be assembled at a later date is the expectation that the proposing teams need to be at least seeded at the meeting? A: Teams may be formed at any time up until submission of the full proposal. Teams do not need to meet at the Proposer s Day, and they are welcomed to be reformed after feedback from the abstract phase is received.

2 7. Will JHU APL be the "trusted agent" tasked by DARPA with performing the IV&V for the approved projects? A: The IV&V partner has not yet been selected for the program. Contracting 1. Is there a planned down selection between phases? A: Per BAA page 9: At the conclusion of Phase 1, performer down selections will occur, with continued funding being contingent upon a system s ability to meet the required metrics and present a solid development plan for the remainder of the program. 2. What kind of budget is available for this program? What are the expected number of awards? A: DARPA anticipates to allocate roughly $30 35 million to a total of between zero and six (or more) teams. The actual amount awarded will depend on the number and quality of the submissions. 3. Is this a contract or a grant? A: DARPA anticipates awarding cooperative agreements, contracts or other transactions under this BAA. Proposers may request the type of award instrument they would like. However, as noted in the BAA, the Government contracting officer shall have sole discretion to select award instrument type, regardless of instrument type proposed, and to negotiate all instrument terms and conditions with selectees. 4. How much time will there be between award notification and project kick off? A: This is largely dependent upon the level of detail provided in the proposal documentation of the selected team(s). DARPA hopes to negotiate and finalize awards with days of notification. 5. Will DARPA fund multi institution proposals through one prime contractor, or will they be funded in parallel? A: Each award will have a single prime awardee, who will be responsible for providing all reporting and deliverables. It is up to the prime to pull in the appropriate sub contractors for their effort. Program Structure 1. What is the anticipated start date? A: As stated at Proposers Day, DARPA anticipates an October 2018 program kickoff with the exact date TBD. 2. What do you envision will be the approach for projects that might not meet the timeline yet offer sufficient evidence that with extra time they could meet the requirements even better than some project that are within the timeline?

3 A: All proposals must fit within the timeline presented in the BAA, including all metrics, milestones, and deliverables at each phase of the program. Security 1. If the abstract contains CUI do we need to submit via hard copy/cd ROM? A: No, submissions may be uploaded using the BAA tool in those cases. 2. What elements of this program are ITAR restricted? A: Elements defined in ITAR regulations including Part 121, Category XI. 3. Can a classified abstract be submitted? A: Per BAA page 34, should a proposer wish to submit classified information, an unclassified must be sent to the BAA mailbox requesting submission instructions from the Technical Office PSO. If a determination is made that the award instrument may result in access to classified information, a SCG and/or DD Form 254 will be issued by DARPA and attached as part of the award. 4. Do study sites need to be in the U.S.? A: DARPA will consider foreign study sites on a case by case basis. Abstracts/Proposals 1. Are there any line spacing or margin requirements? A: There are no line spacing requirements. Standard 1 margins should be used. 2. Can you please clarify if resumes do or do not count against the page limit? A: Resumes do not count towards the page limit no more than two should be included with a proposal abstract submission. 3. For either/both volumes, are we allowed to put a table of contents in (without it counting against the page count)? A: Yes, for both volumes. 4. Should we provide letters of commitment from our subcontractors? A: Letters of commitment are not required. However, as stated in the BAA, all subcontractor cost proposal documentation must be prepared at the same level of detail as that required of the prime. 5. Is there a specific template for the Official Transmittal Letter referenced in Section or would a basic transmittal letter suffice? A: There is no specific template it should be a brief signed statement from an official at the institution acknowledging and endorsing the proposed research. A basic transmittal letter should suffice.

