THIS IS A REQUEST FOR INFORMATION (RFI) ONLY. This RFI is issued solely for information and planning purposes; it does not constitute a Request for Proposal (RFP) or a promise to issue an RFP or Broad Agency Announcement (BAA). This RFI does not commit the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction Office (CWMD) to contract for any supply or service. DHS CWMD is not at this time seeking proposals. Responders are advised that the CWMD will not pay any cost incurred in response to this RFI. All costs associated with responding to this RFI will be solely at the interested party’s expense. Not responding to this RFI does not preclude participation in any future RFP or BAA. In order to receive an award from any resultant solicitation, should one be issued, the successful offeror must be registered in the System for Award Management (SAM). The SAM website is https://beta.sam.gov. It is the responsibility of the potential responders to monitor the website for any information that may pertain to this RFI. The information provided in this RFI is subject to change and is not binding on the Government. All submissions become the property of the CWMD and will not be returned. In accordance with FAR 15.201(e), responses to this notice are not offers and cannot be accepted by the government to form a binding contract. The Government reserves the right to use information provided by respondents for any purpose deemed necessary and legally appropriate. Any organization responding to this notice should ensure that its response is complete and sufficiently detailed to allow the Government to determine the organizations’ capabilities. Respondents are advised that the Government is under no obligation to acknowledge receipt of the information received or provide feedback to respondents with respect to any information submitted.

Proprietary, confidential, privileged commercial or financial information submitted in the RFI response should be marked accordingly to ensure appropriate handling and disposition by the Government. No classified information shall be submitted in the RFI response. Do not use Government security classification markings. Do not mark the entire response as proprietary.

Small Business Set-Aside

No decision has yet been made regarding the small business strategy for a possible acquisition.  All businesses Small, Medium, and Large, irrespective of minority status, are encouraged to attend the Industry Day if you have relevant experience.

CWMD is conducting market research to obtain information about the interest and capability of industry to collaborate with CWMD to understand the capability and interest of industry in developing operational real-time biosensors that can meet the requirements of the BD21 program. The NAICS code is 334519 – Other Measuring and Controlling Device Manufacturing. This is not a Solicitation.

A.       Description

The Government in support of the DHS CWMD Research & Development division, is seeking information on contractors interested in and capable of supporting its requirements for the development of more affordable aerosol biosensors that operate and alert in real time and are capable of detecting and characterizing or identifying biological agents in operational environments.

B.       Background 

Recognizing the opportunity for improvements in the current U.S. system that monitors for biological threats, CWMD is leading an effort to develop the next-generation of biodetection systems. CWMD is committed to protecting the American people from biological threats by utilizing technological advancements and collaborating with partners across the homeland security enterprise. The Biodefense for the 21st Century (BD21) program is working to design, develop, and deploy networked detection systems that continuously monitor the air, collect real-time data, and employ data analytics to detect anomalies. The faster anomalies are detected, the faster first responders can address potential threats.

The BD21 Program Management Office has identified the need for further research and development of commercially available biological detection and presumptive identification technologies to enable timely detection and characterization of airborne bio-threats.

The attached document ‘BD21 Biosensor Redesign’ describes the work DHS CWMD is looking to complete, and ‘BD21 Virtual Industry Day’ gives further background on all aspects of the BD21 program and associated objectives.

C.       Scope

The CWMD Office seeks to understand the capability and interest of industry in developing operational real-time biosensors that can meet the requirements of the BD21 program.

Desired Capabilities:

The DHS CWMD office intends to deploy biosensors in both indoor and outdoor urban environments to conduct real-time monitoring of biological threats and seeks industry to continue research and development efforts in order to meet characterization and cost goals. The redesign of the commercially available biosensors is being proposed to occur over 15 months and will take place in 2 phases, to include: the design of at least 2 prototypes that will be tested by the performer followed by an opportunity for a prototype redesign before delivering the final prototypes to the government for an independent operational background test and chamber test.

Detailed Requirements:

• Sensors must be capable of being deployed with minimal routine maintenance at both indoor and outdoor operational environments.
• Sensor must be capable of accurately detecting and classifying at minimum, Category A and B biological agents in environmental aerosols with varying levels of background particles.
• Sensors must be capable of continuous monitoring of aerosols.
• Sensors must be capable of sending alerts to an operator after detection, characterization and/or preliminary identification within a maximum time of 30 minutes.
•  Contractors shall provide DHS CWMD all data formats and a detailed explanation of said data including raw data prior to processing so that the data can feed into an anomaly detection algorithm.
  • Additionally, the contractor must provide a software based tool capable of replaying the data and release information regarding the algorithms for the redesigned sensors.
• Sensors should include the ability to differentiate between biological and non-biological particles while rejecting benign particles that are common interferents including but not limited to: brake dust and diesel smoke.
• Sensors must be capable of classification of biological particles to a Kingdom level at minimum (bacteria, virus, toxin, spore).
• Sensor differentiation of particles should reduce false alarms in urban operational environments to a level of < 3 alarms/day.
• Sensors must be capable of detecting down to a 1um particle size at concentrations relevant to a 3kg (threshold), 0.5kg (objective) times aerosolized release based on biological particle type.
• Contractors shall deliver two instruments of the same version for each of the of development prototype phases.
• The government anticipates the sensors per unit cost will be between $125K (threshold) and $65K (objective).

D.       Responses

Interested parties must submit responses to the point(s) of contact identified below:

Contracting Officer, Jonathan Igwebueze, at [email protected], Contracting Officer, Kimberly Marriott at [email protected] no later than 5:00pm (Eastern) on September 16, 2021.

The subject line of the email should contain the RFI number 70RWMD21RFI00000011 Proprietary information should not be included in this RFI response.  Please be advised that all submissions become government property and will not be returned.

The electronic copy of responses is to be in Microsoft Word 2007, Microsoft Word 2010 or

Adobe Acrobat 9 compatible format using a size 12 font with one-inch margins. Responses shall be limited to 5 pages. Proprietary information, if any, should be minimized and MUST BE CLEARLY MARKED. The subject line of the email should contain the RFI number.

At a minimum, responses should include:

• Company Information: (name, phone number, DUNS, CAGE Code, POC information, website, etc.)
• GSA contract(s), if applicable, including contract numbers and contractor’s socioeconomic status
• Description of your company’s capabilities as they relate to the services described in this notice.
• Description, if any, of your company’s proprietary and/or patented information of current biosensor design or technology(s) that your company may consider to modify or redesign and would prevent another company from legitimately modifying or redesigning said sensor(s) without your company’s consent to full data access.
• A description of your company’s relevant experience providing the services described in this notice, including independent testing that substantiates your ability to deliver prototypes that meet the redesign requirements.
• A description of any teaming/subcontracting your company anticipates utilizing in support of this requirement. 
• A statement indicating the ability of your company to meet the proposed 15 month period of performance (POP) OR a detailed explanation of what a feasible POP to complete this effort would look like.
• A proposed method, technical approach, timeline and cost estimate to complete the above described research and development effort.
• Any other relevant information that is not listed above which the Government should consider in finalizing its market research and acquisition strategy.