This is a SOURCES SOUGHT NOTICE; there is no solicitation available at this time. No response will be provided to requests for a solicitation. THIS SOURCES SOUGHT NOTICE IS PUBLISHED FOR MARKET RESEARCH PURPOSES ONLY. BACKGROUND: The Defense Threat Reduction Agency's (DTRA) mission is to safeguard America and its allies from Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) (chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, and high yield explosives) by providing capabilities to reduce, eliminate, and counter the threat, and mitigate its effects. DTRA's Research and Development (RD) Enterprise is the focal point for basic and applied research to identify and develop sciences and technologies to combat WMD. In March 2006, RD established the Basic and Applied Sciences Directorate (RD-BA) to foster and enable farsighted, high payoff research focused on the unique challenges related to reducing, eliminating, countering and mitigating the effects of WMD by advancing the fundamental knowledge and understanding in the sciences, facilitating the transition of basic research to the applied research stakeholders, and complementing Agency applied research efforts with university research capabilities. During the past 17 years, the Department of Defense (DoD) has supported a variety of international security-oriented activities within the framework of the DoD's Cooperative Threat Reduction program (CTR). A recent National Academy of Sciences (NAS) study in 2009 was conducted, at the request of Congress, to recommend ways to strengthen and expand the DoD CTR program. This study focused on a new model of the global security paradigm for cooperative threat reduction, with the additional goal of expanding the program beyond the Former Soviet Union (FSU) to engage a broader range of partners in a variety of roles. A logical extension of this NAS report is to promote "transparency" by engaging in quality research leading to publications, continual dialogue between scientists/engineers and young researchers; and foster host nation sustainment of global security initiatives. In September of 2009, RD-BA initiated a program focused on university-centric cooperative research, especially at the basic and early applied stages of science and engineering, between the United States (U.S.) and Foreign academic communities. Cooperative research promotes long-term relationships and builds capacity that can be the basis for future cooperative global security and counter-WMD activities. The initial emphasis for expanded cooperation is on global biosurveillance and early warning systems. REQUIREMENT: Identify cooperative fundamental research to reduce the global threat of WMD in collaboration with a broad range of global research partners. This sources sought announcement involves identification of United States universities that have established partnering relationships with international universities, to address fundamental research (i.e. basic and early applied sciences) opportunities to reduce, eliminate, and counter WMD across the Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear, and High Explosive (CBRNE) spectrum. The goals are to improve international collaboration to detect, characterize, and report WMD, and to advance host nation sustainment through a culture of long-term cooperation and scientific responsibility for C-WMD programs. Established, strong international relationships will foster smooth transition of C-WMD program ownership to the partnering country. Multidisciplinary research in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics promotes transparency through quality research publications and continual dialogue between scientists/engineers and young researchers. International university relationships would include those United States universities that have partnerships with foreign universities in Asia, Europe and Eurasia, Latin America and the Caribbean, Middle East, and Sub-Saharan Africa. When responding to this announcement, provide the following information as well as concise abstract describing the relationship and the fundamental research program or project, as well as a list of key words. - Name of U.S. University - Name of International University, including country and region (Asia, Europe and Eurasia, Latin America and the Caribbean, Middle East, and Sub-Saharan Africa) - Title and description of existing partnered Program or Project - Area of fundamental research, must be one of the following: o Distributed Approaches to Comparative Infectious Disease Dynamics (Identify, evaluate and develop prototype applications, methodologies and approaches suited for providing a near-real time data capture and distributed services integration of potentially novel natural or manmade infectious disease-related outbreak information. Improve capacity to gain and maintain compliance with the International Health Regulations (IHR)) o Infectious diseases prevalence and reporting (Characterize disease prevalence, and enhance disease incidence reporting and diagnostic capabilities) o Characterize pathogens endemic to university partner nation (Characterize viral or bacterial pathogens endemic to partner nation; conduct modern molecular studies of viral and bacterial pathogens endemic to partner nation and of interest to the mutual parties; studies will address the unique features of these agents and extrapolate these findings