4 6. Where should proposal abstracts be submitted? And will late submissions be accepted? A: Proposal abstracts should be submitted by March 19, 2018 at no later than 4:00 PM ET. Late abstract submissions may not be reviewed. Abstracts are strongly encouraged and will receive feedback, but are not required to be considered for funding under the program. Therefore, proposers may still apply with full proposals without submitting an abstract. 7. What is the registration process for submission? Should the PI create his/her own account? A: We typically recommend that grants/research or contracts office create an account linked to a generic e mail address so that the login information can be shared throughout the entire department or workgroup and used to submit on behalf of any PI from the organization. However, the BAA Portal does not in any way restrict the number of registered users from a given organization (many times PIs wait until the last minute to upload and finalize submissions, so we need to allow for this). To that end, there is no required order to the registrations and there are no separate registration types (one for a PI/User and another for an Organization). 8. Can you clarify the level of detail required in the SOW and schedule at the abstract phase? A: High level the proposal abstract format (which does not include the SOW template or a standalone schedule) is detailed on pages of the BAA. 9. Are there any circumstances under which any extensions to the submission deadline(s) be given? A: The BAA states the following: "Proposals may be submitted irrespective of comments or feedback received in response to the abstract. Proposals are reviewed without regard to feedback given as a result of abstract review. For abstract submission dates, see Part I., Overview Information. Submissions received after these dates and times may not be reviewed." If the submission dates in the BAA are changed for any reason, this change would be announced in the form of an amendment posted to the Federal Business Opportunities website. 10. Are any other Grants.gov forms required in addition to the SF424? A: Yes, the Research and Related Senior/Key Person Profile form and the Research and Related Personal Data form are also required. Programmatic 1. Are non US organizations eligible for partner funding? A: As stated in the BAA, page 22: Non U.S. organizations and/or individuals may participate to the extent that such participants comply with any and all necessary nondisclosure agreements, security regulations, Government export controls and regulations, including the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR), export control laws, and other governing statutes applicable under the circumstances. For research categorized as Controlled

5 Unclassified Information (CUI), U.S. persons (green card holders) are authorized to participate, but foreign nationals are not. 2. Are the technical interchange meetings discussed on the milestones meant to be cross team, or within a particular performer team? A: Teams should budget for annual Principal Investigator meetings (TIMs), which will pull together representatives from all teams for a two day meeting at a TBD location mid phase. See section Meeting Travel Requirements for travel costing details. 3. Are FFRDCs/Government entities eligible to propose to this BAA? A: The FFRDC/Government entity should be able to provide their proof of eligibility to propose to the BAA. Such eligibility allows certain FFRDCs/Government entities to compete against industry under the terms of the BAA. Any FFRDC/Government entity seeking an intergovernmental agreement should not propose to the BAA but should respond to the DARPA Program Manager directly. Please refer to Section III.A.1 of the BAA for more information. 4. How do government labs demonstrate eligibility for proposal submission? What are the specific criteria? A: Per the BAA, DARPA will consider FFRDC and Government entity eligibility submissions on a case by case basis; however, the burden to prove eligibility for all team members rests solely with the proposer. 5. During Phase 2, will a test tank be made available that will enable a 500 meter standoff, in accordance with the program metrics? A: There are no test tanks that offer a 500 meter standoff, so this cannot be provided. Instead, proposers are encouraged to think about performing their development work in large aquarium type environments, with the expectation that their performance will ultimately be validated at 500 meters by the IV&V team. The test environment for the end of phase test will be an environment of the government team s choosing, in keeping with the proposed environment (shelf, riverine, littoral, or reef) used by the performer. Instead of testing in a tank, performers (with the exception of engineered organisms per the BAA) have the option of developing their system in these more open environments during any phase of the program. 6. Will all TA2 platform equipment surrendered to the IV&V team for Phase 2 and Phase 3 endof phase testing be returned after government testing? A: Yes, once the test period is completed, all systems surrendered to the IV&V / government team will be returned in a timely manner. 7. Who will review the proposals? Are they government researchers, university researchers, or both? A: DARPA will enlist a group of Government experts to conduct a scientific/technical review of each conforming proposal.

