International Technology Alliance

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A landmark collaboration known as the International Technology Alliance (ITA) in Network and Information Sciences was initiated by the US Army Research Laboratory (ARL) and the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) in 2006. Awards were made to a Consortium of industrial and academic organizations from the United States and the United Kingdom that along with the US ARL and the UK Dstl formed an international research Alliance that is jointly conducting collaborative research focused on enhancing coalition operations. The key factors contributing to the success of this unique collaborative venture are: joint technical leadership and management by the Alliance (academia, industry, government in both countries); an arrangement fostering an open collaborative research environment to support deep collaboration among researchers; multi-disciplinary research approach applied to key coalition technical challenges; and an innovative transition model that is facilitating the rapid transition of research results to both commercial and military domains.The purpose of this US ARL and UK Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl) ITA Program Announcement (PA) under W911NF-15-R-0003 is to solicit offers that will help to fulfill the research and development goals of the US Department of Army and UK Ministry of Defence. This PA announces a new and innovative opportunity for cooperation between the US and the UK in the area of Distributed Analytics and Information Science (DAIS). The DAIS ITA Program is comprised of two components: (1) the Basic Research Component and (2) the Technology Transition Component. The Basic Research Component will provide for fundamental research, the results of which will be in the public domain, while the Technology Transition Component will provide for the application of the fundamental research results to military, security and commercial applications to foster the best technologies for future defense and security needs. The Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance (CFDA) Number for this PA is 12.630 - "Basic, Applied, and Advanced Research in Science and Engineering. “The result of this PA/Solicitation will be the award of three award instruments for the ITA Program. The first two instruments will be issued by ARL and the third instrument will be issued by Dstl. The first instrument will be a Technology Investment Agreement (referred to as TIA-1) for the Basic Research Component of the ITA Program. TIA-1 will be issued under the authority of 10 United States Code (USC) 2371 in accordance with 32 CFR PART 37. The second instrument will be a Technology Investment Agreement (referred to as (TIA-2) for the Technology Transition Component of the ITA Program, specifically for US only transitions and US led joint US/UK transition opportunities. TIA-2 will also be issued under the authority of 10 USC 2371 and in accordance with 32 CFR PART 37. The third instrument, known as the “UK DAIS ITA Transition Contract”, is also for the Technology Transition Component, specifically for UK only and UK led joint US/UK transition opportunities. Individual task efforts will be issued under TIA-2 and the UK ITA Transition Contract dependent on ability to transition the basic research efforts under TIA-1. Both TIA-1 and TIA-2 agreements will be awarded by the U.S. Army to a single Consortium selected for the awards. The UK DAIS ITA Transition Contract will be awarded by the MOD to the UK arm of the Lead Industrial Partner (LIP) of the Consortium selected for the awards.Two Opportunity Day meetings will be held to discuss this PA and to encourage dialogue, interchange and teaming related to responding to the PA. The first meeting will be held at US ARL, Adelphi, MD on Thursday, 29 January 2015. The second meeting will be held in central London in the UK on Tuesday, 3 February 2015. While attendance is strongly encouraged, attendance at these meetings is not a requirement for submission of a Whitepaper or Proposal in connection with the ITA Program. Registration details can be found on the DAIS ITA Program website at http://www.arl.army.mil/ngita. The presentations from those meetings, the list of attendees at both meetings, and the non-proprietary questions posed and answers provided at both meetings will be made available on the above mentioned website. Nothing said during the Opportunity Day meetings will change this PA. Any changes to this PA will be issued via an amended PA being posted in grants.gov. The application process consists of a Whitepaper stage and a Proposal stage. The purpose of requesting a Whitepaper is to minimize the effort associated with the production of a detailed Proposal for an Offeror that has little chance of being selected for funding. The Governments’ decision to invite a Proposal will be based upon the evaluation results of a timely and compliant Whitepaper submission. Only the most highly rated Whitepapers will receive an invitation from the Governments to submit a Proposal. An Offeror that does NOT receive an invitation from the Governments to submit a Proposal is NOT eligible to submit a Proposal and will NOT receive any feedback or a “debriefing” on their Whitepaper. An Offeror invited to submit a Proposal will receive feedback on their Whitepaper. If an Offeror does NOT submit a timely and compliant Whitepaper, they may NOT submit a Proposal for consideration for funding. Whitepapers are due by 4:00am (local time in North Carolina, USA) on 27 April 2015. Details on the proposal submission process will be provided to those Offerors invited to submit a proposal.Awards are expected to be made by May 2016.

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