BAA05-14 - Integrated Battle Command

The summary for the BAA05-14 - Integrated Battle Command grant is detailed below. This summary states who is eligible for the grant, how much grant money will be awarded, current and past deadlines, Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance (CFDA) numbers, and a sampling of similar government grants. Verify the accuracy of the data FederalGrants.com provides by visiting the webpage noted in the Link to Full Announcement section or by contacting the appropriate person listed as the Grant Announcement Contact. If any section is incomplete, please visit the website for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, which is the U.S. government agency offering this grant.

BAA05-14 - Integrated Battle Command: BROAD AGENCY ANNOUNCEMENT (BAA) 05-14 Integrated Battle Command; CLOSING DATE: 07 Feb 2006; FULL PROPOSALS FOR FIRST SELECTIONS: 12:00 Noon local Arlington, VA time on 24 March 2005. POC: Dr. John G. Allen, DARPA/ATO; Email: [email protected]; Web: http://www.darpa.mil/ato/solicit/IBC/index.htm PROGRAM OBJECTIVES AND DESCRIPTION: The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agencys (DARPA) Advanced Technology Office (ATO) is soliciting proposals under this BAA for the performance of research, development, design, and testing that directly supports the Integrated Battle Command (IBC) program. The IBC program will develop transformational decision-aid technologies to enhance the capability of commanders and staffs to plan and conduct joint effects-based operations in future campaigns. The decision aids will apply over the full continuum of near-simultaneous missions required in a campaign, to include major combat operations as well as various security, stability and reconstruction operations. Objectives: The decision aids will assist the commander and staff in generating, assessing and visualizing the consequences of employing diplomatic, military, information operations and economic (DIME) actions, singularly or in combinations, to achieve effects against the adversarys political, military (air, land and sea), economic, social, information and infrastructure (PMESII) systems. The decision aids will also assist the commander and staff in constructing, visualizing and evaluating campaign plans that exploit the impact of multi-dimensional effects and the interaction among effects. Technical Areas: The program will be conducted sequentially. Phase 1: Basal Capability Development will develop a minimal suite of tools with the functionality to visualize complex information and to predict and analyze action/effect relationships. The resulting capability will be evaluated by experimentation. Phase 2: Comprehensive Capability Development will expand the functionality of the Basal Capability to include the capability for generating effects-based plans; it will also refine and complete development of the overall capability. The resulting capability will be evaluated by experimentation. Specifically, Phase 1 will produce a basal capability with two tool kits: an Action/Effects Prediction and Analysis Tool Kit and a Visualization and Computer Interaction Tool Kit. The Action/Effects Prediction and Analysis Tool Kit will aid command center personnel in investigating the interactions between a nations PMESII systems and their susceptibility to DIME actions. The tools set will be bi-directional (action-to-effects or effect-to-actions) and bi-sided (model the adversary coalition/partners as well as the US coalition/partners). The Visualization and Computer Interaction Tool Kit will enable command center personnel to develop complex transforms and displays from existing databases and information/knowledge sources as well as to visualize the results of using the Action/Effects Prediction and Analysis Tool Kit by displaying Action/Effect linkages and their significance. Phase 2 will expand the functionality to include an Effects-based Planning Tool Kit to aid commanders and staffs in generating effects-based campaign plans. During Phase 2, the capabilities of the Visualization and Computer Interaction Tool Kit and the Action/Effects Prediction and Analysis Tool Kit developed in Phase 1, will be expanded and enhanced based on the experiments performed in Phase 1, and the need to support and interact with the Effects-based Planning Tool Kit. Go/No-Go Criteria: Contractor performance on this program will be determined by the use of Go/No-Go Criteria. The technologies developed under this program will be evaluated using human-in-the-loop experiments to estimate the value of performance metrics. The primary metrics are: Net Number of Favorable Effects Achieved Number of Predicted Unfavorable Actions and Effects. Specifically, we are interested in the increase in the value of these metrics due to employing the tools in contrast to not employing them. Thus, experiments will be conducted using two teams of players operating in parallel; one team will be advantaged with the automated decision support tools. Multiple teams of command center personnel will be employed in multiple experiment trials. A panel of government experts, as well as simulation will be used to evaluate and characterize the individual actions and effects. For Phase 1 and 2 of the program, the Go/No-Go Criteria are achievement of the following metric goals: Program Metrics Phase 1 Goal Phase 2 Goal Net Number of Favorable Effects Achieved 10:1 100:1 Number of Predicted Unfavorable Actions and Effects 10:1 100:1 The goals are defined as the ratio of the values of the metrics, measured for teams of command center personnel employing the tools, compared to teams not employing the tools. This BAA shall remain open for one (1) year from the date of publication on www.fedbizopps.gov and www.fedgrants.gov. Although the Government may select proposals for award at any time during this period, it is anticipated that the majority of funding for this program will be committed during the initial selections. Proposers may submit a full proposal in accordance with the instruction provided in the Proposer Information Pamphlet (PIP) at any time up to the proposal due date. In order to be considered during the initial round of funding, full proposals must be submitted to DARPA on or before 12:00 Noon local Arlington, VA time on 24 March 2005. DARPA will employ an electronic upload process for proposal submissions. Proposers may find submission guidance at http://www.darpa.mil/ato/solicitations/IBC/index.htm. Organizations must register at http://www.tfims.darpa.mil/baa to propose. Each proposal submitted requires a separate registration, so organizations wishing to submit multiple proposals should complete a single registration for each proposal. The deadline for registration is 10 March 2005 (2 weeks before the proposals are due). By registering, the Proposer has made no commitment to submit. Proposal submissions must be unclassified. All responsible sources capable of satisfying the Government's needs may submit a proposal that shall be considered by DARPA. Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and Minority Institutions (MIs) are encouraged to submit proposals and join others in submitting proposals. However, no portion of this BAA will be set aside due to the impracticality of reserving discrete or severable areas of this research for exclusive competition among these entities. This BAA affords proposers the choice of submitting proposals for the award of a Grant, Cooperative Agreement, Contract, Technology Investment Agreement, and Other Transaction for Prototype Agreement, or such other appropriate award instrument. The type of procurement or assistance vehicle is subject to negotiations. EVALUATION CRITERIA: Each proposal will be evaluated on its merit as it relates to the program rather than against other proposals for research in the same general area, since no common work statement exists. Proposals will be evaluated on the following factors, in order of importance: (a) General Technical Approach; (b) Technical Approach to Action/Effect Prediction and Analysis Tool Kit; (c) Technical Approach to Visualization and Computer Interaction Tool Kit; (d) Technical Approach to Effects-based Planning Tool Kit; (e) Technical Approach to Experimentation; (f) Management and Program Plan; (g) Potential Contribution and Relevance to the DARPA Mission; and (h) Cost Realism. In accordance with FAR 35.016(e), the primary basis for selecting proposals for award shall be technical, importance to agency programs, and funds availability. Cost realism and reasonableness shall also be considered to the extent appropriate as described herein. Proposals may be evaluated as they are received, or they may be collected and periodically reviewed. ADDITIONAL GUIDANCE: Proposers choosing to respond to this BAA must read the associated PIP available at www.fedbizopps.gov and www.fedgrants.gov, which provides specific information about this BAA, including instructions on how to respond.