6 Technical 1. Can proposed efforts pursue detection of the source of semi submersible construction? A: Per BAA page 6, proposals are allowed to choose, as their target set, semi submersible manned underwater vehicles with minimum dimensions (DxL) of 2.0 meters x 12 meters, or signatures (e.g., chemical, biological, optical, acoustic) associated with the construction or operation of same. Proposals must provide sufficient detail to characterize their plans for detecting semi submersible construction, to include the type of signatures they will detect. 2. Can I use an active sensor as part of my TA2 system? A: Yes, as long as you meet the endurance and other metrics for the program. 3. What if my TA2 detector can directly detect the target? A: Proposals that directly detect the target with the TA2 engineered detector, without leveraging the increased standoff and sensing capabilities of a biological organism as the TA1 sensing element are not in scope with the BAA. This type of detection can be used for verification purposes only. 4. Does the proposed system need to purely leverage the biological sensor, or can it be combined with other transducers to reduce false alarms? A: Teams may use additional sensors to reduce false alarms, but the biological sensor must be the primary sensor for detecting test objects. Additionally, all teams are subject to the system power constraints presented in BAA Appendix How important is the 10 minute response time for delivery of alert after the test object has passed? A: The 10 minute constraint in Phase 2, and 5 minute constraint in Phase 3, are essential metrics for the program, and must be adhered to in order to maintain compliance with the program deliverables. The motivation for this processing timeline is driven by the need for near real time alerting of target presence. 6. Where the biological sensor is something sizable (e.g., school of fish, layer of plankton) in dimension, are the distances measured from the edge, center, other of the bio sensor cluster? A: Proposals must identify a reasonable datum point to define as the centroid of their organism, and present this discussion in their response in sufficient detail as to allow for consideration by the review team. 7. Can I mount my TA2 sensors to a mobile platform? A: Yes, unless your approach uses subsurface nodes as described in Appendix When integrating the TA1 and TA2 components, what are the system level concerns that must be addressed? Will these be covered by the government team?

7 A: The design of the packaged system is subject to the constraints described in BAA Appendix 2. Biological organisms are not to be transported for operation of the system these must be natively present. Any other support infrastructure for example, deployment RHIBs to emplace the surface buoy and possible subsurface nodes are not a focus of the program, and will be the responsibility of the performer to employ during their development work, or will be coordinated with the IV&V team during end of phase testing. 9. Are shrimp included in regulations for animal use testing? A: Current regulations (see IUCUC and DoD animal use guidance), do not list shrimp as animals under the designation of animal use testing. The types and animals that do fall under IACUC and DoD animal use protection should be studied by the performer as all necessary permits are the responsibility of the performer. 10. Can we integrate hardware with (e.g. directly onto, using tags) the biological organism of interest? A: As stated in BAA page 8, proposals involving the use of manually attached tags will be viewed less favorably than those employing proximal or remote sensing of the biological organism(s) and their behaviors. 11. Outside of mammals, are there any other restrictions on what kind of animal could we employ? A: Any marine life outside of marine mammals would be allowable, provided that it is compliant with animal use approval procedures detailed at withus/additional baa. 12. Is there a more generic definition of critical distance that doesn t accentuate or penalize relative placement of the target, bio sensor, and detector? A: The definition of standoff used in the BAA does not favor relative placement in any particular configuration between target, biological organism, and detector, with the caveat that the organism to target distance and detector to organism distance were each intended to be individually less than the detector to target distance. However, this is not a program metric or constraint, and it is possible to place the organism further from the target than the detector is. However, detector systems must leverage biological response as the primary means of detecting the target. 13. Are acceptable concepts limited to a single hop type of configuration as regards the biological senor? A: No teams may leverage multiple biological organisms in their chain of biological target signal transduction before reaching the TA2 detector system. In this case, distances between multiple biological sensors will be factored into the total standoff calculation. As long as the overall metrics for total standoff are met per the definitions in the BAA, this is an allowable solution.

