RFI FOR R&D - Biological Detection for the 21st Century (BD21) System of Systems (SoS)

****************June 7, 2021 UPDATE************** Please see the attached Questions and Answers (Q&As) that were the result of the BD21 Industry Day. ****************March 26, 2021 UPDATE************** Per the BD21 Virtual Industry Day held on March 18, 2021, please see the attached presentation slides and the vendors attendees list. 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. If a solicitation is released, it will be released via the Government-Wide Port of Entry (GPE) at (https://beta.sam.gov/). 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://www.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. 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. Objective The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Counter Weapons of Mass Destruction (CWMD) Office seeks to acquire a Biological Detection for the 21st Century (BD21) system of systems (SoS) to be defined in Section 4. BD21 is pursuing a next-generation capability to fulfill validated DHS biodetection capability gaps and support the eventual recapitalization of the fielded BioWatch capability. The BD21 team envisions an end state featuring a national biosurveillance system that includes real-time biodetection functionality to facilitate rapid response. The BD21 program has been approved to enter the Analyze / Select phase of the DHS acquisition lifecycle. The Analyze / Select phase aims to demonstrate technologies’ performance in the context of program requirements. To support this objective, the BD21 program management office (PMO) is requesting additional information from the industry on their ability to provide technologies that would satisfy BD21 notional requirements, as listed below. The BD21 PMO will use the information acquired from this Request for Information (RFI) to support the BD21 acquisition strategy. This RFI is focused on the integration efforts necessary for the types of interfaces and interactions between the Critical Technology Elements (CTEs) as defined in section 4, peripheral components, and their interactions. The BD21 program office is also interested in obtaining data regarding individual CTEs listed above. It is acceptable for offeror to resubmit documentation on those CTEs presented in response to previous solicitations. However, this effort centers around how to best bring together these components and explore their integration into a functional SoS. At this time, the focus is on an indoor SoS, but information on outdoor capabilities will be accepted. ... continued in document: "BD21 RFI for Industry Engagement Final" Please find the above information and more in the following documents: Document 1 - BD21 RFI for Industry Engagement Final Document 2 - Incoming Foreign National Visit_CWMD_BD21 Document 3 - Save the Date BD21