to help understand the emergence of new agents. Agents of interest include those on the U.S. Select Agent List (HHS/USDA) and others with syndromic similarity for differential diagnosis capability) o Fundamental research supporting pre-treatments and therapeutics for virus endemic to international partner nation (identify virus) (Conduct a thorough analysis of the host response to infection to obtain a clear understanding of host pathways involved in the virus lifecycle and pathogenesis to allow identification of biomarkers of severe illness, as well as the identification of potential host targets for the development of host-directed therapeutics) o Fundamental research supporting development of therapeutics for endemic or emergent pathogens within international partner nation (identify pathogen) (Leverage modern developments in the life sciences including genomic studies into effective countermeasures to endemic viral and bacterial pathogens in the partner nation; pathogens must be on the U.S. Select Agent List (HHS/USDA) and endemic to the partnered university's country) o Science of WMD Sensing and Recognition (involves exploration and exploitation of interactions between materials and various photons, molecules, nuclear radiation and/or particles; involves the exploration and exploitation of signatures of these interactions with materials, including those signatures which are actively stimulated; NOT INTERESTED in research focusing on the sensing of explosives or the detection of Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs)) o Cognitive, Information and Network Science (expands understanding of physical and social networks and advances knowledge of adversarial intent with respect to acquisition, proliferation, and potential use of WMD; may include analytical, computational or numerical, or experimental means to integrate knowledge across disciplines and improve rapid processing of intelligence and dissemination of information) o Science for Protection (advancing knowledge to protect life and life-sustaining resources and systems- encompasses protection of personnel, equipment, facilities, and infrastructures; includes both passive and active defense against threats; improves upon fundamental understanding relevant to these counter-WMD areas in fields which may include physics, chemistry, materials science, environmental sciences, engineering sciences, mathematics and computer sciences, life sciences and related fields; MEDICAL SCIENCES IS NOT SOUGHT in this source) o Science to Defeat WMD (improving energetic materials for use against WMD facilities and systems, for deeper penetration to deny the adversary sanctuary of WMD, for predictable modeling of counter-WMD munitions and simulation of in-theater scenarios with accurate lethality calculations, for minimizing collateral effects when engaging WMD and for exploiting vulnerable pathways, infrastructure etc. to eliminate the threat of WMD) o Science to Secure WMDs (identification of phenomena that enable significant advancements in support of arms control; science to enhance monitoring, compliance and verification technologies in support of existing, emerging and new treaties; improvements in fundamental scientific knowledge to support nonproliferation and counterproliferation; and, fundamental methods that result in increased ability to identify and counter novel WMD) - Principle Investigator of U.S. University; Principle Investigator of International University - Length and type of relationship/partnership Sources sought responses shall reflect university information and a capability summary reflecting experience related to the above areas. Responses shall indicate whether the above described services are available through an existing government contract and if so, identify the contract and provide contact data for the Government point of contact managing that contract. Responses are to be limited to no more than two (2) pages. Company information should include qualifications and experience in work of this nature, point of contact, phone number, fax number, e-mail address, CAGE code, DUNS Number, business size, and small business classification (8(a), HUBZone, etc.), if applicable. Any information submitted in response to this Sources Sought Notice is strictly voluntary. This synopsis is for information planning purposes and the Government will not pay or otherwise reimburse respondents for information submitted. Submissions will not be accepted after 90 days from the posting date. Electronic responses are required and shall be submitted to Ms. Gena Leake, Contract Specialist,
[email protected]. All documentation shall become the property of the Government. Unless otherwise stated herein, no additional information is available. Requests for the same will be disregarded. There is no commitment by the Government to issue a solicitation, to make award or awards, or to be responsible for any monies expended by any interested parties in support of any effort in response to this Sources Sought Notice. Information provided herein is subject to change and in no way binds the Government to solicit or award a contract. Reference: 1. "Global Security Engagement: A New Model for Cooperative Threat Reduction ", Committee on Strengthening and Expanding the Department of Defense Cooperative Threat Program, National Academy of Sciences, 2009, http://www.nap.edu/catalog/12583.html