8 14. Is there an expectation that the system performance must be the same over the course of the hardware lifetime? Can there be some performance degradation as a function of time to accommodate power sag, bio fouling, etc.? A: Per BAA page 14, Upon conclusion of the test window, the system must be fully functional, as demonstrated by the IV&V team. Teams should provide sufficient detail in their proposal to outline what degradation effects are to be anticipated during the 30 or 60 day endurance testing, and how this would still afford full functionality. 15. How do the endurance metrics for the biological sensor compare to the hardware endurance? Is the assumption that the biological sensor is infinitely persistent? What if the biological sensor element of the system migrates as a function of diurnal cycle, tidal cycle, seasonal cycle? A: Proposals should discuss the persistence of their biological organism, and any expected temporal variability in the biological signal, in sufficient detail as to outline the impact of these effects on achieving the program metrics. 16. Standoff distance is effectively a 1 dimensional value in the BAA. However, the biological sensor(s) will have the opportunity to move. So, in 2 dimensional space they will sweep out a region around the detector at a radius of the standoff range. Thus, a metric for consideration is area coverage. Taken further, the bio sensor(s) will also be able to move in the vertical. Thus, a metric for consideration is volume coverage. Does DARPA want to address either area or volume aspects of the system performance? A: For the purposes of this program, area and volumetric coverage, as well as their rates, will not be considered an official metric. 17. Does the proposed system need to work in all environments? A: No. Per BAA page 6, Proposers must also identify the environment or environments where their system will be deployed, taking into consideration the prevalence of their target biological sensory organism(s), as well as the operational characteristics of these environments. Teams should provide sufficient detail in their proposal to describe which of the four environments from Table 1 reef, strait, river outflow / estuary, and continental shelf / other will be applicable for the system s ultimate usage. 18. Does the proposed system need to detect all target types / classes? A: No. Per BAA page 6, systems must be capable of identifying and discriminating some (or all) of the following target types or classes: 1) small Unmanned Underwater Vehicles (UUVs) with minimum dimensions (DxL) of 0.3 meters x 2.7 meters, 2) semi submersible manned underwater vehicles with minimum dimensions (DxL) of 2.0 meters x 12 meters, or signatures (e.g., chemical, biological, optical, acoustic) associated with the construction or operation of same, 3) fully submersible manned vehicles (aka submarines) with minimum dimensions (DxL) 2.0 meters x 30 meters up to and including nuclear powered ballistic missile, and nuclear or diesel electric powered attack submarines. Preference will be given to approaches that accurately identify and discriminate the smallest size class targets listed

9 above. Teams should provide sufficient detail in their proposal to describe which target types or classes they intend to develop against. 19. How much detail on biocontainment for engineered organisms will need to be included in the project proposal? The assumption is that the sensor will be well contained, but the exact engineering design to achieve that might depend on the information that will be gained through projects that go ahead. A: Proposals must describe the biocontainment in sufficient detail to allow for a determination that the containment methods for that team s particular engineered organisms are suitable and within the scope of the BAA. The biocontainment solution proposed should not depend on any extrinsic information from outside of the proposal team. 20. Does DARPA prefer experimentation to be performed in biomes belonging to the U.S., or are foreign owned ecological test environments allowable? A: Yes, and yes. 21. What are the upper limits on the dimensions of a semi submersible vessel? A: No upper limits of a semi submersible are defined in the BAA. However, semi submersibles are near the surface of the water and therefore should be characterized by their location and size. 22. What kind of error is allowable on the target size reporting metric found on BAA page 13? A: No explicit definitions are provided for size reporting, although, at a minimum, this must allow for binning into one of three categories: UUV, semi submersible, or manned. These bins roughly correlate to 3 10 meters, meters, and meters, but are intended as a frame of reference. The exact bin sizes will be mutually agreed upon by the performer team, the IV&V team, and the government team, and will be contingent upon which target set the proposers are intending to develop against as part of their proposal. 23. Phases 2 and 3 of Table 3 suggest that the report content is target bearing. Yet, the text says that it is both target size (hold over from Phase 1) and target bearing. A: It is expected that alerting features will be cumulative in Phases 2 and 3, both target size and target bearing must be included in the alert reports. 24. Are the UUV targets associated with the BAA strictly limited to a specific class of vehicle? If so, how is that class constrained (e.g., speed of advance, maneuvering characteristics, method of propulsion, etc.)? A: No, The classification system defined by the metrics does not differentiate between the type (e.g. model) of the target. However, the target classification should differentiate between a UUV, semi submersible and/or submarine (in general). 25. What are the upper limits of the dimensions of a UUV?

10 A: No upper limits of a UUV are defined in the BAA. However, most UUVs do not exceed 18 meters. 26. Is acoustic imagine a valid approach? A: Yes, so long as biology is providing the input signal to the system. 27. If our proposal uses two or more complementary forms of marine organism sensing, would the performance metrics in Phases 1 and 2 be applied to both approaches or the combined approaches? A: Parallel sensing pathways that complement each other are not required to individually achieve the metrics on their own. The full end to end system must achieve all program metrics. 28. Can the TA2 sensors be mounted to the surface buoy above the water line? A: Yes, with sufficient justification as to why these sensors will meet the overall program metrics. 29. For the TA2 packaging described in Appendix 2, Pg. 48 of the BAA, can the off board platform components be at or above the sea surface? A: The intention of the program was to focus strictly on underwater sensing, which is why an underwater communications scheme is required if using off board components. This program will not fund research utilizing additional surface or airborne sensors as part of their TA2 approach.