HR001117S0039 Lagrange BAA Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) (as of 08/17/17) The Proposers Day webcast may be viewed by clicking on the Proposers Day Slides link under the Lagrange BAA on the DARPA/DSO Opportunities website. 28Q: There is a request for a transmittal letter in Attachment 4, Item 1, but no mention of it in either the Lagrange BAA or the FAQ. Is the transmittal letter required for the proposal, and if so, does the description of it in the Improv FAQ from 4/29/16 apply to the Lagrange transmittal letter? 28A: An official transmittal letter is a brief, signed statement on the prime proposer s organization letterhead from an authorized person within that organization acknowledging/endorsing the proposed research. The letter is mandatory for all proposals but there is no required template. 27Q: The BAA indicates for Appendix A, item (1), Team Member Identification, to provide a list of all team members and to identify whether each is a non US organization or individual. Please clarify the meaning of non U.S. for individuals does that mean non-citizen, nonresident of US? 27A: For the purposes of the BAA, a non-u.s. individual is an individual who is not a citizen of the U.S. See Section III.A.2 of the BAA. 26Q: We are planning to prepare the Technical and Management Volume in LaTeX in the required format as described in Attachment 4 and then converting it to a final PDF document. Is this acceptable? 26A: Section IV.B of the BAA lists the acceptable file formats (which includes PDF). Also see Q/A #13. New Q/A 25Q: If our abstract is a bit past the July 6 deadline, can we still receive feedback? 25A: Only those abstracts submitted in accordance with the BAA requirements will receive feedback. 24Q: Does Lagrange allow a postdoctoral fellow to be considered as a team member? If so, is there a limit to the requested funding for the postdoctoral fellow for the duration of the effort? 24A: There are no issues with considering a postdoctoral fellow to be considered as a team member. The level of funding requested for any team member should be commensurate with their level of research work and tasks. 23Q: To prepare the budget for our abstract, we would like to know whether the agreement will be a contract or a cooperative agreement - the F&A rates are different. 23A: Per the BAA, Section II.A, the award instrument for each effort will depend upon the nature of the work proposed, the required degree of interaction between parties, the Agreement type requested, and other factors. HR001117S0039 - FAQs 1
22Q: The program seems to be open to industry, but is there any problem with having both PIs from an industrial research lab. 22A: There are no restrictions on the number of PIs from an industrial research labs. Also see Q/A #3. 21Q: We are thinking of asking for a total of 12 months salary to be shared between two of us during the 18-month period. Is this reasonable? In addition, we were also thinking of hiring a summer intern for 10-12 weeks during the course of the project. Again, do you think this is reasonable? 21A: You need to justify the requested budget in terms of the proposed tasks. If it will take a total of 12 months salary and a summer intern s support to perform the research tasks you propose and you can justify this in your proposal, that would be considered a realistic budget. See the Cost Realism evaluation criterion in Section V.A of the BAA. 20Q: My colleague and I are planning to submit an abstract for the Lagrange program. We are wondering if we should both submit the abstract separately thru our accounts or if one submission (done by either of us) is enough. 20A: If you and your colleague are planning to collaborate on one project, then only one abstract on the proposed project should be submitted. Also see Q/A #9. 19Q: The Lagrange BAA specifically excludes heuristic optimization algorithms from consideration; however, many stochastic methods of optimization, such as evolutionary, particle swarm or simulated annealing (of particular interest for nonconvex problems), are characterized as heuristic because their convergence cannot be proven. Would it be acceptable to propose proofs for the expectation and variance of convergence for a stochastic algorithm that deterministically might be considered heuristic? 19A: If convergence proofs are provided for heuristic stochastic algorithms and, in doing so, the theory and algorithms in optimization are advanced, then proposing these methodologies is acceptable. 18Q: Would you clarify the abstract's bibliography section. In particular, (1) how are the links to relevant references, etc., supposed to be specified (e.g., by the URL alone, or the URL + other attributes such as title and/or authors?); (2) how should the abstract deal with resumes of key personnel that may not be publicly available (this is the case for most industry and government team members) and therefore cannot be linked to? Would it be possible, for instance, to provide such resumes as supplements to the Bibliography section, which do not count towards the section's 2-page limit? 18A: (1) URL+ other attributes will be helpful in identifying and locating the references. (2) If the resumes of the key personnel are not publicly available, then a short description of their expertise in the Capabilities/Management Plan or Bibliography sections is acceptable as long as the listed page limits for the overall abstract and for the bibliography are not exceeded. The point of including the resumes at the abstract submission level is to gauge the expertise of the proposers to the proposed tasks. Just a short description would suffice. HR001117S0039 - FAQs 2
