MODIFICATION
A -- Tangram: A Fully Automated, Continuously Operating, Intelligence Analysis Support System
- Notice Date
- 4/11/2007
- Notice Type
- Modification
- NAICS
- 541710
— Research and Development in the Physical, Engineering, and Life Sciences
- Contracting Office
- Department of the Air Force, Air Force Materiel Command, AFRL - Rome Research Site, AFRL/Information Directorate 26 Electronic Parkway, Rome, NY, 13441-4514, UNITED STATES
- ZIP Code
- 00000
- Solicitation Number
- Reference-Number-BAA-06-04-IFKA
- Description
- The purpose of this modification is to republish the original announcement, incorporating all previous modifications, pursuant to FAR 35.016(c). This republishing also includes the following changes: (a) removal of the following evaluation criteria "consideration will be given to past and present performance on recent Government contracts, and the capacity and capability to achieve the objectives of this BAA", and (b) add Ombudsman information. No other changes have been made. NAICS CODE: 541710 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 TITLE: Tangram: A Fully Automated, Continuously Operating, Intelligence Analysis Support System ANNOUNCEMENT TYPE: Initial announcement. FUNDING OPPORTUNITY NUMBER: BAA # 06-04-IFKA CFDA Number: 12.800 DATES: It is recommended that white papers be received by the following dates to maximize the possibility of award: FY 06 should be submitted by 15 Dec 05; FY 07 by 1 Oct 06; FY 08 by 1 Oct 07 and, FY 09 by 1 Oct 08 and FY10 by 30 Sep 09. White papers will be accepted until 2pm Eastern time on 30 Sep 10, but it is less likely that funding will be available in each respective fiscal year after the dates cited. FORMAL PROPOSALS ARE NOT BEING REQUESTED AT THIS TIME. See Section V of this announcement for further details. I. FUNDING OPPORTUNITY DESCRIPTION: This BAA seeks research efforts that advance the state-of-the-art in the area of Intelligence and analytic support systems. The Intelligence Community and the Air Force routinely sponsor classified and unclassified research to advance the state of the art in intelligence and analytic support systems. To date, many of these programs have focused on developing systems, tools and algorithms to detect international terrorist activities and planned events of interest. By relying on highly accurate and analyst-vetted knowledge about known terrorists, groups, affiliations, and activities these tools and methods have proven to be very effective at tracking terrorist suspects and detecting their threat event intentions. In total, these programs have resulted in the development and evaluation of several methods of detecting and searching for patterns of terrorist behaviors, representing these behaviors in human and machine interpretable form and efficiently searching large data stores for evidence of known behaviors. Significant effort has been invested in improving the performance and scalability of the most promising algorithms, often resulting in two orders of magnitude increase in scalability and four orders of magnitude speed-up in compute time. However, the total production time for a single answer is currently measured in days and weeks. To have any demonstrable improvement in the intelligence process we need to provide answers in hours or minutes. Several fundamental challenges remain before the technology can be deployed broadly within the Intelligence Community. The four key challenges that define the essence of the Tangram program are: Reduce system and data configuration time of all automated entity and threat discovery processes by two orders of magnitude (100 x). Reduce threat entity and event discovery time by two orders of magnitude (100 x). Increase overall efficiency by three orders of magnitude and overall productivity by two orders of magnitude over current processes while delivering a consistently high intelligence value as determined by experienced analysts. Improve the detection of low observable threats and events where guilt by association assumptions may not apply. The fundamental technologies developed under previous programs have been evaluated through peer review and technical evaluations. There is no debate that these technologies are capable of filling an important void in the Intelligence Community's analytic arsenal. However, to achieve their potential, we must develop the processes, procedures and standards to deploy a fully automated, analytic system capable of processing tens of thousands of simultaneous analytic inquiries in an efficient and scalable manner. To achieve this, the data, algorithms, and computing resources must be flexible and adaptable. Essentially, the system must be self composing because of the variety and unpredictability of the questions to be answered. Tangram is unique in that it takes a systematic view of the process; applying what is now a set of disjointed technologies that are difficult for non-technical users to apply, cumbersome to configure into a self?configuring, continuously operating system. Tangram is envisioned as a fully automated, continuously operating, intelligence analysis support system that's capable of configuring itself to achieve a reasonable tradeoff between estimated intelligence value and cost, where: Analysis Support means the production of hypotheses representing an adversary's intentions, methods, logistics support or intended targets based on: 1) behavioral patterns, relationships or context that are expressed only in data and, 2) analyst feedback about prior hypotheses. Configuring itself means the system is aware of the data characteristics, algorithm capabilities and requirements, and hardware resources such that it can reason how best to produce an answer. Reasonable means good is enough, optimal is not required. Intelligence Value is a subjective score or estimate of the intelligence utility of a hypotheses produced by the system. Cost is the effort required to produce an answer and the opportunity cost of not producing a higher intelligence value product using the same system resources. This BAA seeks research efforts that