SOLICITATION NOTICE
A -- Characterization Studies for Biological Threat Agents - BAA 13-008
- Notice Date
- 12/14/2012
- Notice Type
- Combined Synopsis/Solicitation
- NAICS
- 541712
— Research and Development in the Physical, Engineering, and Life Sciences (except Biotechnology)
- Contracting Office
- Office of the Chief Procurement Officer, Washington, District of Columbia, 20528, United States
- ZIP Code
- 20528
- Solicitation Number
- BAA13-008
- Point of Contact
- Aaron H. Ford, Phone: 202-254-6302
- E-Mail Address
-
Aaron.Ford@dhs.gov
(Aaron.Ford@dhs.gov)
- Small Business Set-Aside
- N/A
- Description
- Final Copy of BAA 13-008 INTRODUCTION: This solicitation is a Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) as contemplated in Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) 6.102(d)(2) and 35.016 to provide for competitive selection of research proposals. A formal Request for Proposal (RFP) will not be issued. Contracts based upon the responses to this BAA are considered to be the result of full and open competition and are in full compliance with the provisions of Public Law (PL) 98-369 "The Competition in Contracting Act of 1984." Awards issued under this BAA are planned in Fiscal Year (FY) 2013. No contract awards or other instruments that obligate funds will be made until appropriated funds are available from which payment for contract purposes can be made. DESCRIPTION OF RESEARCH OPPORTUNITY: The Homeland Security Act of 2002 (Public Law 107-296) states that DHS S&T will "support basic and applied homeland security research to promote revolutionary changes in technologies; advance the development, testing and evaluation, and deployment of critical homeland security technologies; and accelerate the prototyping and deployment of technologies that would address homeland security vulnerabilities." Pursuant to this mission, the Chemical and Biological Defense Division (CBD) seeks technologies to prevent and defend against a chemical and biological attack. Within the CBD is the Threat Characterization and Attribution (TCA) Branch, which has the mission to conduct threat and risk assessments on both traditional and advanced agents; characterize biological threats, provide scientific support to the biodefense, chemical defense and intelligence communities. The Biological Threat Characterization Program (BTCP) supports the TCA Branch within CBD of DHS S&T. The BTCP has been established to characterize biological threats to support the four pillars of biodefense as outlined in HSPD-10: Threat Awareness, Prevention and Protection, Surveillance and Detection, and Response and Recovery. The Biological Threat characterization's goal is to improve the understanding of the impact of a biological attack on the country in order to enhance national preparedness. Biological threat information requirements are identified and prioritized from internal DHS sources and other Federal government partners. This BAA seeks to conducts studies and laboratory experimentation to address information requirements in biological threat characterization. The measures of success are determined by the positive influence that the deliverables have on biological agent threat awareness, prevention of and protection from a biological agent incident, surveillance and detection during a biological incident, and response and recovery from a biological incident. DHS Biological Threat Characterization Program (BTCP) Mission The mission of BTCP is to characterize biological threats to support the four pillars of biodefense as outlined in the President's Biodefense Strategy for the 21st Century, Homeland Security Presidential Directive (HSPD) - 10: threat awareness, prevention and protection, surveillance and detection, and response and recovery. The BTCP develops and provides knowledge reports and tools that address information requirements in biological threat characterization to better understand the risk uncertainty of current and future biological threats and to determine potential impacts to guide the prioritized development of countermeasures such as detectors, drugs, vaccines, and decontamination technologies. There is a wide diversity of bacteria, fungi, viruses, toxins, and biomolecules known to cause human disease. Given the diversity and disease potential, a rational first approach is to rank order-known biological agents according to perceived risk and begin threat characterization by addressing the highest risk agents first. However, given the ever-expanding list of customized agents of potential concern, it is not feasible to develop medical countermeasures for every known pathogen and toxin. Instead, broader strategies are needed to address (i.e., characterize, assess, prioritize, and counter) multiple pathogens and toxins for less than the cost of a single bioagent scenario. Characteristics common to many potential Biological Threat event scenarios must be addressed