CEROS Project Office, 1001 Bishop Street, Pacific Tower Suite 2490, Honolulu, HI 96813

A -- OCEAN TECHNOLOGIES FOR INTEGRATED NAVY-MARINE FORCES SOL BAA-CEROS-96-01. DUE 083096. POC William A. Friedl, (808) 587-5500. The National Defense Center of Excellence for Research in Ocean Sciences (CEROS) is soliciting proposals for concept exploration, analysis, study and development of ocean technologies and applied ocean science. Of particular interest are proposals for research, development and demonstration of advanced technologies for Shallow Water Surveillance, Ocean Environmental Preservation, New Ocean Platform and Ship Concepts, Ocean Measurement Instrumentation and Ocean Engineering Tools, and Unique Properties of the Deep Ocean Environment. Innovative concepts and new approaches are being sought to advance technology while fully leveraging existing facilities and infrastructure in Hawaii and demonstrating beneficial commercial and/or military utility for Department of Defense applications. CEROS anticipates executing the program outlined in this announcement contingent upon funding amount and availability. Contract awards will be based on proposal merit and funding availability. CEROS anticipates that initial contractor selections will be made during May 1996. However, properly formatted proposal abstracts submitted before 30 August 1996 will be considered for award if funding is available. Proposed work should be structured to have a base period of performance of 6 to 12 months. Options to extend the period of performance beyond 12 months may be included in proposals. CEROS will use a two-step submission process in the evaluation of proposals submitted under this BAA. For the first submission step, offerors are required to submit a Proposal Abstract to be considered. CEROS will evaluate all abstracts against the evaluation criteria herein without regard to other abstracts submitted. For the second step, CEROS will request full technical and cost proposals from selected offerors for proposed efforts deemed as best qualified for potential negotiation under this BAA. Proposal format and length for full proposals will be specified by CEROS in the invitation to submit the more detailed proposal. Such an invitation does not assure subsequent award. The decision to submit or not submit a full proposal is the responsibility of the offeror submitting the abstract. No selection for negotiation will be made under this BAA without a full technical and cost proposal. Subject areas of interest include: (1) Shallow Water Surveillance Technologies, including: Low-cost sensors and hydrophones, Unique array configurations, Neural network applications, Advanced signal processing techniques, Shallow water ASW, Mine countermeasures, and Ship defense. (2) Ocean Environmental Preservation, including: In Situ measurements, Spectral remote sensing technologies, Microelectronic and/or micromechanical systems development, Non-point source pollution measurement and remediation, Explosive ordnance disposal, and Environmental cleanup or remediation technologies. (3) New Ocean Platform and Ship Concepts, including: Unique structures, Simulation based design and model development, Affordability, Automation, Assembly and Manufacturing technology, and New hull designs. (4) Ocean Measurement Instrumentation and Ocean Engineering Tools, including: Advanced sensors and geophysical survey technologies, Subsystems or components for teleoperated structures (TOS), Nondestructive testing systems, Low power, autonomous data collection platforms and technologies, Laser applications, and Modeling, measurements and predictions. (5) Unique Properties of the Deep Ocean Environment, including: Deep seawater chemistry and biology, deep seawater materials testing, and energy and fuel production potentials. To be considered in the initial contract award period, offerors responding to this BAA shall submit an unclassified Abstract of the proposed effort to CEROS by 3 PM, Hawaii Standard Time, 9 February 1996. The abstract should provide an overview of the project and associated costs and shall be prepared on 8.5 x 11 inch plain paper printed on one side only in the following format: single or double spaced, in at least ten point type, with margins not less than one inch, and pages numbered. An original Abstract and six copies are requested for each submission. Each Abstract should be unbound with the pages secured by a single staple in the upper left hand corner. Abstracts or full proposals may not be submitted by telefax or electronic mail, any so sent will be rejected. Acknowledgement of receipt of abstracts or proposals will not be made, and abstracts or proposals will not be returned. CEROS will attempt to respond to all Abstracts received in the initial contract award period by 20 March 1996. Each Abstract shall address one subject area and must be no longer than 5 single-sided pages. Abstracts longer than 5 pages will be deemed unresponsive. The total page count includes figures and tables. The Abstract shall consist of a cover page and up to 4 additional pages of proposal information. The Cover Page shall include the following: Title of the proposed effort, Technical