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Description

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s (DARPA) Strategic Technology Office (STO) is soliciting proposals under this RA for IAMANET. The objective of the IAMANET program is to develop an intrinsically assurable mobile ad-hoc network. An intrinsically assurable mobile ad-hoc network will directly support integrity, availability, reliability, confidentiality, safety, and non-repudiation of MANET communications and data. In contrast, the dominant Internet paradigm is intrinsically insecure. For example, the Internet does not deny unauthorized traffic by default and therefore violates the principle of least privilege. In addition, there are no provisions for accountability and therefore adversaries can probe for vulnerabilities with impunity because the likelihood of attributing bad behavior to an adversary is limited. Finally (although not exhaustively) existing protocols are not robust to byzantine failures and malicious behavior, leaving entire Internet-based systems vulnerable in the case of defensive failure. The broad objectives of the IAMANET program are to address these Internet-paradigm problems and related challenges such as: increasing the probability that bad behavior will be detected; increasing work factor and uncertainty for an adversary; and explicitly identifying a minimal set of critical components that must be deeply evaluated and protected from lifecycle attacks.

DARPA RA 07-33 will solicit only Phase 1 of the IAMANET program. Phase 1 is Research, design, prototyping, and demonstration of network infrastructure and applications. This task will concern primarily the applications, the intrinsically assurable network infrastructure, and any necessary Application Programming Interfaces (APIs). Key security responses of the assurable network infrastructure are expected to involve authenticating and accounting for the use of all network resources, denying all but authorized traffic, and tolerating byzantine (other-than-fail-stop) failures from one or more network nodes and applications. Dynamic reconfiguration, re-provisioning, and reconstitution may also be responses of the network infrastructure.

DARPA requests proposals for the full scope of development (e.g., an end-to-end system designed by a team of multidisciplinary research organizations, plus an integrator for coordination and implementation support). Proposals addressing only individual component-level technologies will be considered nonresponsive to this RA.

This RA shall remain open for one (1) year from the date of publication on www.grants.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 at any time up to the RA closing date. In order to be considered during the initial round of funding, full proposals must be submitted to DARPA, 3701 North Fairfax Drive, Arlington, VA 22203-1714 (Attn.: RA 07-33) on or before 4:00 p.m. (local Arlington VA time), June 27, 2007. (NOTE: University (prime) grant submissions may be made via the Grants.gov web site, http://grants.gov by using the “apply for Grants” functions. Dual submissions are not required.)

ELIGIBLE PROPOSERS: DARPA has determined that it is in the national interest to support a new generation of researchers who will become deeply familiar with technical issues of strategic importance to the Department of Defense. Therefore, this solicitation is targeted specifically at the community of “Early-Career Investigators”. For purposes of this RA, an “Early-Career Investigator” is defined to be a researcher who meets all of the following criteria:

• Holds a tenure-track faculty position at a U.S. institution of higher learning;
• Is not tenured as of the date this proposal is due, i.e., June 27, 2007;
• Was awarded a PhD no earlier than January 1, 1998; and
• Received a first appointment as faculty member no earlier than January 1, 1998.

Given this definition, the proposal teams that are eligible to apply to this RA comprise teams of grant institutions in which the principals meet the Early Career Investigator definition. The proposal team shall be in an organizational structure that allows for efficient communication with DARPA and performance of proposal team responsibilities. It is recognized that the proposal team may utilize non-proposal team members as sub awardees for certain aspects of the proposed work. However, for Phase 1, the Early Career Investigators must be responsible for the overall effort, be the source of all technical direction, and perform a majority of the research effort. Proposals with excessive or gratuitous industry involvement will be considered noncompliant.

This RA affords proposers the choice of submitting proposals for the award of a Grant, Cooperative Agreement, Technology Investment Agreement, Other Transaction for Prototype Agreement, or such other appropriate award instrument. The type of procurement or assistance vehicle is subject to negotiation.

The Government intends to issue awards based on the optimum combination of proposals that offer the best overall value to the Government. The Government reserves the right to award without discussion. The Government reserves the right to select for award all, some, or none of the proposals received in response to this RA. The Government also reserves the right to select for award some portion(s) of the proposals received; in that event, the Government may select for negotiation all, or portions, of a given proposal. The Government may incrementally fund any award issued under this RA.

EVALUATION CRITERIA: The criteria to be used to evaluate and select proposals for this project are described in detail in the IAMANET PIP. Each proposal will be evaluated on the merit and relevance of the specific proposal as it relates to the program rather than against other proposals for research in the same general area, since no common work statement exists. In descending order of importance, the proposal Evaluation Criteria includes: (A) technical and architectural approach; (B) assurability of the proposed solution; (C) management approach and qualifications of the key individuals; (D) constructive plan / research agenda realism; (E) potential contribution and relevance to the DARPA mission; and (F) cost and schedule reasonableness and 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 and schedule reasonableness and realism shall also be considered to the extent appropriate as described in the PIP. Proposals may be evaluated as they are received, or they may be collected and periodically reviewed.

SECURITY: Although Phase 1 of this program is currently planned to be unclassified, aspects of subsequent phases will be classified. Proposers to Phase 1 must intend to participate in subsequent phases, and will be expected to outline the means whereby they will be able to continue work in subsequent phases. Proposals not addressing this requirement will be considered noncompliant. This means, at a minimum, that the prime contractor/grantee in Phase 2 and beyond must be a U.S. based institution holding a current facility clearance. Phase 1 proposers will be expected to describe the management plan and a division of labor that will permit the team to propose to subsequent program phases. The prime contractor or grantee will be expected to comply with any necessary Non-Disclosure Agreements, Security Regulations, Export Laws, and other governing statutes that may become applicable. See Paragraph 3.7 of the IAMANET PIP for related information.

ADDITIONAL GUIDANCE: Additional information regarding program objectives, anticipated schedule, technical milestone criteria, and proposal preparation and submittal is provided in the IAMANET PIP. Proposers choosing to respond to this RA must obtain the IAMANET PIP. You can access these documents at www.grants.gov. This RA and PIP together constitute the full RA for this project.

NOTE: Do not contact the contracting officer identified below with respect to this announcement. All questions should be sent to IAMANET-solicitation@darpa.mill