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Solicitation Information
Solicited Proposals
Small Business Innovation Research Program
Unsolicited Proposals
Solicited
Proposals
DARPA solicits R&D work
primarily through advertising in the FedBizOpps and the DoD SBIR
Program Solicitation. The FedBizOpps is a GSA service in which all
Federal procurements over $25,000 in value are synopsized.
Information on DARPA solicitations can also be obtained by going to
the Solicitations section of the DARPA Home
Page, and through the Technical Office
Home Pages. FedBizOpps is available on-line at www.fedbizopps.gov.
Below are directions on how to locate DARPA solicitations on
the FedBizOps Web page:
1. Point your browser to http://www.fedbizopps.gov
2. Click on "Opportunities" on the
top menu bar
3. Type "DARPA" in the Keywords/SOL form
field
4. Select the Posted Date drop down menu to filter
posting date
5. Select go
Or, you can search in a variety of
ways using the FedBizOpps "Advanced Search"
feature, located at https://www.fbo.gov/?s=opportunity&tab=search&mode=list.
Solicitations in the FedBizOpps may
be Broad Agency Announcements (BAA), Requests For Proposals (RFP),
Sources-Sought Announcements (SSA), or Special Research
Announcements (SRA). The BAA provides a general description of a
particular DARPA program, identifies broad evaluation criteria, and
solicits proposals for participation in that program. An RFP
provides a more specific statement of work, contract deliverables,
and evaluation criteria for Government selection. The SSA or SRA
provide advance notice of DARPA's interest in a particular area of
technology and are a vehicle through which DARPA may develop
competition within a technology area or survey the market for
potential qualified offerors.
DARPA awards are aimed at projects.
While contractors may think in terms of contracts, at DARPA we tend
to think in terms of projects, collections of contracts and thrusts
with a common theme often encompassing several offices and program
managers. It is important to differentiate between projects and
programs. Projects focus on a common objective or idea; they have a
beginning and end, and a specific, hoped-for result that may have
very high risk. Programs, by contrast, emphasize particular academic
disciplines or general technologies and tend to be very open-ended.
While the selection of program proposals often places heavy emphasis
on previous publication histories and peer review, DARPA's selection
of projects regards these less heavily. DARPA tries to distinguish
itself as an agency that is based almost entirely on good ideas with
clear, exceptionally beneficial consequences. It sponsors projects,
not programs.
A major task of the program manager
is to create new projects. They need your help. Only about one in
three good new project ideas in DARPA are funded. Historically, about
half of new project ideas are internally generated and about half
are proposed from outside DARPA. About 20 percent of DARPA's
projects are ramped down each year and new projects, perhaps in
quite different technical areas, are started to take their place.
DARPA can, when appropriate, provide substantial funding, but we do
not fund any technical program area in perpetuity. A DARPA project
requires: good technical ideas, contractors who can do the work,
customers for the program results, a sufficient budget, and a
program manager. If there is no DARPA project in your area, the odds
of being able to support your proposed work are small.
You can reach a particular program
manager via the "Directory of DARPA Technical
Staff" link on our Home Page. Alternately, you can send
e-mail to webmaster@darpa.mil or contact the DARPA General
Information Line, at (703) 526-6630.
Because we understand that
proposals involve enormous work and expense, many DARPA
solicitations encourage a white paper or abstract submission.
This allows us to give prompt feedback to the proposer on the
likelihood of a proposal being selected. Historically, about
one-third of the white papers DARPA receives results in a
recommendation for full proposal submission. Of these, about
one-third are funded. Regardless of white paper recommendation,
proposers always have the option of submitting a full proposal.
Direct contact with program managers (before a solicitation is
issued) is encouraged. Telephone calls, e-mail, fax, and
"snail-mail" can all be used. Submission of "blind
proposals" (i.e., submission without any prior discussion with
a program manager) is greatly discouraged because the chance that
such a submission will reach the correct customer is not good.
A typical selection process for a
$200,000/year contract is:
1) The program manager solicits proposal abstracts and white papers.
2) Proposal abstracts are reviewed by the program manager and
non-binding feedback is given to the proposer.
3) The program manager and additional procurement officials review
proposals according to the evaluation criteria in the solicitation.
4) Selectable proposals are examined for potential impact on
achieving the DARPA program goals. (Think of this as an inner
product between scientific quality and relevance to the program and
DARPA mission.) Proposals should include a plan for technical
success and a plausible transition plan that gets the developed
technology and products into the market place. 5) A subset of the
selectable proposals are selected based on step 4 and funds
availability. The contract negotiation process is initiated.
DARPA receives some hundreds of
meters of proposal material per year and the number of proposals per
contract dollar is increasing. Each program manager receives several
meters of proposal material. It is imperative that your proposal
begin by highlighting its key technical idea(s). If it is not
apparent in the first three pages, it may well be missed. We want
your great ideas, but you can help by presenting them succinctly and
well.
DARPA has very active Small
Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology
Transfer (STTR) Programs, with estimated budgets of $45M and $2.5M
respectively, each year. This money is used for DARPA's internal
SBIR/STTR Programs. DARPA's SBIR/STTR Phase I awards are limited to
$99,000 and Phase II proposals must be structured as follows: the
first 10-12 months (base effort) should be approximately $375,000;
the second 10-12 months of incremental funding should also be
approximately $375,000. The entire Phase II effort should generally
not exceed $750,000. Small businesses with strong research and
development capabilities in science or engineering are encouraged to
submit SBIR/STTR proposals related to DARPA topics. DARPA
participates in the semi-annual DoD SBIR Program solicitations, and
the annual DoD STTR Program solicitation. The solicitation manuals,
listing the requirements of participating DoD components, are
automatically mailed to those on the DoD SBIR/STTR Help Desk mailing
list. The DoD SBIR/STTR Help Desk may be reached at 866-724-7457 or http://www.acq.osd.mil/sadbu/sbir/help/helpdesk.htm. Please note that DARPA does not maintain a
separate mailing list for the SBIR/STTR Programs.
The Competition in Contracting Act and President
Bush encourages competition. Please refer to www.darpa.mil "Solicitations" and look at the
seven Technical Offices Broad Agency Announcements (BAAs). BAAs encourage unique and innovative ideas. Additionally, technical dialogues are invited. If your idea is relevant, you will be encouraged to submit a short white
paper before a formal proposal is developed. If your ideas do not fit into any of our BAAs, then you should try another agency within the Department of Defense. For additional information contact Connie Jacobs,
connie.jacobs@darpa.mil.
Last Updated: November 23, 2007
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