INTERACTIVE LEARNING FOR MISSION PLANNING

NAICS CODE:  541715

FEDERAL AGENCY NAME:  Department of the Air Force, Air Force Materiel Command, AFRL - Rome Research Site, AFRL/Information Directorate, 26 Electronic Parkway, Rome, NY, 13441-4514

BAA ANNOUNCEMENT TYPE:  Initial announcement

 

BROAD AGENCY ANNOUNCEMENT (BAA) TITLE:  Interactive Learning for Mission Planning

BAA NUMBER:  FA8750-20-S-7001

 

PART I – OVERVIEW INFORMATION

This announcement is for an Open, 2-Step BAA open and effective until 30 Sep 2023.  Only white papers will be accepted as initial submissions; formal proposals will be accepted by invitation only.  While white papers will be considered if received prior to 4 PM Eastern Standard Time (EST) on 30 Sep 2023, the following submission dates are suggested to best align with projected funding:

FY21 by 19 Jun 2020

FY22 by 31 Mar 2021

FY23 by 31 Mar 2022

 

Offerors should monitor the Contract Opportunities on the beta.SAM website at https://beta.SAM.gov in the event this announcement is amended.

                       

The Interactive Learning for Mission Planning (ILMP) Program Team anticipates hosting an Industry Day to provide interested offerors an opportunity to learn more about ILMP and AFRL/RI’s Artificial Intelligence/Machknie Learning (AI/ML) activities.  Due to the ongoing COVID-19 travel restrictions, the ILMP team plans to host a virtual Industry Day on 28 MAY 2020.  This date is subject to change.  Details regarding registration, format, and attendee access will be published in beta.SAM shortly following the announcement publication proper.

CONCISE SUMMARY OF TECHNOLOGY REQUIREMENT:   Seeking innovative applications of Interactive Learning techniques and technologies to Air Force (AF) planning problems, particularly in the realm of tactical route planning.  Do note that this program is domain agnostic and white papers detailing work in other domains including strategic and tactical air, space, cyber, etc. will be entertained.

The Interactive Learning for Mission Planning (ILMP) program will test the merit of Interactive Learning (IL) when applied to AF planning problems, and will develop the software system required to prove the applicability of IL to this problem space.  This program will explore the union of IL, current AF automated planning tools, such as tactical route planning tools, and human planning Subject Matter Experts (SME).  The ILMP team is soliciting white papers that propose methods for leveraging IL in planning domains.  Proposed interactive algorithms will gather and learn from SME feedback to produce plans more amenable to SME preferences.  Such approaches will gather feedback from SMEs efficiently and effectively; for example, limit the work to be done by SMEs, and gather sufficient feedback from SMEs to adequately reflect preferences in produced plans.  Selected planners are to be mature and well supported, and will be minimally changed.  Approaches will rely on SME feedback and machine learning to improve plan quality.  Additionally, proposals will outline experiments to test the efficacy of learner-planner-SME combinations in sufficiently complex domains.

BAA ESTIMATED FUNDING:  Total funding for this BAA is approximately $9.9M.  Individual awards will not normally exceed 24 months with dollar amounts normally ranging from $500,000 to $1,500,000.  There is also the potential to make awards up to any dollar value as long as the value does not exceed the available BAA ceiling amount.

ANTICIPATED INDIVIDUAL AWARDS:  Multiple Awards are anticipated.

TYPE OF INSTRUMENTS THAT MAY BE AWARDED:  Procurement contracts, grants, cooperative agreements or other transactions (OT) depending upon the nature of the work proposed.  In the event that an Other Transaction for Prototype agreement is awarded as a result of this competitive BAA, and the prototype project is successfully completed, there is the potential for a prototype project to transition to award of a follow-on production contract or transaction.  The Other Transaction for Prototype agreement itself will also contain a similar notice of a potential follow-on production contract or agreement.

AGENCY CONTACT INFORMATION:  All white paper submissions and any questions of a technical nature shall be directed to the cognizant Technical Point of Contact (TPOC) as specified below (unless otherwise specified in the technical area) (email requests are preferred):

    Interactive Learning for Mission Planning (ILMP) TPOC:

    Mr. Dan Carpenter

    AFRL/RISC

    525 Brooks Rd

    Rome, NY 13441-4505

    Email:  daniel.carpenter.5@us.af.mil

Questions of a contractual/business nature shall be directed to the cognizant Contracting Officer, as specified below (email requests are preferred):

    Ms. Amber Buckley

    Email:  amber.buckley@us.af.mil

Emails must reference the solicitation (BAA) number and title of the acquisition.

Pre-Proposal Communication between Prospective Offerors and Government Representatives:  Dialogue between prospective offerors and Government representatives is encouraged.  Technical and contracting questions can be resolved in writing or through open discussions.  Discussions with any of the points of contact shall not constitute a commitment by the Government to subsequently fund or award any proposed effort.  Only Contracting Officers are legally authorized to commit the Government.

 

Offerors are cautioned that evaluation ratings may be lowered and/or proposal rejected if proposal preparation (proposal format, content, etc.) and/or submittal instructions are not followed.

PLEASE SEE FULL TEXT ANNOUNCEMENT ATTACHED.

Please see the attachment for Interactive Learning for Mission Planning Industry Day Q&A FA8750-20-S-7001