The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) this week issued a pre-solicitation notice seeking professional support services to continue a Studies and Analysis Federally Funded Research and Development Center (FFRDC) that would provide it with a variety of independent support services.
The notice signals the start of a new competition for the Homeland Security Institute, an FFRDC managed by Analytic Services, Inc. (ANSER), under a contract the non- profit research and development company won from DHS in 2004 (Defense Daily, April 26, 2004). ANSER’s 54-month contract expires this December, which is when DHS is expected to award a new contract.
According to the June 11 notice from DHS in the FedBizOpps web site, “The typical role of the proposed FFRDC is to help DHS address its most critical issues by providing independent and objective analyses for strategic resource & support planning particularly in those areas that cut across multiple operating components of the Department, operational assessments including operational test & evaluation support, systems evaluations to include development of measurable performance metrics, and technology evaluations.”
DHS says that the “core funding” the FFRDC will receive under the new contract is about $10 million annually but that most of the operating funds will come from task orders from the department’s operating components.
“The annual ‘core’ funding shall be used to develop an annual research plan to address the most critical issues of the Department–particularly those efforts that require a cross-cutting approach to understand issues and formulate solutions,” the notice says.
In addition to the current Studies and Analysis FFRDC, DHS is also seeking sources for a new FFRDC, the Homeland Security Systems Engineering and Development Institute (SEDI). This new FFRDC “is intended to provide high-level technical support to DHS that is normally not available within the Government for systems engineering/development and life-cycle management of major homeland security programs, and resource support analyses for DHS components,” according to a June 11 solicitation posted in the FedBizOpps. DHS issued a pre-solicitation for SEDI in April.
DHS plans to issue a Request for Proposals for SEDI next month with proposals due in September.