advance the state-of-the-art in the following areas: 1) System Research, 2) Component Research, and 3) Gap Filling Research, and 4) System Evaluation Architecture (SEA). Additional details regarding these areas are detailed in the TANGRAM Proposer's Information Packet (PIP) and other documents which can be found at https://extranet.if.afrl.af.mil/programs/TANGRAM/TANGRAM-extra.html. Offerors wishing to propose in more than one area should submit separate white papers and proposals. II. AWARD INFORMATION: Total funding for this BAA is approximately $49M. The anticipated funding to be obligated under this BAA is broken out by fiscal year as follows: FY 06 - $8M; FY 07 - $12M; FY 08 - $12M; FY 09 - $12M; and FY10 - $5M. Offerors should make a genuine effort to estimate their actual costs for their research efforts and not attempt to use estimates of the number of awards and total program budget to guess at a realistic cost. When evaluating cost realism and reasonableness the Government will take this into consideration. For the System Research area, two awards are anticipated for a period not exceeding 48 months with go/no-go decisions at 24 months. However, the Government may consider a single System Research award to an offeror. Any exceptionally strong system prototype proposal that demonstrates a solid understanding of the problem, proposes a technical approach with well managed risks, has an exceptionally proven team and the capabilities to transition their technology into classified environments will be considered for a single award. Each award is not expected to be less than $3M per year. For the Component Research, awards will not normally exceed 24 months with dollar amounts ranging from $250K to $2M per year. For the System Evaluation Architecture (SEA), a single award not to exceed 48 months with dollar amounts ranging from $500K to $1.0M per year is anticipated. For the Gap Filling Research, awards will not normally exceed 48 months with dollar amounts ranging from $150K to $750K per year. The government plans to restrict the SEA award winner from also being awarded a System Research or Component Research award. Teaming: AFRL anticipates awards to integrated team(s) to achieve the desired technical capabilities for the System Research technical area, the Component Research areas, and the System Evaluation Architecture (SEA) area. Individual awards are anticipated for the Gap Filling Research areas. Teams may have any organizational structure capable of performing the work. However, when a team is structured, a specific individual and institution with overall responsibility for team performance must be identified. 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. The anticipated start date for the FY 06 efforts under the solicitation is May 2006. IV. ELIGIBILITY INFORMATION: 1. ELIGIBLE APPLICANTS: All potential applicants are eligible. Foreign or foreign-owned offerors are advised that their participation is subject to foreign disclosure review procedures. Foreign or foreign-owned offerors should immediately contact the contracting office focal point, Lori Smith, Contracting Officer, telephone (315) 330-1955 or e-mail Lori.Smith@rl.af.mil for information if they contemplate responding. The e-mail must reference the title and BAA 06-04-IFKA. 2. COST SHARING OR MATCHING: Cost sharing is not a requirement. V. APPLICATION AND SUBMISSION INFORMATION: 1. APPLICATION PACKAGE: THIS ANNOUNCEMENT CONSTITUTES THE ONLY SOLICITATION. WE ARE SOLICITING WHITE PAPERS ONLY. DO NOT SUBMIT A FORMAL PROPOSAL AT THIS TIME. 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. For additional information, a copy of the AFRL/Rome Research Site's "Broad Agency Announcement (BAA): A Guide for Industry," Aug 2005, may be accessed at: http://www.if.afrl.af.mil/div/IFK/bp-guide.doc. 2. CONTENT AND FORM OF SUBMISSION: Offerors are required to submit 3 copies of a 6-8 page white paper in PDF or Microsoft Word format 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: Section A: Title, Period of Performance, Estimated Cost of Task, Name/Address of Company, Technical and Contracting Points of Contact (phone, fax and email) and Category that is being bid; Section B: Task Objective; Section C: Technical Summary and Proposed Deliverables; and Section D: Project Management Plan. The Project Management Plan should describe how the offeror plans to manage the team (i.e., primes/subcontractor relationships or multiple research groups within a single institution, as applicable). Multiple white papers within the purview of this announcement may be submitted by each offeror. If the offeror wishes to restrict its white papers/proposals, they must be marked with the restrictive language stated in FAR 15.609(a) and (b). All white papers/proposals shall be single spaced with a font no smaller than 10 point. In addition, respondents are requested to provide their Commercial and Government Entity (CAGE) number. All responses to this announcement must be addressed to the technical POC, as discussed in paragraph five of this section. 3. SUBMISSION DATES AND TIMES: It is recommended that white papers be received by the following dates to maximize the possibility of award: FY 06 by 15 Dec 05; FY 07 by 1 Oct 06; FY 08 by 1 Oct 07; FY 09 by 1 Oct 08, and FY 10 by 30 Sep 09. White papers will be accepted until 2:00 p.m. Eastern time on 30 Sep 10, but it is less likely that funding will be available in each respective fiscal year after the dates cited. FORMAL PROPOSALS ARE NOT BEING REQUESTED AT THIS TIME. 4. FUNDING RESTRICTIONS: 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 the DoD Grant and Agreements Regulations (DODGARS). 