17Q: I have recently received an award under a different DARPA program to conduct a feasibility study related to mathematical methods and developing optimization for engineering design. While this effort is studying the feasibility, I believe that formulating a robust method tailored to engineering design and adding a new element of stochasticity/uncertainty would be well suited for the Lagrange program. However, since I have already received funding for the feasibility study, would this proposal be considered ineligible for funding under the Lagrange BAA? 17A: Work that builds on the work performed during a previously funded effort may be submitted to this BAA, with the understanding that the same work may not receive overlapping funding. For both abstract and proposal submissions, proposers must disclose whether the proposed concept has already been submitted to another solicitation. Also see Q/A #7. 16Q: Dynamic adaption of optimization appears to be a critical element of the program. I am not sure how to understand dynamics in the context of engineering structure and material design. Please clarify. 16A: Not all the attributes of the optimization problems mentioned in the BAA can be considered in all the possible application areas. In the area of engineering structure and material design, if dynamical modeling of structures and materials is not considered, then other attributes of the problem such as high-dimensionality, non-convexity, or datadriven approaches (reconstructing models based on data) could be considered. 15Q: Many words are used to describe the characteristic of the optimization problem - highdimensional, dynamic, data-driven, nonlinear, non-convex, both continuous and discrete, uncertainty and multiscale. Which of these characteristics of optimization do you consider critical that the proposal MUST address? I am presuming that you are expecting the proposal to address some combination of these characteristics and not all. Please clarify. 15A: It was mentioned in the Proposers Day webcast that not all these properties can be considered at the same time. We have not reached the level of addressing all these complexities in optimization. What is suggested is a modular approach to formulation of the problem and research tasks where a subset of the suggested characteristics as appropriate for the chosen problem can be considered in the early stages of the research and then more complexity can be added to the models and the optimization approaches as the research advances. Of the characteristics mentioned in the BAA, dealing with high-dimensionality and non-convexity of large-scale optimization is of utmost importance. To deal with realistic problems, one needs to consider uncertainty in both data and models. New Q/A 14Q: Could you clarify that the program lasts exactly 18 months, so any budget we create must last exactly the period January 1, 2018 June 30, 2019? 14A: Lagrange is a single phase, 18-month program. Per Section I.F of the BAA, proposers must provide a technical and programmatic strategy (i.e., work plan) that conforms to the entire 18-month program schedule and presents an aggressive plan to fully address all program goals, metrics, milestones and deliverables. The task structure HR001117S0039 - FAQs 3
must be consistent across the proposed schedule, Statement of Work, and cost volume. For planning and budgetary purposes, proposers should assume a program start date of January 1, 2018. 13Q: The Abstract Template for Lagrange is provided as a docx file. Is it acceptable to use Latex to prepare our submission, as long as we retain the same section structure as required in the template? 13A: Per the language in the Abstract Template (Attachment 2 to the BAA), the use of the template is mandatory for all abstract submission to the BAA and must include all components. It must be submitted in.pdf,.odx, doc., or docx format. If the resultant submission you create in other programs can be submitted in one of the four accepted formats, and included the mandatory information in the template, it should be acceptable. 12Q: May a collaborator be listed as a Co-PI, or does it have to be senior personnel from the same institution? 