NATIONAL LAB OPPORTUNITY

About This Grant

OPPORTUNITY FOR THE USE OF THE INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION BY DOMESTIC ENTITIES OTHER THAN U.S. FEDERAL GOVERNMENT AGENCIES 1.0 INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is operating a share of the United States accommodations on the International Space Station (ISS) as a national laboratory in accordance with Section 507 of the NASA Authorization Act of 2005 (P.L. 109-155) and to seek to increase the utilization of the ISS by other federal entities and the private sector. To facilitate and increase such utilization of the ISS, NASA is providing access to the ISS for the conduct of basic and applied research, technology development and industrial processing (collectively, R&D) to U.S. federal, state and local government entities, and to U.S. private entities (including, but not limited to, commercial firms, non-profit entities, and academic institutions) as part of the national laboratory. In preparation for the ISS post-assembly phase and during the post-assembly complete phase, NASA is seeking proposals from domestic entities other than U.S. federal government agencies for the conduct of R&D activities on the ISS as a national laboratory. NASA anticipates using its authority to enter into Space Act Agreements to support national laboratory activities, including providing necessary access to NASA facilities, personnel and technical information, however, there will be no provision of funds in connection with this opportunity. Respondents will be responsible for financing their own activities. Participation in this National Lab Opportunity will be contingent upon selection by NASA and negotiation of an appropriate Agreement between NASA and the proposer. Proposed activities should involve R&D, including, but not limited to, life sciences, sensors, communication equipment, engineering testbeds, spacecraft design and testing, or education and should demonstrate potential benefit to the public, such as development of future products and services contributing to U.S. industrial capacity and economic growth or improving STEM education. This opportunity is not exclusive; NASA, at its discretion, may negotiate with other parties for access to ISS under this opportunity. Response Date: This announcement is open through December 31, 2014. NASA will engage in ongoing review of proposals as received prior to the Response Date of December 31, 2014. NASA reserves the right to amend or withdraw this Announcement at any time prior to the Response Date. NASA will not issue paper copies of this Announcement. NASA reserves the right to select for Space Act Agreement negotiations all, some, or none of the proposals submitted in response to this Announcement. NASA provides no funding for reimbursement of proposal development costs. Material submitted in response to this Announcement will not be returned. It is the policy of NASA to safeguard all proposals as confidential and privileged information, as provided by law. NASA will not, without permission of the proposers, use the proposal contents for other than evaluation purposes. It is not NASA's intent to publicly disclose proprietary information obtained during this solicitation. To the full extent that it is protected pursuant to the Freedom of Information Act and other laws and regulations, information identified by a respondent as "Proprietary or Confidential" will be kept confidential. NASA may use contractor support personnel to assist in providing expertise regarding proposals. Any support contractor involved in the evaluation process shall be free of conflicts of interest, will be bound by appropriate non-disclosure agreements to protect proprietary and competition sensitive information. By submitting a proposal under this Announcement, the proposer is deemed to have consented to release of data in its proposal to NASA contractors supporting evaluation of proposals. 2.0 GENERAL INFORMATION Agency Name: NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) Opportunity Title: Opportunity for the use of the International Space Station by Domestic Entities Other than U.S. Federal Government Agencies Response Date: Electronic Proposals must be received by December 31, 2014 at 4:30 P.M. EST via email to jason.c.crusan@nasa.gov. Proposals may be submitted at any time before the response date. Points of Contact: If you have any questions concerning this opportunity please contact: Marybeth Edeen Manager, ISS National Lab Office Telephone: 281-483-9122 Fax: 281-244-8292 Email: marybeth.a.edeen@nasa.gov Jason Crusan SOMD Agreement Manager 202-358-0635 202-358-3530 jason.crusan@nasa.gov Instrument Type(s): It is anticipated that awards under this Opportunity will be in the form of Space Act Agreements, executed under the authority of 42 U.S.C. 2473(c)(5). Selection Recommendation Committee: Government personnel from NASA, other Federal agencies, and NASA contractors may participate in the evaluation of proposals. All contractor personnel participating in the evaluation will be bound by conflict of interest provisions and appropriate non-disclosure requirements to protect proprietary information. Selection Notification Date: Selection for negotiations is anticipated to be within 60 days of receiving a proposal. Submission Instructions: All Proposals under this Announcement must be emailed to jason.c.crusan@nasa.gov. Paper submissions will not be reviewed. Proposals may be submitted at any time before the Response Date. You are encouraged to submit as early as practicable prior to the Response Date. Proposals received by the Government after the Response Date will not be accepted. If a proposer is concerned about information security during transmission NASA has the ability to accept secure transmission. Contact the Point of Contact for secure transmission requirements. Files can be submitted in MS Word, PDF, or RTF. 3.0 ELIGIBILITY INFORMATION All categories of domestic entities other than U.S. federal government agencies are eligible to submit proposals in response to this Announcement. NASA will not consider proposals which do not include a domestic entity as the lead proposer. 