5. OTHER SUBMISSION REQUIREMENTS: DO NOT send proposals or white papers to the Contracting Officer. All responses to this announcement must be addressed to ATTN: Deborah Cerino, AFRL/IFED, 525 Brooks Road, Rome, NY 13441. Respondents are required to provide their Dun & Bradstreet (D&B) Data Universal Numbering System (DUNS) number with their submittal and reference BAA-06-04-IFKA. Electronic submission to BAA0604@rl.af.mil will also be accepted. VI. APPLICATION REVIEW INFORMATION: 1. CRITERIA: The following criteria, which are listed in descending order of importance, 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: (1) Overall Scientific and Technical Merit - Including understanding the problem, the approach for the development and/or enhancement of the proposed technology, integration approach, and appropriate levels of readiness at yearly intervals, (2) Related Experience - The extent to which the offeror demonstrates relevant technology and domain knowledge, (3) Openness/Maturity of Solution - The extent to which existing capabilities and standards are leveraged and the relative maturity of the proposed technology in terms of reliability and robustness, and (4) Cost Realism, Reasonableness, and Project Management Plan - The overall estimated costs should be clearly justified and appropriate for the technical complexity of the effort. Evaluation will consider the value of the research to the government and the extent to which the proposed management plan details the capabilities necessary to effectively manage the team and allocate resources to achieve the capabilities proposed. No further evaluation criteria will be used in selecting white papers/proposals. Individual white papers/proposals will be evaluated against the evaluation criteria without regard to other white papers and proposals submitted under this BAA. White papers and proposals submitted will be evaluated as they are received. 2. REVIEW AND SELECTION PROCESS: 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, or 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 administrative access must be in writing to the Contracting Officer and shall include a detailed statement of the basis for the objection. VII. AWARD ADMINISTRATION INFORMATION: 1. AWARD NOTICES: Those white papers found to be consistent with the intent of this BAA may be invited to submit a technical and cost proposal. Notification by email or letter will be sent by the technical POC. Such invitation does not assure that the submitting organization will be awarded a contract. Those white papers not selected to submit a proposal will be notified in the same manner. Prospective offerors are advised that only Contracting Officers are legally authorized to commit the Government. All offerors submitting white paper/proposals will be contacted by the technical POC, referenced in Section VIII of this announcement. Offerors can email the technical POC for status of their white paper/proposal no earlier than 45 days after whitepaper/proposal submission. 2. ADMINISTRATIVE AND NATIONAL POLICY REQUIREMENTS: Depending on the work to be performed, the offeror may require a SECRET facility clearance and safeguarding capability; therefore, personnel identified for assignment to a classified effort must be cleared for access to SECRET information at the time of award. In addition, the offeror may be required to have, or have access to, a certified and Government-approved facility to support work under this BAA. Data subject to export control constraints may be involved and only firms holding certification under the US/Canada Joint Certification Program (JCP) (www.dlis.dla.mil/jcp) are allowed access to such data. AFRL intends to team with one or more U.S. intelligence agencies, and may desire that proposers selected for award would perform in collaboration with those agencies. Key Performers of prospective awardees whose activities would involve collaboration with the Intelligence Community must hold a current Top Secret Department of Defense (DoD) clearance and be approved for access to Sensitive Compartmented Information (SCI), or be eligible for the timely granting of such clearance and access. A sufficient number of non-key performers to enable the effective accomplishment of the proposed research effort must also hold a Top Secret DoD clearance with SCI access, or be eligible for the timely granting of such clearance and access. In addition, prospective awardees whose activities would be associated with the Intelligence Community must also possess a current DoD Top Secret Facility clearance and an approved SCI Facility (SCIF). Proposers desiring consideration for awards involving collaboration with the Intelligence Community shall identify key personnel and enabling support staff satisfying the above Top Secret DoD clearance and SCI access requirement; shall certify their DoD Top Secret Facility clearance; and, shall detail their organization's approach to maintaining separation of unclassified and classified activities, and controlling need-to-know. 3. REPORTING: Once a proposal has been selected for award, offerors will be required to submit their reporting requirement through our web-based reporting system known as JIFFY. Prior to award the offeror will be given complete instructions regarding its use. VIII. AGENCY CONTACTS: Questions of a technical nature shall be directed to the cognizant technical point of contact, as specified below: Deborah Cerino Telephone: (315) 330-1445 Email: BAA0604@rl.af.mil Electronic submission preferred Questions of a contractual/business nature shall be directed to the cognizant contracting officer, as specified below: Lori Smith Telephone (315) 330-1955 Email: Lori.Smith@rl.af.mil The email must reference the title and solicitation number of the acquisition. In accordance with AFFARS 5315.90, an Ombudsman has been appointed to hear and facilitate the resolution of concerns from offerors, potential offerors, and others for this acquisition announcement. Before consulting with an ombudsman, interested parties must first address their concerns, issues, disagreements, and/or recommendations to the contracting officer for resolution. AFFARS Clause 5352.201-9101 Ombudsman (Aug 2005) will be incorporated into all contracts awarded under this BAA. The AFRL Ombudsman is as follows: Susan Hunter AFRL/PK 1864 Fourth Street, Suite 1 Wright-Patterson AFB OH 45433-7131 (937) 255-7754 All responsible organizations may submit a white paper which shall be considered.
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