as a class, mechanism, or parameter while maintaining the scientific and other factors that support evaluating biodefense options including likelihood, consequence or risk. Priority Traditional Agents - Traditional microbial agents occur naturally and can have a major impact on public health during natural outbreaks (e.g., E. coli 0157 in tomatoes) or if used nefariously to intentionally cause harm. Examples include Bacillus anthracis, Yersinia pestis, and other microbial agents, and toxins such as those identified in the Department of Health and Human Services and U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Select Agent lists. The scientific community is making progress in understanding basic pathogen biology, environmental microbiology, host immunity, and model systems that contribute to an integrated systems-level assessment of traditional Biological Threats. The BTCP focus is risk-driving parameters of the agents, potential scenarios, and countermeasures. Defining parameters and mechanisms for a systems representation will enable better characterization of key contributions to risk. In addition, knowing these parameters allows the use of calibrated surrogates and simulants when direct evaluation with the agent cannot or should not be performed (e.g., safety, ethics, unculturable). The integrated traditional agent framework is the foundation and partial validation for assessments of risks from advanced threats. Endemic, Re-emerging, and Newly Emerging Disease Assessment --Outbreaks of naturally-occurring infectious diseases are here-and-now priorities that also provide data to calibrate the systems biology approach being developed using traditional agents. These pathogens and the diseases they cause will act as an important test platform for our integrated risk and evaluation systems and threat archetypes. This will both inform our systems development and maintain and expand our collaboration with and support to the public health community. Advanced-threat Assessment --The systems biology framework including threat archetypes developed for traditional agents, validated with data from endemic, re-emerging, and newly emerging diseases, extrapolated using parameters developed with surrogates and simulants when needed, and extended with the most up-to-date science and best predictions of technology trends, provides a robust assessment of potential advanced threat scenarios. The BTCP has made initial investments in these areas including evaluation of characteristics of traditional agents to improve assessments of advanced threats. In the future, this approach and knowledge-base facilitates proactive characterization and more rapid response. DHS Biological Threat Characteristic Program Objectives The objective of biological threat characterization is to improve understanding of the impact of a biological attack on the country to enhance national preparedness. This is accomplished by providing technical intelligence on identified knowledge gaps relating to biological agents and tools that address information requirements in biological threat characterization to better understand the risk uncertainty of current and future biological threats and to determine potential impacts to guide the prioritized development of countermeasures such as detectors, drugs, vaccines, and decontamination technologies. Description of Technical Focus Areas (TFAs) The focus of this BAA is in the area of Biological Threat characteristics, specifically: TFA-1 : Studies to understand Agent Production Rates and Storage Stability/decay rates. (At the current time BTCC is working on the High consequence Bio-threat agents and this BAA may be used for the solicitation of information in order to support information gathering for other agents to inform Risk Assessments). TFA-2 : Studies to understand incubation time for disease onset after exposure using the best animal models. (Once again, the Government may use this BAA in order to solicit information of agents not currently focused by BTCC to better inform Risk Analysis). TFA-3 : Studies to understand morbidity and mortality rates using the best animal models by gathering useful and credible human data to better inform Risk Analysis. TFA-4 : Studies to better understand ID50 and LD50 for non high consequence pathogens using the best animal models or by gathering credible and useful human data to better inform Risk Analysis TFA-5 : Studies examining rational approaches to biological agent characterization given the ever-expanding list of agents of concern and shifting landscape in biotechnology.
- Web Link
-
FBO.gov Permalink
(https://www.fbo.gov/spg/DHS/OCPO/DHS-OCPO/BAA13-008/listing.html)
- Place of Performance
- Address: TBD, United States
- Record
- SN02949010-W 20121216/121214234027-e2f596c15660dad60a247efbc4e22859 (fbodaily.com)
- Source
-
FedBizOpps Link to This Notice
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