4.0 PROPOSAL EVALUATION AND SELECTION 4.1 Evaluation and Selection Process All proposals will be initially screened to determine their compliance to the eligibility (section 3.0) and proposal instructions (section 5.0) of this Announcement. Proposals that do not comply may be declared noncompliant and rejected without further review. A submission compliance checklist is provided in section 5.0. This checklist provides proposers a list of the items that NASA will check for compliance before releasing a proposal for evaluation. Proposals deemed in compliance with this Announcement will be assessed against the evaluation criteria outlined in Section 4.2 by the Selection Recommendation Committee. Proposed collaborators should be aware that during the evaluation and selection process, NASA may request clarification of a specific point or points in a proposal. Such a request and the proposed collaborator's response shall be in writing. NASA reserves the right to suggest collaboration between proposers where it will enhance the effort, in which case proposers will be given the opportunity to accept or decline participation with other proposers prior to selection. The Selection Recommendation Committee members will conduct independent assessments of the proposals according to evaluation criteria outlined in Section 4.2. 4.2 Evaluation Criteria The evaluation factors below are of equal weighting during evaluation. Factor 1: Approach to Proposed Effort: The overall merit, rationale, feasibility, and suitability of the proposed effort or concept and its relevance to R&D that access to the ISS provides. Highest priority will be placed on an approach or concept that will create substantial increases in the current state-of-the-art. Describe how the proposer proposes to receive resulting data and/or samples from orbit. Factor 2: Level of Benefit to the Public: The proposed effort or concept's anticipated benefit to the public, in terms such as development of future products and services, and contribution to U.S. industrial capacity and/or economic growth. Factor 3: Level of Financial Commitment and Business Plan: The description of the level of financial commitments supporting the proposed efforts, including any third party financing required. Include a brief business plan for the proposed efforts or describe how the proposed efforts contribute to existing business plans. Identify the non-U.S. Government market potential for the R&D efforts. The proposed space activity is essential to product research, development, or processing, and is targeted to an addressable market. A roadmap exists; it includes the essential activities to bring the product to market beyond the development space activities. In addition, describe all cargo to be transported between Earth and the ISS that your proposed efforts require and how your business plan addresses meeting those requirements including any sample return and disposition of the on-orbit equipment/payloads. In addition, NASA reserves the right to assess information outside the proposal as it relates to the factors listed above. 4.3 Selection Factors As described in Section 4.1, the results of the proposal evaluations based on the criteria above and the subsequent Selection Recommendation Committee deliberations will be considered in the selection process. The Selection Recommendation Committee may take into account a variety of programmatic factors in deciding whether or not to select any proposals, including, but not limited to, available on-orbit resources, and compatibility to the ISS. The Selection Authority shall be the Associate Administrator for Space Operations. The Selection Authority will make the final selection of those approved for this opportunity after the completion of negotiations, depending on the outcome of the negotiations. 4.4 Selection Notification NASA will notify all proposed collaborators of the results of the evaluation and selection process. Selection does not guarantee a launch opportunity. Selection does guarantee NASA will provide the on orbit resources and trained crew to perform the experiment once it is on board. After the completion of the evaluation and selection process, NASA will begin negotiations with the selected proposer(s). The purpose of the negotiations is to define the terms and conditions of the Agreement supporting the participation of the proposers and to align the selected proposals with the anticipated on-orbit resource availability. All work will commence after the parties execute the Space Act Agreement. 5.0 PROPOSAL INSTRUCTIONS Proposals must comply with the following requirements. Page Limitations Proposal Section - Total Pages Proposal Cover Page - 1 Proposal Title Page - 1 Points of Contact - 1 Proposal Abstract - 750 words Proposal Detail - 10 Appendix Resumes - No Page Limit Additional Documentation - No Page Limit Pages in excess of the page limitations for each section will not be evaluated. A page is defined as one (1) sheet 8 x 11 inches using a minimum of 12-point font size for text and 8-point for graphs. There is no limit on appendix documentation. The intent is to allow proposals to include current documentation in its current format without having to alter any documents. The proposal must include the following sections, in this order: Proposal Cover Page: Solicited Proposal Application - Title of Announcement and Proposal Contact Information. An optional graphic image may be included. Proposal Title Page, with Notice of Restriction on Use and Disclosure of Proposal Information, if any. Points of Contact: List contact information for all Points of Contact including a Technical Point of Contact. Provide: a. Name b. Title c. Address d. Phone and Fax e. Email Proposal Abstract: Executive summary describing the prominent and distinguishing features of the proposal. Proposal Detail: The proposal shall contain sufficient information to enable reviewers to make informed judgments to assess the three criteria of the proposed effort. Proposal Appendix: * Resumes o Resumes may be included for key personnel. In general, resumes should be limited to no more than 1-2 pages each. * Additional documentation Include any documentation in the appendix that validates or supports the proposal Compliance checklist and required documents o The proposer is a domestic entity other than U.S. federal government agency o Proposal includes demonstration of the overall merit, rationale, feasibility, and suitability that access to the ISS provides o Proposal includes a description of the level of benefit to the public o Proposal includes a description of the level of financial commitment and business plan o Proposal includes a schedule for remaining development required before flight o Proposal includes a management/ project plan for remaining development o Proposal includes funding commitment letters demonstrating sufficient financial support for remaining development or financial milestones required to complete development