The Department of Defense’s Washington Headquarters Services has asked industry for proposals to establish a consortium that will bring together small businesses, entrepreneurs, universities and inventors to collaborate on prototyping projects in support of the National Security Innovation Network.
A solicitation notice posted Friday says NSIN is seeking a consortium manager through the Institute for Nascent Innovations program to help identify entities for inclusion in the consortium, serve as a program manager and integrator to support members in addressing emerging threats facing DoD and come up with a multiyear operating process for the network to develop tools and techniques for solving complex problem sets.
The I4NI consortium manager will enter into an “umbrella†other transaction agreement with DoD. The OTA will have a performance period of five years and an option for additional five years.
A prototype project awarded under an OTA must satisfy at least one of these conditions: participation of at least one nontraditional defense contractor or nonprofit research institution in the project; all participants are small businesses or NTDCs; and at least a third of the project’s total cost should be paid out of funds provided by sources other than the federal government.
Proposals are due Oct. 9, according to the notice.