12A: Collaborators could be from the same institution or others. They would count as the (senior) performers on the team. 11Q: Does this program fall into the category of the seedling/advanced seedling tiered approach of other DARPA programs? Do you have suggestions for the amount of funding we can expect, or a ceiling that we should avoid going over when we develop a budget for the Lagrange program? Do you have a range suggested for the Budget? 11A: Lagrange is a full-fledged program but only for one phase of 18 months. There are no official guidelines regarding the range or caps for the budget, but the suggested team size (no more than 3-4 PIs) from universities and/or small companies should give an idea about the budgetary constraints. Per Section II.A of the BAA, the level of funding for individual awards will depend on the quality of the proposals and the availability of funds. Also see Q/A #10. 10Q: In the webinar, you stated that you anticipated small teams of no more than three or four PIs. Do graduate students count as a PI or in the number of team members? May we use the funds for one or two graduate students in addition to the three to four senior researchers? May a PI be on more than one proposal team? 10A: The graduate students do not count as a PI. Cost proposals should include all team members (i.e., supporting graduate students and postdocs in addition to the senior researchers). The budget should be realistic and justified with respect to the research tasks and plans. A PI could be on more than one proposing team. Also see Q/A #7. 9Q: Is there a limit on the number of abstracts that a prospective proposer may submit for the Lagrange program? 9A: There is no restriction on the number of abstracts that a proposer may submit. 8Q: Is it required that we have one specific domain, or can we work on multiple domains within our proposal? 8A: The proposing teams could work on multiple domains if they are able to justify that in their milestones and metrics for the 18-month period of performance. HR001117S0039 - FAQs 4
7Q: If I am a PI on other DARPA awards, does this have any impact on my proposing to this BAA? 7A: The only anticipated impact is your availability for the proposed research. Taking into account your other commitments, you must be available to perform the research for the time you are proposing in your Lagrange proposal. 6Q: Is the program funding for Lagrange considered 6.1 or 6.2? 6A: Lagrange funding is 6.1. 5Q: What is the deadline for proposal submission? 5A: Full proposals are due on August 30, 2017 at 4:00 PM (Eastern). See Section IV.C for specific information related to BAA deadlines. 4Q: Are Government/National laboratories eligible to send proposals? What eligibility justification are we required to provide? 4A: Per Section III.A.1.b. of the BAA, Government Entities (e.g., Government/National laboratories, military educational institutions, etc.) are subject to applicable direct competition limitations. 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. This information is required for Government Entities proposing to be awardees or subawardees. 3Q: The webcast mentioned that the program is for Universities, Government Labs, and Small Businesses, as it is basic research. Will a proposal from a Large Business or Industry be given due consideration? Are Large Businesses/Industry discouraged from submitting a proposal against this BAA? May a large company participate as a team member? 3A: Lagrange is a small 6.1 program, which might discourage large business or industry teams from participating due to their larger overhead and expense; however, that is not DARPA s intent. Large businesses are welcome to submit proposals either as part of a team or on their own. 2Q: Is it necessary to be located in the US to be eligible for the Lagrange program? Are proposers from outside of the US eligible? If a collaborative proposal is submitted between a US organization and a foreign organization, would this be considered in the same way as a completely US based proposal? What does Foreign Nationals mean? Does Foreign National include foreign nationals at foreign academic institutions? To what extent can a foreign institution be involved in the proposal? If a PI does not have a Green Card, is he eligible? 2A: Per Section III.A.2 of the BAA, non-u.s. organizations and/or individuals may participate to the extent that such participants comply with any necessary nondisclosure agreements, security regulations, export control laws, and other governing statues applicable under the circumstances. This applies to all members of a proposing team, i.e., team members may be all U.S. entities, all non-u.s., or a mixture of both. 1Q: Is this a truly open competition? HR001117S0039 - FAQs 5
1A: Yes. Per Section III.A of the BAA, all responsible sources capable of satisfying the Government's need may submit a proposal for DARPA's consideration. HR001117S0039 - FAQs 6