subject area addressed, Intended product or result, Name and affiliation of the Principal Investigator and administrative Point of Contact, Proposed period of performance, Funding required to produce the proposed products, Names of sub-contractors and co-investigators, and Special requirements or considerations. The balance of the Abstract shall include the following sections, each clearly labeled: A. Rationale for the proposed effort, stressing (a) the work's relationship to Department of Defense (DoD) technological needs and (b) value added aspects of the work for DoD, CEROS, and the State of Hawaii. B. Technical Objectives of the work, emphasizing the innovation and leading edge aspects of the research or technology development. C. Technical Approach, describing how the work will be executed and giving an outline of the planned work schedule and significant milestones. D. Expected Results or Products, discussing what the proposed effort will produce, how the results will be demonstrated and why those deliverables will advance ocean science or technology, address DoD needs and bring added value to Hawaii or the Central Pacific. The Abstract may also contain any other information germane to the proposed effort, such as discussions of leveraged assets involved, technology reinvestment or transfer aspects of the proposed work, company qualifications or technical references. EVALUATION CRITERIA - The following criteria apply to both Abstracts and full proposals requested under this announcement. CEROS will select for award those proposals offering the best value and, except for the first criterion (item A), will give equal consideration to each of the following criteria. Item A will receive twice the weight of any other criterion in the evaluation. A. Scientific/technical quality of the research proposal and its relevance to the topic description, with special emphasis on its innovation and originality. B. Qualifications of the principal investigator, other key staff, and consultants (if any) and the adequacy of instruments and facilities involved, considering the potential for the effort to use and leverage equipment, facilities or infrastructure in Hawaii. C. Anticipated benefits of the research, its potential value to the Department of Defense and potential for stimulating ocean technology business development in Hawaii. D. Overall cost and realism of cost for proposed effort. CEROS plans to make up to $7M available to fund proposals in response to this announcement, depending on funding availability. Out-year funding has not been defined. Multiple, fixed price or cost plus fixed fee contracts, not exceeding $1M each, are anticipated to be awarded as a result of this BAA. Contract awards will be based on proposal merit and funding availability. CEROS anticipates that initial selections for awards will be made in May 1996. CEROS may request that successful offerors deliver two presentations on their research to Hawaii high school students. (1) This solicitation will remain open for eight months (254 days) from the date of this announcement. However, to be considered in the initial award period, a properly formatted abstract must be received by CEROS by 3 PM, Hawaii Standard Time, 9 February 1996. (2) It is CEROS policy to treat all proposals as competitive information and to disclose the contents only for the purposes of evaluation. CEROS may use selected support contractors as special resources to evaluate abstracts and proposals. These contractors are restricted by their contracts from disclosing the proposal information or using it for purposes other than the technical assessments. CEROS evaluators are required to sign non-disclosure statements. By submitting an abstract of your proposal, you agree that the technical and management information may be disclosed to those selected contractors for the limited purpose stated above. Any information submitted with your proposal that you do not consent to limited release to these contractors must be clearly marked and submitted segregated from other proposal material. (3) All abstracts submitted under this BAA must be unclassified. If offerors propose to undertake classified work or require access to classified information, they must be able to certify that they have a Secret facility clearance, and key personnel must be certified as holding a Secret clearance. Abstracts must clearly state that the proposed work will be classified. (4) Information about CEROS and Hawaii Ocean R&D is available to potential offerors upon request from the CEROS Project Office or through the CEROS website at http://www.ceros.org/ (5) Contact Point: questions relating to this BAA are to be directed to attn: Mr. William A. Friedl, CEROS Project Office, 1001 Bishop Street, Pacific Tower Suite 2490, Honolulu, Hawaii 96813, phone (808) 587-5500. All responsive sources may submit a proposal abstract, which shall be considered by CEROS. CEROS reserves the right to select for award all, some, or none of the proposals received in response to this announcement. The program described in this announcement is contingent upon funding availability. (353)

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